Chapter 42: Rage in One House, Frustration in the Other
The heavy oak doors of the private executive study slammed open hard enough to rattle the books lined up in the shelves.
Roy limped inside the study and every step looked painful. White bandages wrapped around his forehead.
His nose was splinted, both eyes swollen almost shut, and he moved like a man who had been thrown down a flight of stairs twice.
And truth to be told, he was. After being thouroughly humiliated by Rick, he spent two nights drinking in sorrow, and regaining his lost pride only to find out his credit card was maxed out.
But he was too drunk after two nights to even think straight.
In the end he was beaten to shit and thrown out on the streets.
And this brought him here.
Behind the massive desk sat his father, a cold, sharp-eyed corporate tyrant who had just returned from a long overseas trip.
The room smelled of aged whiskey and expensive cigars. And while Roy walked in crying, the older man did not even look up at first. He simply took a slow pull from his cigar and watched the smoke curl toward the ceiling.
"Father!" Roy’s voice cracked and tears of humiliation mixed with sweat on his face, "You have to kill him! You have to destroy him completely!"
The older man, George, finally raised his eyes. His expression stayed flat and unimpressed.
"Quiet. You look like a beaten dog that crawled in from the street," The man scrunched his nose and looked at his son in disdain, "I just stepped off a fifteen-hour flight and the first thing I see is my son looking like a complete disgrace."
Roy slammed his hands on the desk, ignoring the pain.
"He humiliated me in front of everyone!" Roy cried out, "A nobody humilated me."
"I would need more than that," George took a deep drag of his cigar and said.
"This guy. His name is Rick!"
"I know nothing more than that."
"He is just a Chef at the Peninsula hotel."
"Yet he forced me to pay a hundred thousand dollars just to leave a room."
"He made me pay that money for a few broken chairs."
"That bastard is walking around the Peninsula Hotel like he owns the place!"
His father set the cigar down with deliberate calm.
"You are throwing a tantrum over some insect. You expect me to waste time on a hotel chef?"
"I don’t care. He made me lose face in front of a dozen people!" Roy shouted, voice rising in desperation, "I want to get my respect back."
"I want you to do something. Your my father. You should avenge me."
The older man stared at his son for a long moment, then let out a tired sigh. Whatever this mess was, Reputation mattered.
If the family’s name became a joke among the other elite circles, it would cost far more than a few broken bones.
He pressed a hidden button under the desk.
A few seconds later the doors opened again without a sound, and a lean, middle-aged, dressed in plain dark traditional clothes walked in without making a sound.
The air in the room seemed to thin the moment he stepped inside. His eyes were cold and empty of emotion.
"Master Li," George spoke up, his voice respectful, "My son has some problem with a boy."
"Remind him of his place. Break a few bones if necessary."
Master Li gave a single silent nod, glanced once at Roy’s ruined face, and vanished back into the hallway as quietly as he had arrived.
Roy wiped blood and tears from his face. A dark, twisted smile finally appeared.
"Come Master Li... Lets make sure he’s dead."
~~~~~~
While Roy plotted revenge in a smoke-filled study, Victoria’s black Maybach rolled up the long gravel driveway of her private mansion.
The moment the car stopped, the driver hurried out to open her door. She stepped into the cool night air and walked toward the grand entrance without a word.
The household staff bowed and took her coat, bag, and heels in complete silence.
Victoria ignored them.
She walked barefoot across the polished floors of the massive living room and dropped onto the expensive leather sofa with a long, tired sigh.
She undid the top three buttons of her silk blouse, letting the fabric fall open just enough to breathe.
The house was quiet.
Her mind kept replaying the private dinner. The way the Mayor had surrendered after a few bites. The way Rick had looked at her while she stood there in that ridiculous short uniform. And one detail that refused to leave her alone.
He had casually mentioned fifty-five percent.
The legal documents Marcus had shown her earlier only listed fifty. That extra five percent meant Rick was quietly buying more shares behind her back.
He was not a lucky kid who had stumbled into money. He was systematically taking control of her hotel.
How? And how does she not know about it?
Was he bluffing?
But why does he need to? He already had fifty percent.
Victoria grabbed her phone and dialled her personal assistant, voice sharp and cold.
"I don’t care what time it is. I want a full discreet audit of the Peninsula’s share registry. Every minor transfer in the last forty-eight hours. On my desk by morning."
She hung up without waiting for a reply and tossed the phone onto the table.
While the hotel was onbe problem in her head, the restlessness in her body refused to fade. The mansion felt enormous and empty.
And while her mind was occupied by numbers, the physical frustration she had been suppressing all evening came rushing back.
She leaned her head against the sofa cushions and closed her eyes.
Unwanted images surfaced immediately.
Rick’s hands on her in the penthouse. The way he had forced her into that tiny uniform.
And then she remembered the phone call.
She remembered how Rick answered that call right in front of the Mayor, as his deep, authoritative voice suddenly turned incredibly soft and sweet, casually teasing her about their wild night of sex, which had made Victoria’s stomach twist with a sickening, irrational wave of pure jealousy.
That last memory stung more than she wanted to admit.
Nineteen years of carefully maintained distance from every man, and now one arrogant young man had her body reacting like a teenager’s. He completely melted her defenses.
And without her own permission, her hand slowly drifted down her stomach, as her fingers grazed the smooth skin of her thighs, before slipping directly under the expensive fabric of her skirt.
The sensation was incredibly sharp, and the intense dopamine rush completely short-circuited her logical resistance.
But just as her fingers traced along her pussy over her panties, the front doors of the mansion swung open, shattering the quiet of the room.
Victoria gasped sharply, as she violently yanked her hand out from under her skirt, instantly sitting up rigidly on the sofa, hastily buttoning her blouse. while her cheeks burned a furious, dark shade of red.
A fat, tall man with a thick grey beard and the heavy smell of liquor and perfume stomped into the living room.
It was her completely useless, long-estranged husband, the man who had lost three of his fingers to loan sharks a decade ago, and the very reason she had lived like a frustrated nun for nineteen years.
The atmosphere in the living room instantly turned ice-cold and incredibly hostile, as the husband’s presence completely killed Victoria’s mood, replacing it with disgust.
"You look like a mess," he sneered, eyes flicking over her flushed face and half-buttoned blouse. He clearly did not care enough to wonder why.
Victoria’s voice turned to pure ice.
"What are you doing here? You know you are not welcome in this house."
Victoria looked away, not wanting to smell the pungent smell coming from him. It was dreadful. And she could not help but instinctively compare the sorry excuse of a man her husband was to Rick.
Her husband was like a dumpyard no one wanted to go near to while Rick was like the storm that had swept her of her feet.
There was no comparison. And Victoria could not help but shake her head, wanting to throw his thoughts out of her mind and concentrate at the poroblem in front of her.
But the more she wanted to think about something else, the more Rick’s face and that cheeky smile of his made her cheeks hot even more.
’Damn you Rick!’
Rick Smith was becoming a much bigger problem than she had first calculated.
And the worst part was that part of her was no longer sure she wanted him gone.
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[A/N: If you are enjoying the story. Do consider voting the story with Power Stones and Golden Tickets. And while you are at it, do read my other sories. You can find them on my profile. Your motivation means a lot to me.]