ADRIAN'S POV
I got out. I stare wide-eyed at Veronica as she smiles at me with that evil and menacing smile I all too well remember. I fucking got out.
"You saved me." I say in disbelief. I feel like I'm in a dream. I'm not going to lie, Dante is a scary man and he's strong and calculating and I never thought I would ever be free from him. I never thought the day would come where I would be out in the world without Dante threatening to put a bullet through my skull. I mean if you really think about it, I did my part.
I gave him the meeting with Veronica and he said he was going to give me a head start anyways. I hope he considers this my head start, except now, he wont ever be able to find me because I'm with veronica now and she's taking me to the safest place that I could ever be taken to. She's going to hide me and no matter what Dante dos he'll never be able to find me.
He lost. I start laughing hysterically at the thought of how well this entire situation turned around for me.
"Now you owe me." Veronica says with a raise of her brow as she watches me laugh. She offers me a smile and places her hand on my leg.
"I have big plans for us Adrian." She says to me as I try to come down from the high of this escape. It's beans so long since I've been in such a nice car. It's been a while since I haven't been looking over my shoulders, just scared that Dante will change his mind and kill me anyways, but now I'm free.
"Tell me whatever you need and I'll give it to you. I owe you my life Veronica." I say and she smiles approvingly as she stares at me.
"I need your men. I know they're still around. They just didn't know where you were. I need then and I need your money. You're a powerful man Adrian. Dante caught you off guard once but we won't let it happen again. We can take revenge on them. We can make them pay Adrian. We can become so powerful. We can get anything we want." She speaks to me so calmly, her voice is mesmerizing as she tries to convince me of whatever she has planned in her head.
"We're going to take the bosses down." She says.
"What?" I ask her, dumbfounded and surprised by her guts and the confidence with which she speaks. "They'll never let you do that. The higher ups will never let a woman lead this branch of erotica all by herself."
"But I won't be all by myself will I. Adrian you're a good business man and before you disappeared, you were called the predator! Do you know why you were called that? Because even though you had never step food in erotica before, you still sent us a lot of girls. The prettiest girls and you invested so much money into erotica. They never trusted you enough to bring you to erotica but they were going to invite you eventually. They were just observing you still. But now, if you help me, we can eb so much mire Adrian. I need you to trust me on this."
I stare at her in contemplation as she talks. I am a business man, Veronica knows this. She knows that I do nothing for nothing. If I am to invest my time, my men and my money into something it is because I know that I will come out winning at the end. Her plan is good. It may even work, but we need to be careful and I cannot exactly say no to her seeing as she just saved my life.
She has me in a headlock right now and there is nothing I can do except give her what she wants.
"If we want to do this, we have to do it now. With the scandal I caused trying to save you, they'll be waiting for me back at erotica to get rid of me. We need to go prepared. We need to catch them off guard and for that I need your help. I need your guards. I already have some of the guards at erotica at my side. You're the only one lacking." She says persuasively and I nod my head slowly as she stares at me deep into the eyes.
"Okay. Okay." I say and she smiles, letting out a breath of relief as she stares at me with a triumphant look on her face. "Okay but what if the bigger bosses don't like this. What if they do something to us?"
"You don't know how erotica functions but I do. Why do you think I have the position I do even though my husband is dead and I am just a woman? It is because I proved my worth to the higher ups. I proved to them that I could handle training the girls and presenting my clients with what they need. That is how power functions in erotica. You prove your worth and they basically let you do what you want." She explains.
"Won't proving your word mean having to kill the four men you answer to?" I ask her with a raise of my brows. I don't particularly care about these men. I just want to know what Veronica will do to replace them. Obviously, there will need to be a new board.
"How are you going to replace them, Veronica?"
"They need four people at the board. You and I make two already. That is enough for them acknowledge us. That is enough for them to give us the position we deserve. All we need to do is kill those bastards. Those bastards that keep underestimating us. With the new power you will have, you will have the resources necessary to go after Dante. He got the FBI involved in this. We need to go after him and kill him." Veronica explains and she looks deadly. She looks like she's ready to kill.
"But we can't do that now. Nothing can upset auction day. Auction day has to be perfect. Everything has to go as planned. So, you need to call your guards right now. We need to assemble them before we get to erotica." She says and then hands a phone over to me.
I have the number of one of my lead guards and I know where they are. I always told my guards to immediately go to my hideout if anything unsuspected ever happened to me and I went missing. My guards are extremely loyal to me. I know they're waiting for a call and they're going to get it.
I take the phone gently from Veronica's hands and make the call. It rings for a while before he finally responds. He stays silent and waits for me to speak.
"Predator." I say the password that will make him certain that I am the one on the phone.
"Boss?" He replies immediately with excitement in his voice.
"I don't have time to explain. But I want you guys to meet me on route 39 in twenty minutes. Is that doable?" I ask. I haven't felt confident like this in a long time. Dante took that confidence away from me. He made me feels so small, so scared. He almost made me forget who I am. He made me forget that I am Adrian fucking Wellington. He made me forget the true power I hold but I swear to God, by the time I am done with him, he will know my name. I will make him say it. I will make him scream it and I will make him lick my feet. With this new power that Veronica promises me, I will be able to get revenge on him. I want to make him pay.
"How many of us do you need boss?" My guard asks me and I smirk as I glance over to Veronica.
"All of you." I say. "All the weapons. Bring everything." I say and hang up. All I have to do now is wait.