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“Hey, watch it. What did you want?”
Monica widened her eyes and pursed her lips, gesturing at my phone. There was only one man she would bother to announce in person.
I cocked my head, feeling annoyed already. “What does he want?”
She made a face. “No idea honestly, but you better take it.”
“Thank you Monica.”
I stared up at the ceiling. Mother fucker. What a day. Lazily, I walked over to the couch and grabbed the phone. There was a missed call.
Fucking Lawson. He was my friend, but a shitty one at that. I viewed Lawson as my mentor, in a sense, always learning from his mistakes that he so often found himself in. How he got away with half the shit he did I would never fully understand. He had somehow successfully managed to find millions of dollars’ worth of loopholes in his company’s taxes. When the government came to question him, he was a cocky idiot, which only made them investigate into his business more. I tried to tell him to quit acting like a kid but he never listened to me. He always said that he knew people that could get him out of things, and he would use that to his advantage. I never fully believed him until I watched his problem with the government slowly disappear.
If there was one other thing I had learned over the years through Lawson, it was diplomacy. You never knew when you might need someone’s help, and staying on good terms with everyone was only smart.
I picked up the phone and redialed, mentally preparing myself for whatever trouble he had found himself in again.
Lawson picked up after the first ring. “Owen, my friend! Happy you returned the call! I wasn’t expecting it, frankly! How have you been?”
“You read the news. Hayes Inc. is stronger than ever,” I lied.
“Congratulations, buddy! I knew you would pull through!”
“Of course we did.” I clutched the elbow rest.
“True. But word on the street is the District Attorney is gunning for you, know anything about it?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ugh he just wanted to run the rumor mill. I didn’t give a shit about what he wanted to know, I had to actually handle my business.
“Well I hear he frequents an investment of mine.”
“An investment? Which one?” Lawson owned properties all over town, easy to hide his money that way.
“Do you remember that place we used to frequent in the old days? The Chicago Buyer’s Club?”
I did. Back in the day, when we had just graduated college and started making our first money, the club was where we spent our weekends. Those were some legendary parties that saw cash flying in the air amidst girls’ underwear. I stopped visiting it right after things with work started to pick up.
“What about it?” I asked.
“Well, it’s somewhere the higher end people in this city like to be.”
“Why are you telling me this Lawson?”
“Hey I figured we used to help each other, and I screwed up, stopping that relationship. This is my olive branch. Meet with the District Attorney, or even better snap a few pics of him enjoying the ladies and be on your way. It can only help your case.”
He had a point.
The me of five years ago would’ve been out the door already, but the me of today sat still.
“I don’t know about that, Lawson. As tempting as that sounds,” – it didn’t – “I think I’ll pass.” I wasn’t very interested in getting back involved with Lawson and his underhanded tactics.
“Come on, man, don’t be like that. Look, I’ll be paying for everything, whatever you want. Women, booze, whatever, you just get that pic.”
He wanted this blackmail for his own purposes, I was sure of it. But it was still worth a shot.
“Oh, and did I mention?” Lawson said, bringing me out of my thoughts on the commissioner. “There will be an auction! A dozen of hottest chicks we could find! The best of the best!”
The idea didn’t sound appealing at all, but speaking with the District Attorney there might play to my advantage. I doubted the DA would like it to be common knowledge that he frequented auction houses of women. It was even worse than a potential sex club.
