Seduced 3 (7 page)

Chapter 12

Nikki

“Mama.....” Stephen called me with his little lips. He looked damn cute. I picked him up and kissed him.

Stephen was playing in front of me. I’d just bought him a toy car and he was a happy with it.

“Yes, baby, do you want anything?” I whispered in his ears.

He nodded his head and I watched him in amusement. It’s a miracle how much happy you can get seeing your kid play. He was the sole reason I could be happy every day; otherwise, most of my nights were troubled because of Tristan. I thought I could get him out of my head. But still, even after three month since Gerome had come, I was still struggling with my feelings for him. Like he was imprinted on walls of my mind and I just couldn’t wash him away.

Why did you do it, Tristan? Why did you have to be like this?
He was the most honest man I’d ever found in my life and he’d betrayed me in one night. Some days, I thought I might be just wrong to think that about him. Maybe Trisha was there for some work and I took it wrong. But then I looked at Gerome, who was trying hard to get my attention. He acted like a jackass sometimes. He was a jack ass before he left for that MMA championship and I’d hated him more than I’d loved him in last few months of our time together, but now he was somehow changed. He was taking care of Stephen, he was acting nice with me and he was even looking after the business which I didn’t even try to take over after my dad’s death. But still, I couldn’t get myself to trust him again. Not after what he’d done to me earlier.

My thoughts were disturbed by a loud noise. I looked up. Gerome dropped a few files in front of me. The sound unbalanced me and I was shocked for a second. Even Stephen started crying.

“What the hell, Gerome? What’s the meaning of this?” My eyebrows furrowed.

“This means the trouble in your business.” His forehead was full of creases. He was doing something on his tablet and Stephen was crying loud. Everything was so irritating.

I picked Stephen up and gave him another toy so he could calm down. It worked, because I gave him his favorite toy.

“What happened?” I asked Gerome, as Stephen calmed down.

“Do you know your dad pulled up lots of bad credit on your so-called MMA business?”

“The one I have with me?”

“Yes, the one you are supposed to be looking at, dear.” He emphasized the word ‘you’.

“Why are you so pissed off? I didn’t tell you to look into the business for me. I have many people here who can do that for me.”

“Name a few.”

“Um...” He was right. I didn’t know anyone who could look after the business for me.

“You know squat, Nikki. Sucker.” He collapsed on the couch near me.

“So what? My dad has lots of money—and what about this bad credit thing?” I picked up a file, but I couldn’t understand a thing from it.

He gave me the tablet he was holding.

“What’s in it?”

“Our accounts. The red bar shows our spending, the blue bar shows our remaining credit and the green one is our earnings.”

“It looks good. Green is higher than red.” I couldn’t get what he meant.

“No, this was a year ago. Now slide to the right.”

I slid to the right. It had a new graph where the red and blue bars were much higher than the green bar.

“This is crazy. Where are we spending all this money? And why didn’t you tell me this last month?” I asked, furiously. I read the figure below the red bar—it was 4 and 5 zeros on it. “What the fuck? Why is it so high?”

“For the last two weeks, I’ve been trying to find out what’s going on with the business.”

“And?”

“It’s the bad credit, Nikki. Your dad took out lots of credit against this business.”

“But he always said this is the sustainable business.” I remembered, him talking with Chase one day about the future of his underground league fighting. He was very hopeful and looking forward for this business.

“He had access to money from other businesses.” He held his head in his palms. “Slide it again.”

I slid it, and now the Green bar was huge, the red bar and blue bar were smaller. “What’s this?”

“That’s our complete business forecast. See, the money is there which can save this business, but it’s not our money anymore. The MMA thing is just five percent of your dad’s empire, and still it has eleven percent of the bad credit. Sucker.”

“That’s bad.” I had no idea what to say. I didn’t know much about the business and how to run one, and I was thrown into the driver’s seat already. “There should be something we can do? Isn’t there?” The fear of losing Stephen was grasping me hard. I couldn’t let him slip away from me again.

“I don’t see any except a couple of things we can do. But I can see the roof falling down in the near future. There is nothing that can save us going bankrupt on this one.” He sounded very low.

“No, that’s not an option. They will take away Stephen from me. We need to do something.” My heart was beating faster and faster; my spine was aching at the possibility of losing Stephen again.

“First thing, you need to get on board. If you start showing up yourself, the banks will see your dad in you and they will give us more time to settle and perform better. They are very eager to close on the business after your dad died.”

“Okay, I can do that.” But that meant I’d need to look at myself again. In the last month, I hadn’t gone out, I didn’t work out and I must have put few pounds on myself. “And what’s the second?”

“We need to contract someone popular in the league, who can give our club the spotlight. He can bring a lot of money to us, Nikki. We just need to find one and get him with our club.” He relaxed back on the couch. “Just think how much money we could make if we get this thing right. Right now, we have very few players remaining with us and they’re not enough.

I saw a hint of lust in his eyes, but I ignored it. He was the only hope I had at that time. And I couldn’t lose Stephen again.

“And do you have anyone in mind?”

“No, not as of right now, but I’m already working on it. We will find someone very soon. But before that, you have to start attending board meetings.”

“Yes, I will start doing it next week.”

“Next week is too late, Nikki,” he said, frustration in his voice. “I think you have to start from this week.”

“Okay, I will do it,” I said, with lots of confidence.

Chapter 13

Nikki

“Is it working, Gerome? It’s already been six months since my dad died and we’re still struggling,” I asked in disappointment. Nothing was working with the business. Gerome and I tried hard, but all I’d gotten was disappointment. 

