AKIRA/NADIA
Akira sat outside of Alturas, drinking a fine glass of wine, and enjoying a plate of beef crudo with quail eggs yolk while waiting for Nadia to arrive from her little group. Since taking her under his wing, he had quickly grown fond of her and began to think of her as one of his daughters instead of a pupil. Perhaps it was because both were kindred spirits They both have the same dark sense of humor, the same outlook on like, and thirst for retribution. He has been mentoring her in every aspect of his business and she was indeed a very quick learner. He glanced over at the Space Needle admiring the late August sky before he looked down at the four large manila envelopes on the table. "Konichiwa Akira." He heard her voice and he smiled when he saw her wearing the violet off the shoulder cut dress. Her hair was a messy bun, but she made it work. She kissed his cheek, sat in front of him, and crossed her legs.
Akira marveled at her radiance of self-confidence and strength, to think over two months ago she was a victim of a vicious gang rape. He would hear her screams echoing through the halls whenever she woke up in the middle of the night or would see the maids taking her bedsheets out of her condo daily. Even for a while, she was afraid to be touched, but now, she was a Mistress and with enough practice, she would be able to put a large sum of her trauma behind her.
They began talking about her studies. She admitted to him that at first, she was nervous when she started school, and secretly, he was terrified as well. Then she learned that Samuel had transferred to Austin Law and it placed her mind at ease. She knew she was not ready to see him. Not yet. She began telling him about her brother and how she had to tell him to stop hovering over her and he refused to listen. Akira couldn't help but chuckle. She may sound annoyed by it, but her expression betrayed her. She liked the fact her bother was protecting her. After a while, she ordered food and he informed her that although it has not been confirmed. His sources had informed him that Samuel Knight tried to commit suicide a couple of weeks ago. Leaving a note with only two words on it. 'I'm sorry.'
Nadia had mixed reactions when she heard the news. A large portion of her was very unsympathetic, it was disappointing that he was not able to finish the job, but there was that small, minuscule part of her. A part of her that felt sorry for him and that sickened her.
"So how was class?" he asked.
"Great," she replied, taking the glass of wine from his hand and drank it.
"You're just like your brother." He thought, filling up her glass and signaled the waiter for another one. "Well, first things first." He laughed while handing her one of the manila envelopes. "As you are well aware, I have just named you as my proxy for Ericson Technologies. In this envelope you would find a list of board members that could easily be swayed to vote Mr. Ericson out, however, Harry owns over fifty percent of his company shares. The only other person who holds a large number of shares in his company is sitting before you. The rest of the members owns a pathetic amount and are only on the board for visual purposes."
"So there's nothing we could do. I mean even if I convinced them to vote him out. He could just reinstate himself and then get rid of..." she stopped short "wait, all corporations are required by law to hold annual shareholder meetings, at which the shareholders will elect the corporation's directors, and isn't there a clause when it comes to public scandals?" She began to rummage through the files. "There is," a giant smile appeared that lit up face. "If the scandal is big enough, he could lose everything." she tightened her lip "We just have to start digging before the next shareholder meeting... Which is almost a year from now." Akira raised his glass before saying:
"Slow and steady wins the race." Nadia nodded and raised her glass as well, but noticed the other envelopes on the table, but before she could ask, he handed them to her.
"As you already know, I am thinking about going public in a couple of months." He sighed, "But I am still on the fence."
"Don't do it," Nadia spoke in a cold chilling tone. She took a long sip of wine before handing him back the manila envelope. "Currently, we are not subjugated to the SEC rules and although we cannot raise capital in the public markets, we have a long and respectable relationship with our banking institutions." She paused and looked at the wide smile on his face. "But you are already well aware of that. So why had you brought this up?"
Akira then handed her the third manila envelope. "I am going to offer stock ownership to both outside parties and a selected few. Nadia opened the envelope and gasped, inside was a stock certificate with her name in golden letters. She looked up at him in utter surprise. "I am giving you and my daughters ten percent each."
Nadia looked at his kind face and shook her head. "You know I cannot accept this Akira. This is too much and..."
"You can and you will." His face hardened and his voice became stern. "Think of it as a business strategy."
"A strategy?"
"Yes." He took a short sip of wine and let out a dark smile. "You see, as I mentioned before, I will be offering shares to outside parties and I have a lot of enemies who would love to try to buy me out of my own company or at very least buy themselves into the board room."
