Mr. Billionaire, I'm Back!

Chapter 24: Meeting Mr. Holland

Tina Holm was charged with Attempted Murder, Threats to do Bodily Harm, Vandalism, Possession of a Deadly Weapon, and Trespassing. And she was found guilty on all accounts. When Joanna heard the news, she was satisfied that that justice had been served. Unfortunately, the end of Joanna's troubles with Tina did not mark the end of her troubles at Devine's. Mike continued to try to drive her away, and she was tasked with meeting various partners for the company every day.

Mike had made it clear to Joanna that if she failed to make a deal, he would have grounds to dismiss her. Her deals were always successful, but it only made him more and more dissatisfied with her.

Mike expected that he would be the next president of Devine's, but Joanna's continued success caused him to begin to doubt himself. After being successful in business, the next most important thing was to be liked by your coworkers. Because Joanna was able to handle even the most difficult cases, her popularity grew while his seemed to diminish.

The employees at Devine's sensed the tension between Joanna and Mike, and they were all secretly watching to see how it would all play out.

One day, Steve came to her office and said, "Ms. Devine, the general manager told me that he had an appointment with Mr. Holland from the Blan Real Estate in the afternoon, but he had something urgent come up, and he can't make it. As you know, Blan Real Estate is an important client, so we can't postpone the meeting. Thus, you will have to fill in for him."

Joanna allowed herself an inward smile. Mr. Holland - the famous "big Lovelace" – was known to be a tough customer, and working with him generally came at a cost. If Mike said that he couldn't make it to the meeting, she was willing to go, but she suspected he was making excuses to get out of having to deal with the matter personally. She wondered, though, if her GM had confidence her, or if he was setting her up. Either way, it didn't matter, because she had an ace up her sleeve.

Joanna handed Steve a yellow manilla envelope, smiled sincerely, and said, "Okay, sure. Please give this document to Mayer in the Operations Department. I will clear up my afternoon so that we can meet with Mr. Holland."

***

Mr. Holland had insisted that the meeting take place at a room at Injoy Bar, and when Steve and Joanna arrived, he was already there waiting for them. They made their introductions. Then, as they sat down, Joanna realized that he was ogling her, and she felt her stomach turn with disgust. "Mr. Holland," she said. "Let's get down to business."

Mr. Holland laughed at Joanna's forward manner, and as he poured her a glass of red wine, he said, "Don't worry, Ms. Devine. We will get there. Why don't we have a drink first?"

Mr. Holland gave the wine to Joanna, and she smiled tentatively as she reached for the glass. Then, as her fingers wrapped around the stem, he ran his creepy fingers along the back of her hand. Joanna frowned as a chill of revulsion ran through her body, and before she had time to think about what she was doing, she emptied the contents of the glass into the man's fetid face.

For a second, Mr. Hollard was too surprised to react, but the moment passed, and shock was replaced by rage. "What the f**k was that?!?!" he shouted.

Joanna seemed utterly unaffected by his outrage. She smiled lightly and said, "I'm sorry, but you are just so ugly that… I couldn't help myself."

"You--" Mr. Holland so furious that words failed him. Nobody had ever treated him with such open disrespect. He saw that his anger wasn't getting him anywhere, though, so he forced himself to calm down. He wiped the wine from his face with a napkin and said, "I don't need this. It was your company that approached mine. Is this any way to approach a potential partner?"

Joanna shrugged, and she was about to say something, but Steve pulled at her sleeve in an attempt to persuade her to keep her mouth shut, or to at least think before she spoke again. Joanna turned and glared at Steve, and he let go of her shirt immediately. "I'm interested in doing business with you," she replied, "but that's it. I am not here to make friends!"

"You--" Again, Mr. Holland seemed to be at a loss for words. He no longer wanted to talk to her anyway. Now, he wanted to beat her. He raised his fist to punch her in the face, but before he could follow through, she grabbed the wine bottle off the table and swung it at his head. When the bottle was an inch away from his head, though, it stopped.

Mr. Holland flinched and squealed, and his face turned white. Joanna let the bottle fall to the floor, and it shattered into a million pieces. Then she turned to Steve and said, "Why don't you and Mr. Holland's assistant wait at the bar. I'd like for us to have some privacy.

Under normal circumstances, Steve would have argued, but he saw that Joanna meant business, and he didn't dare disregard her, order. He nodded and, without saying a word, led Mr. Holland's assistant out of the private room.

Once Joanna and Mr. Holland were alone, she smiled and said, "That was unpleasant, wasn't it? And unnecessarily so, if I do say so myself. Why don't we start over and get straight to business this time?"

Mr. Holland regained his composure and motioned for Joanna to go on.

Joanna took her phone out of her pocket, opened the gallery application, and pointed to a video thumbnail. Then she handed the phone to him and said, "Check this out!"

Mr. Holland took the phone suspiciously. He pressed play, and as the video began, his face turned pale. Almost immediately, he turned it off and glared at Joanna. "What the f**k?!?!" he growled. "I should strangle you right here and now!!!!"

The video was a hardcore s*x tape of him raping a girl, and until that moment, he hadn't even known that such a tape existed. If it became known that he was a rapist, his life would be ruined. Thus, murder seemed the most natural solution to his problem. He could tell by the look on Joanna's face, though, that she was not taking his threat seriously.

Joanna smirked and said, "You could do that - commit murder and all that unpleasantness - but it would be a mistake. There are duplicates of the video. If anything were to happen to me, they would go to the police."

Over the past five years, while Joanna had been abroad, she had planned and prepared everything she needed to protect herself, including all of the evidence that could be used in lawsuits or arguments with the bosses in Devine's business circle.

She had purchased the video from the victim over a year ago. The camera had been hidden inside a Nanny Cam.