Heirs To The City: The Quartet

Chapter One

Adrian Winters

New York wasn't a bright city. People came here to become something, they came here to make a name for themselves, to prove that they were worthy of the power, money, and influence success would bring them.

It was bullshit.

No one ever told them that the real money was to be made twenty years ago when real estate was growing, and once again during the recession of 2008. I'd had the benefit of being born to a family that had built a business from the ashes of what was before to have a tower in the center of Downtown Manhattan that looked over the city we'd conquered a quarter century prior. Our names were spoken of in circles that managed the world's economy, and yet it was me and my sister left.

We were the last of a dynasty that had never been questioned until it was thrown aside for morality, something I was more then in acceptance of. Weaponry and slaves was what had originally made the fortune of my family, now it was the global industry, there was so many streams of income that everything was paid for well in advance. 

That went for my friends too, four of us had been revered before our ascension to CEO's of our companies. A quartet of heirs that combined were worth five fourteenths of a trillion dollars. If all our money was in hundred dollar bills my friends and I would be looking at two point one million suitcases full of money. It was too much in my opinion, though I had my share of extravagance and I knew that at some point it would come back to haunt me, like every decision I had made in the last decade did.

I stood in one of New Yorks many high end clubs with lights and music pulsing through the room, while i thought about a particular brunette that I had come here to see.

Olivia went back to living with her mom to give the appearance that I wasn't massively successful, she was my shadow, one I'd never be too thankful for. I'd been careful to ensure I was seen only a few times and it wasn't clear that the building I was spotted leaving many times over the past year wasn't where I lived. I also drove around in a black Escalade ESV, which made me blend into the collection of vehicles that were all standardly priced at about a hundred grand.

Something I couldn't bring myself to admit was that celibacy wasn't my strongest state I had fucked myself over by going to a nightclub and sitting in the VIP section where favours were common. Beautiful women walked around in dresses too tight to their skin, and men dressed like they came here to only get laid wandered around leering at them. I probably stuck out by towering over most people and dressed in all black while my car sat curbside. That was also probably why the presence of a dark haired girl walking through the crowd in a panther toned knee length dress with her friends not to far behind caught my eye. Like she had all over again just three years ago.

She hadn't noticed me but her friends had, and a tawny haired woman walked to me. I wasn't overly attracted to redheads, at least non-artificial ones. This one would've been an exception had I not left the general area, choosing my promise of loyalty while publicly apart. It was no question. Barely even a fleeting thought, loyalty was a reaction I disciplined myself to never forget.

Turning around as the girl opened her mouth I slipped through the crowd and swiftly disappeared up the stairs past the bouncers and security detail I still kept around I walked over to my booth that had Nico sitting with his legs crossed and nursing the spritz in his hand.

"Adrian, that isn't a great way to distance yourself, having your girlfriend as your COO, while you make it seem like you both are nothing but work partners isn't going to end well publicly," he comments, "seems like an easy way to have a mistake happen," the drink rose to his lips and I pressed mine together tightly.

"Nico I don't want to hear about it," I dryly remark staring down at yet another guy that walked up to Olivia and talked to her.

I'm going to kill someone.