“A little. At least you are getting used to the board meetings and the dirt they throw on you.” He tried to smile, but working ten hours a day wasn’t helping any of us. It just brought out the evil in us. We were fighting about small things, quarreling like small kids because of the failing business.

I didn’t care about the situation of the business, or the money. The only thing I cared about was Stephen. I didn’t want to lose him at any cost. But Gerome seemed more concerned about the business.

“Don’t worry, Gerome. We have to fight this one and win this at any cost. I can’t let them take away my son.”

“I’m trying ,Nikki. At least we’ve got few more days to pay the debt because of you showing your ass at the board. I’m sure we can do some better things after that.”

The clock on the wall was ticking slowly, but its second hand was stuck on twelve. My life was moving ahead, but I was stuck like that second hand. My emotional life was stuck in between Gerome and Tristan. It had been two months since I last saw Tristan, but nothing had changed for me. I still loved him more than anything and I still hated him for his betrayal. The only thing clear in my head was to try to give one hundred percent to Gerome, the father of my son. But that wasn’t working, either. I was still stuck like that second hand of the clock.

“Are you even listening to me?” Gerome touched my shoulder and I jumped on the couch in shock. He’d caught me off guard.

“Yes...no. What were you saying?”

“Sucker. I was saying we need to fine some way out of this, and as soon as possible.”

“Yes, you’re right.” I was still looking at the hand of the clock.

***

"Hey, Nikki."

I was playing with Stephen when Gerome called me. "Yes?" That was the only comfort I had been getting in those days of tension.

"I've got good news."

"What good news? Are we bankrupt already?" Sarcasm was running through my veins these days.

"No, I found the man who can bring our company to profit again."

"The man? Who is he? An angel?"

"Nope, a devil, actually. His tagline is very interesting."

"What is it?" I stopped playing with Stephen.

"There are angels in this world, and then there is me."

Something about him intrigued me. Something about that tagline—I might have read it somewhere. "Who is he? And how he can help us?"

"His name is Maxim and he is the dark horse of the MMA world right now."

"I’ve never heard of him." I was pretty sure I’d never heard his name. Going in Dad's club frequently made me aware of the new things happening in the MMA world.

"He is new. Joined the MMA world two months ago."

"So he is a rookie," I said. I didn't like the idea of placing a rookie at the heart of our problem.

"That would be your mistake. He isn't a rookie, but a very skilled and brutal MMA fighter. In the last two months, he’s won sixteen matches in a row. And trust me, all of those with a knock-out. "

"That's a streak or something?"

"Even I couldn't win more than ten in row when I was playing."

"And do you think of yourself as a pro?" I giggled. Teasing Gerome was so much fun.

"Don't change the subject. What I'm saying here is that I got an appointment for this evening and I want you there. He wasn't ready at first, but then I begged his manager and she agreed."

"Why does he have a lady manager?"

"I don't know. Maybe you can ask him when we meet him. Now, please don't ask too many questions. If you want to save the company, you’d better be ready for the meeting at six sharp," he said, and walked out of my room.

"Okay, dokie." I muttered.

***

"Hello, Nikki." It was Gerome.

I'd just dropped Stephen at Carrie’s place and I was waiting for Gerome to pick me up.

"Where are you? We’re already running late."

"Hey, babe, sorry. I might be late because of traffic. Can you book a cab and get there? I need you to be there if I'm late. I don't want to ruin this opportunity at any cost. And I mean it, at any cost."

"Okay." I sighed. Dealing with a stranger wasn't always my strong point, but now it seemed that I’d have to deal with a total stranger.On my own.

I dropped my car at Carrie’s house and took a cab to the Hotel Atlanta. That was the most expensive hotel in New York. The name of that hotel sent a surge of memories through my mind. It was the same hotel where I took Tristan for lunch, and later we had amazing sex.
Where are you, Tristan? Why did you do this to me?

I reached the reception desk and asked for Maxim. The lady directed me to the most expensive suite of their hotel. I knew it because I had been here once with my dad, but it was five years ago.

"Please wait here. Maxim will come soon." A lady welcomed me as I opened the door of the suite.

"Thank you." I sat on the couch. The suite was well-decorated and I doubted anything placed there was cheaper than a few grand. Even the glasses placed on the table were expensive ones.
You seem to be a rich one, Maxim
.

From where I was sitting, I could see the corridor leading to the bedrooms and inside the kitchen. The suite had five bedrooms and two guest rooms. Somebody walked out of the bedroom. A lady, I guessed, by the tap of her high heels.

The corridor was a long one, so I could see the person walking out of the bedroom easily. A lady came out first; she looked familiar. Petit blond. Where had I seen her before. She looked exactly like Trisha. A shock pulsed through my spine. Trisha couldn't be here. That girl must be someone looking exactly like her.

I grabbed the glass of water placed in front of me and gulped it down.
What's happening with me? Where are you, Gerome?

That girl stood there, outside of one bedroom. Maybe she was waiting for Maxim to come out. And then he came outside. Short hair, deep black eyes, shaved chin and then that cut running from his left ear to his tattoo inside his shirt. My heart stopped; it was Tristan. Maxim was Tristan. He was wearing a rich, black suit. He smiled at Trisha. Yes, it couldn't be any one else.

He would be here any moment, and then what would I do? What would I say? Could I live watching him kissing Trisha in front of me? Could I live without him? I couldn't control my emotions. The whole world was going black and white in front of me. I would have rather died rather than facing Tristan here in that suit.

To Be Continued…………………………….

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