1
Logan
I have more money than I know what to do with.
Maybe that’s fucking arrogant, but I don’t care. It’s the truth. At twenty years old, I invested every single penny I owned in a little startup company called Facebook. By the time I cashed out a few years later, I had made my first million.
From there, I became the city’s most famous hotelier. I built some of the best hotels in the whole damn city, and my hotels are still in high demand. By the time I was twenty-eight, I was worth over $600 million and climbing.
Now, I’m worth $10 billion, and I routinely make the “richest men in the world” lists. I’m not in the top ten, but I have enough money to afford pretty much anything in the entire world.
Sometimes, being able to have anything means you don’t know what you really want.
“It’s getting pretty late.”
I frown at the girl sitting across from me. We’re in the conference room attached to my home office going over some marketing materials for a project I’m personally invested in these days. Her name is Everly, and she’s the PR girl assigned to the project.
From what I can tell, nobody else wanted this job, and I don’t blame them. I’m not an easy boss. It’s after ten at night, and we’ve been at it for a few hours. She worked a full day, and now I’m keeping her up all night going over every single detail.
I can’t help myself. This is how I got to be so successful. I hold myself to the same standards that I hold her, although I know some people can’t handle it. So far, Everly is doing a good job, but we’ll see.
I don’t mind spending all night in a conference room with her. She’s an attractive girl, gorgeous in a way that I’m not used to. It’s a little understated and mature, although I think she’s only twenty-two, making her ten years younger than me. Her long dark hair is piled up on top of her head and her searching blue eyes watching mine as I lean back in my chair.
“Do you want to call it a night?” I ask her, a little smile on my face.
“Only if you want to.” I can tell she doesn’t want to quit before I do. Nobody ever wants to say no to me these days, which is nice, although sometimes it’s annoying. I don’t like walking all over people, but they tend to let me. Plus, I’m her boss, and she doesn’t want to disappoint me.
I like that about her, actually.
“If you’re not that interested in this project, we can find someone else to take over, Everly,” I say with a little smile.
That frustrates her. “You know I’m into this, Logan,” she says. “I think the city needs a homeless shelter and a community center, and putting them together is a great idea. But it’s late, I’m exhausted, and I haven’t eaten since lunch.”
I frown at that, and realize that she’s right. I haven’t eaten yet either.
But there are so many people on the streets that haven’t eaten. That’s the whole point of this project. I have more money than I know what to do with, and so I want to start giving some of it back to the city that I love. I want to build a modern homeless shelter and community center, and completely fund it myself. It’ll be free to anyone that needs it, and I’ll make sure that it’s always in perfect running shape.
But I can’t do it alone, of course. I need people like Everly to help me get it started. There are plenty of obstacles in my way, but I’m determined to surpass them all.
“Okay then,” I say finally. I close my notebook and put my hands behind my head. “We’ll call it here and start again tomorrow morning.”
She sighs and nods, cleaning her things up. I watch her with a little grin on my face. I know she probably hates me, but that doesn’t matter. I need to push her if she’s going to give me the best work she possibly can. That’s part of why I’m so successful. I push the people that work for me, and they give me the best they can.
I like watching Everly. I’ve always been attracted to her, though I tend not to date people that work for me. I can get any woman in this city that I want, so I try to avoid any complications at work. But Everly is tempting, very fucking tempting. I almost want to reach across this table, pull her up onto the flat glass top, and fuck her right here in the conference room.
Instead, I walk with her to the front door. I have one single entrance for my living area, but it’s split in half. Everly has never been to the right half, which is my private apartment. The left half is the work area, and my employees routinely work from that office. It’s actually staffed during the day, though our main offices are several floors down.
Everly pauses at the front door. “I think your idea about mingling the homeless with people that have more is a good idea. It’ll make everyone want to help each other.”
“Thanks,” I grunt as I open the door for her. “I’m hoping that having the community center so close to the shelter will make the city more aware of its homeless population. People can change things, but they have to do it together.”
She nods and smiles at me before turning to leave.
And we both stop dead in our tracks.
Down on the ground, staring up at us with an incredibly placid look on its face, is an infant. The baby can’t be more than a couple of weeks old. I have no clue if it’s a boy or a girl. It’s sitting in a little car seat, but it doesn’t seem upset.
We both stare at the baby before looking around in the hallway. Nobody is anywhere nearby. We stand together in front of the baby, at a total loss for words.
Finally, Everly speaks up.
“That’s a baby,” she says.
“Shit,” I say. “I hoped I was hallucinating it.” The baby looks up at us with a blank look and I don’t know what it’s doing here.
“And there’s a note.” She reaches down and picks up a piece of paper that was folded and tucked next to the baby. She unfolds it and reads.
The look on her face tells me everything. A sinking, horrified feeling comes over me as she hands me the piece of paper.
I don’t want to read it, but I know I have to. Even if I know what it’s going to say.