2024-12-30 22:43:17The Grant household buzzed with noise and activity. Neighbors peeked from their windows and craned their necks from their gardens to know what the hell was going on.
It was a three-bedroom home in Maude Street. Tyler had carried out some renovation, but it still looked ordinary. However, judging by the fanfare, one would think it was the Pope’s birthday party. The commotion started when expensive luxury cars arrived in the lane. Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Porche, Audi—you name it. They parked at the intersection for some reason. Guests got off and walked to the Grant house. What was happening? Were the Grants some bigwig family? Then why did they live in such a humble household? Inside the Grant house, energies were high. Tracy rushed from one room to the other, ordering everyone around. She was in charge of the New Year’s Party. Her underlings were older than her, starting with the tall Britta Salvatore. Then there was her boyfriend, Derek Sentinel, the Captain of the Indigo Knights. Maya, the manager of Tyler’s automobile showroom, was the most hardworking. His representative in Peridot City, Wally, who handled the Bellagio Casino, was also part of the workforce. Barney from the insurance company acted as a mule as well. “Trace! Give yourself a break!” Tyler called out to his sister. “You got back on your feet only a few weeks back. You shouldn’t push yourself.” Tracy shot her brother a busybody look. “The New Year’s party will not host itself, Ty. I’m not a lazy bum like you. Now go and throw more wood into the fireplace. It’s freezing!” Tyler sighed and proceeded to do as commanded. The chakra needles procured from El Medalla worked fabulously. The young man healed his sister’s disabled legs without breaking a sweat. Now, he regretted it because she was like a runaway train. Naturally, the siblings had to put up a farce of visiting a top hospital and faking surgery. It was to convince Hugh and Ruth Grant that it was a medical miracle. The cunning brother and sister sent the Grant couple on an island holiday for a week. How else could such a majestic party go unnoticed? To prevent the neighbors from suspecting, strict instructions were given to guests to come in simple, non-branded clothes. They were to bring cheap wine and modest gifts. When questioned, the expensive luxury cars could be explained away by dubbing the gathering a party for chauffeurs. “Am I allowed inside?” Tyler’s thoughts were interrupted by a sweet, familiar voice. The young man’s heart skipped a beat, and he spun around. Outside the doorway stood Natalie Anderson. She wore a simple white dress and tied her hair into an unremarkable bun. Regardless, the young woman’s beauty was resplendent, and one could easily mistake her for a movie actress. “Please come in,” he said, pursing his lips. Tyler gave Natalie’s appearance a quick scan as she approached him. “I thought the only rule of the party was to exhibit no glamor.” “What! Does this look like glamor to you?! I bought this dress at a vendor’s shop! I did my hair myself instead of going to a luxury parlor! What else do you expect from me, Julius Caesar?!” Tyler shook his head and chuckled. “I’m kidding. Happy New Year’s Eve.” Natalie quit her exclamations and smiled at him warmly. “Same to you. I thought you had forgotten me.” The young man raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t I invite you to the party? I wouldn’t categorize that as amnesia.” She put her hands on her hips with an annoyed expression. “No, you didn’t invite me! Yara did! You’re so full of yourself!” Tyler scratched his head with a guilty grin. “Well… She’s my assistant… So…” Natalie stepped forward and looked at him straight. Their eyes connected for an extended moment. They struggled internally, having mental fencing combat, trying to read each other’s thoughts. Finally, Tyler gave up and looked away. The beauty wasn’t ready to give up. She was already determined to have her way. Natalie checked all directions to make sure nobody was watching. She went on her tiptoes, bringing her face close to his. Tyler turned his lips away so that the kiss landed on the cheek. Natalie stepped back, visibly hurt. “I’m sorry,” the young man apologized. “It’s… Umm…” The beauty pursed her lips bitterly. “You’ve been avoiding my calls for a month, and now you cringe at me?” Tyler stayed expressionless. “Well, I have been busy. I didn’t cringe—it was unexpected.” “Alright. So… You’re busy running the Salvatore empire? Now that you’re wealthier than all the billionaires of Sapphire City combined, you don’t have time for me?” “That, among other things. You know I have responsibilities beyond the material realm of the world.” Natalie sighed. “Fine. Can we talk privately?”
