Free Billionaire's Tragedy (Standalone Book) (Billionaire Bad Boy Romance) by Alexa Davis Page B

were on
the verge of being too drunk to actually hold their hands. I shook my head as I
turned back to the table and continued pouring. Brant knew that these card
games were more than just a lobbyist's attempts to curry favor with those in
power, but not even he knew my motivation for befriending these men and plying
them with wine, women, and cards. He continued dealing hands until the men all
tossed their cards in and let the dealer take the pot.
    I rarely let the house
win, and if it did, then I made sure to provide the losers with some kind of
compensation designed to soothe their loss. Tonight, it was tickets to the
Washington Christmas Ball, the biggest event of the season, and one nearly
impossible to obtain tickets for. Mo was a strict gatekeeper and carefully
determined who would and wouldn’t get tickets and to get my block, I had
offered to bankroll Mo’s charity auctions. As I handed each man an envelope
containing four tickets, they looked up at me as if I were Santa Claus himself.
    "Why thank you,
Redding!" Senator Bangor boomed as he accepted envelope. "You're a
good man!"
    "It's my pleasure, Larry,"
I smiled as he shook my hand and clapped me on the back. I hated Larry Bangor. He
was everything I thought was wrong with politics – a weak, foul-mouthed
blowhard who spouted whatever hateful rhetoric would get him attention in the
media that week. He'd succeeded in keeping his Senate seat because he'd curried
favor with the rich Gold Coast group of supporters in Chicago, and as a result,
outspent every opponent four-to-one every election cycle. He was a horrible man
with the bad habit of getting a little too rough with the hookers, so I'd
started employing a dominatrix who would often take control and leave him
sobbing at the end of the session. He loved it, and as a result, I knew I had
him on a short leash.
    I held out an envelope to
Jeff Graham, but he shook his head and waved me off saying, "Nah, I'm
good, Linc. I've already got my tickets, so save those for someone who actually
needs them." He smiled at me, waiting to see if I'd be surprised at his
refusal, but thanks to Brant's research skills, I had already known Graham had
tickets. I offered them simply as a means of allowing him to think he had the
upper hand. Graham was a new senator from Virginia, and I had a feeling that he
was one of the ones who was firmly in the back pocket of Russo and the AWN. He
played his cards close to his chest, though, so I simply invited him to events
to test the water. He rarely drank, and he never went to the third floor.
Compared to the others, Jefferson Graham was a choirboy.
    Around ten o'clock, the
girls descended the stairs and talked with the remaining men. These women were
not your average call girls, instead, they were highly educated students from
surrounding colleges and universities who were looking to make enough money to
pay off student loans or bankroll businesses. They understood the need for
discretion and had no shame whatsoever. I paid them all extremely well and asked
them to sign a non-disclosure agreement while they worked for me. The penalties
for revealing their after-school jobs were substantial, so I'd not had any
trouble with disloyalty. They were a wide range of ages, shapes, and sizes, and
they rotated every few weeks so that the same girls didn't always show up. The
girls liked this because it kept the men from falling for them out of habit.
    Tonight, as I watched the
girls work their magic and spirit the men upstairs to the private rooms on the
third floor, I thought of Olivia and wondered what she was doing. I had not
been able to get her out of my mind. Her flaming red hair and her bright green
eyes had made an indelible mark on me and I ached to unbutton her form-fitting,
black coat and find out what exactly lay underneath it. I imagined her wearing
nothing but lingerie under the coat and then pictured myself unbuttoning it to
reveal black lace and thigh-high stockings. I could feel the