After changing in his room, Augustus left Anita's villa. His weekend wasn't over yet, he decided to spend the rest of the day walking around the city. To see the local sights and just emotionally unload.
While he was gone, Anita would be perfectly safe. Unlike canon, a lot of work had been done on the Stark villa. August literally made Anita concerned about the safety of her home.
Real machine guns and surface-to-air missile launchers controlled by artificial intelligence were installed on the villa's grounds. With ordinary people such defences can easily cope and even be able to resist the supers.
August didn't go into the legality of installing such security measures on his property. Obviously, since Anita had installed such a thing in her home, she could get permission to do so. With her power and connections, it was quite possible to get permission to do so.
Once outside the Stark property and walking a little way, August hailed a taxi. Anita had only allowed him a ride in her car to and from the Ozborns' house. So a taxi was the only means of transport for him now.
The car arrived twenty minutes later and August drove to the city centre. Downtown was the most beautiful part of New York City. It was considered the business district of the city, all the big companies had their offices there.
After getting out of the taxi, the first thing August did was to go to the city park. The most beautiful place in the business district of New York. He wanted to see the local sights there.
Unfortunately, the man was not allowed to wander around the park in peace. Some girls were constantly clinging to him, sometimes alone, and sometimes in flocks. Their persistence amazed the mercenary.
Now he was without his equipment, dressed in ordinary jeans and an olimpiku. In the eyes of the girls clinging to him, he was just a handsome guy without a girlfriend. Single guys like him were a real target for attacks from the fairer sex.
In America, polygamy was officially allowed because of the severe gender bias towards the female half. Ordinary men had an average of five to seven wives each. When a man went out somewhere, he was always accompanied by one of his wives, and sometimes by all of them at once. Single men hardly ever met, and if they did, it meant that they still had no wives. To be the first wife was considered honourable, because in fact the first wife was the head of the family. The other wives dared not disobey the first wife.
The constant harassment made August think and look around. Besides him, there were other men in this park, but all of them were accompanied by some girl. They didn't bother with such couples.
After a bit of thinking, he decided to get a temporary girlfriend too. Waiting until another lonely girl approached him, he offered her terms of escort and money.
The young girl had been watching this man for a long time and saw how many girls approached him and he turned them all around. When she decided to approach him herself, she didn't hope for much, expecting the same rejection from him. What the white-haired man offered her caused the girl a stupor and a certain burst of happiness. She refused the money offered, of course, though she herself was having some financial problems at the moment. Taking money from a man was something shameful among girls, if anyone found out about it, she would definitely be laughed at.
Although she refused the money, the young girl was smart enough not to miss the opportunity. Agreeing to the offer, she approached the handsome man and put her arm around his waist, pressing her breasts against him. Looking at the other lonely girls in the park, waiting for the right moment, she smiled victoriously.
Things went much more smoothly with the temporary girl. August was much less intrusive and had a guide. The girl he had hired was a young student from a nearby prestigious university, and she knew the park and the neighbourhood well.
After walking through the park, August walked to the centre of the neighbourhood, accompanied by the hired girl. He wanted to eat, and with his eyes he found a decent-looking restaurant. He ordered a few dishes and asked the girl accompanying him if she wanted something to eat. The girl said no.
She didn't have much money with her and what August ordered already cost a decent amount of money. Of course she was going to pay for it at the restaurant, men never paid for themselves, leaving that concern to women.
Paying for a man in this world was considered a woman's duty and even a form of showing off her status.
In part, August understood how this world worked and so, in secret from the hired girl, he ordered her the same thing he had ordered for himself. Then discreetly across the table he held out a hundred dollar note to her.
"You will pay for me and for yourself, - the man said confidently, knocking the girl out of her thoughts. - Refusal is not accepted, otherwise our contract will be cancelled.
The girl could only obey. She looked at the man sitting in front of her in a completely new way. Now in her eyes he was no ordinary handsome man. Something in him was unusual and this something attracted the girl much more than his appearance.
Finished with their meal, the couple went outside. August in an orderly tone made the girl keep the change. The rest of their journey through the business district was uneventful. The mercenary wasn't going to buy anything for himself, he had clothes, he didn't need a car, and he didn't even think about a flat. The only thing he was interested in at the moment, apart from the system with its constant demands for money, was a weapon.
You can't just buy a normal weapon designed for combat vision in an ordinary American shop. You need permits, which take a decent amount of time to obtain. So, having had enough, August thought of turning the corner, but at the last moment he spotted a car showroom of premium sports cars.
He was not going to buy cars, but he was not forbidden to admire them. Especially his eye was caught by the main exhibit in the salon, a Bugatti Veyron in black and orange colouring. The cost of the car was astonishing, almost one and a half million dollars.
The car was very beautiful, a black streamlined oval body with underlining orange stakes underneath. The bright colouring underneath gave the car a prominent and one could say austere character. The power of this car was also amazing.
The car had an eight-litre "W16" engine with four turbines with an output of one thousand and one horsepower at six thousand revolutions per minute. The maximum speed of the car was over four hundred kilometres per hour. Acceleration to one hundred in two and a half seconds.The car stood behind a shop window to attract the attention of passers-by and to show the prestigious status of the motor show. Obviously it had been standing here for a long time, people with money buying such expensive cars just ordered them directly from the factory on special order. They didn't get them from a car dealership.
