Scene 22

The next morning Abraham stood in the parking garage, leaning up against one of the stone pillars. He was only partially aware of the world around him as he thought about the night before. The short amount of time he had been able to hold the bottle blonde in his arms had been exhilarating, but what had followed had changed the evening. She had said something about her and Lincoln weren’t a real couple, that was something he wanted to know more about. Was she saying that because she knew staying with him wasn’t a long term solution? It was a question he would have to delve more into later.

He had made sure she got home to her controlling boyfriend, he offered for her to stay the night, he would even sleep on the couch, but she rejected the offer. So Abraham made sure the drunken beauty made it home safe. Jacqueline had shared more, in the say way most people **** shared more than they intended, it was that or she trusted him enough to unburden herself. That led up to now, where he wanted… felt he needed to address the problem that was both of their boss Alexander Dunn.

The wait wasn’t terribly long for Abraham, soon enough the matte black Rolls Royce Phantom pulled into the reserved parking space. Adjusting his glasses Abraham watched his boss exit his vehicle with his blazer hung over one arm, and as soon as the car door closed the angry man marched forward. “Mr. Dunn!” he called out.

Alexander pivoted after hearing his name being called out in a not so friendly tone and saw his broad shouldered lead salesmen moving toward him with purpose. He controlled himself and didn’t let out a long sigh having an idea why Downings was looking like he was on the war path and couldn’t wait for him to at least get his morning coffee before confronting him. Rates had gone up and anytime rates went up it affected the sales team’s commissions. The problem was margins had to be adjusted to show market growth, best he could do is offer the man an advance warning the next time something like this came along and an offer for considerations when it came time for his yearly review. The rest of the sales team looked up to Downings, he often spoke on their behalf, but in the end they all would swallow what he was giving them and this man would help him do it if he played his cards right. “Morning, any chance this can wait till I have my morning coffee?” he asked out loud while also thinking about what his pretty admin would do when she brought it to him. ‘Maybe I could have her under my desk with my dick in her mouth while I settle Downings down.’

Clenching his jaw Abraham methodically shook his head, all while flexing his fingers over and over again. He wanted to throttle the man, make him feel pain in a way he would never forget, but that wasn’t how the civilized world worked and he knew enough about the cooperation where they both were to know going to human resources would be worse than a waste of time, it would be inviting the old corrupted power of Mega Corp bear down on both himself and Jacqueline. “No, this cannot wait.” Abraham said through clenched teeth.

“Alright, go ahead then, let me have it.” Alexander said, rolling his shoulders and mentally preparing his verbal repousse to the salesman's complaints.

The calm, cool expression on the older man’s face irked Abraham in a real way, his soft blue eyes seemed completely unbothered by the fact he had violated another person. “How dare you!”

“What?! How dare I? That is a bit aggressive over a handful of dollars. Why don’t you think through your approach and come back later.” Dunn said, already starting to turn and move away. It boiled his blood to have someone challenge him aggressively like that, he liked the man, but things like this always happened when two alphas were in the same area he figured and he had been playing the game too long and was too old to fly off the handle. A simple dismissal would both infuriate the younger man and cow him when he had a chance to consider what he had said. Before he got more than a step away though Alexander felt a strong grip on his forearm.

“We are not done.”

Swallowing some of his saliva Alexander worked his jaw from side to side, his eyes looking down at the hand on him, then slowly looked up to meet his employees green eyes, the overhead lights of the parking garage causing him to only get a good look into one eyes from the light glinting off his glasses. “Unhand me before you bring a world of trouble on yourself.”

Abraham did let go, but he also stepped closer into the other man’s personal space. “You do not get to treat people like they are objects for your amusement and pleasure…”

“What are you talking about!?” Alexander said immediately to the accusation, taking a step backwards to create a little space. He was not a fool, Abraham Downings was two inches shorter than him and looked like he could have been a pro-athlete, if things went to blows and with how aggressive the younger man was being it really could, then Alexander knew he would be in a world of hurt. In the end Downings would suffer the most, but that did little to ease his mind of the man’s fist coming in contact with his jaw.

