Chapter 2: Chapter 2 : Threats
*Alex*
I’m here for my daughter. I’m a respectable businessman. I’m not going to stare at the enthralling Chloe more than is necessary for polite conversation.
This mantra ran through my mind as I did the meet and greet with all of the sisters of Alpha Zeta Nu. No brag, I’ve been with some of the most beautiful women on planet Earth. I won’t say I’m jaded but I will say I’m experienced.
So, when I say that Chloe’s rich limpid pool gaze drew me in like a moth to the proverbial flame, it’s quite a significant statement. Her eyes were simply mesmerizing. Chloe’s cupids' bow lips were as expressive as they were exquisite. I couldn’t help but be distracted by Chloe’s reactions as my daughter introduced her sorority sisters one by one.
“So, this is Haley. She’s a music major who wants to get into producing.”
I smiled and shook the tall, thin-boned blonde’s hand. She seemed pleasant enough, but my gaze wanted to wander over to where Chloe stood.
“And this is Sophie, from Korea. Her dad’s almost as rich as you.”
“Syung Choo, yes, we played a few rounds at The Sky City Nine Eagles. Please tell him I said hi.”
Syung’s kid had purple hair and looked like she’d stepped out of one of those god-awful Anime shows, but from what I understood she had a straight A average, so who was I to judge?
Sophie gushed about her business model, which sounded intriguing enough but probably wouldn’t get the yields she wanted. I suggested a few tweaks while pretending I wasn’t looking over Sophie’s shoulder at my daughter’s former roommate, Chloe.
Sylvia had told me a lot about Chloe. Grew up on the south side of Chicago, which I hear is the badest part of town. Mother worked three jobs to keep the lights on. Father died in a mysterious carjacking gone wrong.
Sylvia said Chloe had an acidic tongue.
My daughter went up to her room to get changed for dinner. This left me at the mercy of a dozen sorority sisters who plied me with endless questions. Eventually, I used an incoming text as an excuse to ‘step outside and conduct a little business in private’.
I made it to the porch and sighed as the night air enveloped me. My hand fished into the pocket of my blazer and withdrew a silver engraved cigar case. I saw her reflection in the case as it opened. Startled, I turned to find I had not found the solitude I sought. Yet, like the man digging for worms who struck gold, perhaps I’d found something far better.
“Sorry,” Chloe said, her arms crossed over her chest as she half sat and half leaned on the porch’s flat wooden rail. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
My chest flooded with a strange yearning. Without thinking about it, I took a few steps to close the gap between us.
“It’s quite all right. I just needed to get some fresh air.”
“Yeah, me too.”
She stared at me with an utterly inscrutable gaze. Chloe clearly kept her cards close to her chest. I could sense the lingering hurt of past trauma in her eyes. Probably her father’s death. No matter how you slice it, a kid is going to feel abandoned if their parent dies young.
I looked down at the cigar case in my hand and then gestured toward the other end of the porch. “I can go over there if the smoke is going to bother you.”
Her brows climbed high on her face. “Trying to find an excuse to get away from me, Mr. Cross?”
A playful bantering tone crept into her voice. Yet her eyes gave me nothing, reflecting my own desires back at me.
“No, I’m just trying to be polite. And if you call me Mr. Cross instead of Alex again, I’m going to have to get stern with you.”
She laughed, and some of the tension slid away from her body. One of her arms dropped down to her side, lessening her defensive posture.
“Oh, what are you going to do? Spank me?”
I laughed along with her, but I followed up the mirth with… “I just might.”
“Yeah, right. Sylvia is spoiled rotten. You don’t have a stern bone in your body.”
My lips stretched into a small smile. “Do you really think that’s true?”
Her lips parted while she stared up at me. I could see her unflattering gaze begin to waver. I’d struck a nerve.
“I think you’re a super-rich elitist who has a soft life and doesn’t know what people like my mom go through.”
Hardly the first time I’d been faced with such rhetoric. Yet I felt the pain behind her words.
“I regularly put in eighteen-hour days, seldom take weekends off, and started my business from my friend’s garage, where I also lived. I understand the hustle, and that I’m fortunate to have had my hard work pay off. Don’t make assumptions, Chloe.”
Her gaze hardened. “Like you’re not making assumptions about me right now.”
“What sort of assumptions do you assume I’m making?”
She laughed, and after a moment I joined in. I liked her. She didn’t retreat. Instead, she verbally jabbed right back.
“What’s so funny?” I asked at last.
“The word ass is flying around this conversation an awful lot.”
“Yes, and there was talk of spankings earlier. There seems to be a theme going on here.”
Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “I feel like you’re trying to trap me into saying something I shouldn’t.”
“Oh, and what’s that?”
She looked away as a car drove slowly through the hairpin. I could see the battle she waged inside of herself. I couldn’t tell which side lost or won when she turned back to face me.
“Never mind. We were talking about the assumptions I assume you’re making… Okay, we have to stop laughing or we’ll never get anywhere with this.”
She squared herself on both feet and looked up at me with defiance.
