Chapter 11

"What about the deal with the Oisein Motors?" Derek asked his personal assistant. He tapped his fingers on the desk, drumming it in a rhymatic manner. He stared at the lady in front of him but he could barely see her. His mind was focused on something else.

He checked the watch on his wrist and scowled at how slow the time seemed to be. Dang, it should have been noon already. He couldn't believe the day was dragging so slow when he needed it to rush forward. 

Claudia, his personal assistant, noticed he was distracted and pursed her lips, stopping the foow of words from her mouth. "What is the problem, sir?"

"What?" He started to attention. The pen on his desk rolled to the floor as he swiped away at it in his haste.

She frowned at him. "You seem distracted. You asked me about Oisein Motors but you were barely listening as I gave the details on them."

He sighed. "Don't mind me. You can continue. Tell me what I need to know about them."

She nodded, swallowed and continued. He zoned out again. What was she doing? Has she received his message? Was she so in love that she would shun business? He groaned, resisting the urge to pull at his hair in frustration. The barrage of questions rolling in his mind and left unanswered were driving him crazy.

Claudia sighed as she noticed he was doing the same thing again. "You are doing it again. You are not listening to me."

"I am." He denied, scowling at himself for zoning out of an important meeting.

She packed the files with her. "You know what? You are pretty distracted today and I have a lot of things to do instead of talking to myself repeatedly, boss. Let's have the briefing on the businesses you invested in some other day."

He reached out for her and opened his mouth but he could barely say a thing before she walked out to the office. He groaned as he sagged back into his seat. He had messed up like he had been doing for the past two days. Ever since he had heard the news of Adam's comeback into business with the marriage to Veronica Hussey.

He felt like his dreams, life and all he had ever worked for were tumbling and crashing right before his eyes and he could do nothing to stop it. Everything he had ever wanted was being swept from under his feet and yet he had no power to stop it. If only she would reply his messages then he would feel like he was back in the game.

When he was younger,the enjoyed the game of chess and anything that meant he had the power to oust people or make them still retain their poower and still playing the game as a n adult, as a business man was way more cooler than he had imagined.

He growled. How dare Matthew Hussey give the man he had condemned a way out?

A soft knock sounded on his door and he snorted, already knowing who it was.  Erica Kings walked in, her long legs accentuated by her mini black skirt and pink heels. She made her way to him, flexing her red long hair and smiling at him, her full pouty lips begging for a kiss. He hissed inwardly to himself. He couldn't believe he had once thought her beautiful.

He shook his head as he compared her to Veronica Hussey and he saw that she failed. She was not even worth half as beautiful as Veronica. He banged his fists in anger on the table. Why did Adam keep getting them better? Girls and money? The universe really had some talking to do to his hearing.

Erica jumped and her lips trembled like she would like to cry. He groaned at having startled her. She collapsed on the chair in front of him and cried. "Why do you behave like that? You could have just told me you don't want me to be here and I will go instead of threatening me like this." Her lips trembled even more. "You don't love me."

He groaned, noting the edges of her lips, how wide her eyes are and how extraordinarily jumpy she was and cursed himself for not noticing the signs sooner. She was high. As usual. He had some serious cajoling to do. Something he wasn't ready for at the moment but he had to do it. If there was something he had learned in his years of dealing with and manipulating people, it was not to discard people like Erica too soon as they were always worth their salt once in a while.

Ambition and gullibility was a combination for disaster and Derek was not one to not always make use of a weakness in people, no matter how subtle. Once he found it out, it could be said that there was no going back for the person.

With a resigned sigh, he picked himself up from his chair and went to where she was, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. He frowned as their skin made contact, marveling at how skinny she was. He had noticed the other day he had been in bed with her when Adam caught them and four other times after that but this would be the one of the rare times he would be touching her willingly when he was not in the throes of passion and he felt like saluting Adam for being in love with her.

He scoffed as he reminded himself that she also thought he was in love with her like Adam was. He couldn't see himself in love with her. He had only lusted after her because she was Adam's girl and he wanted whatever it was that belonged to Adam. 

She was too skinny for his liking. She was skeleton. He couldn't ever have been in love with her.

He rubbed at her shoulders, murmuring sweet nonsense to her till her cries subsided. "Erica, I didn't mean to scare you. I thought of one bad deal I invested in and reacted. It was just unfortunate it is a coincidence to when you came in." He lied, making use of her gullibility. He knew she would believe everything he had to say.

She looked up at him and through the sheen of tears in her eyes, he could see the hero worship in her eyes and knew he had already been forgiven.

He smiled at her. "Am I forgiven? Babe?" He drawled.

She giggled and he breathed in relief as he went to his seat, tugging at his tie in relief. "Ah!" He breathed. All was well in the world again. He had dodged a bullet.

"Why are you here, Erica?"

"You said we have a lunch date." She frowned, annoyed that she had to remind him. He had been off for the past few days and she had been on edge, wondering what she had done wrong to him. She had shrugged it off as business. Adam had also had days when he was off with her and she had forgiven Derek for his strange attitude, counting it as one of the perks of dating a busy business mogul but staring at Derek as he looked back at her with a scowl on his face as he wondered if he had ever said what she said minutes ago, she realized he was different from Adam.

Adam had never forgotten a promise once he made it to her.

"I said that?" Derek asked.

She hissed. "Of course, you did. Forgotten so soon?"

He shook his head, a smile on his lips. "Of course not. I am sorry, Erica. I have just been busy and I think I have a business lunch this afternoon." He hoped it was true.

