Page 48 of Alpha Bait

Killer

RICH

Ihated hanging up on her. I hated not telling her what was wrong, but I couldn't scare her. Not now. I needed to think and act quickly. Ames wasn't far off from 64th street, Selena's city apartment. She wasn't home but as I paid her lease, I didn't have to do much convincing to be allowed in.

Selena's apartment was a filthy mess. When she'd moved in, her mother spent a week hauling in designers, vintage furniture and turning the place into a luxurious exhibition of decadent wealth and urban pizzazz. When I stepped over the door, clothes were strewn over every inch of the place.

The thick pungent smell of marijuana wafted from every room and vent. Selena had housekeeping but she must have fired them -- or they'd left of their own accord. Dishes piled high in her sink and it seemed when she'd run out of breakfast bowls she'd taken to drinking Pinot Grigio. Empty wine bottles and the thick scent of liquor filled every inch of the apartment.

I stepped over piles of clothing to her living room. The white couches her mother had ordered from Denmark possessed colored stains -- red wine, a dark red bloodied stain and some green paint. Ripped art books littered her coffee table along with two large bongs and more wine bottles.

How Selena managed to keep everything together at work had to have been a miracle. Her bedroom was slightly cleaner than the living room. It smelled better and her four-poster bed was made -- a beacon of order amongst the chaos. Papers lay strewn over her bed along with a yellow highlighter and a red pen. I flipped through them.

Financial Statements. Selena had an eye for numbers and she'd been crunching the data on what would happen if a potential merger between Will Harkness and Holloway, Inc. Were to happen.

There was no legal way to stop the acquisition and if Selena had come to the same conclusions I had months ago, she would have realized that the acquisition could make the family company obsolete. The result of the acquisition would be a coin flip.

Selena wasn't the only one who cared. And if she'd been more trusting, she wouldn't be doing this right now.

I peered out the window impatiently and saw Ames dashing out of a cab towards the doorman. Perfect. It had taken him long enough. And as usual, here I was cleaning up my family's mess while a beautiful woman, the woman I should have been with, waited for me. She'd know what was wrong soon enough.

Ames knocked on the door and I thrust it open.

"What the hell has she done?"

"She's gone rogue. She's doing something stupid."

"To whom?"

"I've heard she's going after one of the Holloway boys."

"Jamal?"

"Probably."

"Shit."

"I know."

"If anything happens to him --"

"Indie will blame me."

"What have you found? This place is filthy."

"She's always been a slob. “ I led my brother back towards the bedroom.

I picked papers up off the bed and pointed to the red markings.

"She's done the math, then."

"She blames them for the acquisition."

"It hasn't wiped us out yet."

"It hasn't happened yet," I commented.

"Will it happen?"

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