The next day at seven forty-five a.m., my desk phone rang, and I answered.
“Mr. Quantum, Ms. Malone is here,” Caite’s voice came over the phone.
“Send her in.”
A few seconds later, there was a light knock on my office door. Caite ushered Delilah into the office before closing the door behind her.
“Good morning, Mr. Quantum.”
Delilah wore a fitted pencil skirt that hugged her round hips and fell just below her knees with a deep red V-neck blouse that accentuated the curves of her breasts. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail.
Gone was the girl I knew; before me was the confident, beautiful woman she’d grown into.
“Ms. Malone. Have a seat.”
As Delilah sat opposite me, the scent of peaches from her lotion or perfume filled the office. I slid a file across to her. She opened it and glanced at the pages.
“This is the contract outlining your responsibilities and compensation package. After reviewing, sign it. It’s straightforward.”
“Sure thing.”
I watched as Delilah read silently, her lips moving slightly as she did so. When she was finished, she removed a pen from her handbag and signed the documents. She then slid the file toward me. I handed her a copy of the agreement. Within the agreement was a clause restricting her from working on other contracts and mandating that she’d also have to work from the head office.
I stood up. “Let me show you to your office.”
I escorted her to the office next to mine, the plush dark grey carpet silencing our footsteps as we entered.
“This will be your office for the next month.”
It was a basic office.
On the desk sat a phone and computer, while a chair for Delilah was positioned behind it, with two visitor chairs on the other side. Two colorful abstract pieces of art decorated the cream-colored walls, and in the corner, a small coffee station stood beside a small fridge. The door closest to her desk led to the bathroom. Just like my office, this one had a stunning skyline view.
Delilah placed her belongings on the desk and then turned her attention to me.
“I’d like to start working on the themes. Do you have anything in mind?” she asked.
“Nothing in mind at the moment. Work on a variety of themes and then we’ll…”
Just then, there was a knock on the door, cutting me off.
“Come in,” I called out.
Caite stepped into the room. “Mr. Quantum, Ida is on line two. It’s urgent.”
The worried look on Caite’s face was noticeable, raising the hairs on the back of my neck. After Saturday night’s close call, I wasn’t looking forward to the conversation with Ida. She was an employee from one of my lounge branches, responsible for handing over the money received at the club over the weekend to an armored truck every Monday morning.
“I’ll be with her shortly,” I said, my voice firm.
Caite nodded and hurried out of the office.
I turned my attention back to Delilah. “I’ll check in on your progress in a few hours.”
I walked briskly out of the office without waiting for a reply. Once in my office, I sat behind my desk and pressed line two. I heard Ida sniffling, and an uneasy feeling washed over me.
“Ida, Mr. Quantum here.”
The sound of my voice drove Ida over the edge, and she sobbed uncontrollably. I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to keep my composure. Whatever the situation was, I needed answers. Ida’s crying wasn’t helping matters.
“Ida, pull yourself together. Tell me what happened,” I said firmly.
“M-Mr. Quantum. I think we were robbed.”
I stopped breathing.
“What do you mean you think we were robbed?”
Between sobs, she explained, “I went out this morning to the delivery loading dock to hand the bag of cash over to the truck like I do every Monday and collect the receipt. But this morning, when I got to the back of the truck, the doors burst open, and someone wearing a mask grabbed the money, and they sped off. Sir, I’m certain I saw two unconscious men at the back of the truck.”
The muscles in my jaw twitched as my grip tightened on the phone.
“Ida, have you contacted Mr. Jaxson about the incident?”
Mr. Jaxson was the owner of the private security company I had been using since I opened my first Lunaire Club ten years ago.
“No, sir, I wanted to inform you about the incident first.”
“Ida, how much money was stolen?”
“A little over two hundred thousand, sir. I have the exact amount written on the record.”
I slammed my fist on my desk and swore under my breath.
“Ida, hang up and call Mr. Jaxson and let him know the situation. I will also call him to follow up.”
