Chastity nodded and wrote STALKER. And then she added BILLIONAIRE. “Are we still in agreement that the place he took you to at the Caldwell Hotel was just a random rental? Since none of his stuff was there and one of his LLCs owns a place at One57?”
“Yes. He was just being super secretive.”Like always.“Or the Caldwell Hotel is just his apartment while he’s doing wishes for the Society or something.” I was still hoping Frankie would text me and say I could move into the Caldwell Hotel. “Either way, he definitely lives in One57. And he’s about 28 years old. He owns Rhodes Venture Capital, which owns a number of businesses and shell companies. Oh, and his Society alter-ego is Ryder Storm.”
“Got it,” said Chastity when she was done writing all those bullet points. “Anything else?”
“He mentioned that he went to high school overseas.”
“Anything about his parents? Or siblings?”
“Uh… No. Not really. Come to think of it, he never really talks about himself that much. Even that first night when we talked for hours, he mostly just asked a ton of questions about me.”
Chastity wrote FULL OF SECRETS in big bold letters at the top of the page.
“And most importantly, he claims that he can’t be with me because he pissed off someone very dangerous. Really, what kind of billionaire can’t just pay someone off? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I’ve been thinking a lot about that very question,” said Chastity. “It actually reminds me of when Daddy lost everything. One minute we had it all - an NYC penthouse, a mansion in the Hamptons, drivers, maids. Paintings worth a million dollars. And then one day all of it was gone.” Chastity sniffled and looked longingly at the boxes of Odegaards stacked around my tiny apartment. “Daddy never talks about it, but from what I’ve been able to piece together, he was overleveraged and a few investments started to go south. So then he started making increasingly risky investments to cover those losses. One thing led to another, and even though we were living like billionaires, our net worth was actually negative. Eventually it all caught up to him when the IRS showed up to collect unpaid taxes.”
“So you think the IRS is after Tanner?”
“Could be. Or it could be someone scary. Or both. Either way…he must not have the money to pay them. That’s probably why he hired BIMG. One final hail Mary to try to make his businesses profitable before it all comes crashing down.”
“Damn. You really think so? He seems so calm for someone drowning in debt.”
Chastity looked off into the distance. “Daddy never freaked out either before his big collapse. He was working late hours, yes, but that was nothing new.”
“I don’t know. It seems more likely that he’s a Russian oligarch who’s done something to piss off Putin. Those guys are billionaires, and they can still disappear.”
“That does fit with him growing up overseas,” agreed Chastity. “But after that it kind of falls apart. He doesn’t have a Russian accent. And he’s not exactly hiding. If the Russian government was after me I’d go off the grid in North Dakota or something rather than setting up shop as a venture capitalist in the middle of NYC. Anyway…there’s only one way to learn all of a man’s secrets.”
“Which is what?” I asked.
“Sex.”
“Well I should have seen that answer coming. So you think he’ll tell me everything if I seduce him?”
“That would be the easiest thing, yes.”
“But he keeps running away whenever we kiss!”
“Have you tried taking your top off and dropping to your knees? That always works for me.”
“I wish he’d let me do that. But I’m not sure I could handle the embarrassment of trying that and getting rejected.”
“Well then you’re lucky I have a backup plan.”
I reached for my wine bottle and was devastated to find that it was already empty. “I’m going to need about three more bottles of wine before I agree to let you seduce him.”
“Are you asking me to have a threesome with you and Tanner?” Chastity smiled so hard. “I’m honored!”
“What? No! Who do you think I am? Madison?”
Chastity laughed. “Ew. I don’t want to have a threesome with an actual lesbian. It’s only good if both girls are straight.”
“What?” I shook my head. “Please tell me that’s not really your backup plan.”
“Nope. But it’s actually not a bad idea as a last resort. Single Girl Rule #28: All girls should try at least one threesome. You’ll need to try it eventually. But we can talk about that later. My backup plan is to find a way to talk to some more people in the Society. Didn’t Frankie mention something about him being a total player?”
“Yes.” My stomach did a little backflip at the thought of him with other women.