Erica gaped at him in wonder. "You promised me this a week ago."

"I will make it up to you, babe. Just tell me what you want. Clothes?" He smiled at her. "Drugs? I just got a bountiful supply of morphine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, methamphetamine, heroin and methadone." He watched as her eyes got rounder with longing and he smiled at the lustful expression on her face. He already knew what her answer would be. She wouldn't be going shopping and his credit card wouldn't have to leave him. All he needed was a call through to his sales attendants. "Which one do you want?" He urged her.

"All." Her breathing was wild and she licked her lips as if her throat was parched. He had no idea if it was as he hadn't done drugs before and he didn't care as much drugs as she took as long as it made her gullible for his whims.

He gave a toothy grin. "Anything for my baby."

His cell phone rang and he jumped, praying it was the call he had been expecting. "Mr. Lowe on the line." He said, his hope high at the unknown number.

"Yes, I would be available. Thank you." He grinned as the call clicked off from the other end.

Erica watched as his countenance suddenly changed and he looked happy. She couldn't guess what had made him happy from the one sided conversation she had overheard. She snorted. Business men and getting excited over much money. She saw no big deal in a business call that he would be happy about. As far as she was concerned, it wasn't any different from the other business calls he had been having.

He turned to her. "I am sorry, Erica. I have to leave now."

She nodded, already knowing he would say that. She picked her bag and walked stood up. "Don't forget the drugs you promised me."

He nodded. "Not at all, baby. I will come home with them."

She grinned and rolled her waist out of the office. He grinned, called Claudia to cancel his appointments for the day and moved out of the office.

He stared at the door as he waited for her entry, without minding the wait. He was an impatient man but waiting for a beautiful woman was one thing he couldn't get mad at.  He checked the time on his watch and grinned. He was ten minutes early than the appointee time.

She walked in and he sucked in a breath. She was more beautiful in person than what he had seen in the pictures. You son of a bitch, Adam. He groaned. He couldn't believe she was getting married to him. What a waste of intending vows. The more he stared at her, the more he was convinced she didn't belong with Adam but to him.

She walked up to him and smiled as she settled in the seat opposite him. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting, Mr. Lowe." 

He shook his head. "Not at all. A beautiful woman like you can keep me waiting for as long as you want." He winked at her.

She pretended to not notice how he just flirted with her and moved on to business. "My assistant told me you would like to execute a business with us."

"Yes." He sat right and cleared his throat.

She smiled. "Good. Shall we begin?"

He shook his head. "Not after we order. I can't have a beautiful woman with me and not feed her." 

"Okay. Thank you."

He continued. "Who knows? You might agree to go on a date with me if I play nice today."

She giggled. "You are quite the funny one, Mr. Lowe."

He snorted. "You can call me Derek because I plan to call you Veronica."

"And why is that?" Shr tilted her head as she stared at him.

He shrugged. "I just said it. I would like to go on a date with you."

She chuckled. "And that was why I said you are funny, Mr. Lowe. Almost everyone in the country know that I am getting married next week."

"I know."

"Good. Why would you want to go on a date with another man's woman?"

"Because the woman would look better on my arms than that of her intending husband." He said with confidence and smiled.

She scowled, the lines on her forehead squeezing together in an annoyed gesture. "I beg your pardon."

He grinned at her, fully unrepentant. He had to let her see he was the man for her and he would. "Are you not getting married to Adam Livingston?"

She scowled. "And how is that your business?"

"Because I would hate a beautiful and promising woman like you make a mistake you would regret for years."

"Let me the judge of that."

"I can tell you that he is using you. His business is ruined and he must be trying to use a heiress like you to get back on his feet, thinking you are gullible."

She hissed. "Who are you to slander a man like that?"

He snorted. "I am his best friend." He shrugged. "Well, I was his best friend until he betrayed me." He pouted. "See? Am I going to let a beautiful woman as yourself marry a betrayer?"

Veronica chortled. If only you knew the full story of it, you wouldn't be here trying to flirt with me and trying to get me to get married to you. She gave him a tight smile but said nothing of what was on her lips.

"Are you in love with him?"

"Is there a problem if I am?" She hissed at him. She couldn't believe she had left her office and her busy schedule to listen to this from a man pained his old friend waa getting married to a rich heiress.

He shook his head. "Of course, there is. Do you know Adam's ex is a drug addict?"

"I see no reason how that is my business." She scowled.

He scoffed. "Of course, it should be your business. That tells you the kind of man he is. What sort of a man dates a drug junkie? An unstable man." He tsked.  "I doubt that is ghe kind of man you want to leave your legacy to. You would need a better man and he is seated right in front of you."

She nodded. "As much as I appreciate your concern, I must say that it is not needed. I am getting married to Adam and it would be in the interest of both of us if we discuss the actual business we are both here to talk about."

Derek stared at her, wondering what sweet words Adam had filled her head with to not allow her to listen to the voice of reason. He shrugged. He would wait till he eventually had her. He had other games up his sleeve. "That I can do."

She nodded. "Thank you."

They spent the next thirty minutes discussing the details of the contract of the business. She told him not to bother with lunch. Her appetite was already lost with the gibberish he had started the meeting with. After their meeting, they shook hands and she picked her bag, standing up.

"Am I invited to the wedding?" He grinned at her.

She grinned back and shook her head. "I doubt my husband would want to see you there."

He smiled. "Good call."

She smiled and walked away without a word.