“Yes, sir.”
As soon as Ida hung up, I received four similar calls with reports of the same type of incident. Not only from my clubs, but my bars and lounges as well. Close to a million dollars was stolen in the space of one hour.
The last call was from Freda.
“Sir, the man in the mask told me to tell you something.”
“What did he say, Freda?”
I held my breath as Freda’s voice shook. “He said…y-you should’ve paid the protection fee.”
After Freda’s call, I instructed Caite to call each person in charge of handing over the money to the trucks. No cash was to be released to anyone. I would personally retrieve it, accompanied by my security team. I also told her to warn them that the incident must not be leaked.
While Caite was doing that, I called Tony and ordered him to meet me at head office with ten of his best men, heavily armed, and to increase the security at every branch that currently had weekend cash on them.
Today was going to be a long ass day.
After six grueling hours of running from venue to venue and then to the bank, Vega had called about an update with Eso’s boys, the ones who came to my club demanding the protection fee.
Every single one of them was dead.
Slaughtered like animals.
Their bodies were found in an old warehouse piled inside a room. Vegas sent me a picture of the symbol found on the wall over the bodies, a seven-petal black lotus flower with an eye in the middle. One which I recognized, thanks to Dominic.
It belonged to the Black Lotus Syndicate.
This wasn’t random. This was a message. One I had to keep to myself. For now.
After getting off the phone with Vega, I called Mr. Jaxson. He confirmed that three of his trucks had been stolen. He assured me that any money stolen would be reimbursed through insurance. I informed him that I needed this to be discreet and he promised to settle everything quietly and off the books. He knew that if word got out that three of his trucks weren’t only stolen but were used to rob businesses, his own business would take a drastic hit. Keeping the incident between the two of us was the best way to move forward.
The last thing I needed was for Nathaniel, my brother, to get wind of this and report it to the others. He was two years older than me and three years younger than Dominic. He ran his own financial company and was the head accountant for all the family businesses.
By the time Tony finally dropped me back at head office it was just after three p.m.
Frustrated and exhausted, I walked through the lobby, and saw Delilah, clipboard in hand, laughing at something Daniel, one of my IT staff, had said.
I paused as my fists clenched involuntarily. I breathed deeply, straightened my posture, forced my hands to relax, and headed straight for them. The smile on Daniel’s face vanished and he stiffened when he saw me.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Quantum,” Daniel said, his voice strained, but I ignored him and focused on Delilah.
“Ms. Malone.” My voice was sharp. “I didn’t hire you to come into my company and flirt with my staff.” I watched as her face turned red. “Is this the efficiency you promised me yesterday? If the themes for the event are not on my desk in five minutes, you will be fired. ”
I strode to the elevators.
Bro, what the fuck was that about? I admonished myself as I stepped into the elevator, Delilah still frozen in place. As the elevator moved, my words echoed in my mind. Why the hell did I feel like this? Why the hell did I care if she was laughing at some dumb thing that Daniel said?
I stepped out of the elevator and went straight for my office. Two minutes later, there was a knock on my door.
“Come in.”
Delilah walked into the room with her clipboard pressed close to her chest.
“Mr. Quantum,” she said stiffly as she removed a few sheets of paper from the clipboard and handed them to me. They smelled like peaches…like her. “These are the décor themes I came up with.”
My eyes scanned the designs as she continued to speak. “I also went to the site and took a few pictures to get an idea of the layout. As you can see, some of the concepts have pictures with the backdrop of the club itself.”
Admittedly, her ideas were quite impressive. But her flirting with Daniel was unacceptable to me.
“I don’t like any of these. Start over and give me a new set by eight a.m.”
She opened her mouth to protest as I tossed the papers across the desk to her, but my cell phone rang. I put my finger up to silence her. It was Lucy. For her birthday, Dominic and Emily had decided to get her a cell phone, which was heavily monitored. Even though she’d call at the most random times, I always made sure to answer just in case it was an emergency.
