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Chapter 3

The New Concept

“This menu isn't going to work,” I said putting it down on the paper on the desk and sliding it over to Shi Shi.

“I have the best cooks on the island,” Shi Shi stated.

She was being defensive. She was the manager of the Five Family Restaurant and Grill. I would understand her being defensive. It made sense that she was defensive. She crossed her arms and stared over at Dore as though wanting some support. Dore seemed to be staring into space in the chair next to her.

“Ms. Atwood, the reviews have been pretty low,” Jakoby stated in the meeting room.

He handed her a stack of reviews with net promoter scores that were far below our competitors. Jakoby had to be like the world's best assistant. Somehow he managed to get in there and pull up all these numbers before I could say anything.

“You don't have to call these girls that,” I told Jakoby shaking my head, “You are older than them. First thing that changes here is that we drop the military thing. Things are going to be a little less formal.”
“Ok, Shi Shi...” Jakoby directed herself, “No one likes the taco salad.”

Shi Shi looked shocked. I wasn't sure if it was the fact that someone under her was calling her by her first name at work or whether it was the idea of people not liking her taco salad. She was breathing heavily. She looked like she was going to explode.

“This was Exo's favorite,” she said.

“My brother's dead. He won't be eating at your restaurant anymore,” I stated, “Get some new flavors in here. People come to Moreen Island for ethnic flare. They want some Island food. Taco salad is not it.”

She had tears in her eyes. I couldn't believe it. I had really struck a nerve with her.

She rolled her eyes up and turned to the side a little.

“I'll change it.”

I couldn't believe she was being so difficult to change.

“How had Dore been doing at the bar?” I asked Jakoby.

He handed me papers, “Good actually. The bar is performing well. Profit margins have been increasing a lot lately.”

Dore smiled a little bit.

“Good work,” I said to her, “What I'm confused about is that if the bar is doing so well, how are we losing money over all.”
“The hotel. People aren't coming in as much. We owe people.”

“And whose in charge of that...”

“Ms. Boss...I mean Micki. Micki is in charge of that,” Jakoby stated.

“And where is Micki?” I asked shaking my head, “I wanted to meet with everyone. I thought I made that clear.”

The girls looked at each other. It had been thirty minutes that we had been discussing putting the resort back in the green and Micki hadn't been heard from. Dore had that lost look again as though she wanted to stay out of it. Shi Shi seemed still really caught up in her own feelings to give a damn about what was going on with this.

Just as I said that I heard the door open. In walked Micki. She had on her high fashion summer dress that fell down to the floor with her oversized shades and purse. She hadn't even knocked before entering the door. She dragged a chair loudly from across the room. Jakoby and I just kind of stared at each other. Could someone be so rude?

“You're late.”
“Someone changed my room...took a while to unpack last night,” Micki said with her shades still on, “I was...tired...”
She looked highly irritated. It wasn't her room. It was my brother's room. What made her think she deserved to stay in the penthouse suite after he was dead and gone. I didn't even get into it with her though. It wasn't worth it.

“Don't be late again.”

“Or...what...”

She was looking me dead in my eyes. The tension was definitely high in the room. Dore looked like she wanted to jump out of her skin and just run away at that moment. I stared Micki down though. She was probably used to everyone being so intimidated by her. She had that 'mean girl' look with the short haircut and strong elegant jaw line. I remembered when she looked like a toad though.

“Jakoby, I want you to go with Micki and audit her uses of the finances from the hotel. Every penny that she doesn't account for I want docked from her pay.”

Shi Shi let out a little bit of a gasp. Dore looked hell of surprised too. I was sending the three Grace's in for a headspin. Micki looked like a statue. She looked like she was standing in for the mean bitch off of The Devil Wears Prada. Her face was priceless. It got wrinkled up and her mouth got really tight. For a second I saw a small glimpse of the ugly duckling she used to be.

Micki's voice got really deep, “You can't do that. I own 10 percent of this resort.”

Jakoby shook his head, “He actually can. As general manager he has that right. Exo Bah had the same rights he just never used them. I can show you in the paperwork if you'd like...”

Jakoby was standing up for me. Hell I hadn't known if I could do it or not but I was sure Jakoby knew all the legalities about the business. He was smart like that. Luckily I guess he was right.

“Who invited the help?” Micki said staring Jakoby down.

“I did. Now why don't you show Jakobi all your paperwork and if I were you I'd be real thorough or you'll be on a struggle mission paying back all the money I believe you squandered this year.”

Micki was staring me down...hard!

Damn this girl knew how to stare someone down. She had managed to take off her glasses. If my coercion worked on girls I would have told her to stop looking at me.

“Micki, are you ready to go start the audit now.”

