The Billionaires (#1)

12 || Biting Heads

"No woman in her right state of mind would speak to you the way those two women did unless you screwed them." Cameron Parker commented as he settled down on the couch in MJ's office.

Cameron was a thirty-year-old man who still got into a lot of trouble. He looked like a troublemaker, and anyone who had eyes could never miss that fact about him. He was wearing black skinny jeans, a white silk shirt, white Timberland boots, and a long silver chain hanging around his neck. His dark black hair was a mess, and his lips were set into a pout. His grey orbs snapped to Jorge when he did not reply to his comment. "s**t! You screwed them both, didn't you?" He asked, but Jorge did not answer; he just sighed and plopped down on the couch.

David Botha yawned and looked at his watch while standing on his feet. “I should probably get going. I have an early flight to Australia tomorrow morning, so I need all the rest I can get.” He said, rubbing his eyes. “It’s damn hard shifting between time zones after every hour.” He muttered lazily.

"Wait for me, I'll just go and freshen up a bit," Cameron said and got up from the couch.

"You don't even know where the bathrooms are," Jorge muttered as Cameron walked to the door.

"No, but I know how to read and talk," Cameron smirked and walked out of the office, and as soon as he left, David and Jorge fell into thick silence; still not used to each other's company.

“I can’t take him with me; I have a job to get to.” David said, but Jorge just covered his eyes and muttered, “Sure.”

David sighed from frustration as this was how it was between them when they went to get Cameron out of prison; they travelled in silence, and the only time they spoke was when Jorge asked why Cameron was arrested. "For what it's worth, Billings; ek is jammer," David said, and Jorge looked up at him with tired but indifferent eyes. "I am sorry for doing my job accordingly. But that's it; I was doing my job…you asked me to look for your sister, and I looked for her and found her." David shrugged. "I do my job very well, and 99% of the time, I am right, and I'm pretty sure I was right about your sister too."

Jorge scoffed. “Or maybe that 1% is my sister.” He deadpanned.

"The 1% does not exist," David said smugly. "I am never wrong, and if you don't believe me when I tell you that I saw your sister thirteen years ago in the streets of London; homeless and pregnant, then you should probably hire another investigator to reinvestigate her, or ask her yourself because we both know you have never asked her." David challenged, and Jorge's back stiffened at the suggestion as he looked at David with cold burning eyes that would have scared anyone away.

However, David did not back down; he stepped forward and stood in front of Jorge. "Your sister disappeared for three years and showed up at the age of eighteen with this big business idea, and you just bought into it without asking any questions," David said and slipped his hands into his pockets. "You had no relatives in London and your father was in the USA at the time; where do you think your sister was all this time?" He asked and Jorge gulped. "If you are so sure that I made a mistake- ask her," David said before walking out of the office.

Unable to handle the truth in David’s words and the possibility of him being right about MJ; Jorge walked to the stand and took out a bottle of whiskey and gulped down the drink from the bottle. He groaned and shook his head slightly at the effect of the alcohol before setting it back on the stand. He strolled to MJ’s chair and sat down, and then he started to massage his temples in frustration.

As much as he hated to admit it, Jorge knew that somewhere in the lines, David had a point. MJ had run away from home at the age of fifteen, and after a month without a sign or word from her, a missing persons' case was filed. Jorge took long to report the case because he thought MJ was staying at her friend's house since she was in a bad state, only to discover that MJ's one and only best friend went overseas when they transitioned to high school and that she had been gone for three years. After searching for two months with no results, Jorge hired his best friend's friend, David Botha, to search for her. He had thought of all the possible places MJ could have gone, and London happened to be one of her favourite parts of the world; that was the last place David searched for the whole year until he came home one day bearing some news. He told Jorge that he had seen MJ in London and she was pregnant, but that was not all; she was homeless.

When Jorge did not believe this, David arranged for them to go there, but there was no trace of MJ in the streets of London when they arrived, and when they asked people on the streets about her; no one knew anything about a homeless and pregnant fifteen-year-old girl. This infuriated Jorge, but David insisted that he saw her, and this turned things for the worse between them.

Jorge continued to search, but after a year went by and there was still no sign of MJ, he lost hope and gave up. However, after full two years, MJ showed up a year later and told him about her new business venture. When he tried to get information out of her, she tried to leave, so he dropped the case. They returned to London together after a month of staying in Cape Town, then they started working on Billings Corp., and up until this day, he still did not know where MJ was for those three years.

“Hey, where is Dave? I thought he was going to wait for me.” Cameron asked. It had been thirty minutes since he left for the bathroom and was only coming back now.