I leaned back in my chair, my gaze on Delilah.
“Hey, princess, how are you?”
“I’m just calling to ask if you’ll be at dinner tonight,” Lucy said.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Can you please bring me some chocolates?” she begged. “My friends loved the last set you bought, and they asked if they could get some more.”
“Of course, I could get you chocolates, anything for you.” I smiled warmly.
Delilah twitched uncomfortably under my gaze.
“Thanks!” Lucy squealed excitedly. “See you tonight. Bye. I love you.”
“I love you too, Lucy, bye.”
I tucked the phone back in my pocket, Delilah’s expression unreadable.
“Like I said. Get me new designs by eight a.m.”
She nodded and exited the office.
Later that night, I was sitting in Dominic’s living room, sipping on bourbon with my brothers after dinner, trying to take the edge of today off. Mrs. Kensington, Dominic’s housekeeper, had already left for the night and Dominic and Emily were upstairs getting the girls ready for bed.
“Seb, how’s the planning coming along for the club’s opening? Found an event planner yet?” Nathaniel asked as he sipped his drink, looking over his black framed glasses.
“Yup, Delilah.” I glanced around the room at my brother. “You guys remember her, right? Dean’s younger sister?”
My brothers shared a look.
“Chubby girl with pigtails that followed the both of you wherever you went? We remember,” Leonardo chuckled, humor in his blue eyes.
The armchair he sat in looked almost too small for his hulk-like frame. At thirty-four, he held an impressive track record in criminal defense cases and also ran a successful law firm.
“We figured by now, that both of you would’ve been married with at least half a dozen children. There was no way she was following you guys because she loved her brother so much,” Vincent grinned mischievously.
Vincent was the face of Quantum Edge Technologies, the company founded by Dominic, which paved the way for the rest of us to thrive. With his dark, thick wavy hair, deep blue eyes, long lashes, slightly chiseled jawline and athletic build, Vincent was the playboy in the family, and the most handsome of the Quantum men. If we ever admitted that to his face, he’d never let us live it down. Despite his playboy personality, like Dominic, he often donated to orphanages and children’s hospitals.
“Remember that one time she followed them to Sarah Wittle’s thirteenth birthday party and caught him kissing Sarah in the basement?” Nathaniel said amused, interrupting my thoughts.
I shook my head at the embarrassing memory. “Yeah, the party was over before my lips dried. And I got grounded for a month with a warning from Dad to stay the hell away from Sarah.”
Sarah was the first of many females to come and go in my life, each scratching a desired itch. None of them left a mark deep enough to steer me towards commitment.
“But on a serious note, please, don’t treat Delilah like your last event planner. I’m sure after dealing with your controlling ways she had to get therapy,” Axel, the baby genius of the family, snickered. His company specializes in smart buildings with top-of-the-line automation and energy efficiency.
“Who hangs paper wedding bells and streamers at the grand opening of a lounge? She was tacky.” I lifted an eyebrow at Axel. “And weren’t you the one who recommended her?”
Axel smirked and shrugged.
“Yeah, after he fucked out the brains of her sister. I wouldn’t doubt it if he had promised to get her the gig mid-stroke.” Vincent put Axel in a playful headlock and tousled his hair before letting him go.
“Even though the girls and my wife are asleep doesn’t mean you can use those words in my house,” Dominic drawled as he entered the room. He poured himself a drink and sat next to Vincent.
“My bad bro.” Vincent smiled. “Seb was just telling us about the rekindling of his long-lost love.”
“Delilah’s back in town?” Dominic asked, lifting his brow in my direction.
The others hollered, and Leonardo grinned, “The fact that we didn’t need to mention a name says a lot, Seb.”
As they continued to tease me, my thoughts had already drifted from their conversation about the ponytailed girl they remembered to the captivating woman I’d see tomorrow in my office, and the hours couldn’t go by fast enough.