“I think you believe that because my dad died, I lacked discipline growing up. You think that my study of forensic psychology and quasi-obsession with serial killers makes me a head case who should probably be locked up and studied herself. That’s what I assume.”
I nodded and put the cigar in my mouth.
“Um, can I have one of those?”
I paused, then took another out and handed it to her. “Of course. I ASSumed you didn’t smoke.”
She chuckled as I snipped the end off for her. I struck a match, the acrid tang of sulfur filling the air as I lifted the fire to the end of the cigar. The blaze flared in her lovely gaze, mirroring the heat of my own desire.
“The truth is, I assume you’re intelligent, hardworking, perhaps a bit quirky, and endlessly patient.”
Chloe’s mouth opened, but no sound came out, just a curl of smoke. Her eyes shone with appreciation. “Um, well, thank you. If someone’s going to assume those things about you, then at least they’re nice. Why do you think I’m patient, though? I’m one of the least patient people in the universe. If the Wi-Fi is slow even for a second, I want to go all Incredible Hulk.”
I laughed and shurgged. “You put up with my daughter for two years. You MUST have the patience of a saint.”
Our laughter died quickly when Sylvia stepped onto the porch. She smelled the smoke and grimaced. “Eww, I don’t know what’s grosser, your cigar smoke or the fact you’re out here hitting on my best friend.”
“I’m only doing one of those things,” I lied, crushing out my cigar. I handed it to Chloe. “It was nice talking to you.”
She nodded. Our gazes lingered in silence as Sylvia led me away to the limo. The regret of having to end what had become a sublime moment of connection wounded both of us.
I tried to put Chloe out of my mind after that. I went to dinner with my daughter, then returned to my office in Manhattan. The markets never closed anymore, not really. Finance had become a twenty-four-hour-a-day gig.
Then there was the Crossfire Security business empire to attend to. My security systems had been installed in the Louvre, the Met, and the International Swiss Bank depot. The government relied on me to protect valuable data. My time was, in short, always in demand.
Yet my mind kept going back to Chloe. There was just something about her that drove me wild. I wanted to see her again, to stroke my hand through her dark hair, to feel those sensuous lips against my own.
I wanted to pin her down on the mattress and make her moan and squeal. Chloe lived rent-free in my mind, and there was no way to evict her.
While dining on leftover Thai from lunch, I got a call from my receptionist.
“Mr. Kendrick is here to see you, sir.”
“Send him in at once. And Selma, it’s after nine, everyone went home already. I’ll probably just catch a little nap here at the office tonight anyway, so no need to wait for me to go home.”
“I’ll get right on top of that, sir.”
I stood up from my glass and chrome desk and moved past a wall of monitors depicting the various world markets. Three sides of my office were glass, allowing me to look out on the magnificent nighttime Big Apple cityscape.
Kendrick strode into the office, his high-collared shirt and perfectly knotted tie making him seem more like a robot than a man. He always moved with a certain carefulness, as if he feared causing havoc with his mere presence.
Yet, he was one of my most reliable employees and had been with me for nearly a decade.
“Welcome back to New York, Kendrick. How was the flight?” I asked.
“I slept through most of it, thankfully. I learned something disturbing, sir.”
I instantly became alert. “Disturbing?”
“My underworld connections tell me that there’s been a big job floating around. Like enough money to retire on for just one job. A kidnapping job against one of the most powerful men in the world.”
I chuckled and shook my head. “You think someone is going to try and kidnap me?”
“No, sir. I think someone is going to try and kidnap Sylvia,” Kendrick explained.
My smile faded. I stroked my fingers over my mouth and turned away from him. “Good work, Kendrick. I wish you had better news, but it is what it is. Do what you can to find out who takes the job. Maybe we can get ahead of this.”
“I’m already on it, but I have to warn you, there might not be any getting ahead of this. You might want to pull your kid out of school and fly somewhere easier to defend, like your Cabo house.”
I whirled around to face the man standing behind me. “Are you kidding, Kendrick? We’d be cut off from any hope of assistance in Cabo. That place is a death trap. I expect better out of you.”
“Sorry, sir,” he said, bowing his head. “So, I take it you’ll be staying?”
“Oh, I’ll be staying all right, but nobody will lay a finger on my girl’s head.”
“Then I’ll go about finding the culprits. Good luck, sir.”
“And good luck to you, too, Kendrick, don’t get yourself killed,” I said with a sharp nod.
“I’ll do my best.”
I wasn’t about to let someone hurt my Sylvia. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the entire sorority would be in danger.
Yet, I couldn’t stand the idea of dragging my daughter out of school and going on the run. We’d be more vulnerable on the run, not less. I began to concoct a scheme in my head. A plan that would help me keep my daughter and her sorority house safe, while simultaneously exposing and perhaps capturing the culprits.
But first, I had to get everyone out of that house.
I picked up the phone and dialed Sylvia’s number.
“Hey, pumpkin. You know that nightclub on the Upper East Side you like so well? Why not take the sisters out tonight? My treat, of course. Just make sure everyone gets to go. The house should be empty, understand?”
It would be a cold day in hell before I’d let anyone hurt a soul in that sorority house.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone