Fortunate side-effect? Kind of.

Of course, having waited until they closed shop, we took the chance to drive Fernanda to her house. At this point it was mostly for my own peace of mind than hers, since she seemed to have gotten over the ordeal already. Maybe I’m the one making too big a deal of it, or so I thought until I got a call from Luke of all people after we dropped Fernanda off at her house.

I answered and put him on speaker.

“Oliver?” he said.

“Hey there. Sorry, I’m driving so I have you on speaker. Is that okay? The girls are here with me.”

“That’s perfectly fine. How’s the house doing? Any issues?” he asked. He sounded kind of happy.

“None so far, no,” I said. “It’s taking us a while to get used to it, though.”

“Yes, that happens. I always feel weird whenever we go to our house in Korea.” Of course he has a house in Korea.

“So? What can I help you with?” I asked.

“Ah, right. Firs of all, I wanted to check that you were all okay, since I’m currently in Spain and we won’t see each other tomorrow at work.”

“Hm? We’re… doing fine, why do you ask?”

“That’s good to hear. If so, then I feel a lot better. The thing is I also wanted to thank you.”

“Ah? What for?”

“I heard the news. You got Joseph Milán arrested, didn’t you?”

I looked at Noelle beside me with a raised eyebrow, and she looked at me matching my confusion. None of the girls in the back knew the name, either, but since we really only got one man arrested that day…

“Joseph Milán? Was that his name? Also, how did you hear about that?”

Luke sighed heavily. “He’s kind of a troublesome competitor of mine, but more importantly he’s the son of a troublesome competitor of James Morgan, the man I introduced you to some time ago at the bar. Remember him?”

Ah, the rude old man who somehow ended up taking a liking to me. “Yeah, I remember him.”

“Well, Joseph getting arrested helps Mr. Morgan and I a fair bit, even if the kid won’t end up in prison. The news of him sexually harassing a young woman and assaulting a young man are going to hit their reputation a bit, and we can use that to get an edge on a couple of deals.”

I sighed. “You do know I had no knowledge of any of this before you told me, right? We just stepped up to protect Fernanda.”

“Of course. It just happened to help us out. If it helps you feel any better, you stopped someone who loves to use his money to do this kind of stuff and hide it all from the public eye.”

Yeah, I could sort of tell. “Again, how do you know this?”

“The hotel is not the only business I run in your city, you know? The manager of a shop nearby noticed and sent me a text. Didn’t take long to confirm it.”

“I see…” Yeah, I just can’t picture the levels on which Luke and his peers operate. “Well, I’m glad shutting that guy up helped you.”

“Yes. And on that note, I thought I should let you know that… Mm… No, never mind. It’s nothing.”

The girls all groaned, and so did I. “Come on, don’t do that. You already started. Out with it.”

“...” Luke sighed. “Like I said, Joseph Milán will likely not end up in prison. Money can buy freedom, sadly. The bigger issue is that he is a very petty man.”

I scowled. “You’re saying he’ll try to get back at me?”

“Perhaps. It’s possible. I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want to worry you. Just forget about it. Mr. Morgan and I will make sure you and yours aren’t troubled. Knowingly or not you did us a favor, we’ll return it in kind.”

Again, I just can’t picture the level on which these people operate. How was this Joseph guy going to get back at me? How were Luke and Mr. Morgan going to stop him from doing it? It was easy to tell me to ‘forget about it’ and I wish I could, but I was going to be looking over my shoulder for a while now.

“I’m serious, Oliver,” Luke repeated. “Don’t worry about it. Nothing will happen. I swear on my own family.”

“...” I sighed. “I can see why you didn’t want to say anything. But okay, I’m trusting you on this.”

“And I do not take that trust lightly, I assure you.”

“Thank you.”

“Please, don’t mention it. Well, I leave you all to your well-deserved family time.”

“Drop by the house when you’re here again,” I told him. “We’ll see if I can make a decent drink by then.”

“Thank you. I’ll take you up on that. Until then.”

“Take care.”

We both hung up, and the girls all suddenly let out a sigh as if they’d been holding their breath.

“Sorry, I still don’t understand how you can talk so casually with Luke Allen of all people,” Noelle said.

“Yeah, it’s like being friends with Elton Mudd,” Mila said.

“Luke seems more well adjusted, though,” Alice said, with a faint giggle.

“Yeah, it’s weird,” I said. “But… I guess we relate to each other in ways we can’t relate to anyone else.”

“You mean… about the spirit thing?”

I nodded. “It affects you in ways that are impossible to explain to others. It shifts your world view, changes your priorities… You’ve seen it in me at times. When I seem to lose myself in lust… It’s not normal, and it’s fun when I can just let it all out, but a lot of the time I have to keep myself in check. It’s the same for Luke. Getting what he wants gives him a similar euphoria to what I feel when having sex, and he has to restrain himself to not… destroy everything around him because of it.”

“...” The girls went quiet for a moment.

“I guess I don’t often stop to consider how dangerous powers like yours could be in different hands,” Grace said.

“Or how said powers could corrupt or control someone,” Sarah said, sighing and leaning back on her seat. “I know we’d rather not talk about it, but… I do wonder how it was for Julian.”

“...” I swallowed hard through the knot forming in my throat. “I do too,” I admitted.

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