Chapter 6
6
JACKSON
“ C heckmate.”
My queen is in direct alignment with his king blocking his every possible escape. If he moves to the left he’ll be captured by my knight. If he moves to the right, my rook will be there waiting. One move forward, he places himself in the sights of my bishop.
There was nowhere for him to run.
“Dammit Jackson. You didn’t give me a fighting chance. I don’t know why I bother playing you in the first place.” Gavin, the ivory king chess piece on its side in defeat.
I shrug. “Perhaps you’re a secret masochist who enjoys taking a beating. The real question is why I keep playing an opponent who has no chance of winning.”
Gavin chuckles. “That’s easy. Because you’re an asshole.”
“I won’t dispute that assertation. But the real reason is, I like to win and I’m not afraid to do it at all costs, even if it means playing a weak opponent.”
“What the fuck man? You’re calling me weak to my face?” His tone doesn’t exactly match his words. Gavin is one of those types who is slow to anger usually thinks things through before reaching. It’s why he’s my right hand man who often provide the voice of reason when I want to power forward.”
“In general, you’re not a weak person or else you wouldn’t hold your current position. You just suck at chess.”
“One of these days I may surprise you.”
“Perhaps you will but not in chess.”
“Asshole.”
I grin. “I won’t dispute that.”
Gavin Choi is one of the few people I can be myself around. He’s not only the Chief Operating Officer but my closest friend. Perhaps my first real friend. Ever since I was young, I’ve been surrounded by people wanting to be my friends. I’m sure in my primary days the friendships were more genuine.
But sometime around the fifth grade when kids and their parents became aware of who my family was, the relationships no longer felt organic.
I met Gavin in college. He didn’t give a damn about who I was and he’d never even heard Champion. He wasn’t afraid to disagree with me and always gave me his honest opinion. I respect the hell out of that and he hasn’t changed in all the years I’ve known him.
Gavin leans forward in his seat and rests his chin on one of his fists. He opens his mouth to speak but seems to reconsider it.
“It’s not like you to hold back,” I observe. “What’s on your mind?”
He frowns and scrunches his forehead as if he’s trying to choose his words carefully. “I’ve never questioned your decisions when someone receives a recommendation from you.”
I raise a brow. “But you are now.”
“I’m sure you had your reasons for bringing this guy on board, so I didn’t question it when he was hired. He didn’t fall under my direct chain of command, but I do have access to the financial reports.”
I immediately know who he’s referring to and my heart begins to pound. “Oh?” I brush away an imaginary speck of lint from my shirt. I force myself not to smirk. I made it a point to always be honest with him but in this matter, I push all guilt aside.
Gavin narrows his eyes briefly and I almost get the feeling that he can see right through my deception but doesn’t immediately call out on it. “Is that all you can say? I mention the finances and you don’t seem very concerned.
“I think if there were any major issues, Troy would have personally brought it to my attention.”
“Or maybe he’s been too distracted to catch the discrepancies because he’s taken paternity leave off.”
“Hmm, I thought you considered yourself progressive minded when it comes to issues like men helping out with the care of their newborns.”
“Are you being deliberately obtuse? You know that isn’t the issue. I’m just saying that I’ve been helping out in Troy’s absence and when I had a look over the latest financial reports, I came across various discrepancies. So I pulled the reports going back several months and noticed these variables didn’t start occurring until that Knight fella took over that division. I thought maybe I could be wrong so I did a little digging to find out more information on him.”
I lean back in seat and crossed my arms across my chest. “Is that so.”
“I went to HR to get his file, and his resume wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, at least not anything outstanding to put him in his current position. So, I saw the notation in his file that he was hired based on your recommendation. I then noticed that you two of you had something in common unless there are two Champion Virginias which I doubt. So is this guy an old friend of yours you never told me about?”
“Honestly, we never met until he started with this company. Let’s just say I saw his potential.”
“Is that why you were cozying up to him on the executive trip to Vegas a couple months back. The two of you seemed chummy for having only met through the company. You’re not the type to get close to your employees even the executives.”
“If I didn’t know better, Gavin, I’d say you were jealous. Am I not allowed to be friendly with other people.”
“That’s not what I’m getting at and you know it. I believe he’s been embezzling but not enough that anyone who isn’t paying attention would notice. He’s taking small sums at a time and putting them back for a later date. Kind of makes me think about all that cash he was throwing around in Vegas. I’m going to investigate further and when I have concrete proof that he’s behind this, I’m going to initiate proceedings to terminate his employment and possibly see if its worth pursing legal action.”
