Page 17 of Dark Seduction

“He had all of that in LA, but they quit and I had to do something—” Finally the truth.

“Like send him here to New York where you can get lost in this place, and no one will find you unless you wash up in the East River, and that’s on a good day. I will have to take off from my job—”

“Your job is Charlie for now—”

“And you expect me to work at breaking his contract too—” I frowned, but Max didn’t see that. No one wanted a zoom conference call this early in the morning. However, I could have used others’ opinions on the matter, especially the people who had worked with Charlie before.

“I don’t want you to break his contract. I never wanted that. When he’s working, he works and does what he’s supposed to do. How else do you think he survived this long, because I kept him working all the time, but he jumped ship and wanted out, and I had to do some creative thinking to satisfy the movie company as well as him. I promised them that I’d have him working when season three is ready to film, and I have another deal waiting that will take him to Alaska. I had people watching him.”

Obviously not the right people,I wanted to say but didn’t. “Look, Max, I’m tired and when dawn comes the sun rises—”

“It may be too late,” Max said with a sigh. He was the kind of man where everything was an emergency. This time he might be right. “Can you get your partner to help you. I’ll make it worth his while... From what I found out about him, he knows more about the bondage scene than most men in that business, and he probably needs some monetary help about now.” I glanced over at Daniel who was resting on the daybed nearby, waiting patiently, and had turned over on his side as if he were asleep. I’d bet he wasn’t. If I had mentioned what Max had said about him he would be furious.

“I’ll ask him and get back to you later.” I needed to figure out how to help Charlie, keep a lucrative position, and keep Daniel at the same time.

“I’ll probably be asleep. Leave it on my voice mail,” Max casually said. I raced to hit the red button on my phone and laid it on the table near our bed.

Daniel turned over and looked at me. “Are you going to tell me what that was about?”

“It’s about my client, and it’s a long story.”

“Well, I can’t sleep anyway. I’ll get up and brew some coffee, and I think I have something for breakfast, and I’ll prepare it while you wake up.”

I was past waking to the reality of what I’d gotten myself into by this latest series of events. Max had managed to fuck up my previous life, and now he was threatening to do the same again, because of Charlie.There must be a way to get out of this and to leave Max’s firm,I thought. I had to go over my contract and then I would know my options. Why would I waste my time? Max was one of the most accomplished lawyers in all of LA and New York.

Waking up to the reality staring at me there was no fucking way I could get out of a contract with Max and his law firm. Like Charlie, there was no way of breaking any kind of contract with Max. Max had his hand in too many businesses and the best way to get royally fucked was to tell Maxnoand you needed to break ties with him. It wasn’t going to happen now or ever. I was a condemned man, and there wasn’t going to be a pardon coming my way anytime soon. I had to serve my sentence.

Chapter 11

Daniel

“Iheard some of whatCole and his boss, Max, were discussing, and I tried to interpret the rest of the conversation as best I could. I left Cole alone to get dressed, while I aimlessly moved to the kitchen where I had a hard grip on a spatula, turning it around and around the frying pan after I put a piece of butter in the skillet before preparing his breakfast.

I hadn’t been aware I’d beaten the eggs into submission because I didn’t like the way he reacted to the news Max had dropped on him. It had something to do with me when it came to Cole’s client. Finally, I stopped abusing the morning breakfast, and waited for Cole to fill me in on what Max had wanted.

Just who was Charles St. John, and why was he Cole’s special client, and why was he that important where Max had to call Cole so early in the morning?

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