The Upward Ripple

“Yeah, there is just so much to be done in such a short amount of time but don’t worry, I am handling this.”

She nodded.

“Good to hear.”

“What about you? What will you be doing while I am away?” he asked.

“Well, you mentioned getting a penthouse so, I will be hitting the ground hard looking for one. Also, are you buying or leasing? That is kind of important for me to know,” she said, and he smiled at how cute she was.

“It doesn’t matter. Consider this, you have no spending budget. Just get me a nice place with a great livable space and an awesome view. Think, Harvey Specter’s office from Suits.”

She smiled and nodded. He took a step forward and slid an arm around her waist before he pulled her in for a hug. It was only going to be for a few hours, but he felt like he was going to be away from her for eternity. He pulled away and held her face in his hands.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked, and she nodded. “Well, remember you can call me any time. Day or night.” She nodded again and then leaned in to kiss her cheek.

It was a soft kiss. A soft kiss that lingered a little longer than it should have. He pulled away and practically had to fight himself not to kiss her lips.

“Alright. I am going to go now,” he said before walking away.

Walking away was harder than he thought. He kept on wanting to turn around and kiss her, but he had learned so much about her in such a short time and he just knew that having her in his house was already a small victory on its own.

“Have a good trip, Mr. Duncan,” Lola said when he stepped out of the house.

“Thanks Lola and don’t worry about looking for another job. I am going to be staying in New York for the foreseeable future so, you will still have a job with me,” he said to her, making her smile in gratitude.

“I highly appreciate it.”

“Take care of her for me,” he said in a soft voice as he climbed into the back seat of the town car.

Lola nodded and waved at him as the car drove off. He leaned back in his chair and sighed.

“Damn it, Nathaniel. You really have got it bad,” he thought.

                                                            *****

Being in Las Vegas brought back terrible memories for Nate. He would have done anything not to have to be there anymore. He was getting memory flashes that he just couldn’t piece together. First, it was back in the clubhouse after admitting to wanting out of the house and he was being strung up. Then his shirt was being torn from him. And then he was getting whipped over and over.

He was at the hospital and the doctors were discussing the possibility of him living through the ordeal or not.

He was at the motel living there, wondering if he was ever going to go back home and it was in the same motel, he found out that his father had passed away.

He was still deep in thought when his door was opened. They had already arrived at the hotel and he had not even realized it.

“Welcome to The Capital Grill, sir,” the valet said with a smile.

“Thank you.”

Nate made his way to the bar. He still had some time before his dinner meeting. He made a special arrangement with the bartender about serving him room temperature apple juice for the duration of his wait so that it would appear like he was drinking. He needed to keep his mind sharp for that meeting and he was not going to have a drink before making the deal.

He had just taken a sip of his juice when he thought he saw someone familiar. It was not the kind of familiarity that made you search your mind for how you knew the person. It was the complete opposite. He could have sworn he saw The Outlaws Nevada charter president Alexander Kaiser, popularly known as AK. His name might have sounded non-combative, but this was a man that Nate had seen take out a threat using a throwing knife. He then took the same knife, wiped it on the victim’s shirt before he went ahead and used it to cut up the venison he had been roasting. He might have thought he was seeing things, but the unmistakable engine of a twenty-year-old Harley proved that he was not imagining his worst nightmare having come to life and it was not just one bike. Suddenly, there was a roar of bike engines which proved exactly what he was afraid of. It was The Outlaws. That was how they always rode. The famous bike club formation: charter president rode first and then the vice president before the rest followed.

It was at that moment that he realized why he’d had that feeling deep inside. That nerve wrecking voice inside that had been screaming at him not to go to Las Vegas. He looked up and his heart skipped a beat when he saw his former charter president walking towards him. It was not the kind of heart skip that he felt any time he was with Cynthia. This was different. This was resentment and regret, contempt and thoughts of vengeance all at the same time.

“You know, Streak, I hardly recognized you,” he said when he got to where Nate was. “This whole new thing you are doing… the hair, the power suits… I think I liked you better with a leather jacket on your back and a powerful machine in between your legs.”

“Well, I still have the powerful machine, but I am afraid jeans, t-shirt and a leather jacket does not really carry the kind of power you need in a board room,” Nate said as he looked at him.

He could sense the discomfort in the restaurant. A five-star restaurant that boasted the big names in Wall Street and politics did not exactly expect a fleet of Harleys to block their parking lot or for members of the Outlaws to walk in. it was not just discomfort. It was also tension. The Outlaws had never hidden the fact that they were well armed, and Nate knew just how fast AK could pull that gun from its holster. After all, he had seen him use it more than once.