While August was standing on the street with his temporary girlfriend and looking at the showcase of the car showroom, a caravan of five black fully tinted cars drove past. Then the caravan stopped and, breaking the traffic rules, turned round and drove straight towards them. The mercenary suspected something and frowned, expecting possible trouble.
...
Fisk Construction Company's headquarters was in the heart of New York City's business district. She drove through the area every day, the places were boring to her eyes and she didn't pay much attention to the bright colours of the city. Just soullessly looking out the window, the girl noted for herself something new, putting it in her memory.
Driving past New York's finest car dealership, which had long since become part of her property, Fisk's eyes locked onto a distantly familiar male figure. Focusing her attention on the man, Vanessa's eyes paled.
She easily recognised the slender male figure as Augustus. There was some young girl hanging around next to him, holding his hand and pressing her body against his. According to the information Fisk had managed to get, Augustus was not yet married.
Vanessa thought she'd managed to bury her burgeoning feelings for the mercenary who'd saved her, but apparently she hadn't. The spinning girl beside him made the Kingpin really furious, which, however, did not show on her face.
The rage contained within a person was far more dangerous than the usual rage. Because of her ability to outwardly hold herself in check, Vanessa was known for her unpredictability and cruelty.
Leaning slightly, Fisk calmly told her guards to turn the cartage around and drive up to the car dealership. Five cars violating traffic rules calmly turned around on the road and ignoring the other cars, drove to the car showroom indicated by the lady.
The entire top police in the business district had long been bribed by Vanessa. It made no difference what offence she committed in downtown New York, she would not be prosecuted. As long as the case didn't involve murder, of course.
A row of cars stopped in front of the young couple, Kingpin sitting in the car through the tinted glass burning her gaze through the girl standing next to August.
The bodyguards in black suits left their cars and cordoned off the perimeter, Vanessa's door was opened by the chauffeur and the girl in a white business suit got out of the car. She headed towards Augustus, inwardly devoured by uncontrollable rage, but keeping a look of indifference on her face.
The bodyguards followed their mistress, pushing and shoving past the people walking by. They moved away in fear, not wanting to make trouble for themselves.
With large, firm steps, Fisk approached the couple. The latter had been watching Vanessa get out of the car for quite some time.
Without saying anything, Kingpin fixed a murderous stare on the girl standing next to August. Her body trembled uncontrollably, and she quickly left their company, finding a flimsy excuse. To be more precise, she didn't just leave them, but naturally fled, realising that perhaps her presence near August had enraged the white-haired woman.
"Why did you come here? - Vanessa asked gruffly. She tried to make her voice much softer, but she failed. So her question sounded more like an interrogation.
"It's none of your business," August frowned even more, not liking the girl's tone.
"Do you want to buy a car? - Fisk calmly "swallowed" the man's rudeness, surprised by it.
Seeing no point in answering the girl's questions, August was about to leave. He had already had time to look around the neighbourhood and there was nothing else to keep him here.
"Then it was foolish of me to ask for compensation for the ruined suit," Kingpin grabbed the arm of the man who had turned his back to her. - I want to thank you properly for saving me, and I want to give you this car as a gift.
With her free hand, Vanessa pointed at the Bugatti Veyron. When she was still passing by, she noticed that Augustus and the girl were looking at this car. Perhaps the mercenary liked this car, but couldn't afford to buy it.
For some reason, the thought of gifting this car to the white-haired man resonated warmly inside Fisk. She wanted to give August a gift and draw his attention to herself.
"I don't need any gifts, then I just acted on the situation without thinking about any reward, - the mercenary lied and didn't blush, pulling his hand towards himself, trying to unhook his hand from the girl's hand. Just getting free didn't work for the man and he suspected something.
"You must not refuse my gifts," Vanessa involuntarily began to squeeze August's hand. - Otherwise I might consider it an insult.
The mercenary felt the strength of the girl's grip, she was no ordinary person. In terms of brute strength, she even surpassed him, it made the man wonder. But looking at the white-haired woman's face, he couldn't think of any exemplary similar superheroes or villains with such powers.
It was better to just accept the gift and not confront this hollow woman. August didn't need any trouble right now, he'd already created enough in the Osborn household.
"If you want to thank me so much, it would be foolish to refuse," August smiled, trying to reduce the conflict to nothing.
The smile on the man's face made Vanessa's heart race, her breathing quicken and her cheeks even blush a little. She tried to quickly bring herself back to normal.
Continuing to hold the man's hand, Kingpin entered her car dealership and summoned her subordinate director. After talking to him for a bit, she got the paperwork for the car and the keys to it.
The girl handed the keys to Augustus and reluctantly let go of his hand. At the end she gave him her card and told him that she had a job in his field and that she was waiting for him at any time to discuss the terms.
The mercenary did not refuse the card and got into the car and immediately left the city centre.
Vanessa remained standing next to the car dealership, watching the departing car with her eyes. Bringing the hand she held to her face, she looked at it for a while.
"Madam, should we intercept him and bring him to you? - A female bodyguard standing nearby leaned in.
Without answering anything to the bodyguard, Kingpin continued to stare at her hand taking something inside herself. After a couple of minutes, she smiled intimidatingly, causing the bodyguard who had recently spoken to her to flinch.
"Capturing him now won't get me what I want. We need to proceed more gently.
Vanessa Fisk had made a decision for herself. Today's meeting had helped her to sort out her feelings. Now, she knew what she wanted and had already started making plans to get what she wanted. No matter what it takes, she'll get what she wants.
***
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