Micki finally got up and looked him in his eyes. She was so damn tall that they stood the same height but she still managed to give him a look as though she was looking down on him.

“That is Ms. Boss to you.”

The two walked out of the room.

“Shi Shi...” I said looking at her, “I know change is hard but this is best for all of us. I'm doing this for the five families.”

She wasn't even looking at me. It looked these girls were NOT used to being turned down or ordered around. Now I understood what Jakoby meant by they used to run over Exo.

“Are we done here?” she asked.

“You can go.”
She got up tossing her long hair as she walked out. Out of the three girls she seemed the most physically attractive to me. She had an innocent look with long hair that went all the way to her butt. I remembered Shi Shi was once called the bald headed grimlin. Her hair looked like pubic hair on top of her head. She couldn't even brush through it. Now her hair was longer than any girl I'd seen and it was no weave. It was all hers. It was silky smooth like an Asian's hair too.

Dore looked at me when it was just her and I in the room.

“You're a madman,” she stated raising her eyebrow, “You just told Micki Boss that you were going to dock her pay. The last man that made Micki Boss mad ended up developing mysterious warts all over his body...”

I raised an eyebrow, “Say what now?”

She put her hands over her mouth, “Oops I shouldn't have said that.”
“She's been using magic?”

“Like I said, you teach me your trick and I'll teach you ours,” she stated, “My offer is still open.”

I nodded, “Like I said before. I'll think about it.”

She didn't believe me when I said that I didn't know how my power worked. Its not that I didn't want to show her...it was honestly that I didn't know what the fuck to show her. Men just did what I wanted them to do when I looked them in the eyes...sometimes...on occasion.

I had to find a way to teach her something though. I needed to know what happened when my brother died and the only way she was going to let go of that secret was if I gave her a fair trade.

“Use your arms to pretend-paddle into position, and, once your arms have been extended fully, tuck your knees into your chest and hop to your feet on top of your board. Balance and stabilize yourself with your arms out to the sides. No hold your arms like this.”
It was the weekend of that week. Jakoby was teaching me how to surf. We hadn't even made it to the water yet. We were just on the sand.

He came up behind me and showed me positioning. He grabbed my arms and extended them and then grabbed my waist and held it steady. The way he grabbed my waist was so fucking strong and sexy. How the fuck did he manage to have went through puberty and get so sexy but still maintain that great personality?

“Why don't we just go in the water and have it?”

“You are so reckless,” he stated shaking his head, “What will I do if you got hurt? That'll be on me. I'm going to teach you to be more patient.”

“I need you to teach me how you got those fucking abs...”

He was amazing. He had his shirt off and it was the first time that I saw him with his shirt off. He was so skinny as a kid. I guess that was normal but he had bulked up and got hot over time. He laughed a little bit when I said that. He was amused by me.

“Patience,” he said and shook his head, “Stop looking you are making me blush.”
“That's a good thing.”

He was really blushing. It was kind of cute.

“You hungry?”

He was trying to change the subject. It was clear. I didn't want to push too hard though. I mean he was my friend before anything and he was a damn good one at that. He was just SO fucking sexy. It was hard. Even as he led me back towards the hotel I couldn't help looking at his butt.

He gave me a warm smile as we made it back to the hotel and we ended up going to Shi Shi's restaurant. The Five Family restaurant was a tropical sort of themed restaurant. It had wooden art and a huge statue.

“Table for two? Um...oh...oh, Mr. Bah, right this way. No wait. I'm sorry about that,” the host said.

He was kind of cute.

“No no problem at all.”

He lead us to our seats. He was a dark skinned mocha boy. I wondered if he was straight but the looks that he was giving me already seemed like he might not have been. I wasn't completely sure. I had the worst gaydar. It was honestly because I never noticed.

“Do you have to gawk at every guy?” Jakoby asked.

He said it in a joking way but it was kind of embarrassing as we sat.

“I wasn't gawking at him. He was just cute. Sorry for my gayness.”

“You keep making it into a gay think. It's not about that,” Jakoby said a little more serious then when he initially started, “I just feel like you need more of a standard.”

“Standard like what...you tell me...”

Jakoby smiled a little bit. He still had his shirt off but as I looked at him up and down he seemed a little self aware. He pulled his shirt from over him and pulled it back over his head. I could almost laugh. I wondered if he thought I was teasing him like I did all the other guys. I wondered if he even noticed me in that kind of way. Jakoby was hard to read.

“What kind of guys do you like?” Jakoby asked.

“I like them a little taller than me. I like tight asses, relatively big dicks and nice smiles. It'll help if they smell good.”

“See...Gene,” Jakoby stated laughing.

“What?”

