The Love Of Money - Episode 277
22-08-25 (10:49)
“Then can we get to the point? I’m not in the mood.”
“Amber Bell was most definitely in Alexandria, Virginia,”
he said.
“Huh?” The sudden change in subject required me a
moment to catch up. “Oh… wait… what?”
“The weekend that you were kidnapped, Amber Bell
was in Alexandria giving a presentation to some of
Brantwood’s shareholders of a company not affiliated
with you. I have hotel reservations. Her credit cards
were used at two restaurants and a coffee shop two
blocks from the convention center where' she
performed the presentation. Brantwood posted the
presentation online for members who weren’t present
for the live event. I’ve even acquired CCTV footage of
her pulling cash from an ATM near a hot dog stand that
didn’t accept credit cards. So much of her time and
activity is accounted for that there’s no possible way
Amber Bell could have been in Alexandria and still be in
Vegas during the times you and Miss Tanner specified.
Whoever you saw, it wasn’t Amber Bell.”
“Fake news,” I said.
“I’m afraid it isn’t.”
Turning to look at the funeral attendees in the distance,
I sighed in frustration, ran my fingers through my hair,
and glared back at Henry. I stared at him in silence for
several long moments. Then simply shouted, “FUCK!”
Neither of them reacted to my sudden outburst.
“I swear to god, that woman in the meeting was at
that fucking warehouse! Chloe!” I said, looking at her,
“You were there! You saw her!”
Chloe shook her head. “Too many bullets. By the time it
was over, she slipped away with the other man.”
She was talking about the man who wanted to kill me.
“Fuck!” I spat and kicked at the ground, launching a
small tuft of grass into the air.
“Now that I’ve delivered the bad news,” Psalter- said,
“Here’s the good news. I’m ninety percent certain that
Roger VanCamp was in Vegas the same weekend you
were kidnapped.”
“What?” I asked, looking up at him. The memory of my
would-be killer's voice was fuzzy in my mind. I’d taken
quite a few blows to the head, after all. Still… I kept
having the nagging sensation that his voice was
familiar, and Roger’s presence had been agitating me
since I got back. I’d just assumed it was because of
Helen, but…
Psalter- continued, “He never used any cash, and there’s
no record of him flying out there, but I couldn’t find any
record of his travel to the UAE, which is where' he
claimed to be. That doesn’t mean he didn’t go… it just
means that he flew privately and that the flight plan
was either scrubbed from the records or was falsified.
My contact with INTERPOL says there was no record of
passport usage either.”
“So, he was in the States,” I concluded.
“I don’t have any relationships in Vegas,” Psalter- said,
“But I used discretionary spending to acquire a phone
recording from a taxi company.”
He held up what looked like a phone, opened an audio
player app, and hit play. The three of us stood there in
silence as we listened to the recording of a man telling
someone to hold on before asking someone else where'
they wanted to go. A different, more faint voice
responded, but since I knew what I was looking for, I
identified it as Roger’s… or someone who sounded an
awful lot like him. Like every other time, hearing him
speak raised my hackles, and now that I had another
possible reason for that, it made so much more sense.
It also made much more sense why Helen backed off
after the party. She must have known her husband had
played a part in almost getting me killed, or at the very
least suspected it.
Nothing had changed, though. Amber had been there,
and Henry Psalter-’s proof didn’t do a damn thing to
convince me otherwise. However, there wasn’t
anything I could do about it at the moment. Without
any evidence of her crime or knowledge of who she
was, going after her would have been pointless at best
and deadly at worst.
Roger, though… he was a different story. I was fairly
certain I knew everything he was capable of—he had
some dirt on me and was using that to keep Helen in
check. He’d been using Ashlee as a distraction and to
keep tabs on me. He was jealous and petty but had
also demanded to be the one to kill me, which made
him dangerous and capable of things most people
weren’t. He was also influential, well-connected, and
knew the law.
