Eric Simonds, here with a Vengeance

Eric Simonds stomps into the room, his eyes flashing red in anger. The sleeves of his dress shirt are rolled all the way up, the material soaked through with sweat. Is that because he’s rushed over to confront me, or because he was already like that when he heard the news?

“That’s my girl you’re in bed with,” he growls, taking a menacing step towards me.

“Is that right? She’s free to sleep with whoever she wants,” I say, looking at Madison.

“Not if she’s going out with me, she’s not,” he says, taking another step closer. “She’s mine. Mine alone. You’re not going to steal her away from me too.”

“I haven’t stolen any of your girls,” I protest.

“You’re just asking for it now,” he says, rubbing his knuckles against one another.

“Whoa there, let’s not go crazy here,” I say, not liking that look in his eye. It’s one that I’ve seen very recently. “You want the world to find out the truth?”

“What? The truth about the red carpet a week ago?” Eric Simonds laughs, a low sound that sets my nerves on edge. “I’ll do it again. Nobody’s going to ever believe you.”

He raises his fists. There’s only a couple feet between us now. Morgan and Madison have both backed away to the far corners of the room, leaving me alone, naked, sitting on the edge of the bed. I stand up, not bothering to reach for my clothes.

“That’s not the truth I’m talking about,” I say, leaning to the side to avoid the first punch that Eric throws.

His fist flies through the air, his body following up close behind. He collides with me, but I’m ready for him this time, and I brush off his body check, sending him sprawling onto the bed.

“I was talking about a different kind of truth,” I say nonchalantly. “A truth about the kinds of things that are going on tonight.”

Eric whirls around to face me, a dark anger clouding his gaze.

“You don’t know anything about’s going on tonight.”

“I know enough,” I say. “I know how you like your girls.”

“Nobody will believe you,” he says slowly. He glances at Madison and Morgan. “Even if those two told you something, you’ve got no evidence. Now, I don’t want something bad to befall you tonight. Drop the matter, and I’ll leave you alone.”

“You’ve always been full of shit, Eric, and I have the proof to back it up,” I say. “Think back to the Playboy party last year. Now, I know there were a lot of girls in attendance that night, but you might recall a Latina girl, Lucia, hang on…”

I see fear flash across Eric’s face for a fraction of a second, before his actor-training kicks in, his face twisting into a sneer.

“Never heard of a girl like that,” he says.

I bend down and pick my phone off the ground, next to my pile of clothes. I flick it open and swipe through a couple files, and then flash a photo of Lucia. A recent one.

“You don’t remember this girl?” I ask. “I visited her apartment recently. Had a good talk with her. She had a lot to say. You want to take a listen to the interview?”

It’s a bluff, of course, because the interview contains nothing of substance.

“You’re lying,” Eric says. He stalks closer to me.

“You want to hear what she had to say about you in bed? Long strands of hair, wrapped around your cock,” I say slowly. “I learned a lot about you, that day.”

I instantly see the effect that my words have on Eric, the disbelief on his face transforming into fear and then reckless anger, and I know that I’ve got him.

He lunges at me. I duck his first punch, and then take the second as I throw my own. His hits my chest, mine connects with his face, and he stumbles backwards, blinking hard, gripping his his jaw in pain, but grunting in satisfaction. I’ve dropped my phone to the ground.

I hop on my feet, feeling energised.

“You want to take me? You’re going to have to do better than that weak shit,” I say.

He grunts and tries to bring his foot down on my phone, but I leap forwards, tackling him to the ground. We grapple there, but his hands can’t find a good grip on my naked skin. I, on the other hand, find purchase on the collar of his shirt, and I pull him into a ****. He wheezes, pulling at my arms, but my grip is strong. I vaguely hear the girls screaming in the background as I do so.

Eric struggles, lashing out, kicking at me, and I grunt in pain as he lands a knee onto my gut, forcing me to drop my grip. I roll over, avoiding the wild punch he throws in the air, and then I realise it was a distraction as he snatches my phone off the ground.

