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"Nope, too needy." Swipe. "Too vulgar." Swipe. "What the hell? Did her closet get mauled by a tiger? I can see all her assets for crying out loud." Hard swipe.
"Seriously? ‘Must be able to keep up with my lifestyle’? Classic gold digger." He swiped left again. Groaning, Lukas shut down the app and put away his phone.
He liked his women with at least a modicum of modesty and self-respect. Leaving a little something to the imagination wasn't wrong. Besides, whatever happened to people wanting companionship in a relationship? It’s what he craved the most, to be honest.
There was never a reason for him to seek a girlfriend other than that special intimacy of a dark room, soft music, a nice movie, and holding his significant other close. He swallowed, licking his lips. Again, he picked up his phone. This time, Jaxon unexpectedly called as he was opening the app. As Jaxon explained the situation, Lukas grinned.
Sitting at his computer, he pulled up the generic email that was penned by Jaxon just before they left for their trip to Korea. Everything had been set up so that it would take the Li family years to heal from the damages.
He went back to scrolling as the letters continued to systematically go out to the Li family contacts all over the world. With permission from Callum, they were allowed total destruction if things went south for Markus and Jaxon.
Looks like it went south.
His father's ringtone blasted through the otherwise quiet room, where the only other sound was the occasional hum of the computer fan. Picking up the device, Lukas breathed an exasperated hello into the receiver.
"I take it they called," his father asked with a husky laugh.
Lukas nodded, "Yeah. Jax sounded pretty pissed, so I guess his revelation of being gay wasn't as respected or accepted as it was here."
"It doesn't matter who thinks what about them. David looks like he's about to have a truckload of fun," Trace's voice held a gleeful edge to it.
Shaking his head, Lukas said, "Yeah, well, you don't exactly have an emotionless reaction to this either."
"Hey, that's my son out there too, brat. I'm just as worried. What if they send the Yakuza or something after them?" Trace growled.
Laughing at his father's choice of words, Lukas pulled up facts on the well-known gang. "Yakuza's Japanese, Dad."
"Triad, then."
"Chinese." Lukas laughed. "Organized crime in South Korea doesn't really exist, and their crime rate is one of the lowest in the world. Besides, Seoul is one of the safer cities in South Korea. Nothing is going to happen to them."
"Why do you sound impatient today?"
Lukas felt his face grow hot, "I have a date tonight."
"About time," he heard Robert grumble in the background. "Your dad has you on speaker, bro. Duck and cover!"
"Whatever," Lukas commented. "I'll be twenty in a few weeks, so he can kiss my pristine virgin ass for all I care."
David started laughing hysterically. "Oh my God. I can't believe you just said that, Luke."
"Now that I have the entire office in stitches, I'm hanging up. I got to get ready for tonight. Rob, any ideas?"
"Not a single one, kid. Have fun is all I can say," Robert stated. "If it goes south, drop me a line, and I'll meet you at The Underground."
Lukas murmured his agreement before disconnecting the call. If it went south? He wanted to scream. He knew it would go badly. It always did. No matter what he tried to do to salvage the night, it always went wrong.
Sitting at his laptop, he scrolled through his social media until he saw a post that rocked him to his core. Hannah March, his date, had posted about him online. Beneath it was a single comment from Sarah, his b***h of an ex.
"Not worth seeing this guy, Hannah. He's bad news. Abusive, too."
He counted down the seconds until another comment popped up, this one from Skylar. "I grew up with this guy—sweetest person ever, next to my little brother who the b***h above harassed."
Sarah: "He's a meanie and a man wore."
Cracking a can of beer, Lukas sat down at his computer and pulled up the site to watch the fireworks. With Sarah putting her two cents in the mix, he knew his date was going to back out.
Sky: "Meanie? Are you five? OMG, grow up. Oh, by the way, you missed a comma between 'meanie' and 'and'. Also, it's spelled w***e, not wore. How did you graduate school again? Did you work your ass off or just twerk it hard enough to impress the teachers?"
Lukas laughed, nearly spilling his beer. Frowning at his phone, he took a breath and dialed Hannah's number. One ring, two, then: "The number you have reached is no longer in service. Please check the number and try again."
