The Heiress

20- You win, I need your help

The next few days were busy for both Mercedes and Hudson. Mercedes had an upcoming wedding she was preparing for, and after both the walk-in cooler and freezer took a shit on her, she was way behind schedule. With the wedding reception taking place in two days, she worked long hours and was doing all she could to work with her vendors to replace the food Jerome had to throw away and schedule the deliveries to arrive on time. On top of Mercedes dealing with the wedding. She had another problem to deal with at the very last minute out in Arizona. Another central hotel she acquired from Elon lost power, including their additional energy source, the generators.

Then there was Hudson. He had his father on his ass about the acquisition of The Kings and Queens hotel chain and how Sterling adamantly refused to merge with them. For three days, they fought and argued about it, with Sterling also upset with Hudson about the compensation for the two-day free room stay he did for all their guests'.

Hudson also had to deal with Bentley's blackmail. There was no way he was going to allow a dipshit like him to mess with his mind. And because it also involved Alona, Hudson warned Garrison of what Bentley was up to. What bothered him the most was that Bentley accused him and Elon of planning Mercedes's future when he and Elon never discussed how her life should be. All they ever talked about was protecting Mercedes and whoever Hudson noticed following her while she was on Portland's downtown streets helping the homeless.

For those three days, Bentley's blackmail also consumed his mind. As much as he didn't care if his father found out he's been seeing Mercedes, he did care. A lot. All because Sterling would like Hudson to fake a relationship with her and not have a genuine, loving relationship with her. Sterling had it in his mind that if Hudson were to get her to fall in love with him. Mercedes would go against her grandfather's wishes. She would either, A, sell Sterling the properties he wants. B, marry Hudson and sign everything over to the Bradleys. Or C, she'll finally realize she can't handle running Elon's empire on her own. Sterling would then get Hudson to talk Mercedes into giving up everything. He would then have him talk her into merging the entire Kensington chain to the Bradley's, making Sterling the primary owner and the most powerful man in the world.

Hudson had to laugh. Sterling refuses to merge with The Kings and Queens chain, yet he wants to combine with The Kensington's chain.

Bentley wanting half of Mercedes's share was also a laugh. Hudson knew Bentley knew nothing about running a business and knew if he got what he wanted, he would run it to the ground. Not to mention he knew Bentley eventually he would sell to his father. With Bentley also wanting Mercedes to give him half the money Elon inherited her with, it was also a laugh. He remembered Elon mentioning that he had three kids in one of their meetings and how upset his kids, including Bentley, would be once Elon was to pass away.

Elon also mentioned that once he passes, all three of his kids, including Bentley, would try anything to manipulate Mercedes into giving them what they want. He also asked Hunter to do what he could to keep that from happening. And that is exactly what he intends to do. Now all he had to do was develop a plan to keep Bentley from talking to everyone.

But how?

He sat in his office pondering for a while; he finally came up with some ideas, and since Bentley claimed to have all kinds of dirt on Alona, Hudson felt now was the time to see what kind of dirt he could get on Bentley and called Garrison. Not only did he ask to dig up information about Bentley, he asked Garrison to see what kind of information he could dig up on Roman, Sterling, and Kaiden.

Next, Hudson called his father to give him a warning. He let him know that if he or Kaiden were the ones who took part in the power issue at The Kensington Hotel in Arizona that Hudson wouldn't go to the police but that he would go to Mercedes and inform her of who he suspects of the recent hotel woes she's been dealing with.