Choices, Changes and Crossroads

Editor's note: this story contains scenes of non-consensual or reluctant sex.

*****

He really hated these events. He really hated these events with a passion, but he knew the necessity of it all. A show of strength early on, in a civilized manner, would probably save bloodshed down the line. In fact, he knew it would from experience.

The first couple of towns he had taken over, he had just bought up all the towns debt. Usually smaller towns and municipalities have to borrow the funds to build the roads, schools, city centers and whatnots that are required. These loans are often backed with real estate as collateral. Regardless, it all comes out of the people's taxes one way or the other. He also made sure to buy all property that was available on the market, thus running up the real estate prices short term. Swiftly his people would research, dig, inquire and observe the people running things. The mayors, the sheriffs, the judges, the prosecutors but also other business interests. They always found something. Some foul play, somebody with their hand too far down the cookie jar, politicians pushing secret agendas and the usual racism, nepotism, affairs, cheating and abuse of power. It really didn't matter. Whatever they found they used it to unravel as much scandal as possible, upsetting the powers that be.

Panic in the face of losing their positions, their businesses, their families, they always do something stupid, get removed and one way or another a power vacuum is created. An opportunity that Mr. Arjan Angles always made sure to capitalize on, putting one of his own people in charge.

Arjans people held the threat of calling in the debts and forcing the town into bankruptcy over them, reminding them that at the end of the day, Arjan Angles held all the cards. Most of the establishment has gotten so dumb, fat and happy that they don't realize what had actually taken place. A hostile take-over of their town.

Usually, they make a lot of noise. Threats and claims of entitlement. A couple of times there was even violence. That's when Mr. Angles decided that he would make a personal appearance every time he took a new town.

It was all expertly timed just as the realization of the bigger picture hit the power players of whatever hell hole Mr. Angles had decided to take over and just before he had his people put in place to fill out the power vacuum.

At first, people didn't know who the scary guy was. Only that the new man or woman positioning for the Mayor's office seems to work for the man. But as town after town was absorbed by the sphere of influence that was Arjan Angles, word got around and now every politician, lobbyist, powerhouse or player knew that when Arjan Angels were around, somebody was either removed or about to be.

Port de Reyes was a different story though. It wasn't a small town. It was a city stretching out along the shore of the southwest part of Moria. Surrounded by farmland, the city was the gate between the rest of Moria and the continent to the south. The county was often poetically referenced as the garden of Moria, providing the country with food and drink. Big agriculture had tried to get a hold of the southwest of Moria since forever, but people here were proud and selling of a family farm to anybody other than the neighbors seemed to be a capital offense in social regard at least. That had all changed when the recession of the early 2000s had hit. A big chunk of the economy had seemed to have disappeared overnight and the fallout was the usual. People had lost their jobs, their homes, their businesses. Communities had been pushed into either more debt or bankruptcy. Still, the southwest had managed better than most parts. People still have to eat and most of the southwest was farmland after all. Also, people here were resilient. They pulled together and got themselves out of the rut. That same attitude had put the county and Port de Reyes ahead when the rebuilding of the economy started. Other than that, it was like so many other big cities, surrounded by farmland. It was the cultural center of the region. It had a university, neighborhoods of minorities, gated communities of rich people and so on and so forth. In all its uniqueness, Port the Reyes was like any western big city.

Port de Reyes also housed the biggest shipping port in the country. Long story short, every shipment to Moria not being flown in was probably passing through Port de Reyes in one way or another, be it train, truck or boat.

The powers that be were not just a small town mayor and his or her cronies. In Port de Reyes the power structure was far more complicated. There was a political elite, a business elite, organized crime, and the religious factions. Not to mention the unions, the law and a bunch of other groups that all co-exist, maintaining the power balance that kept them all fed and fat on the common people's expense. Well, by now they were far into the next generations expense.

