The Last Option
Chapter Fifty-Eight: Knowing the Target

"I have to confess that it seems to me a rather difficult plan to carry out, but feasible," Phil Wilcox told Bernard in his office outside the Southern Hilltop Gold. "To make Rebecca Hicks fall in love might be a little difficult for you, especially since you're not the playboy type, which is what she likes. No offense, but I don't think you're her type."

"But I'm willing to be, and that's why I'm coming to you," Bernard said, determined to convince him to go along with his plan. "I need to pose as a billionaire like her, get her attention, and after that, do what I have to do. It would just be a matter of making contact. The rest will be given by itself."

"And how would I help you in all this?"

"As you well know, I have some money saved from the payments Nathan made to us for the pregnancy, and once you gave Anthony and me some money for the killer that we didn't use completely. That money won't be enough to make me look like a millionaire. That's where you intervene."

"That is, you need more money."

Bernard said nothing, and Phil got up from his chair, taking a few steps around his desk.

"How much would we be talking about?"

"Enough to make a good impression on her."

"Will you buy her jewelry or something?"

"No. That would be trivial. It would have to be something more original, which I'll think of when I'm with her."

"Okay. I'll think of an amount and I will transfer it to your account."

"Thank you, Phil. Consider it a loan. You won't lose it."

"Don't worry about that. Worry about not failing in your plan."

"Any advice you can give me? Since you know Rebecca Hicks."

Phil walked over to his office window, looking out, and thinking a bit about Bernard's question.

"She's a very difficult person," Phil began. "She is capricious, manipulative, self-centered and somewhat promiscuous."

"Promiscuous?" Bernard turned to look at Phil when he heard that, he looked worried.

"Not the way you're thinking," Phil quickly clarified. "I don't think that's the best word to describe her behavior with men, but is pretty close. She's had a lot of lovers, men of her own social standing and sometimes much younger than she is, whom she's tucked in and taken advantage of until they're no good to her in bed or she gets someone better. Lately she has taken a greater liking to hustlers or pimps, because she can manipulate them with money and handle them as she pleases. Casanova or Playboy types don't appeal to her much because they are more experienced at the game she likes to play, but on occasion she has been seen with one for convenience." "Convenience?"

"Yes. She sometimes uses them to gain access to other women of the same social position to achieve agreements, contracts and benefits for her company, the only time she intervenes in the affairs of Southern Hilltop Gold, since she doesn't like to manage it or be in charge of it. He has always delegated management functions to his brother, and now that he's gone, he delegates them to Louis Randall. Maybe you will accomplish what you are thinking of doing. Posing as a millionaire might get her attention and she will think about increasing her fortune, if you can get close to her. She once said at a family gathering that she liked bold, decisive, self-assured and focused men, but don't believe me anyway." Bernard thought about Phil's words. It was quite a bit of information to begin with.

Just then, the intercom on the desk rang. Phil returned to his chair to answer it. It was his secretary, letting him know that the person he was waiting for had arrived. Phil ordered her to send him in. "I'd better leave you alone," Bernard said, getting up from his chair.

"Oh, no, my friend!" Phil waved him back to his seat. "I think this might interest you, and very much so. I want you to listen to this person."

Phil's secretary ushered in a somewhat athletic and good-looking young man.

"John!" Phil greeted him with a hug, "It's good to see you. How have you been? How are your parents?"

"They're fine, Phil," the young man replied. "They're fine. They send their regards."

"Come, I want to introduce you to someone," Phil said, asking him to follow him to the desk and then pointing to Bernard. "This is Bernard Sullivan, the person I told you about."

Bernard stood up and shook the young man's hand, a little intrigued by Phil's words.

"This is John Rivers," Phil continued. "He's the son of friends and clients of mine." "Nice to meet you, John," Bernard said, a little suspiciously.

"How do you do?" John greeted him with a smile. "So you want to be next on Rebecca Hicks' list. Good luck with that!"

Bernard looked at Phil, somewhat disgruntled and confused.

"He had the "good fortune" to meet her out there," Phil hastened to explain. "When you called me telling me what you were planning to do, I contacted him, so he could give you some information about her."

"When I found out who she was I couldn't believe it, man!" John sat in the chair next to Bernard, still wearing his huge grin, which showed his white, well-groomed teeth. “The bitch left me stranded in Paris! With your pardon, Phil, but I can't replace another epithet for her."

