No one would ever take what was his.
And despite her arguments, he considered Stella his. The second she left his office, he had his best investigator find out everything there was to know about her. Had a man following her at all times. He wanted to know if there was another man he was going to have to challenge, have to be better than.
There wasn’t.
She worked a lot. More than he thought she would’ve, considering where she lived. And upon further research, he found out she was rather excellent at her job, had made a name for herself. Which impressed him since she came from humble beginnings.
In addition to working on average an eleven-hour day, Stella Rose Hudson had an exceptionally healthy social life. There was rarely a night when she was home before midnight. Whether she was at a party, at an event, a dinner or out consuming multiple cocktails with what he’d deduced was her core group of friends.
Zoe Sani, twenty-nine. Owner of her own very successful PR company. Known to be a hard worker and feared by most men in the industry. Jay had an acquaintance, Obi, who used to be in a relationship with the woman and had never quite recovered. The poor guy was still in love with her. The man in question had served three tours in Iraq before coming home to start his own business contracting out stuntmen to Hollywood. Hugely successful too. Obi was one of the biggest badasses Jay knew, which was saying something. Yet Zoe had somehow brought the man to his knees.
Wren Whitney was the daughter of two incredibly wealthy parents. She was an heiress to a considerable future, and was by all accounts, a party girl. She’d also graduated summa cum laude from Yale, spoke three languages fluently and had been involved in no less than four international incidents with high ranking diplomats, low ranking members of various royal families. She was currently connected to a very powerful state senator and controlled a lot of the L.A. social scene.
Yasmin Miller graduated Harvard Law and was taken on as an associate at one of the top firms in Los Angeles. Since then, she’d quickly made her way up to partner and charged four figures for a mere retainer. Despite how busy she was, she routinely volunteered at the public defender’s office and took on pro bono work. She was currently working a case that might put some of the most dangerous human traffickers in the world away, most likely putting herself in a considerable amount of danger.
Stella surrounded herself with strong, powerful, independent women. She was one in her own right, having made herself in to a highly paid stylist that had worked with the First Lady of the United States.
She liked the finer things in life, that was more than obvious. He liked those things too. Liked silk on a woman’s skin, shoes made in Italy, purses the same. He liked it even more when what she wore was bought and paid for by hard work. He planned on giving her more, of course, once she submitted to him. He expected she would eventually. Jay saw it, the hunger, the craving in her eyes for what he’d promised.
It was not in his practice to have women followed. To investigate them as the way he had Stella. It was entirely out of character, obsessive and dangerous. But he could not help himself. The more he found about her, the more he wanted her. The more attached he became to the idea of owning her.
When he found out what happened to her, what had almost happened to her, he was pissed. He was beyond pissed. He saw red. That same fury ran through his veins that had when Polly was taken.
Jay’s first instinct was to kill the man who’d dared touch what was his. The asshole who’d tarnished her skin before Jay himself had even touched it, tasted it. But Karson had talked him out of it. There were calls to make, favors to call in to make sure Stella would not have to make her statement tonight. To make sure the man responsible was going to get hauled in and given the bare minimum medical treatment before he was locked away.
Jay collected favors. Just another way he made sure he was the most powerful man in the room. He’d made it his business to know everything about everyone in this city. Made sure to get them out of binds, scandals and deadly situations whenever possible. He refused payments of any kind, keeping their appreciation as insurance and making sure he could call in markers at any time.
He hoarded those. The favors he was owed by powerful men and women. He loved the strength it gave him. Beyond that, it was useful, given the nature of some of his businesses. Kept him out of the eyes of government agencies tempted to look too closely. He could get away with breaking certain laws and crossing certain people as long as he made the right amount of money for the right amount of people while never getting caught.