Page 6 of Ruined
“And Aldrich Inspired Investments?” I asked. Though I knew the answer.
The woman from before brought our drinks and left. We both sipped.
“Not as well as one would hope. Not with the new king in town,” he said. He pressed his lips together. “Don’t take this as my surrender. I won’t bow down, yet.”
I suppressed a smile. He knew he would have to bow down eventually.
“Are you worried, Aldrich?”
“Geezus, fucking hell, Lucas. You know I am.”
Those words were like music to my ears. Finally, Aldrich was losing. “What do you want?” I asked.
“I’m afraid I need your help,” he said. “As you are aware, the last several quarterly earnings have been distressing. I’d like to propose a deal. A merger.”
I nearly spit out the whiskey. “You’re joking.”
“It would be good for our mutual interests. You know this.”
But working for, or evenwithAldrich, wasn’t something I was interested in anymore.
“You mean an acquisition,” I said.
“You know I can’t do that.” His eyes glossed over as he heard the door to the Greenhouse open. He turned over his shoulder.
The woman from the stage performance crossed the back of the room.Haley. Her black hair laid in glossy strands over her back, with a tint of flush to her cheeks, her green eyes vibrant. A bandaid stretched over her breast. There was an elegance to her walk, like she flowed, rather than stepped. She had changed from a pure black ensemble to a mauve lace lingerie set with a sheer robe.
We watched her move and go past the stage, finding some other men to sit with. I sucked in a breath, and Aldrich turned towards me.
“She’s a firecracker,” he said. “Restrained at times, subtle maybe, and then other times, there’s nothing but fire inside of that one.”
“What’s her deal?”
He leaned back. “She’s been working on the entertainment side for a few years. Aerial dance, mostly. But she doesn’t play by the same flexible rules as the other servers.” He nodded in the direction of where most of the men and women were socializing. All of the men, and the clothed women, were members of the club. Each of us had to pay an expensive monthly fee to enter. One woman fed grapes to a topless man, while a naked woman rubbed a man’s feet as he checked his phone. But Haley shared a booth with a member, facing him, her legs tucked underneath her. She glanced at me, and her lips parted for a moment, before she returned her focus to him.
“Haley,” I said.
“Everyone calls her Hales,” Aldrich said. “Don’t waste your time. I’ve been chasing that tail for years and she never bites. Not even when you know the little bitch wants it.”
I clenched my jaw. There was a certain level of disgust that I endured when it came to Aldrich. He didn’t see women as people, but as objects meant to consume. Turning on the pleasantries when he was with a person, was one of his ways of making people do what he wanted.
I wasn’t free of using charm to manipulate. In fact, it was one of my most honed skills. It was part of the reason Conway Capital had surged beyond its competitors. But I had my limits. Use people all you want, but respect that each person had their own mind. One that didn’t always say yes.
Instead, you had to figure out how to make a person give it to you. To make them beg for that release.
“She’s never had sex before?” I asked.
“Not with me,” Aldrich sighed. “Thinks she’s too good. While every other whore in this place simply asks for a couple of extra zeros piled on, Hales sticks to the rules. Everyone else breaks them. But not her.”
But not Haley.
An idea, a horrible thought, sprouted in my mind. Not Haley? We would see about that.
“I propose a bet,” I said. “If I can make Haley break her rules, Aldrich Inspired Investments is mine.”
Aldrich tilted his head. “Are you fucking with me?”
“And if you make her break the rules first, then Conway Capital is yours.”