“That's not what I'm talking about. I don't mean physically. I mean personality. What do you like in a guys personality?”

Fuck...I never thought of personality. I sat there sitting.

“Why do you do this to me?” I asked.

“What?”

“You make me think about shit I never thought about,” I stated.

He laughed at me. He always found me so amusing. It was like he would ask me the most simple question that I never thought about and completely stumped me.

“Think about it.”

“Guys have always been like...puppets to me. They do what I want. I never really looked at their personality. Honestly only guys I liked were you and my granddad.”

“You never talk about your grandparents.”
“He died when I was five. People don't seem to live long in my family.”

They get involved with practicing magic that they shouldn't have gotten involved with and they end up dying. My granddad actually burned him and my grandmother alive trying to do a spell. That's what my mother said.
Luckily at that moment someone came out to serve us. I hated having deep conversations with Jakoby. He knew how to push my buttons and get me all emotional again. I'd probably start crying like a baby after a few minutes of Jakoby talk. Then he'd look at me and rub me on my back and comfort me and make me feel like the biggest loser.

“I'll be serving them today.”
It was actually Shi Shi who came over. She excused the waiter. The wait had just been a few minutes but hell I was the owner of the place and she was just the manager.

Shi Shi presented us with menu.

“Are you going to spit in my food?”
“I'm going to prove you wrong,” she stated, “I don't fail at anything. An Atwood is good as any Bah and my dad won't have me fail.”
“Your dad...”

“He was at the funeral...you didn't see him?”

The Atwoods were the most annoying family if I had to choose. There were a ton of them. Shi Shi had a few younger brothers and sisters. They always came to the Five Family reunion and outnumbered everyone else 20 to 1. There were Atwood cousins and brothers. Everyone's name was Atwood as far as I was concerned and only about a handful of them actually knew a damn thing about magic even though they all felt like they were the most dedicated family to the Wicca religion.

“I must have missed him,” I stated.

“This menu looks great Shi Shi,” Jakoby stated, “Caribbean Holiday shrimp, tropical salad, Mango Pina Colada smoothies. Oh wow...Macadamian nut crusted Mahi Mahi...we'll have two of those.”

Shi Shi nodded, “I'll have them right out.”

She was trying to show me out. It was clear. I wasn't sure where she was coming from. Maybe she just felt like I had embarrassed her or something. She walked away flicking her hair like a horse almost slapping me in the face with it. She was definitely upset over me saying that he food sucked. Now everything was OVERLY tropical. Hell she may have to pull back on the theme just a little bit but I was scared to be the one to tell her if she was already acting like this.

“She's a bit of an extremist,” Jakoby stated reading my mind.

“I hadn't noticed...”

“Look at all the art...creepy Island stuff.”
“Do you see that statue over there Jakoby?”
I pointed to her. It was a bronze statue. It was a body of a man with the antlered head. The normal people had no idea but there was witchcraft statues all around this place.

“That thing is creepy, what is it?” Jakoby asked.

“The horned god,” I stated, “He is a god of a group of people who worship the Wiccan religion. It is the religion that witchcraft is based off of. He carries souls to the underworld. It is through him witches were able to contact spirits and bring them back to do things for them.”

Jakoby's eyes widened.

I could imagine Massie's face if she was here listening to me say this. I could imagine my mother. They would be wanting to tear out my tongue. It was interesting to see how people responded when I told them things like that.

“Horned god? Underworld? Sounds like the devil man.”

I shook my head, “Completely different. Christianity used some of the symbology but the wiccan religion isn't all bad.”
“Please don't me you don't believe in that hocus pocus crap,” he said, shaking his head.

“Oh no...no, I just read a lot about it. In college.”

“Good,” he said looking uncomfortable, “Because that crap goes against God. It says it in the bible. I don't like that kind of stuff.”

Well at least I knew I wouldn't be telling him about MY little secret. His reaction was clearly freaked out. I expected it though. From what I remembered his family was devote Christians. The idea of worshipping something else seemed so foreign to him. I didn't blame him. Witchcraft was dark. It scared me too and I had been raised into it.

The food was back out before we knew it and it had gotten a little awkward. On the other side of the room I could see Ms. Atwood just staring at her. I could see all the Atwoods in her eyes. They were so needy of attention and always had that need to PROVE themselves worthy. Maybe that is why they had so many of them because they always hoped that one of them would be the next big witch doctor...even bigger than a Bah. Shi Shi of course was the oldest kid in that family.

“It's good,” Jakoby stated, “If we can get the hotel in order, the resort will be in good shape.”
“I'll put you in charge of that. If you have any issues from Micki let me know.”

“What is your relationship with them?”

“What do you mean?”