“I’m talking about Jacqueline, Jacqueline Hart. You don’t get to use her like some sort of sex doll. I know people like you like to lord their power over others, making them do what they want and that you aren’t unique in using it to get a pretty girl to have sex.”

Things started to fit in place for Alexander. ‘Not about rate hikes, this is a female territory thing.’ Holding up his free hand in a stop motion he gave a small grin to the upset man in front of him. “This is about her is it?”

“This is about you and what…” Abraham was jabbing his finger in the air in his bosses direction, but didn’t get to work up much steam before he was talked over.

“Hey, hey, hey. I’m not making Jacqueline do anything she doesn’t want to do.” He said, mentally adding what he believed to be just a small correction. ‘She did need a little convincing to give in to her urges.’

The response put Abraham on the back foot, he expected a denial, he expected push back. Things were not going as he had planned them, imagined them in his head when Dunn admitted Jacqueline and him were having sex. His thoughts went back to the young woman shaking as she cried in his arms, her tears and makeup ruining his shirt as he held her. He was ready to rebuttal that bullshit, but what came out of his bosses mouth next made him only see red.

“The girl is just a slut, I heard the two of you were making out and that she gave you a blowjob in the bathroom, heck she and her boyfriend Hatchet… no Hatch went at it in the supply room. Honestly I don’t care so long as it doesn’t interfere with every day operations, I know she isn’t the only one and with me. Well at least with me she is getting something out of it, I mean more than easing her craving.” The grin on Alexander’s face fell away when he saw Abraham clench both of his hands into fists and take a heavy step forward, cocking one of his hands back.

“Stop! You do not want to do this! Don’t throw your life away over some tranny! Do you really want to go to jail because of some slut?!” Alexander said, taking a few quick steps backwards, ending with his back pressed up against his expensive vehicle.

“What?” Abraham asked in a much softer voice than he had spoken in that entire morning as he looked at his boss in confusion. His raised fist falling back down to his side. “What did you call her?”

The wind looked like it had been taken out of the aggressive man’s sails, Dunn put one hand over his heart, feeling its rapid beating. He took a few quick breaths and let out a sigh of relief before he answered. “Tranny? Is that what you are having trouble wrapping your head around? Oh yeah… had to believe someone with that perfect ass is a guy or used to be a guy… honestly I don’t know how any of that works, but when…” Alexander snapped his fingers a few times, he had already been bad with names and couldn’t remember what his secretary called herself when they were just working as an intern. “John? Jessy? I don't know their real name or what used to be their name, but they showed up to the office one day in a dress. I was going to fire them, but HR said otherwise and ya know what. Once I was able to get past the idea that between her smooth legs was another dick then I was more than open to her advances. Well so long as she keeps that shit out of sight.”

His smile now back on his face Alexander slapped the back of his hand to his employees stomach, finding it not in the least bit doughy. “I can see you are having trouble with it, I get it, but you are going to have to make peace with with the fact that you let a guy or someone that used to be a guy give you head and before you thinking about taking all this anger back into the office if you so much as raise your voice at her in there.” He said pointing over to the door that headed into the building. “Just know that both me and HR will not tolerate any gay bashing or whatever.” Touching his jaw, the salt a pepper haired man rubbed his fingers through his beard as he thought.

“What you did here this morning, not exactly acceptable, but tits and ass, her tits aren’t real by the way, not yet. Well they can make a man go mad, been there myself in my wilder days, but this can’t exactly go unpunished. As I’m sure you know, we had a rate hike, if you can rally the troops as it were and get them to accept the change without raising a fuss, because I do not want to hear it. Then we can pretend all of this never happened. So how about it? Sounds like a fair deal?”

Slowly Abraham’s green eyes looked down to the offered hand. He felt like his bell had been rung, like it had years ago when he played baseball at university of Florida and a ball had cracked into the side of his head. That day he had been thinking about a girl too, a girl who had cheated on him and his lack of focus. He had ended up with a concussion that day, and while nothing had physically hit him, finding out the young woman he had a crush on was transgender definitely threw him for a loop. His hand slowly started to rise up to take his boss's offered hand, his mind felt numb, but as it quickly settled his right hand flew up past the offered hand for a handshake and grabbed the older man’s tie by the knot as he shoved him back into his car.