He growled, knowing he had been ghosted by yet another girl. Turning to his computer, he joined the conversation. "Hannah, I've never laid my hands on a woman, and I don't intend to start. Can we still meet?"
A few minutes passed before she posted a reply, "I'm sorry, Lukas. I've spoken with your ex, and she seemed like she was afraid of you for a reason."
He took a breath. Letting it out slowly, he wrote another comment. "Fine. It's not worth it if you're willing to listen to lies.”
“Hey, Sarah,” a guy chimed in, adding his two cents to the cascade of commentary. “I thought you were over your ex? You went out with me right after and didn't have any bruises.”
His phone rang right after, and an unknown number lit up the screen. Suspicious, he answered it. "Hello?"
"Lukas!"
"I'm deleting and blocking your contact information, Hannah. I'm not interested in a follower who can't think for herself and believes everything everyone else tells her." He stated darkly. "I need a woman able to think for herself, not a little girl playing a game."
She sobbed, "But, Lukas, we had plans!"
"You not only listened to my ex, but you ghosted me, changed your number, and now you want me to listen to you? I don't know what kind of head games you're into, but I don't play. Goodbye, Hannah. I wish you all the best." He said before he hung up and blocked her.
He watched the conversation, waiting for any indication that she'd been faking it.
'Thanks a f*****g lot, Sarah! Don't ever talk to me again!' Hannah wrote.
'What did I do? I saved you from him! He's pure evil, Hannah!'
Lukas, unable to hold it in any longer, set fire to the conversation. 'You not only stopped her date with me, but you've also been making my dating life practically non-existent. I went out with you when you were nineteen, and I was only seventeen because I thought you were actually a decent person. I found out the hard way that I was wrong. Then, you tried to break up my brother’s relationship because my gay best friend turned you down. You know what they say about Karma, right?'
Hacking into Sarah's profiles, he shut them down one by one, but not before deleting every picture she posted. It wasn't a personal jab, like what she'd done to him, but it was close enough. After all, most women only cared about how many likes their pictures or statuses got, and she spent a lot of time on all her forums.
Once more, his phone rang. Checking the time, he noted that a mere two hours had passed since he'd last spoken to Jaxon.
"Hey, man."
"Dad must have applied more pressure than required. I got everything I asked for, and one of my uncles just called asking me to meet his family for dinner."
"I got you. OTD is shutting down in four, three, two, one, and done," Lukas replied. He groaned, "She's at it again."
Jaxon snarled, "What a b***h! I hope you got her good this time. You take the legal route far too often."
"Not exactly," Lukas confided. "I hacked and shut down all her social media accounts, deleted all her pictures, posts, and everything else she bragged about. I'm expecting a call from my father soon if she complains to her father like I know she will."
Markus chuckled, "Proud of you, little brother. If she's an internet socialite, you just ruined her."
"She ruined another date for me," Lukas moaned. "This girl was amazing, too. Smart, modest, beautiful, and working an internship at the local Cisco. Perfektion!"
Holding the phone away from his ear, Lukas waited.
"Good grief, Luke," Jaxon groaned before yelling, "Perfect. Does. Not. Exist!"
Markus chuckled again, "You know it's useless to tell him that, Jax. He believes that everything is perfectly imperfect. A true gentleman."
"So I ended up with the brother that has a superiority complex while the other is out of my league? That sucks!"
Lukas laughed as he heard Markus grumble about some people being hard to talk sense into. "It's not hard to talk sense into anyone if you have a brick."
"True," Markus commented. "Wish me luck, Lukie. I'm meeting the family for the second time today."
Smirking, Lukas nodded. "No worries, brother. You got the best kind of backup in the world. Jaxon's ruthless when you piss him off."
"You're only telling me now? Why not warn me before I got my ass handed to me?"
"Cause I asked him not to," Jaxon preened. "He also knew that I was going to say no to you when you first asked me to marry you. You don't have to be religious to be family-oriented."
Lukas felt a bit better after bantering with his brother and best friend. Powering down his computer, he stripped out of his clothes and yawned.
- Writer