“The Atwoods, the Wrights and the Bosses. What does your family have to do with them? A lot of people don't get it. What's with the five family thing?”

You don't want to know Jakoby. You don't want to know.

“Our families just go way back,” I stated.

We go way back to an immortal who was staying with the Boss family. The idea of seeing Old Lady creeped me out. I didn't even want to talk about her.

“She creeps me out...Micki that is. Bad things happen to people she doesn't like.”

“Were her and my brother...fighting at all before he died?”

“No...they were in love from all I could tell,” he stated, “You don't think...no...there's no way possible that Micki had anything to do with your brother. They loved each other. They were obsessed with one another. Besides he died from natural causes I heard.”

Natural causes my ass...

“Just don't get on her bad side,” I stated shaking my head, “If she gives you issue just come to me and I'll deal with her.”

If anything happened to Jakoby I wouldn't know what to do. It was crazy that I felt so protective of him but hell I didn't have much of anything to be protective about. He was about it.

“Ok...”

Shi Shi didn't even wait till we finished, “What do you think?”

Her tone wasn't friendly. It was demanding. It was like 'you better like it now or else'. It was kind of scary how extreme her personality was. She needed to be the best. She had a dozen Atwoods looking up to her.

“Good.”

She tossed her hair, “I thought so. Humph.”

I was in the front of the hotel later that day. The sun was kind of hot in the sky again but the tropical breeze came through the palm trees and hit my face. I stood on the front patio of the huge resort. Below me a group of tourists were being lead around the historic grounds by one of the resort employees. I could tell he had said something about me by how all of them turned to me almost immediately. I might as well have been part of the history. I waved at them trying to keep it friendly. Hell I was a manager now. I had an image to uphold.

That was when I saw HIM.

He pulled up to the hotel in his motorcycle. I hadn't seen him in the hotel before but he looked around my age maybe a little older. He couldn't have been any older than 25. He had on a leather jacket with nothing underneath and some cut off blue jeans. He had on boots that looked way too hot and unappealing for this weather. I could tell he must have come from somewhere else dressing like that. I thought I was a little edgy but this guy was fucking sexy. He didn't care that his pants were hanging almost all the way off his ass. His loud motorcycle seemed to scare the tourists.

Immediately I wanted to know what his dick tasted like.

It was this weird urge that I got sometime. I had to have him. The attendants parked his motorcycle and he walked into the building walking right past me to check in. As he did his eyes looked over at me.

When our eyes connected I mouthed off the words, “Come here...”

He kept walking though.

Shit...maybe he hadn't heard me. Either way it hadn't worked. Fuck that. He was sexy. He had this whole bad boy thing about him that seemed so hot. When I looked at him I saw a brown skin Chris Brown look alike with this natural badass edge about him. Guys like that were the BEST fucks. He looked so aggressive.

I followed him to the front desk.

I forgot the names of the guys at the front desk but I stood right next to them at the front desk.

“Can we help you Mr. Bah?”
“No you have a customer...looking to check in. Help him.”

I wasn't even sure if I coerced them to do it or if I just asked them. I was too focused on my new hotel guest here. The guy looked at me but didn't much acknowledge me. He had a little scruffle under his chin. He didn't have hard abs like Jakoby or anything. He was slim but managed to work slim in a very sexy way. He had this long dragon tattoo that filled out his chest. It was the only tat I saw but it was huge.

“Mr. Bah...interesting...” he stated.

“Is it?” I asked, “You must have known my brother.”

“No...I just think our families know each other.”

' “My family is...popular. Well what brings you to our Island...you from here?”

I wanted to coerce him right now. I wanted to put such a sick spell on him and have him take me on that bike bend me over and fuck me hard on that motorcycle of his. That was what the FUCK I wanted to do. He licked his lips in this effortless way too. He knew he was sexy. He was confident as hell. It was SUCH a turn on.
“Trying to win back my ex,” he said laughing, “Corny right?”

Yes boy...that was corny. It was no matter though. I didn't want your head. I wanted your body...
“No, I think that's great. Well how about I give you a personal tour...we can start at the bar. I like to make sure that people here at my resort have a very good experience.”

He smiled.

“You own the place?”
“Yeah.”

“Well hell...how can I turn down that offer then?” he asked, “Especially from the infamous Bah heir.”

“Why don't you get check in. Guys can you check in Mr...Mr...I'm sorry I never got your name.”

“My name is Orion Ferris.”

Ferris.

Our eyes connected almost immediately. Fuck.

My heart beat faster. Remember how I told you there was a fifth family but the family ended up trying to take over everyone. They ended up killing my father. Well that family had name. That family name was Ferris.

And I knew almost immediately that SHIT had just hit the fan in the guise of a biker boy named Orion.