Phil held up a hand as a sign that he didn't care, and John went on.

"She seemed disinterested at first, but when she saw me dancing with other girls and saw my sexy moves, she became interested. I had already had my eye on her, as she looked wealthy, just the way I like them, and when I bought her a drink of what she was having, I ended up bringing her down. She was with a guy who looked bored, but within two hours she was alone. She had sent him away!"

"John may seem like a bad boy, half-talking and carefree, but he's not like that," Phil tried to make the boy look good in front of Bernard, but it was too late. Bernard already knew what kind of man that guy was.

"Thanks for that, Phil, but I'm no jewel, and I'm clear on that," John grimaced, "I don't care what they think. My family has a lot of money, but they don't share it with me because of the way I am, that's why I like to take advantage of rich broads like Rebecca Hicks, who's a real bitch, man, and get what money I can out of them, if they let me."

"But tell me more about her," Bernard wanted something more concrete about his target. "Why did she leave you stranded in Paris?"

"Due to a little carelessness on my part," John said casually and leaned back in his chair. "I missed my hand with one of the "exclusive" Paris products," he accompanied the word by raising his index and middle fingers in the air, "and I lost consciousness. According to her, when I was being carried half-dead to the hotel room, two guys tried to get rough with her, and that's why she kicked me out the next day. Maybe the bitch had sex with those guys and was walking around very quiet like that. She likes wild and rough sex, with spankings, beatings and things like that. Seeing she was like that, it occurred to me to bring up the possibility of having a threesome with some of the girls I was with before her and she refused. In that respect, she is very traditional."

"I imagine she does drugs too," Bernard said.

"Of course she does, man, but she's controlled. She knows she can lose control with it, and she only uses it for fun in the moment, but no more. Just once, a little, and that's it."

"And how did you not know she was an acquaintance of Phil's?"

"I'll answer that question for you," Phil interjected. "Before I was the exclusive attorney for Southern Hilltop Gold and Nathan Hicks, I was in private practice and came to have many clients, including John's parents. I keep in touch with them on occasion, and advise them on legal matters. Recently, I was called in for a consultation and found they were sending money to John in Paris to get him back, because he was stranded there. They told me what happened to him, and when I found out that Rebecca Hicks was involved I thought the world was really very small."

"So small, it fits in a handkerchief," John said. "When Phil told me he knew that bitch I was shocked."

Bernard was getting tired of hearing the word the boy used to refer to Rebecca. He was always aware that a woman could be anything she wanted to be, but that didn't mean she should be denigrated in that way. Insults don't. "Please try not to say that word anymore when you refer to her," Bernard warned him. "She may be anything, but that doesn't give you the right to insult her and put her in a bad light in front of everyone, no matter what she has done to you." "I'm sorry, dude," John said cynically, his broad grin returning. "Phil said you want to do something with her. What do you plan to do to her? If I may ask, of course."

"I don't think that's any of your business," Bernard said, getting up to leave. "However, I appreciate you telling me about your experience with her. I'll keep in mind everything you told. If Phil decides to tell you what I'm going to do, I hope you won't intervene at all. I wouldn't want to get you out of the way the hard way."

Phil thought that perhaps it had been a mistake to invite the boy to the meeting with Bernard, and he regretted his poor judgment in doing so. The desire to make Rebecca and Louis pay for what they did to Nathan and Norma that he shared with Bernard, may have clouded his judgment.

"Relax, dude, it's no big deal," John raised his hands in front of him as a sign of surrender. "Don't freak out. I just hope whatever you're going to do to her isn't something much worse than calling her a bitch."

"Where is she now?" Bernard asked Phil, ignoring John's comment.

"When she changes cities she always notifies me in case there is any important business with the company," Phil replied, a little embarrassed with Bernard. "Right now he's just moved into one of the suites at the Armani Hotel on the thirty- ninth floor of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai."

"Damn it!" John exclaimed. "She couldn't wait to get there to dump me? That bi-!"

John restrained himself from saying the derogatory word again to Bernard, who was silent, thinking he had an impressive challenge ahead of him.

"I see you're thinking hard about the mess you're getting yourself into," Phil said. "Are you still willing to go through with it?"

Bernard just gave a faint smile.

"Just send me the money."

And he left the office.