On His Orders (The Billionaire's Way 1)

The office door opens. A stunning redhead carries a black suitcase inside. She leaves as quickly as she enters. Mr. Peak opens the suitcase and looks inside. Then he walks over to me. He drops the suitcase onto my feet.

“Open it,” he orders.

At last. Mr. Peak has acknowledged my presence! I struggle to open the case. My trembling fingers will not allow me to properly follow my boss’s orders. After long seconds of crying and fumbling, I finally unlock the suitcase.

I open up the case and see a collection of one hundred dollar bills, gold and silver and diamonds. There must be fifty million dollars of wealth in this suitcase. “That’s yours. Payment for services rendered. You can walk out of that door and out of my life and never have to work another day for as long as you shall live,” Mr. Peak tells me.

This is it. This suitcase is the end to all of my troubles. This is the end to all of my worries. I could move to Hawaii. I could buy a little place on the beach and enjoy thousands of sunsets without fear of losing everything.

But what will I have in my life? A f**king suitcase full of stuff. Yes, the stuff would buy me a lifetime of leisure. But what about a lifetime of love, a lifetime of lust, a lifetime of learning, a lifetime of adventure? I would be married to this suitcase - till death or insolvency do us part.

I look at the large windows. Then I press my nose and look down 42 floors below. My life is nothing without Mr. Peak. I close the suitcase and begin slam it against the large window. “What are you doing?!” my boss yells.

I don’t answer. I struggle to lift up the suitcase. I slam it against the window again and again. “I don’t want to f**king live without you! I f**king don’t need this money! It means nothing to me!” I scream as I pound on the window with all of my might.

A small crack appears. I lean back and slam the window one more time. I hear an explosion of glass. Shards of the ten foot window rain down around me. I feel the cool Manhattan air against my face. The heavy suitcase makes me lean forward. Everything is a blur for a moment. When I regain my vision, I see the clear image of the Manhattan streets hundreds of feet below.

In that moment, I realize I am going to die. There is no fear in my body. There is only release and relief. You can not be part of something that doesn’t want you. Even with all the wealth you need, one can never function with that missing piece in your heart and in your soul. You can try to fill that missing piece with all the gold and homes and all the cars you can buy, but that hole will never be filled.

I watch the suitcase fly away from my hands. It opens, cash, gold and silver spill out into the air. Time stops. I can see the glistening reflection of the precious metals fire the light into my eyes. It blinds me.

As my body falls forward, I feel a sudden rush of pain. I feel an overwhelming power pull me up and back into the office. The fallen glass cuts my body. I am spun onto my back. My eyes focus. Mr. Peak is staring at me like a raging tiger.

“What the f**k is wrong with you!?” he yells as he slaps me across the face. He picks me up and throws me on the sofa. “I offer you all of that money and you throw it out of my f**king window! Are you insane?!”

Mr. Peak waits for me to answer. There is a sudden rush of adrenaline. Fear fires back through my veins. I open my mouth and tell Mr. Peak, “I’m sorry, Sir. My loyalty to you is more important than any amount of money.”

Several large men swing Mr. Peak’s doors open with their guns drawn. “Code Three Seven Seven Alpha,” Mr. Peak says calmly. The security team quickly put their firearms away. I guess that is Mr. Peak’s secret code for his security team indicating that everything is fine.

Some of the large men walk up to the broken window and look down. Mr. Peak calmly tells them, “Have the security detail go down there and recover my funds.” They rush out and leave Mr. Peak and myself alone once again.

Mr. Peak forces me to sit up straight. I look at him with tears in my eyes. “Well, I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is that I believe you are loyal to me. The bad news is that you owe me for a broken window and whatever money I lost down there on Columbus Circle. Since you don’t have any money to speak of, I’m going to take it out on your as**s.”

I smile. Mr. Peak does care about me.

“What the f**k are you smiling about?!” my boss yells.

I can’t stop. I’m giddy.

“You think this is f**king funny. You throw fifty million dollars out of my window. I’m going to give your three seconds to wipe that smile off of your face.”

I can’t stop grinning. He really does care about me.