Wife's Bitter Revenge Against Neglectful CEO Husband-Chapter 101: Daddy Ash

Ash DuPaul was a tall, skeletal man with dark hair and a goatee. He settled into a booth for eight with two men and four women. Ash was a boy, girl, boy, girl kind of host, with the girls on either side of him hanging all over him.

"Something is going down, but I don’t think it’s drugs," Jake said.

We were at a tall four-top a few feet away from Ash. Alec was away. He’d gone to the bar to fetch drinks.

"What do you mean?"

"Cash is changing hands but not product."

"So, what? Loan sharking?"

"Or gambling."

"How do we find out?"

"I’m not sure. Watch? We could wait until he leaves and sic Sampson on him."

The girls at the booth scooted out. Two went off with the guys at the table toward the dance floor. The other two headed toward the restrooms.

"Wait here and keep Alec off my tail for a minute."

"Sure. What are you doing?"

"I’m going to talk to Mr. DuPaul."

"Tee, no. It’s not safe."

"I’ll be fine. You’re right here. Alec is here. Rosco and the guys are spread out in the crowd." I nodded to my left. "Min is right there."

"We can’t outrun a bullet."

"Then I won’t get shot."

I took off toward the table with more sway in my step than I normally used. I could do this for Bea.

I leaned over the table when I got there. "Hi, see my boyfriend over there." I pointed at Jake. "Well, ex-boyfriend. Can you believe he dumped me? I told him he’s replaceable. I saw you sitting here all alone. Can I sit with you for a while and talk? Pretty please?"

I flashed my best puppy dog eyes and pouted. I’m pretty sure I need not work so hard so hard, but since I only had one shot, I was making the most of it.

Ash looked me up and down as if I were meat and he was a hungry dog.

"Sure thing, darling. You come right over here and sit next to Daddy Ash." He patted the seat next to him. "We’ll drink a little drink and get to know each other. And then later, you and I can take the ultimate revenge against the ex."

I smiled through a shiver of revulsion as I slid in next to Ash. When he put his arm around me, I almost jumped out of my skin. This would be tougher than I thought.

"Whoa, you okay?" Ash asked as he pulled back.

"Oh, you didn’t feel that? You shocked me."

Smile. Smile. Keep smiling.

"I’m Tee. Who might you be?"

"Like I said, I’m Daddy Ash."

He ordered me a drink and pawed at me as he told me boring stories about his glory days in high school. With his build and the over-the-top bragging where he always came out the hero, I didn’t believe more than ten percent of what he said, but I made sure he didn’t know that.

His crew returned and squeezed in around us. They didn’t seem to think anything of me occupying a seat next the big man.

I glanced toward Jake. He was busy trying to keep Alec from glaring at me. I could tell by the way Jake kept moving between Alec and me.

More guilt. Alec shouldn’t have to watch as another man put hands on me.

A guy in a shiny red shirt and multiple gold chains stopped at the table.

"Hey man. I got something here for you."

He pressed a folded stack of bills into Ash’s hand.

"Is it all there?" Ash’s jovial demeanor slipped into the serious realm.

"Ash, man. I’m trying. I got you half. I’ll get you the rest by the end of the week?"

"You know that’s going to cost you, and the boss is about done giving you extensions. She’s this close to asking for a pound of flesh." Ash held up his thumb and forefinger to show very little space between the two phalanges.

"I know. I know. This is my last time. Promise."

"What was that all about?" I asked when the guy left.

"I do collections for a very affluent broad with a lot of money to invest for the right return."

I scrunched up my face. "So, a loan shark?"

Ash laughed. "Nothing so sinister, but cute."

During the next two hours, six more men and women passed cash to Ash. The bundles disappeared into an inner pocket of his leather jacket. Considering I couldn’t see any additional bulk to the man’s thin physique, I surmised the inner pocket was designed to spread the bundles around to avoid detection.

"Ash, I lived with my boyfriend. What if I needed money to relocate. Could you make that happen for me?"

Ash hugged me tight and kissed my cheek. "Honey, you don’t need an apartment. You can stay with me and the girls as long as you want. Mrs. H would eat up a little cutie like you and spit your bones out."

The smile fell from my face, and I froze. Mrs. H? As in Heavenly?

"I’m sorry, Ash," I stuttered. "I’m not feeling well. I need to go to the restroom."

One of Ash’s girls offered to go with me, but I declined.

What I really needed was fresh air. The crowd was closing in around me along with the suffocating tendrils of the Heavenly influence.

I was halfway to the bathroom when Alec’s hand cupped my waist.

"Are you alright?"

I shook my head.

"Let me get you out of here."

"No, I can’t go. Take me upstairs to Ben’s office."

Once inside the office, I took the deepest breath I could muster and blew it back out. How was Lettie still ruining my life? She had a stroke. King had her committed. Stiff was monitoring her progress. There was no way she was still running a loan sharking operation.

Alec said, "Hey, hey, Teela, talk to me. What happened back there?"

Jake joined us. I held Alec’s hand, but I told my story to Jake.

Jake said, "Call King. See if anything has changed."

Alec said, "Aren’t there two other Mrs. Heavenlys? Daniel’s wife and Joshua’s? Besides, how do you know the H stands for Heavenly?"

"You’re right, but that is where my head went."

"Call King. We’ll take it from there."

King picked up in two rings. Nan was talking in the background.

"Can you talk?" I asked King.

"One second."

The line went quiet and when King returned, there was no background noise. I blocked out my feelings about King running back to Nan—the woman who had sex with King when he was busy ignoring me. At least I tried to.

"What’s wrong?" King asked. "Why are you calling? It’s not Bea, is it?"

"Yes and no. It is about Bea, but not her health. I’m following up on who did this to her, and something came up. King, has anything changed with Lettie? Is she any better?"

"No, of course not, I’d let you know if she was."

"Is anyone in the family in the personal loan business? Anya or Maylean maybe?"

"Anya’s gone a little crazy lately about a land deal. As far as I know, she’s got that and her design business only.

"Maylean does charity work. Wait, her dad made his fortune with payday loans. He went from bankrupt to a millionaire in less than a year. It was all over the news a while ago."

"Thanks, King. I know it sounds unkind but it is a relief Lettie is still incapacitated."

"I understand. Anything else I can do?"

"Ben said Maylean took the Things to her sister’s. Do you have her address?"

"Teela, you can’t go around making up accusations without proof. Maylean and the twins have gone through a lot with Daniel’s arrest."

"I won’t use the address if I’m not sure."

"Ok, I’ll trust you on this, Teela. I’ll send the information. It’s not like you can’t find it yourself if I don’t."

"True that. But thank you for trusting me."

I shared what I’d learned with Jake and Alec.

"Okay, so how do we make the connection between Ash and Maylean?" Alec asked.

"We start by me going back to that table and continuing to suck up to that sleazeball."

"Teela, no," Alec said. "I almost lost my shit when I saw you’d put yourself in danger. I can’t let you go back to him."

"Alec, it’s not your choice."

"It’s not, but I’m begging you, don’t do it. Don’t make me sit through watching him touch you while worrying he’ll hurt you."

I kissed him. "If this is too much for you, go home. I won’t care about you any less. You don’t have to be a part of this. None of my people do. But, Alec, I am going back to that table.

"And Jake there is going to watch over me. When the club closes, I’m going to leave the bar with Ash, but Jake will stop him from taking me anywhere, Okay?"

Alec went still. His eyes were cold. "I’ don’t like it, but I won’t leave you tonight. But, Teela don’t do this to me again, Got it?