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362 Hollywood Break
Eleven floors above the street, Ivy Solaris sat alone at one end of a long glass table.She looked the way two hundred thousand dollars of preparation is supposed to look. The pale gold dress. The hair. The diamond studs LOVELIN had loaned her that morning.She sat with her back straight and her hands folded in her lap.The folder in front of her was open. She had already read it four times.Across the table sat three men.All three were in their fifties. All three were smiling at her, and none of them had stopped smiling since she walked in."That voice," said the one in the middle. "When you sang at the awards in March, my wife cried. Right there on the sofa."His name was Curtis Vance. He had produced eleven films that made money and two that made a fortune."That is very kind of her," Ivy said."And the training." The man on the left let his eyes go down her body and take their time coming back up. "Look at her. Six months ago she was a singer.""Stunt work, mostly. And I run.""It
361 Male Escort
The green room was on the second floor, and it was nicer than any room Tyler had ever slept in.There was a long table down one wall covered in food. Cold meats, three kinds of bread, fruit cut into shapes, little pastries lined up in rows on silver trays. There was a fridge full of glass bottles. There were fresh flowers in a vase, and nobody in the room to look at them.Along the opposite wall stood a rolling rack of clothes in plastic covers."Eat whatever you want," Raina Dustin said. "Do not touch the flowers, they are for the photographs."Tyler walked over to the table and started on the cold meat.Raina watched him eat for about ten seconds. He did not stack a plate and he did not fill his pockets, which surprised her slightly, because she had expected one or the other.Then she went to the rack and pulled a garment bag off it and unzipped it.Inside was a charcoal suit."This is yours for the day," she said. "It is a forty-four long, which I am guessing is close enough. There
360 Impostor
The noise of the street cut off the second the doors closed.The LOVELIN showroom was cold and white and quiet inside, all glass shelves and soft lighting, and it smelled expensive in a way Tyler could not put a name to. Somewhere above them a piano was playing through hidden speakers.Ivy walked fast.She did not take his arm and she did not slow down for him. She led him down a long service corridor behind the display floor, past two staff members who flattened themselves against the wall to get out of her way, and she kept four feet between them the whole time.Twice she glanced sideways at him.Both times it was the way a woman looks at a dog she has not made her mind up about.Tyler noticed. He was not offended. He was confused, and confusion was not something he had felt much of in six years."You are keeping your distance," he said.Ivy did not answer."I have been gone a long time and I know that changes people. But you used to follow me around that building like a duckling."
359 He Is With Me
Ivy Solaris did not move.She stood at the top of the steps with one hand still resting on the glass door, and she looked at the man on the sidewalk, and she did not say anything at all.Four hundred people were screaming her name. She did not hear a single one of them.Raina Dustin reached her in four quick steps and put herself directly between the girl and the street."Do not look at him, sweetheart." She was speaking loudly and clearly, and she was speaking for the three news cameras as much as for Ivy. "This man is disturbed. He has been claiming to be your brother for the last twenty minutes. He assaulted two members of staff and he refused money to leave. This is exactly why we have a security team."She took Ivy's shoulder. "Go back inside and let them do their job."The crowd agreed with her at once."She is right, Ivy. Go back in!""He is a lunatic. He burned three thousand dollars right here in the street.""Please, Miss Solaris. Do not go anywhere near that man."Ivy came
358 Lethal Force
Nothing happened.The taser screamed against his chest at full power. Blue light jumped and flickered across the leather of his jacket. The sound of it filled the whole street.And Tyler Grant stood there holding it in place, looking mildly bored, the way a man looks while he waits for a kettle to boil.He held it there for a count of five.Then he took it off his chest and switched it off, and the sudden silence was almost worse than the noise had been."See," he said. "Even at full charge, your toys are worthless."The crowd did not cheer. The crowd did not say anything at all.Four hundred people had just watched a man hold a lethal charge against his own heart for five seconds and then complain about the product quality.A young man near the barricade lowered his phone with a shaking hand."That is not possible," he said, to nobody. "That is not possible. That is not a thing that can happen."An older man beside him had gone the color of paper. "My cousin took one of those at a fo
357 Maximum
"Put that online right now. Are you filming? Tell me you are filming this.""He is insane. That man is genuinely insane."Behind the rope, Marcus Dolan stood with his empty hand still half extended, and his ears turned dark red.But it was Raina Dustin who had changed.She had not moved an inch. Her face had not moved either. But something behind her eyes had gone completely cold.Raina Dustin had grown up in two rooms above a laundry. She had put herself through school on borrowed money that took her nine years to pay back. And in eleven years of managing the most valuable young woman in Sapphire City, she had learned exactly one thing about people who burn money in public.They are not asking for anything. They are making a statement.This man was not a lost soul who needed a hot meal. He was a performer. He had chosen her client's showroom for his performance, and there were three news cameras thirty feet away recording every second of it.By tonight the headline would not say that
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