The Escort

23 - Ransom

The cellphone rang and its vibration against the wooden night table woke Michael up. It took him a couple of seconds to remember where he was.

It wasn't such a strange environment though, 'cause he was certainly used to luxury and expensive decor, but he found the strong smell of potpourri and the heavy purple curtains that completely blocked out the Sun, simply horrible.

He slowly sat up on the bed, carefully brushing Laura's long hair off his arm, he didn't wanna wake her.

He reached for his phone and looked at the screen, squinting his eyes until they adjusted to the brightness. There were some texts from Diana that he simply deleted, a couple of missed calls from his secretary Sally (probably complaining about Diana) and then the last missed call, from Bill.
So he got up, brushed his teeth and walked out to the balcony to dial Bray's number.

"Hello, kid."

"Morning, Bill..." Michael's voice was groggy and deep and his friend realized he had just woken up.

"Sorry to wake you, but there's something important you should know about."

"What is it?" Jackson stretched before rubbing his eyes with a yawn as he looked down to enjoy the beautiful park around him.

"Jermaine went to your office, demanding to speak to you. Diana told him to piss off, but he was adamant that you should really hear him out."

"The hell did he want? Did he say anything else?"

"Only that he's staying at the MGM Grand in Vegas and he'll be expecting you there. It's a public place so I doubt he's gonna try anything funny. I'll go with you and keep an eye out. I won't take no for an answer."

Michael scratched his neck and thought about it. "Imma call him, set it up. I'll hit you back with the details, a'ight?"

"Okay, be careful. Don't give out any info about your current whereabouts."

"Don't worry, I won't. Talk to u later."

He hung up and brought the phone against his lips, trying to figure out what the hell could his sketchy brother be plotting now.

"Good morning..." Her soft voice made him turn around and he had to bite his lip at the sight of her beauty. The warm breeze hitting her messy morning hair, how her green eyes seemed to shine even brighter under the sunlight. The way the cute tiny freckles on her nose looked on her sun-kissed skin. She had just woken up and was simply stunning.

"Good morning, angel. How'd you sleep?" He asked wrapping his arms around her waist and softly kissing her cheek, down to her neck, inhaling her perfume with each breath.
"You're tickling me!" She laughed, combing his curls with her fingers. "I slept great, thanks. How about you?"

"Mmm, great" he mumbled against her skin.

"Who was that on the phone? Is everything okay? You seemed worried." The girl asked and Michael finally straightened back up to answer. "It was Bill. Jermaine went to look for me at my office, he wants to meet up with me."

She frowned when she saw that look in MJ's big eyes. "Michael, stay away from that man, I beg you."

"I needa find out what he got under his sleeve. Don't worry, I ain't goin alone."

Laura took a couple of steps back, removing his arms from her body. "Why would you expose yourself like that? You know what he's capable of, he's gonna try to hurt you!"

"He won't, he's smarter than that. But don't worry, 'cause I'm smarter than him."

***

The MGM Grand was the Hotel of choice for the vast majority of Las Vega's top entertainers and entrepreneurs.
Its massive facilities were always swarming with guests, continuously coming and going in every direction.