Escaping my Life Ch. 03

"Remember I know you. I have been chasing you for quite a while. So, when you headed out on your paddle, I just went the other way round to the light house. I have a full card of the performance. I could tell it was all her idea. I have a great picture of you almost rolling your kayak." Charles was out of his seat and glowering at Brian.

Brian started by holding up his hands in surrender, but his smile told the truth. He enjoyed the show. He waived Charles back down into his seat.

"Don't worry. They will remain for personal...private consumption. If you survive the next couple of weeks, we can work a deal. Maybe I'll allow you to buy them back. That Monster of yours will not even miss the minor monetary exchange." Brian ended with a sad look on his face.

"She is a beautiful, hardworking, professional woman, and it's going to be devastating to find out who you really are." Brian paused briefly.

"When are you going to tell her? Or are you just going to disappear?" Brian asked.

"Tomorrow morning. Can I bunk with you tonight? I am afraid to go back to the trailer." Charles admitted pointing at the large duffle by his feet.

"I'll get you a room at the Motel 6, in my name and you can reimburse me later if you live through the next couple of days.' Brian offered. "And I'll go by the office in the morning and make sure it's clear for you." Brian looked up at the bird again and then slid a burner phone over to Charles.

Brains feral smile was back, "As I said before, I would hate for my golden goose to be disappeared by the mercenaries that the MyLife Board sent. I have a story to complete after all."

**

Charles strolled into the SLO office in a full suit at 9am. It was not fully tailored suit as he was used to, but what did you expect from Target and $300. It's the way he wore that made the difference.

He owned the suit.

He knew that with a minor alteration it would echo his trim figure. He would be back with the tailored suits shortly, or be in some unknown country, black bagged.

His entry, to say the least, brought the office to a standstill. Kristina with a K made a loud squeak and spit up her coffee all over her blouse, as he stepped through the door and took off his sunglasses. She watch wordlessly as he stepped around her desk and pulled out a handkerchief and kissed her on the cheek.

He continued down the main hall and by the time he reached Jeanne's office, the rest of the staff had ended their conversations or hung up their phones and crowded the hallway.

Jeanne was arguing with someone on her phone. It had to do with money, and he assumed, due the terms used, it was the bank again. She had yet to look up and see him waiting in the hallway. He had shifted to a position in front of her solid door and away from the sidelights of her doorway.

He turned and faced the crowd, and just smiled.

"I am sorry, but I must leave. Some people have come looking for me and its best they don't find me here. I need to talk to Jeanne privately and would like to ask that you do not hang out. It's going to be a very personal conversation. "

"Your him?" asked Jon.

"Yes Jon. I'm Charles. I am one of those single name people that you read about but normally don't get to know." Charles had to stop because he was tearing up.

"I want to tell you what a pleasure and honor it's been getting to know you all, in and out of work. I want you to know, that if I make it through what will happen next, I would like to come back and spend time with you." Charles had to pause again and reached for his handkerchief until he remembered he had just given it away.

"I really am honored..." he started again but was cut off as Jeanne's door was ripped open and she was already in mid-sentence.

"What the hell is going on out here?" she started and then stumbled over the rest of her words because there was a man in suit blocking her doorway. Through the side lights of her doorway, she had seen all her staff in the hallway staring at something.

She went from befuddled to full she-devil when she saw Charles of MyLife standing in front of her door.

"You! You fucking asshole! What are you doing in my building? Trying to steal more of my apps? More of my clients?" Jeanne ranted.

"No, I came here to talk about us, before I have to leave." Charles responded softly.

"Us?" Jeanne's brain just shut down. Here was the man that had caused her company so much damage, but Chucks voice was coming out of his mouth.

"Chuck? I don't understand, but you look like the MyLife guy?" Jeanne was bewildered, upset and still a bit pissed.

"That's because he is!" came a voice from the crowd.

She had sifted her eyes to the crowded hallway and the eyes then slid back to meet his. He fell into her eyes again and he knew already she was asking him if it was true.

He just nodded his head in affirmation.

Then her eyes went cold. Not freezer cold, but superconductor cold.

He turned back to the crowd "I did ask for some privacy," but the voice that came out was Charles and it had a tinge of command to it.

He felt a hand on his sleeve and a biting voice slide past him to the crowd that had started to turn back to their desks.

"Fuck you, Charles. You do not give direction to my employees and by the way 'You are Fired!" Jeanne stated as she yanked him into her office and then slammed the door.

"Lies, all lies...you asshole..." that was the beginning of a long tirade of anger and betrayal laid out by Jeanne.

Charles just stood stoically with head hung, letting her vent her anger. Charles hoped he would be allowed to respond to the diatribe in the next hour or two.

"Well, asshole do you have anything to say for yourself?" Jeanne asked.

