Page 5 of Delicious

Lenny’s screaming and begging draws me back to the task at hand, making me angrier still that he interrupted the sweet memory of the first time I saw the girl that I’m going to marry. Stuffing my hands into the pockets of my suit pants, I take a step forward, leaning down and locking my eyes with his.

“I already have your money. It wasn’t hard to crack your safe inside, and even if it was, I would just stuff some C4 in the cracks and blow it up. Your little offshore accounts are emptied as well, compliments of some supremely talented hackers I know. But your legacy will go on. All that money went into an anonymous donation to the Michigan Abolitionist Project. All the women were taken in. They will all get what they need to start over. Ironic, it’s the money you forced them to earn for you that’s going to fund their new lives.”

I straighten my spine, rolling my shoulders as I turn away, squeezing the sides of my forehead. Then I give Dimitri the thumbs up.

The first low pop pop pop sounds like muffled gunshots. There’s five more in rapid succession, as I walk toward my waiting car, wondering what lengths I would go to in order to secure my new obsession into my life.

Would I chain her up in my basement?

The thought has occurred to me. Does that make me a bastard like Lenny?

The resounding eardrum-damaging booms push the thought from my mind as I take one last look over my shoulder at the falling cinder-block and concrete building. I pause, watching as the structure falls like a house of cards.

The artistry of a perfectly-orchestrated demolition is underappreciated.

“Throw his ass in the river!” I shout over the sounds of the last explosives and the crushing weight of the building falling into itself. Theo nods in acknowledgment, before I turn back toward my waiting car and the text messages that have become the axis on which my world now turns.

***

Back at the Foundation Demolition building, I’m barricaded in my office with an old business associate, Jackson Carter. And he’s giving me shit I don’t need.

“You keep checking that phone,” he says, “I’m going to think you’re going soft on me. Frankly, I’m surprised to find that Erik Leonard even has a phone that isn’t like something out of a museum.”

He grins, manspreading in the chair opposite mine across the desk, but I’m not in the mood.

“You want my advice, you’ll have the whole thing torn down and rebuilt from scratch. Cheaper in the long run.”

“Yeah, but you know me. I’m sentimental. Parts of the building need pulling down, sure, but it has character. It would be a shame to lose it.”

I shrug. “Your choice.”

“But it’s safe like that, right? The building won’t fall down if we just demolish the parts that are broken beyond repair?”

“My guys will check it after the demo. If there are any safety concerns, we’ll let you know. I know your feelings on that.”

Jackson is a good guy, despite being a pain in my ass right now. Normally, these sorts of details would be hashed out over the phone, or more likely by employees way further down the ladder than the two of us, but he happened to be in Detroit on other business, and truth, I think he might actually like me. Like a friend or something.

I have few enough of those, and I actually get along with him.

He’s based in New York, and one of his many companies just bought a new office building that’s been around since the forties. I can see the old-world charm in the place, but it’s in desperate need of renovation.

“We done?” I ask, going back to my phone, shaking as I type out another message.

Me: You back from the appointment with your aunt? I like to know you are back home safe.

Even as my fingers move over the keys, I wonder what sort of hold this girl has on me.

It’s something I’ve never felt. Not even close.

Sweat beads on my brow as I slide the phone to the center of the desk, holding my hands out like a surgeon checking for stability.

If I was performing brain surgery on someone, they’d be fucked.

Ironic that the one girl I’ve ever wanted more from than some quick pressure release seems to be the one girl that has zero interest in pursuing anything with me. Her answers to my messages over the last days have been polite but short.

Her lack of availability has only fueled my obsession with her.

From the second I saw her, I knew she’d been chased and objectified and lusted after until she’s become jaded in all things regarding the male species.

---