"So why are you doing this?"
"Because my dear Nadia," he sighed, "my enemies are vast and hidden, but placing my shares out on the open market I can see who is trying to buy the majority of them and by doing so, my enemies are made known to me."
Nadia then smiled at him. "That way you could crush them."
Akira's face lit up, "See you are catching on quite well, plus by filling my board room with people loyal to me, I can make their lives a living hell." He reached out and softly touched her hand, she briefly flinched, but grabbed his hand. "How's your survivor's meeting?"
"It's okay," she sighed "As you already know I go there early and help my sponsor set the chairs up and make the coffee. Sometimes I would go and get the crappy donuts from the supermarket. Other times I would..." she stopped short and watched the smile forming on his face. "What?"
"Nothing." He giggled, "So tell me about this man."
Nadia blushed "His name is Raul Ortiz." She sighed, "he's nice, very open about himself, nine years ago he lost his wife and unborn child to a drive-by shooting. He helps me a lot. He's very blunt, rude, but he's funny and caring and he's kind of cute, but he's also chunky and bald."
"How old is he?"
"Twenty-eight." She laughed, "What's with the interrogation?"
Akira let out a loud belly laugh, "Nothing you just appeared to be a bit smitten that's all. Which is great considering what you have to do for your next step."
His comment caused Nadia to frown. She did found Raul to be a little attractive, but she knew she was nowhere ready for a relationship, plus he's eight years older than her. However, she was confused by his comment and she swallowed hard. "I thought we covered all of the steps needed." she nervously laughed.
Akira looked at her, pressing his lips together. "You did indeed perform all of my tasks needed and you've done them quite well... extremely well, you embraced it in a way I never thought possible; but they were all steps to reclaim what was taken from you. Your power, confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth. But there are still two more step needed and I will not force you to do it anytime soon, but eventually, you will have to do it, either it is a few months or a few years from now. It has to be done. However, given the circumstances and what we need to do, it has to be sooner than later."
Nadia looked directly into his eyes and began to shiver; her breathing increased and was on the verge of hyperventilating when she heard him finally say it. "You still need to reclaim your body and sexuality."
SAMUEL
Samuel sat within his father's Bentley, looking at the small rickety two-toned Cape Cod beside him. The house was located within a part of Austin he had never stepped foot in before. The streets were riddled with trash, broken bottles, and more meth heads than he cared to see. He looked back at his phone, confirming the address that the night nurse had given him. She felt sorry for him that his mother practically had him convinced that he dreamt of seeing Kelly. So she told him that Kelly was a nurse at the hospital, but after arguing with his mother. She had her promptly removed.
Kelly Dawson's mother used to be their maid for many years. Kelly used to be always around the house for as far back as he could remember, they practically live there. His mother was very kind to the Dawson's and even convince his father to pay for Kelly and her sister to go to the same private school as him. Kelly was down to earth and the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. As they have gotten older, their awkward friendship blossomed into love and although his mother was completely against it, Samuel did not care. Kelly was his first for everything and for a very long time he thought she was going to be his wife.
Then one day there was a new maid in the house and Kelly was nowhere to be found. His mother told him that she fired Kelly's mother because she was discovered to be a thief. Something that he found difficult to swallow. He drove to the trailer park where she lived and they were just gone. He tried to find her on social media, but all of her accounts were deleted, it was like she vanished off the face of the earth. He knew that his mother always hated Kelly. "The elite stays with the elite." She would always tell him whenever she saw them together and it would drive him insane that she did that. He looked at the meth heads eyeing his vehicle and felt frightened, he was barely out of the hospital for a day and he did the most irresponsible thing by coming to see her. However, he wanted to know why she sat by him. Why she didn't call the police? He watched the front door open and he saw her leaving her house, she was beautiful as always.
Her hair was the color of gold with natural butterscotch highlights that brought out the burgundy and bronze flecks within her green eyes. As they cascaded down to her curvy, smooth lips and he still wondered if they were still as soft as silk. Her eyes flickered in the sunset, her lush long lashes made her appear like a human doll and her body was still the same as it was back then. Tight and firm with high perky breasts and a firm round ass. However, when she noticed his car, she was not happy to see him. She appeared to be rather upset.
He lowered the window as she approached him. "Look, Sammy, I don't know how you got my address, but I don't want any problems," she sighed, "I already lost my job and I can't deal with any more stress right now." She turned around, but he quickly jumped out of his car and rushed beside her.
