Page 55 of My Dear Mr. Corporate

“Where the hell is he?” I shouted at him. “If you hurt him Gio I will fucking kill you. You hear me? I’m not kidding. I’ll fucking ensure this, right here, is the last breath you take, so think twice before you lie to me.”

“I don’t know where he is,” he said, glancing around nervously. “I swear he’s not here. I was just as shocked when I saw the news.”

“I don’t believe you!” I slammed him into the wall behind him. “I know you met with that son-of-a-bitch and you two planned something to get him out of the picture. Didn’t you?” I shook him hard enough to rattle his teeth. “Didn’t you?”

“What the hell is going on?” came an unexpected voice.

I glanced from Gio, staring in disbelief and confusion at a smug looking Keith. He would have been naked except for the boxers he had pulled on in such haste they were up the wrong side out. I didn’t miss the bulge of his erection. His chest was covered in red marks.

“You’re fucking him?” I spat at Gio incredulously. “You figured because I couldn’t love you the way you wanted that you’d just sleep with the enemy and plot against me?”

“I swear we had nothing to do with Bryan’s disappearance,” he responded.

“And I’m supposed to believe all this is coincidental?”

“What business is it of yours who he chooses to fuck?” Keith demanded. “You get Bryan and I get Giovanni. Seems like a fair trade.”

A flash of rage overwhelmed me. I thrust Gio from me and threw my fist at Keith hitting him in the face. He stumbled backward, and I went after him again this time knocking him to the floor. I quickly followed straddling him, ready to punch him again.

“That was for all the times you knocked him around!” I growled at him, pulling my fist back. “This is for kidnapping him.”

Gio grabbed my fist before it landed. “Tate, I promise you, we did not take Bryan. Would we be here having sex if we had?”

I pulled my hand away from his reach. “Then what the hell is going on here?”

“Let him up and I’ll explain,” Gio stated.

I pointed a finger at him. “I’ll stay put right where I am, and you explain yourself.”

“It’s true that our meeting wasn’t coincidental,” he replied, talking fast. “You told me about Bryan’s ex and how he wanted him back. I thought we could scratch each other’s backs. If I helped him to get back Bryan then you would be free for the taking. But then we ended up in bed once while coming up with a plan. We haven’t thought of you or Bryan since.”

“Now will you get off my lungs,” Keith gasped. “You’re cutting off my fucking air supply.”

“Why should I believe you two?” I got off Keith and watched Gio try to help him up, but Keith brushed him aside.

“Look man, I admit to playing mind games with Bryan at first,” Keith responded. “He never changed his email password and I saw all the places his job letters went to. It was easy for me then to pass on the news to these companies that he was a bad employee.”

I stared at him like he was demented, and in my eyes, he was. The lengths he had gone to in order to win back Bryan showed how unstable he was. I turned my attention to Gio. “Can’t you see he’s a twisted fuck? Is that what you really want?”

“If I can’t have you, then why not?” Gio sounded almost like a petulant child. “For the last time we have no idea where Bryan is or who snatched him but…” He trailed off.

“But what? If you know something, say it.”

“At your mother’s party, there’s only one person I stumbled upon with a gun,” he answered, his face turning crimson. “I had followed you two up the stairs when you left the ballroom. I could- I could hear you both fucking. I was angry and left. I bumped into your uncle on the stairs. Something fell from him and it was a gun. He laughed it off and said he had left it there on one of his visits and was taking it home. An old man can’t be too careful these days.”

I frowned at him, searching his face to find even the slightest hint that he was lying.

“You never told me that,” Keith complained before I could say anything. “I thought you told me everything.”

“I didn’t know how significant it was,” Gio lied.

“You knew.” Keith scowled at him. “You knew someone shot at him because you told me the police questioned you about it. I even asked if it was you and you said no. We agreed if we were working together we couldn’t lie to each other. You just hoped the old man would get rid of him so you could get a chance with Rosenbaum. How sick are you?”

I found it hilarious that he was accusing Gio, but I couldn’t laugh. It just kept getting worse. If Gio was to be believed, my uncle might have been the one to shoot Bryan. He had been one of those guests missing from the list when the police had arrived. With me exposing what he had done to the company and taking away his source of gambling, he had all the motives to do this. But Uncle Simon? I didn’t want to believe it.

“On a scale from one to ten, I’d say you two were perfect for each other,” I threw at them then stalked out of the house. As of today, Gio was dead to me.

I had barely strapped on the seatbelt in my car when my phone rang. I had left it on the dashboard when I went up to Gio’s house. I grabbed it now and saw it was the detective who was handling Bryan’s case. Fear gripped me that we were too late. What if he didn’t want money but revenge for taking away the company from him?

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