By the time Mr. Angles had moved on The Port of Kings, he had already taken over most of the farming towns surrounding Port de Reyes. That meant that when he moved on the Port, they not only saw him coming but tried to stop him in any way possible.

The police had taken it upon themselves to make life hard for Mr. Angles people. Random traffic controls and general harassing. Tailing his lawyers, raiding his properties and making it abundantly clear that they were not welcome in Port de Reyes. When an officer had gotten a little too handsy at a random traffic control of Mr. Angles personal assistant, he had finally had enough. Arjan had paid the police commissioner a visit. Just before 4 am the commissioner had woken up in his bed, in his bedroom, in his house next to his wife. Also present - Mr. Angles.

The commissioner had almost had a heart attack. His wife woke up by his panicked scream. Mr. Angles had then made it clear that the next time any of his people got any police trouble, he would replace the commissioner with whoever was next in line. The message was clear and Mr. Angles walked out the front door.

The commissioner was raging mad already on the phone calling for an emergency meeting with his captains. When he got to the office at 6 AM after comforting his wife, he found out that the officer who had triggered the events had been found sitting in his car with a cut throat and his hand missing, just outside the police station.

The police were out for blood but more than that, they were scared. No one had ever hit them on their home turf. No one had ever been that stupid. When individual cops started getting letters from their banks letting them know that the interest rates on their mortgages had more than tripled, the shit hit the fan.

These mortgages were part of a money laundering scheme where the police officers paid upfront on the loans, most often with dirty money. The bank then lent them back that money in the form of a mortgage on their houses. This left them a paper trail of where the money had come from and the bank director got a cut of the take.

Being the corrupt and devious bastard he was, the now former bank director had altered the fine print of the dirty cops contracts to allow adjustments in interest rates, hoping to be able to one day in the future squeeze a lite more out of the deal. That loophole was now being used to put more pressure on the police force. This was unraveled when Mr. Angles had bought the bank.

The commissioner had brokered the deal and so when more than 20 of his men had called his office to get facetime to talk about the "arrangement", he knew the cat was out of the bag. Not only did Mr. Angles now know about the arrangement, but he knew exactly which officers were clean and who was dirty. If this ever came out they were all toast and he knew it. Hence the police swallowed their pride, their new interest rates and baked off.

One by one Arjan Angles had taken them down. The police, the crime bosses, the unions, the business tycoons and the politicians. Hence, he was here at the event. Just another pissing contest between men with inflated egos. Egos so inflated that they didn't realize that they had already lost.

Still, Arjan Angles made sure to make an appearance and put some fear into them. It made life so much easier for Lily and the rest of his people once he left town. But by God - He hated these events. And everybody not part of his team all seemed to hate him. Posh, stuck-up, entitled deadbeats, looking down at him still not accepting the fact that their cushioned little bubble in which they lived and existed, just got burst.

The events themselves were pretty simple. Always early in the day like a brunch or lunch. This lets people know that they were on limited time that also needed to be shared with others. They were usually held at the local inn or B&B were Mr. Angles was staying. This gave him better control over the room, most power players not being used to conduct this kind of business in such informal settings. The point was to give everybody a chance to vent their thoughts to Mr. Angles themselves.

Usually, there was a hand full of pissed off officials grasping at straws, yelling about what Arjan could or couldn't do and what they themselves would and wouldn't do. However, it was different in small towns. Most people were pretty fed up with the corruption and saw any change as a good change. Some of them didn't like it at all but feared, believing the stories they heard about Mr. Angles and all the horrible things he had allegedly done. Long story short, he let spread through the grape wine that he would be eating at the chosen venue at some time during the morning and then he would leave town, leaving his cronies to handle his affairs. This meant that anybody wanting any contact in any way, had to show up in hope of being given some time. Most people just came to get a look at the infamous Arjan Angles. Some came to give him a piece of their minds, threaten or even try to make deals with him. But they never did. They came, took one look at him and all the fight would go out of them.