“It’s fine if you’d like to further investigate these abnormalities in the reports but I would rather make the final decision as to what will happen to Langston Knight.”
“There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“What exactly do you think I’m hiding from you? Aren’t you satisfied handling the investigation?”
“That’s not what I’m getting at and I think you know it. Who is this guy to you? You’re very meticulous about who you hire and this guy simply doesn’t have the ‘it’ factor to work in the position that seems to have fallen into his lap. And before you give me some bullshit about him being qualified, at his last job he was a middle manager who left his company under mysterious circumstance. I called his last employer, but no one was willing to give any information on him.”
“Sounds like you’ve been busy.”
“And the fact that you don’t seem to be taking this seriously, is making me question your judgement.”
“Don’t.” Gavin’s dogmatic way of handling matters was one of the reasons I admired him which happened to be one of the things that annoyed me about him. Once he got an idea in his head, he was hard pressed to let it go.
As I said, you can handle the investigation. If it puts your mind at ease if you want him out by the end of your investigation, I will abide by your recommendation.”
“Who is he to you?”
“I think the less you know the better.”
“Jackson—”
“I’m done with this conversation.” I glance at the custom-built platinum watch on my wrist. “I have an appointment in twenty minutes so I trust you can see your way out.”
Gavin stands up, his face beet red. “Asshole,” he mutters under his breath but loud enough for me to hear as he heads out of my office.
Our weekly chess match was a way for us to stay connected amid our busy schedules. Our assistants made sure to block off a time for us to meet each week for our game no matter how hectic work was. If we were in different states or even countries, we played virtually.
Normally, the games ended with a friendly handshake or a congratulations. But clearly, I pissed him off. That wasn’t my intention.
But it was part of my plan.
With Troy away on paternity leave, I knew Gavin would go through the financial reports. Most men in his position would delegate the responsibility of going over reports to one of his subordinates. I knew he’d see the discrepancies because I already knew about them.
I’m playing real life chess and my pawn fell into my trap. Yes, I had an ulterior motive for hiring Langston Knight and that reason was his sister Zora.
It’s been 12 years since that night in my bedroom, when she was in my arms, felt her lips beneath mine, tasted her pussy. I remember how sweet she was on my tongue, the sound of her moans, the softness of her curves. It’s what’s motivated me all this time.
My only regret is that it’s taken me this long for me to set my plan into action. But I needed this time, to put myself in a position where no one had any hold over me and I could have what I wanted without consequence.
Not only did I succeed without the trust fund that was held over my head, I no longer need it. In fact, months ago, when I turned 30, I received the paperwork to sign for it. It’s still on my desk, unread. It’s insignificant in the face of the empire I’ve built.
I push away from my desk and walk toward the window to stare down at the city beneath me. The sidewalks are filled with people hurrying to their next destination. Everyone always seems to be in a hurry. The streets are clogged with bumper-to-bumper traffic, and I can practically hear the honking horns filling the air like music.
My thoughts drift to Zora. She’s never far from my mind. Some people would call me obsessed or maybe a little unhinged to carry a torch for a girl I knew in high school but something about her touched the deepest part of me that refused to release its hold on me. That something screams that she belongs to me. To have. To hold. To keep.
I’ve often questioned my own sanity wondering if it was just a silly crush I’d eventually get over but no matter how busy I’ve been over the years building my business or the other women I used as a comparison to her, nothing lessened my need for her.
So I plotted, schemed, lay in wait for the perfect opportunity to finally make my rightful claim. In order for my plan to work, I kept tabs on Zora. I knew where she was, who her friends were, who she dated. I’m not ashamed to admit I made sure none of those relationships lasted. None of those bastards deserved her. Hell, I don’t deserve her but she’ll be mine nonetheless.
It's why I recruited her brother to my company. As Gavin had already pointed out, he doesn’t qualify for the position I hired him for but I needed him to have certain accesses for him to do exactly what I knew he would. When I’d checked out his resume, I noticed there were unexplained gaps that didn’t quite make sense. So I had him investigated.
Turns out he’d left three different companies under dubious circumstances. After some deeper digging from what I could determined he played fast and loose with the books and each time he quit before he could be fired. Turns out, Langston Knight has a huge gambling addiction and each time he got into financial trouble he’d run to his father who could scarcely afford to bail him out.
And this time he played right into my hands. Not only would he have to run to his ailing father for help as he always did. His sister would attempt to salvage the mess he made. But it will be too much. And that’s when I step in.
She’ll have no choice but to turn to me.
Checkmate.