Page 13 of Crushed
CHAPTER 4
Cormac
White, picturesque clouds were painted on the sky-blue walls, the mural vibrant even through the computer screen. A young girl with dark curly hair sat at a ladybug-shaped table. She carefully drew a picture of a house. A square. A triangle. Rectangular windows.
It was mid-afternoon. I was still at the office, dealing with different large scale decisions related to the different subsidiaries of Stone Laboratories, but I always checked the surveillance footage to see my daughter, Rose.
My phone buzzed.Wardenflashed on the screen. Had he come to a decision regarding the sale of Technology and Science Pharma?
I opened the message.I’m inviting you to Decadence Revelry, he sent.It’s in a month. I have a few things I want to finish up, then we can discuss the particulars.
Decadence Revelry was an evening event exclusively held for the wealthiest deviants. The party was hosted in secret locations all over the world. Different themes captured each individual night, but one aspect always remained the same: the event was by invitation only. Once you were invited, you were welcome toanyof the future events.
I had never been invited to Decadence before. My lifestyle had never been one for social gatherings, even when it came to topics that I found interesting. I preferred a solitary existence and never ventured out. Being a widower made me even less willing to engage socially.
You’ve attended before, then, I sent.
Of course, Warden replied.I suggest you bring a guest.
Oh?I sent.
These parties, they call for… couples’ participation. Think of a woman you can share.
In my position, I could go through a strict vetting process and hire an escort from a respected company. But the easier route would be to ask one of the servers at the Dahlia District since they were already bound by NDAs and knew exactly what was expected of them. No doubt one of them could follow my demands for a single night, especially a night in which I simply needed the server to help sweeten the deal.
But most of the servers weren’t my type. They irritated me. And they couldn’t deliver what I wanted anyway, too stalled by their own fear to even attempt my desires.
But there was that new server.Scarlett.
This negotiation would have been easier if Warden had a trail of crimes I could use against him. I had no guilt about blackmailing those who tried to cover up their crimes. They shouldn’t have done those crimes in the first place, and I always gave them a chance to receive a buyout. Blackmail was better than the final alternative. And the final alternative wasalwaysavailable.
It could come to that final option with Warden. He was too clean and too possessive of the company to accept any reasonable offer. And Ineededhis company.
There was a chance that Decadence could give me the bait I needed, a string of personal details to use against Warden. That information could be used to get the board of directors to find him unfit to serve. I already had several of the board members under my thumb. I simply needed a plausible explanation, something vaguely set in truth.
Honey-colored hair and cherry-red lips popped into my mind. The nonchalant sports bra one night, and the awkward lace lingerie the next. The expression on her face when she tossed the ball of fire into the throes of the stage had been amusing, to say the least. She should have been mortified, but instead, she looked resigned, because she seemed to have been expecting a mistake like that.
Because Scarlett wasn’t like the other servers, though the reason why was unclear.
I searched Scarlett’s name, using the sparse information I had about her, and after trying several different databases I used to help research my business associates, I found that there were no records of Scarlett. No social media footprint. Not even a yearbook photo.
That was strange. Almost as strange as the way she had acted after nearly setting the building on fire.
Something was off. I doubted that she had any debt. She was at the Dahlia District for a different reason.
I checked the monitor again. Rose was still drawing, though this time, instead of her own domestic creation, she was coloring inside of a princess coloring book. I despised the idea of princesses as role models, but her previous doctor had assured me that princesses could be strong too, and so I had relented. If that’s what my daughter wanted, then fine.
I returned home, crossing through Sage City to get to my estate at the edge of town. My property was situated near the woods with a large white wall surrounding it, and enough acreage inside of the walls to make it seem like it was its own secluded village. A self-contained land where no one would dare come inside, not even if they could get past my security.
A guard opened the metal gates and I drove through. Before leaving the car, I opened the app for Rose’s video monitor again. I switched angles and saw that she was practicing her letters. She had recently started homeschooling kindergarten. It filled me with pride to see that she still wanted to practice, even when her teacher was out.
Checking that app was a compulsion, something I found myself doing more times than was necessary. If anythingdidhappen, the staff would let me know, and the various surveillance equipment would alert me too. But it was one of the ways I was able to make sure that she was okay at any time of the day. It was overkill, but I needed that reassurance. It calmed me to know that I had control over seeing her there, seeing her safe.
I went down the corridors to Dr. Davis’s office and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” a male voice said. Dr. Davis sat behind his desk, typing into the computer. Once he realized it was me, his employer, he exited the program and straightened. “I didn’t expect you to be here today, Mr. Stone.”
“Do I need to make an appointment with you next time? Are you often busy with only one patient on your schedule?”