Arjan Angles was not a big man. Just over 170cm or 5 feet 8 inches tall and a little rounder than what was considered handsome. He had a balding head with a horseshoe hairline and a big beard of stubborn hair that seemed to emphasize the crazy professor look he had. There was something about him that made people very scared. Maybe it was the tailor-made shirts, the shoes, the pants. Regardless, he had an aura of power. Uncompromising confidence and big brown eyes that just saw right through you. The way he moved, the way he spoke, the people he surrounded himself with let you know that he was indeed a serious man. People feared him and Arjan Angles hated it, even though he capitalized on it, further solidifying the rumors about him.

This event was different though. This was Port de Reyes and not one of the so many rural towns he had taken over. These were different players. These were different circumstances, not to mention the stakes. Control over Port de Reyes would cement his hold over the south-east of the country. Something that would make a whole bunch of people in the capital loses sleep.

He had bought The Argentine, an old five-story colonial building right on the beach, run as the most exclusive hotel south of the capital through one of his offshore companies about ten years earlier. Over the years he had slowly changed the staff, rebuilt the presidential suite for his own use and upgraded the restaurant and the spa. He hadn't liked the snobbish atmosphere in neither so he got his people to tone it down a bit and instead focus on top quality food and services rather than the excluding environment that kept normal people out with the aid of overpricing and snotty staff that looked down on people. Sure, they lost their regular crowd, but then again, those were the same people he would be replacing and soon running out of town.

Arjan Angles had gotten into town the evening before. The rumors were already spread. He would be having breakfast at The Argentine tomorrow morning. Now he just had to show up that The Rits, let everybody see him and hence solidify the rumors about his breakfast the next day. Just a drink should do it.

The Rits had been home for the elite ever since he had slowly changed The Argentine to be more accessible for normal people. The Rits still had a dress code, still had staff acting snotty to anyone that didn't seem to belong but only the second best restaurant in town. The Argentine had them beat.

It was just after 22.00 when Arjan Angles walked in wearing just his shirt without his tie and the jacket, knowing good well their dress code required both a tie and a jacket. The entire dining room started going silent when more and more people had looked up from their dinners to see what was going on. The hostess, knowing very well whom he was, came up politely remind him about the dress code but the closer she got the more the fear took over and by the time she finally spoke all she had done was to ask him if he would be dining alone or expected company before she seated him. Never mind the dress code, the fact that he didn't have a reservation or was a member of their "secret club". In all honesty, she even knew that her boss would understand, not having the balls to step in when he saw Mr. Angles being led to his table.

Arjan hated it. They were all scared of him. All looking but trying to not meet his gaze. All whispering, acting like they were talking about someone else. All wishing he would just go and that everything would go back to the way things were.

He sat down, ordered a beer and a steak and started looking around the room. It was what was to be expected. Lawyers, bankers, corrupt officials, and politicians. Wives, girlfriends, lovers, and plotters. If Port de Reyes was a theater, this would be the stage. Most of them were just inflated egos of no importance. He did, however, see the mayor, the police commissioner and businessman Pierce Talbot having dinner together with their wives. They were as silent as the rest of the room. The commissioner trying not to make eye contact and let his fear show. His wife just looking straight down at her plate, pressing her jaws together. She never really got over the fright of waking up in the middle of the night seeing Mr. Angles in her bedroom. The mayor tried to seem uninterested but both his and his wife's curious eyes kept looking up to see what Mr. Angles was doing. Pierce Talbot seemed the most uncomfortable of them all, just trying to disappear in the background, even going so far to position himself behind his wife, putting her between himself and Arjan Angles, hoping he would not be noticed. He was exactly the type of inflated ego that Mr. Angles despised. Sitting at dinner with the mayor and the police commissioner was precisely the type of thing that inflated his ego and skewed his perception of his of self-importance. His wife, well she just seemed hollow. Almost broken. Like more the shell of a woman than an actual woman. She was good looking for someone in her fifties. Well dressed, high cheekbones, long brown perfect hair. She was the only one of them that didn't look up even once. Not out of fear and not out of disinterest but something else. Then she finally looked up and straight at him. It was fear, but it wasn't him she was afraid of. It was something else. And she was petrified.