“Not going to have that evidence for much longer,” he says, trying to swipe through my files to locate the incriminating one.

“It’s all backed up,” I laugh. “Destroy that phone for all I care.”

He seems to take that to heart, chucking the phone at me. I juke to the side, hearing it crack against the wall behind me, and then we’re trading blows again, punch after punch landing. I’m in good shape though, lighter on my feet, and his fists can’t seem to land on their target. I manage to land another heavy strike to his face, and he’s bleeding from the nose now, his steps less confident.

“I’m going to kill you,” he growls, rushing towards me.

“You’re pathetic,” I say, letting him approach me.

This time, I fuck him up real good. He throws punch after punch into the spaces that my head had occupied a second ago, while I bob around him, laughing at his attempts to pull off those slick fight sequences that he must have practiced for his Hollywood stunts. This kid has clearly never been in a bar scrap before. I elbow him, kick him in the groin, and then while he’s doubled up, land a sucker punch, sending his head snapping back. I follow it up with another, and then another, and then another, unrelenting, his face rapidly becoming a swollen mess.

He sways on his feet, battered, bleeding through the lip, and then falls to his knees, clutching his face in pain. He’s defeated.

I kick his face again for good measure.

“Here’s what’s going to happen, Eric. You’re going to pick up your phone, and you’re going to call your daddy right now. You’re going to tell him to push the joint MGM-Lionsgate deal through for a billion dollars.”

He shivers, a sob escaping from him.

“What are you waiting for?” I say, dropping my voice low.

He pulls out his phone and begins to dial the number, missing the mark several times before he does so.

“Da.. dad…? Yea… it’s… it’s me, Eric… you need to… do the deal,” he says into the phone, his hand shaking by his head. “The one for… a billion dollars… yes… please…” There’s a silence on the other end.

Eric looks up at me, tears in his eyes, shaking his head. His face is a mass of red and purple, eyes bruised, a sharp tear in his skin where my knuckles hit hardest.

“He won’t do it,” he says.

“Tell your dad the things I know. He wouldn’t want that kind of evidence going public, would he?”

Eric gasps something into his phone, something unintelligible. It takes him a couple tries to get the story through. I meet eyes with Morgan and Madison in the meantime. They stare at me, naked, eyes wide. Madison looks turned on by what she’s seeing, her nipples hard, and I let out a low chuckle at that. Eric flinches at the noise, looking up at me sharply. I only give him my kindest, coldest smile at that.

“Dad says… he’ll do it…” Eric mumbles.

“Tell him that I want the contract signed by tomorrow morning, or the news goes public,” I say.

Eric repeats what I say into the phone. There’s a pause. And then Eric nods.

“It’ll be signed by us in an hour.”

“Very nice.”

Inwardly, I sigh a massive sigh of relief. The deal’s gone through. My reputation’s saved, but more importantly… so is Tiffany.

I walk over and pick up my phone from the ground. The screen is shattered. I curse under my breath. Contrary to what I said to Eric, I do need it. This phone holds both my identities, is the only way I have of contacting Erin, contains the AMA…

“You’re a sick bastard,” Eric spits at me, coughing harshly. He tries to wipe away his tears and comes away with a palm full of blood.

His pretty boy face turned meatloaf is only looking worse with each passing minute.

“That reminds me,” I say. “You need to make another phone call.”

“What now?” he asks, looking down at his phone with dread.

“I’m feeling kind. You’re going to call a doctor who can fix you up. You’ll be back out next week, looking just like you did before with that billion dollar face of yours. Maybe even better. See this phone number? Eric Simonds, I’d like you to give Dr. Kee Hyun-Min a call.”

Damn, 10k likes! Thanks to all of you who’ve helped me get here. And remember, 55 likes on this chapter before the next is posted to get a bonus chapter :)