He just had two problems—I had more money than
him, and his wife liked fucking me.
“Fuck Roger VanCamp,” I said.
“Marcus?” Chloe asked.
“What would you like to do, Mr. Upton?” Psalter- said.
“I think I need to have a talk with Karl Yunger and
William Price. If they want to continue our relationship,
then they should reconsider having a partner who’s
responsible for kidnapping and beating me.”
“I don’t think he engineered the kidnapping,” Chloe said.
“Doesn’t matter,” I snapped. “The guy pissed on me.”
“He has some powerful friends out there that we don’t
know about,” my bodyguard pointed out.
“He has Helen,” I countered. I turned my attention back
to Psalter- and said, “Henry, I want you on a full-time
retainer. I’m your only client now. Can you make that
happen?”
Henry removed his glasses and cleaned them with his
shirt as he considered. “I’m expensive,” he finally said.
“I can afford it.”
“I suppose you can,” he said as he finished his glasses
and replaced them on his face. “I have no
commitments I can’t bring to a sudden end if that’s
what you’d like. What are you thinking?”
“Not sure, yet,” I said. “I want to talk to Yunger and
Price first, but what are my options?”
“A man with your resources… your imagination is the
limit.”
“You mean I could make Roger disappear?” I asked.
“If that’s what you wanted,” Psalter- confirmed.
That would certainly solve a lot of problems. The man
couldn’t talk if no one could find him. That also meant
Ashlee would lose his protection, allowing me to finally
get whatever answers she held. Helen would be free.
God… it was all so neat and tidy.
“I should warn you,” Psalter- said. “If Amber has any
ties to the kidnapping that we haven’t unearthed, that
means she has some sort of arrangement with
VanCamp. If he goes missing, you’re the likely suspect.
Not only that but she is also connected to Kelly
Maddox.”
“Hiro Tanaka and Kelly have some kind of
understanding. Your relationship with Tanaka has
soured after everything that transpired on Monday. If
you engage in a battle with Bell and Maddox, it’s even
more reason for Tanaka to come after you.”
I considered that, remembering Chandler’s warnings
regarding Hiro. “What can you tell me about Tanaka?”
“He has ties to Big Energy and Big Pharma. He’s friends
with the Desai family. He’s influential with multiple
governments and has ties to several of the world’s
largest criminal organizations. Everything from the
Taliban and ACP to the Solntsevskaya Bratva and
Yamaguchi-gumi.”
“Jesus,” I said, unfamiliar with almost all those
organizations, but based on the context, I got the idea.
Hiro Tanaka’s influence was far-reaching in legal and
illegal networks, and all I had was a fat wallet, a
security force, and a retired spook. Maybe that was
enough. Perhaps I could buy off some of Hiro's more
unscrupulous associates.
“Indeed,” Psalter- confirmed, and then he hesitated.
“May I be frank, Marcus?”
“Please,” I said, noting that he’d used my first name.
“I’m happy to work for you full-time, but you must
realize this is a highly dangerous game. The people
you’re engaging with are the tip of a dark, dangerous
iceberg. You should know what you’re getting yourself
into before proceeding. You could simply wipe your
hands of everything, go into hiding, and spend the
remainder of your days on a remote island beach with
a bevy of beautiful women and the choicest foods.”
“On the other hand,” he continued, “If you pursue this
course of action, there is a very real possibility that you
and others around you will end up dead… or worse.”
“What’s worse than death?” I asked.
“The intrigue, carnage, and chaos you're considering
engaging in can tarnish the soul, Marcus. In pursuing
one’s enemies, it’s easy to lose sight of who you are. I
can think of little worse than becoming the very thing
you hate.”
He was right. I could just take my people and leave. I
couldn’t run out of money if I lived five lifetimes, let
alone one. Living on a beach or a mountain
somewhere', eating good food, and having orgies with
beautiful women for the rest of my life sounded
amazing… and it was a very real option.
