EPILOGUE

Jonathan and Grace were laying in each other’s arms basking in the aftermath of their lovemaking.

“I don't ever want to experience that feeling again, Grace.” Jonathan kissed the top of her head. “The hours of not knowing whether you were dead or alive just about killed me. It took all of the willpower I had to not throw on a parachute and jump out of the plane. The flight was taking too long to get to you.”

Grace kissed a nipple on his chest. “You are here with me now. There was never a minute, not one, where I doubted you would find me.”

“It could have been Roark who found you.”

“No, I was pretty sure that would be you.” She sat up, her hands propped on his chest, her face resting on top of them. “Hey, what happened to him anyway? He seemed pretty beat up when he came by the house to give the information on that man.”

Jonathan smiled. ‘You mean your Uncle Walker.”

“I refuse to acknowledge that man was any part of my family.” Grace shrugged. “The fact is, he killed my father over money.”

“And power,” Jonathan added. “It can be a lethal combination in the wrong hands.”

“Myles has both and he handles it like it’s not important.”

“Yes, he is like your father. For Myles it’s about family and people. He wants his family safe and people happy. It’s just that simple for him.”

“You have both, power and wealth. It hasn’t jaded you at all.”

“I think it has.” Jonathan ran his finger down the center of her back. “It manifests in different ways.”

“Really?” Grace smiled as she kissed her way down his chest. “Tell me how,” she said pulling the sheet over her head and moving further down.

“There seems to be a bit of power radiating in my lower limbs, Love. Are you about to drive me mad?”

“Ahh……I think I’ll lick you until every drop of power you possess is controlled by me.”

Grace’s lips had covered him, surrounding him with the wonderful warmth and the silken feel of her tongue against him, he was literally in heaven. His cell phone chimed in the background but he was too far gone to even think straight. The last thing he cared about was what was going on in the outside world that would cause his cell phone to be ringing. It stopped. Grace’s cell phone began to ring, neither was in a mindset to stop as she continued, demanding he release every ounce of life he had in him. She was relentless with the suckle, the kneading of her nails into him, there was no way, either, to stop the sensations she was creating. Then both cell phones began to chime in a rhythm, first his then hers then his again, then hers again. Her head bobbed to the sound causing him to moan and laugh, until his mind exploded. Shots of lightning filled his head as his body jerked and pulsated inside her more. He tried to pull out, but she held him in place, stripping him of every ounce of power he possessed as he exploded.

It took a moment for either of them to recover to a point to register the fact that both phones were still ringing.

Grace reached the nightstand first. “Hello.” She listened. “Wait, wait, slow down, Chrystina, what’s going on.”

Jonathan had reached his phone. “Yes,” he said more gruffly than intended. He listened to Myles, as he frantically looked around for the remote for the television. Grace had it in her hand then turned it on. She laid back against his chest, him wrapping an arm around her as they listened to the news report.

“Holy crap!” Jonathan jumped up. “Holy crap, holy shit, holy crap.” He was scrambling around the room looking for his pants. “Myles, I have to call you back, mate.” He hung up the phone then called Sydney. “Syd, telly the pilot. I need to fly back to my mother’s place asap.”

Grace watched Jonathan wondering what was happening. “Chrystina, let me call you back.” She looked at him. “Jonathan, what’s going on?”

“I will tell you on the plane. Get dressed, hurry.”

Within twenty minutes they were in the vehicle on their way to the airport. “Jonathan, are you in trouble? Is something wrong with your mother? What’s happening? You’re scaring me here.”

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly on her mouth and began to laugh. “No, Love, I am not in trouble. But if I do not get to London soon the market may crash and it will be my fault.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We are here, Mr. Michael.”

“Thank you, Ben.” Jonathan grabbed Grace’s hand, literally pulling her from the vehicle and up the stairs of the plane. They took their seats and buckled in. “Take off posthaste,” he told the stewardess.

The pilot taxied down the runway as Jonathan began laughing again.

Grace kept looking at him with a bit of mischief in her eyes. “I swear if you don’t tell me what’s happening in the next five minutes I’m going to throw you off of this plane for real.”

Jonathan pulled her into his arms then reclined their seats back. He took a deep breath and sighed. “I am a genius you know,” he said so nonchalantly she had to laugh. “No really I am.” He chuckled. “There are people in the world who think they can use, degrade, toss out anyone they feel is not their equal. The bias is baseless most times, however due to the color of your skin or the zip code you were born in, some people feel they are superior to others. It never crosses their minds that the very person they use or abuse has the tools or skills to destroy them. By the time they discover that simple possibility, it’s too late. That person that they tossed aside as beneath them has taken away the one thing they cherish more than life and that is power. I realize that many people at Dunning do not understand the power that is within our grasp. That is what I love about the Dunning group it’s not about power with us, it never has been. It’s always been about people helping people.” He chuckled. “This is really funny. I mean it’s not ‘ha ha’ funny, but it is funny as hell. Okay…okay, I was a little pissed when Dewberry had someone to attack my mother so when I went to London I first checked to make sure that my mother was okay in the hospital and then I went to her house. In the basement of her home, I built a computer network that has a direct interface into Phase International’s main computer system. Because I was so pissed at the audacity of Dewberry to send O’Donnell and his people to harm my mother,” he shrugged. “I inserted a code to shut down all access to any funds at Phase.”

“You did what?"

Jonathan laughed again. “I put in the code to cut off access to any funds at Phase International around the world.”

“You mean at the main branch?”

“No, I mean around the world."

“You are fucking kidding me," Grace said softly at first then her eyes grew as big and round as saucers. “You are fucking kidding me! Jonathan!”

“What? I only meant for it to be for a day, but then you went missing and the only thing that I could think of was to get to you.”

“They have been cut off from funding for two days? Jonathan, for two fucking days. The largest bank in the world and the customers, nor anyone has access to the funds.”

“Is that a question or are you making a statement?”

“Jonathan,” she screamed.

“I did not intend for it to be this long, it was supposed to be just for that one day. But then things happened one after another and until the phone call from Myles I forgot.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to remove the code to release the funding.” Jonathan smirked.

“Jonathan, the chaos, the craziness, the madness these people are going through not having access to their money. It’s like the recession when banks were locking their doors. Will Phase have to do the same?”

“Yes, Love. They don’t have any money.”

“Will they be able to come back from this?”

“Yes, if they have a good PR person. But it is going to cost them some customers for sure.”

“Jonathan, you have to correct this.”

“Oh, I will.” He shrugged it off. “I keep trying to tell people you should be careful when you fuck with a nerd. We have nothing but time to figure out how to screw up your life.”

“Not any longer.” Grace straddled him. “You, Mr. Nerd, are put on notice. You no longer have time for these shenanigans. It is going to take a while for me to reclaim ten years of my body going without your touch.”

“Hmm….ten years.” Jonathan smiled as her hand unzipped his pants. “That sounds like a winner to me, Love.”

“My father once said when it comes to relationships there is always a win-win if you’re banking on love.”

…to be continued…