"Please, Kelly." He quickly spoke, "I don't know what is going on, but can we please talk?"
"About what?" she snapped "and don't piss on my back and tell me it's raining." He wanted to ask her about not turning him in, but his mind was flooded with other questions that he needed to know. Samuel took a step back and lowered his head.
"I'm sorry. Look, I can understand if you want to stay away from me after what I told you, but I just wanted to know what happened. I want to know why you just disappeared back then. When you left, I tried looking for you everywhere, and it was like you vanished."
"You don't know?" she hissed, raising an eyebrow, and she saw it on his face. He was clueless. She looked at his car and then back at him. "Park the car in my garage and then we could talk." She sighed. Samuel saw she was bitter, angry, annoyed and for some reason, it was all aimed towards him, and truthfully, he knew it was well deserved. She was different than the woman who saw him in the hospital days prior. She was stronger and when she snapped her fingers to hurry him up, she was still impatient.
When he entered the house, he was caught by surprise at how immaculate it looked. The inside of the house appeared to reflect a completely different in comparison to the outside, almost as if she was purposely making the exterior appear as poor and decrepit while the interior reflects the opposite. Comfortable, yet expensive tan leather couches, colorful oriental rugs over the bare hardwood floor, a crystal chandelier hanging over a hand-carved Brazilian oak dining table, and a large display case with numerous pictures of happy memories with friends and family.
He leaned in closer to the image of her and a little girl who appeared to be no older than two years old and was practically her tiny twin. Same smile, nose, and eyes, but her hair were a bit different, more of a light brown. "Her name is Hope," Kelly spoke, tucking her hair behind her ears. Her demeanor had slightly changed towards him. A bit more distant, reserved and that hurt him a bit. "What kind of Coke you want?"
"I'm not thirsty." He sighed "is the father around?" Kelly scrunched her lips.
"Yeah, he's around." Her answer crushed him, but he smiled at her.
"Tell me about her." She raised an eyebrow and a curious smile appeared.
"Really?" and he just nodded. They spent the next hour and a half talking about her daughter, her likes and dislikes. Her accomplishments and her fears and Sammy sat there listening to her talk with this glow and he wondered why he felt good, why the feeling of despair in his chest was nonexistent in her presence. "She is spending the day with my sister." She nervously spoke, her demeanor changed and she was being a bit flirtatious. Biting the corner of her bottom lip, inching herself closer. "they should be here in an hour or two."
"How is Dawn?" he asked while taking the picture from the coffee table looking at an image of an obese brunet with thick plastic glasses and a smile that can last for days.
"She's different than what you remember." Kelly sighed, taking the picture away from his hands. "She mostly keeps to herself because she always tries to find Mr. Right in the wrong kind of men. We went turkey hunting and her latest loser was being a complete ass, calling her names, disrespecting her right in front of my face, so I accidentally peppered him in the back... twice." Samuel let out a loud laugh and when he realized how good he felt, he quickly bottled it up. Kelly stopped short and looked at him. "are you okay?" There was a shameful expression on his face, he looked at her with his tortured eyes and forced out a fake smile.
"You have a great life." He stood up, "I'm sorry to bother you, I'll be leaving." He nodded a few times and swallowed hard. "I'm going to make sure you get your job back and thank you for this. Thank you for being nice to me."
"Why you're leaving?" her voice cracked, he took her hands and stared into her eyes.
"I don't deserve to feel good," he choaked, "I don't deserve your kindness, and being around you, I feel great and because of this, I have to go. Truthfully I came here to ask you why you never reported me for what I told you... and I still don't know why I haven't turned myself in." he nodded over and over, his eyes trapped in deep thought. "I'm happy you have a child, she sounds like a great kid and I'm sure her father is a good guy. I mean he has you right?
She did not know why she did it. Maybe it was seeing how vulnerable he was or perhaps it was just being near him again, but she kissed him, and even though he hesitated and flinched. He kissed her back. She shoved him against the sofa. "Oh, it's been so long." She thought as she shoved him down and forcefully removed his pants, shocking him with her aggressiveness. She had a very pleasant smile on her face as she forcefully held him down and straddled him. The tightness of her insides caused him to inadvertently moan loudly as she began moving her hips like a wild untamed animal.