“A few things to make very, very, clear to you. You let me know if you need more clarity when I’m done.” Abraham said, his face only an inch away from his bosses. “Jacqueline Hart… you will never refer to her in vulgar words like slut or tranny every again, you will not go near her, just pretend the two of you have been ordered by the court to keep your distance. You are not going to retaliate against her in any way, if she comes to me with so much as a sniffle and utters your name then…” Abraham narrowed his eyes, he hadn’t come to confront his boss with ****, this had gotten out of hand and he wasn’t going to be able to save himself at this point, but he wasn't without some means. “You remember that bachelor party you went to five years ago? I do… I was there too and just so happened to have pictures of the evening. Many, many pictures and if you were too drunk to recall what happened. Then feel free to ask what you may have done that would be embarrassing or maybe illegal. Here is a hint… it was both.”

Licking his lips, Dunn looked into the stronger man’s eyes, not daring to look away. He wasn’t powerless, he could fight back, but that would end really in only one way. He would win in the end, but that could come without him getting at least a black eye. The mention of that night though, a night that he truly had been incredibly drunk caused a spike of cold to run along his spine. Even if the threat of photos was real he wouldn’t end up in jail, but he would end up in court and with the embarrassment not just for himself, but for the company it would put his promotion in direct jeopardy. “I… I can’t avoid her, she works under me.”

“Transfer her.” Abraham said, shaking the man by his tie.

“Can’t… she has to stay for ninety days.”

The reply made Abraham grimace. “Just… just fucking be nice to her. Treat Jacqueline like a person. Can you just act like a decent human being towards one person in your life?” Letting go of the man’s tie, Abraham gave him a small shove, pressing him into his car a little more before turning around and taking a few steps. Rubbing the back of his neck Abraham let out a long sigh. ‘I fucked up. Life isn’t a fairytale, I’m not a knight in shiny armor and Jacqueline isn’t a damsel in distress.’ He thought before laughing out loud at the predicament he put himself in because he wanted to protect someone, because he let his anger lead him by the nose. He could just hear his eldest sister mocking him for toxic masculinity. ‘I could have done this smart and now…’ He let his thoughts drift off, expecting to hear his boss or soon to be ex-boss on the phone to the police any second.

“How about this for a deal.” Alexander said, taking a step away from the car, not closer to the man who had just throttled him, but around him. “I will deny Jacqueline any personal time… far as sexual activities go, I will be gentle with my refusals to try and not upset her. You will do as I asked with the sales team. You may have leverage on me, but now I have it over you as well.” He then pointed over to a security camera. He wasn’t sure exactly how much it caught, if any or even if the thing worked. Security hadn’t shown up with the thing there after all, but for now it was a prop.

“You aren’t going to fire me or call the police?” Abraham asked, now turned around looking at Alexander Dunn perplexed.

“Not at all. I always liked you, remind me a bit about myself when I was younger.” He had never been as in shape as him, he admitted to himself. “You had leverage on me and held onto it for years just for the right opportunity. Downings, you are a corporate shark and I would definitely rather keep a useful tool at hand than throw it away.” Dunn smirked. ‘So long as I can keep a leash around your neck.’ For a brief second he considered using Downings for his replacement instead of Hatch. Less people would come at Downings, but this was a man that would be harder to control.

“If you agree to the deal, then I have one more thing to offer. Soon enough I am going to be taking over this branch, everyone will be working under me. Hatch will be taking my spot, he is already in management training for just that, but he doesn’t have what the two of us have. The man is soft, so I’m going to make you his number two. I will create some bullshit title so that you can work as his proverbial fist. How about that? You get everything you want and more, and you get it all without any sacrifices.”

Alexander could see he had the man off kilter. This arrangement would keep himself safe, heck once the promotion went through he wasn’t worried about any photos coming out and then no one would have leverage on him. Downings would become just another useful tool and he could always get some other pretty little thing, he did wish this meeting happened after he had a chance to bend his secretary over his desk, but that was a small concession to win.