"That took long," Jorge commented.

"Yeah, I ran into Blondie somewhere downstairs," Cameron said with a smug smile and threw himself on the couch.

“You went downstairs to get someone to show you the bathroom? What happened to ‘I can read’?” Jorge raised an eyebrow at him.

“Blondie showed me more than the bathroom; why the hell do you think I took so long?” Cameron laughed.

Jorge pressed his lips into a thin line. "Cameron, you just don't want to grow up, do you?" He asked angrily. "This is exactly why Logan refused to bail you out; you just never learn!" He snapped before he realized what he had just done. "Shit." He muttered under his breath and covered his face with his palms, and sighed. He peeked through his fingers and caught sight of Cameron's face.

“Logan refused to bail me out?” Cameron asked in a whisper, obviously hurt by the revelation.

Jorge flinched at the realization of his damage. "Cameron-"

“Logan wanted to keep me locked up?” Cameron asked, his voice betraying him. “My own brother?” He whispered as he started to pace around the office. Jorge just stared at his desk and kept quiet. He promised David that Cameron would never find out about Logan, but he had let it slip. “And here I was, thinking that I should ring my brother and thank him for saving me. I thought he sent you and David to bail me out because he couldn’t make it, but I guess was wrong.” Cameron laughed bitterly and looked at Jorge. “I was f*****g wrong.”

“Look, Came, let it go, okay? What matters now is that you are out. Go home.” Jorge sighed. The damage was already done and there was nothing he could do now, Cameron had to accept fate and move on.

“Home? Which home?” Cameron snapped. “Home to the same house where my brother who wanted to keep me in prison lives? I’m not going there.”

"It doesn't matter who else lives in it; it is still your home," Jorge said.

“That place stopped being a home to me a long time ago. That house is just simply a house.” Cameron said quietly and ran a hand through his hair before strolling out of the office.

Jorge did not stop him. Cameron needed time to himself because no matter how troublesome he was, there was no use denying that there was a deeper truth in his words. You could build a multimillion-rand house and fill it with expensive furniture, but that could never make it a home; material things are not more worthy than a happy home filled with family, love, and pure happiness.

That was something the whole bunch of them lacked, and they had to learn the hard way that money could not buy happiness.

Jorge took in a deep breath and stood up from his chair. He took his car keys and phone and walked out of the office. He sauntered out of the elevator to the reception where Meryl was packing up her things. She gave him a small smile when she saw him standing in front of her desk. "Jorge." She greeted.

"Meryl." He nodded in acknowledgment. "How is she?" He asked, referring to Anita.

“She’s not handling this too well.” Meryl sighed and crossed her arms. Jorge gave her a questioning look, and she remembered that he did not know what was going on with Anita. “Anita found her biological brother, and he goes by the name Javier Mendoza.”

“Mendoza as in Mendoza International Arms Trading and Travel?” Jorge asked with wide eyes.

“Yup, that’s the one.” Meryl nodded.

“Wow. That’s huge.” Jorge breathed. “But why was Anita crying earlier?” He frowned.

"Well, they agreed to meet up for dinner tonight, and Anita was all excited about it, but he bailed on her," Meryl said with a heavy sigh.

"Well, that sucks," Jorge commented.

"Tell me about it, you should have seen Anita when his assistant called; she looked so crushed," Meryl said sadly. "Which reminds me; the guy you were with earlier…dark jeans, a white shirt and sneakers…dark hair and grey orbs?" Meryl said with a wave of her hand, and Jorge stiffened at the mention of Cameron.

“His name is Cameron, Meryl.” He said sharply, and Meryl flinched at his tone. “All you ever do is screw anything with a tail between its legs. How could you sleep with someone whose name you don’t even know, and in the office? Are you that desperate?” Jorge snapped, and by the time he finished, tears were rolling down Meryl’s face.

"Wow!" She laughed bitterly and shook her head in disbelief. "I'm so stupid, aren't I?" She asked sarcastically, and Jorge scoffed. "I was actually going to say that he looked a bit crushed when he left, so I called him a cab and told the driver that he was going to stay at the hotel close to the airport," Meryl said, wiping her tears. ‘But now that you mention it, I might as well tell you that he f****d Gina from the fifth floor out of her mind, and how did I know that? Because we had a threesome, after all, I screw anything and everything with a tail between its legs, don’t I?” She asked bitterly.

Jorge ran a hand down his face and sighed. He was doing a great job at hurting everyone today, but he had taken it too far this time around. “Meryl…” He started, but she was not having any of it.

“Save it, Jorge!” Meryl snapped and rushed out of the building.

“Fuck.”