Usually, when a room goes silent, the chatter starts back up after just a couple of seconds. But the room was reduced to whispers. It never really came back. The awkwardness was tangible. Arjan thought it was ridiculous. Here was a room full of people that up until he walked in were bragging about their wealth, their power, influence, boasting about their manliness and what not. Now acting like a bunch of whipped puppies.

The hostess came back with his beer. The waiter was apparently too scared and she didn't want to keep Mr. Angles waiting so she waited on him herself.

"Your steak will be out in just a minute Sir. Will there be anything else?"

"Do they always whisper like this when someone unfamiliar walks in?"

"Never. Then again you're not so unfamiliar Sir, " she said implying that they were afraid of him. She hadn't intended for it to come out that way, cursing herself for not being able to just keep her head down and do her job. She started panicking.

"And what about you? Are you afraid?" he asked with a soft voice that immediately calmed her down.

"No Sir. I'm guessing you just want to eat a meal... alone... and then be on your way."

He looked at her standing there, next to his table. Straight back, almost like a soldier. He gave her a smile that his eyes didn't back up. It made her nervous. He could see it, feel it, almost smell it.

"Thank you. That will be all. he said dismissively. "

She had disappointed him and she knew it. She was not expecting it to affect here as it did though. A part of her wanted to make it right, make him happy with her again. She had it just for a second when he spoke to her. Then she had opened her big mouth and sounded all bitchy and now he had dismissed her. HOW DARED HE?!?!?!?!?!

Sandra was 26, a final year working on her Ph.D. in psychology. Paying for school by hosting at the Ritz. She couldn't afford to lose this job and she got dismissed about a thousand times a day by other customers. Hell, she only got the job because she was hot and the manager wanted to get in her pants but even he mostly dismissed her nowadays. But this was different. She did not like being dismissed my Mr. Angles. She didn't like that at all. Yet, part of her would do anything to make him pleased with her again.

The steak was ready. She had hoped it would be a little while. Enough time for her to come up with a plan for what to say, but time had run out and she was not going to let him wait. Maybe it was for the better. Maybe the sooner she got him his food, the sooner he'd be gone and the restaurant could get back to normal again. She grabbed his plate and started walking toward his table, hoping to come up with something suitable to say before she got there. She didn't.

"Your steak Sir."

"Thank you, dear."

Again she was dismissed. She put the plate down in front of him but didn't walk away. Arjan took a disapproving look at his plate. Grabbed his utensils and cut himself a piece and bit down on it, noticing that the hostess was still standing there. He looked up at her. Sandra started to panic.

"Whoooo...would you like another beer, Sir?"

Arjan Angles spit out his stake in disgust. Stood up and took a gulp of his beer. Looked Sandra in the eyes, while reaching into his pocket, dragging out a wad of cash. He took two hundred and put them on the table. Far more than the cost of the meal. Then he smiled and said:

"No thank you, Sandra. The food was horrible, but you my dear are a true delight."

Then he walked away and out. The room had been absolutely silent. You could have heard a pin drop. Everybody had heard him say it. She was a delight. She was so happy she could burst. God, what was wrong with her? When did she turn into this? He hadn't felt this way since she was a teenager. A bit further down, the mayor, the police commissioner and Mr. Pierce Talbot sat silent, all looking at their steaks. They seem to have lost their appetites.

Lily woke him up the next morning with a steaming cup of coffee. Arjan got showered, dressed in the clothes he had put out for him before joining her on the balcony. She was looking out over the beach and he walked around her so he stood in front of her.

"They're watching," Lily said

"I'm sure they are."

"Probably lip readers," she said, knowing their enemies now knew that they knew.

"Probably," Arjan answered knowing they could only see her lips since he was standing with his back towards the beach.