“Just… stay by the phone,” I told Henry. “I’ll let you
know if I need anything.”
“Very well,” he said. “I stand ready to slip the dogs of
war.”
Wednesday, 12:30 pm
After leaving Psalter- behind, I needed a distraction, so I
chose the worst one possible. Trudging back toward the
dwindling group of funeral-goers, I read Natalie’s text
message for the fourth time. Then, the fifth, and the
more I read it, the more it bothered me.
Thanks to the board meeting, the fallout with Emily,
and Carla Tanaka, I didn’t have a chance to give Natalie
all that much thought in the last few days. The text she
sent this morning opened the floodgates of emotions I
still had for her, and a huge part of me wanted to just…
try with her. I didn’t know what that meant for me and
Danni, but that was a bridge I needed to cross when I
came to it. Natalie was leaving today. I had a deadline.
I told Jon to drive to the Dunbar building.
When Erin asked where' we were going, I redirected
the conversation by asking her to schedule a meeting
with Price and Yunger, making sure they left Roger off
the invite. Erin could tell I was in a mood because she
kept herself busy while I stared out the window and
stewed over Natalie leaving.
This is dumb. This is dumb. This is dumb. This is fucking
dumb…
I hesitated outside the door and checked my phone one
last time, looking through pictures of Danni. Fuck, she
was gorgeous, with her dark raven hair, pale skin,
green eyes… that fucking gorgeous, sweet smile…
I recalled all the times I’d been with Danni—dousing her
with champagne, taking her ass, participating in a six-
person orgy. Our first time together was with Helen
and Erin in the house I purchased a few hours later.
She was cool, sexy, slutty, classy, and a pure soul who
wanted to date me while letting me fuck other women.
She was literally the perfect girlfriend.
So, why the fuck was I standing outside Natalie’s office
door?
I didn’t have any guarantees with her that I did with
Danielle. I didn’t know how Natalie would feel about
me fucking other women; there was a chance she
might be okay with it, given how she knew about
Bobbi, but there were no hard guarantees. Sure, she
was gorgeous, with that caramel skin, generous mouth,
plush lips, dark eyes, and large breasts. We were great
together, and there was undoubtedly chemistry
between us.
But she’d found someone else.
“Fuck,” I breathed, glaring at the doorknob I held in my
hand. I had enough to worry about without making
trouble with Natalie and her boyfriend.
But I had to know, right? I had to try. For my own
fucking sanity.
I glanced back down at the picture of Danni that she’d
sent me on Monday. How would she feel knowing I
was on the verge of throwing a Hail Mary to try to
make something happen with Natalie? She was the
one girl Danni asked me to keep off limits.
Go home, invite Danni over, fuck her brains out—
possibly joined by Erin, and forget about Natalie. Or…
walk in there and ask her to stay with you. Just choose
something, Marcus.
The decision was taken from me when the door
opened, and Natalie stared at me, eyes wide in utter
shock.
“Marcus! What’re you doing here?”
With my decision paralysis no longer part of the
equation, I swallowed and said, “I was hoping to catch
you before you left. Can we talk for a few minutes?”
“Um… sure. I was just about to go grab some lunch. Do
you want to come with?”
I shook my head and said, “This will only take a few
minutes.”
She stepped aside, giving me the space to walk into
her office, and closed the door behind me. “Is
everything okay?”
I huffed, ran my fingers through my hair, and decided
to throw it all out there instead of trying to work up to
it. “No. Everything isn’t okay.”
All the trouble with Hiro, Roger, Maddox, the
kidnapping… I wanted to tell her about all of it… to tell
her what kind of stress I was under. She’d been a
wonderful friend and confidant for so long, and I felt
like I really could have used it right about now. That
could have been all this visit was about if that’s what I
chose, or I could confess that I still wanted her.
Then I looked back at her and wanted to kiss her all
over again. My decision was made for me.
“Don’t go.”
To Be Continued.... Don't forget to leave a Comment 