They kissed as she pulled his hair and she quickly came, he followed her soon after, holding her tightly and grunted. She sat on top of him for another five minutes, kissing him, feeling his seed drip out of her, and began moving her hips again. "I haven't had sex since I found out I was pregnant." She laughed "I never thought it would be with you again."
Samuel looked at her strangely "What are you talking about?"
"Sammy, you were the only man I have ever been with." She snapped looking at him as he slowly began realizing what she was trying to say. Kelly placed her hand on his chin. "I'm sorry for never telling you."
MIKO/TETSUO
Miko had been pacing back and forth for nearly twenty minutes within her condo. She could not believe that he was in town. She thought since she has not responded to any of his messages that he would just give up, but she never expected him to fly halfway around the world just to see her. He even came to the building and waited six hours in the lobby. He wanted to know what he did wrong and refused to leave until they spoke.
Juno convinced her to talk to him and when she did, she realized just how much she missed him. She briefly hated herself, when he told her that her father didn't matter and he never had to meet him and she felt so guilty about sleeping with Enzio. To make it up to him she decided to wear her old school uniform. A basic blue blazer with a matching pleated skirt, a white blouse with a red bow, and black knee-high socks with matching flats. She had her hair just how he liked it, loose and comb with straight bangs.
She tried to remember if she informed security of his arrival when she heard the knock. She rushed towards the door, checked her breath, and opened it. Her eyes seemed to shine at the sight of him and were surprised just how much she missed him. The first time they have gotten together, he confessed his feelings to her when she graduated High School and he was just her junior, her response was a kiss and she took him to a love hotel where she gave him her virginity, and ever since then whenever they would get together, he would always try to make each moment as special as the first time.
She held her breath when she saw his elegant, narrow face and smiled when she noticed that he had blonde tips on his spiked brown hair. His eyes resemble the finest dark chocolate, his shirt clung to his muscular torso, and his movement as he walked in was like a force of nature, captivating her.
"Hello, Sahana-sempai," He said, handing her a small gift-wrapped box.
"Please call me M-M-Miko, T-Tetsuo." She stuttered, feeling her heart skip as he smiled and kissed her cheek. "I missed you."
"I missed you too, Miko." He embraced her, he felt his heart beating a mile a minute and then he began reminding himself why he was there. "I missed you so very much." He approached the large window and took in the grand view overlooking downtown Seattle. His eyes focused on the space needle and it gave him a vague reminder of Tokyo tower. She wrapped her arms behind him and rested her head on his strong back.
"I never expected you to come to America." She squeaked, he placed his hands over hers. Looking at her transparent reflection through the window. She buried her head into his back "I'm am sorry that I stopped talking to you Tetsuo, I thought you were only interested in me because of my father."
Tetsuo knew she was partially right, but seeing her in that uniform caused his heart to race. "I wasn't - you know that right?" he lied as she lowered her hands towards his crotch
"How about I make it up to you?" He took her hand and turned around, looking into her doll-like eyes and noticing she left her laptop open on the coffee table.
"how about you change and I'll take you out to dinner."
"Really?!" she gasped and he nodded, promptly causing her to run into the bedroom. As soon as he heard the door closed, Tetsuo rushed to her laptop and rummaged through her folders, he noticed one entitled 'junk'. In it contained the information he desired, the exact time for when Akira was planning to sell the stocks of his company, and the price. It gave him the edge he needed to purchase all of the shares before anyone else. He smiled, inserting the USB, and began to copy the information, his eyes then adverted to a pink folder with animated hearts around it. He moved the pointer over it and clicked on it.
Inside were random pictures of her with Akira and Juno. Several pictures of a woman he has never seen before and a few of a man with lots of hearts around him. Tetsuo clicked on the picture, the man was tall, medium built, but muscular. He has sandy brown skin and short chocolate brown wavy hair. He had one of his hands around Miko and she was holding him as well. They appear quite comfortable with one another, almost intimate. "No, I am the only man she has ever been with.... Why am I getting jealous? Keep your head focus." He switched to the next picture and they were staring at one another in a way that only lovers could, the one after that was the man and the strange woman standing again, they are side by side with Akira and Miko smiling but it was the way she was looking at him and he grits his teeth. "She cheated on me?! With a Yankee!" He looked over towards the room and wanted to rush inside and demand to know who this man was? But he took a deep breath "Remember the plan, keep your focus." She's just a tool." He then clicked on the picture and quickly copied it on the USB.