"I must leave now. There are bad people that are looking for me. 'Bad' as in physically harming anyone that gets in their way. Please do not let the staff go with or talk to anyone that is not local law enforcement. And there will be many people here looking for a story."

Charles just stared into Jeanne's beautiful eyes. They had shifted from the stone cold of anger to a soft look of betrayal. So much pain he had caused her, in the past and now. It made his heart break.

"I am sorry if I hurt you in the past. I really did not know the impact that MyLife and its business practices were having on real people. I became so immersed in data and money, sitting in the ivory tower I created. I just did not know." Charles paused again.

"Until I met you, I had no idea what love was..." he was shut down and over talked.

"Fuck you! Don't you dare tell me you love me!" she demanded and stamped her foot.

"I do and always will..." he stated and then was cut off.

"Don't tell me that! It's a lie, just another lie from you!" Jeanne screamed and started to cry.

"I do love you and always will. I hope you can forgive me and give me a second chance to prove how much I love you." with Jeanne crying, Charles turned and walked out of her office and down the hall. When he was about to turn the corner at the reception desk, he heard her voice from down the hallway. Charles did a half turn to look at Jeanne one more time.

"Until you can publicly admit how much you and that fucking monster of a company have hurt us, I do not want a call, email, text, or birthday card from you...you lying asshole," stated Jeanne as she spun, went into her office, and slammed the door.

"Humm," he heard beside him. Kristina with K was looking thoughtful. "Sounds like she wants you back." Then she smiled and devoured another cookie from her desk.

He looked down into the eyes of the cherub. "I really meant what I said, I'll miss you all. And for the record, I love her with every fiber of my being." He bent and kissed her cheek and then walked to the parking lot.

**

"You really think this is a clever idea?" asked Brian as they leveraged themselves out of the small BMW.

"It's my fucking jet. I decide where it flies and with whom. I AM the CEO bitch!" he said as they entered the doorways of ACI Jet. His little pronouncement was caught by a few at the counter. And they just scrunched up their faces and waited for what was coming next.

Charles straightened up and started to walk to ask where the pilots lounge was, when he saw the demure sign. He angled off his original track and headed for the side door to the main lobby.

"Can I help you s...?' came a question from the counter. But before the question was half asked, Charles responded.

"No." Charles responded quietly but with finality. By tone, body language, and projection, there was silence that followed his passing.

He grabbed the handle and walked through the door. He found himself in another corridor that held the entrances to large men's and women's restrooms. The end of the hallway held another doorway, this was open, and he could hear voices.

Brian was shocked. The Chuck he once knew and was beginning to like, had transformed himself back to the Lord of the Manor. Gone was the easy-going gait. Gone was the man who could watch the bird at the Rock pick at offered food and smile. Gone, just totally Gone.

Charles was Charles again.

He cleared the doorway and began issuing orders.

"Good morning, Captain McHenry. It's so nice of you to bring my jet to pick me up. I want wheels up in a half hour. I assume the plane is fueled and ready? Where is the steward or stewardess?"

Captain McHenry just sat flapping his mouth completely flustered. He had an inkling of what the group he brought to SLO was about to do. But, to have the prey walk in and then issue orders was confusing to say the least. Before McHenry could respond Charles was issuing more orders.

"You! put down your phone now. You hit the send button and you will be searching for a new job for the rest of your life!" The co-pilot slowly lowered his phone, but Charles walked up and ripped it from his hand.

He read the text to a woman on the young man's phone, luckily it was not sent. What it stated was that Charles was in SLO and standing before him. Scrolling through his texts to this woman gave insight that the crew had some idea why they had flown the mercenaries here. And it provided an itinerary for a planned trip to Europe.

Charles deleted the un-sent text script and then dropped the phone on the floor. He crushed it under the heel of his cheap $55 dollar dress shoes.

"Wheels up in a half hour Captain. I'll be your copilot since this young man does not seem to keep his mouth shut. Do you realize that he has sent the planes itinerary to whatever love interest he was texting in Europe?"

"I'm certified on this plane, so you and will have a long time to talk...Captain."

Captain McHenry finally found his vocal cords, "Destination sir? and Tina is out getting local produce."

"New York, I am going home. Do not change the flight plan. I already checked. You were flying into LaGuardia anyway. We will just cancel that little second hop once we get there. You call Tina and tell her to get her ass back or I'll leave her to get a commercial flight home."

Charles paused and looked at the younger man co-pilot.

"Better yet, since this young man is now fired. I'll leave him here to inform Tina that she needs to find a commercial flight home. I'll pay her way, all expenses. You, young man, can go get fucked. In your next employment, never, ever give the itinerary of the rich and famous. Information like that gets people killed." Charles looked around yet no one was moving.

"Now! Captain. Get in the plane and get it rolling." And Charles turned without looking back and marched to the plane.

The tarmac crew did a double take as he strode out of the hanger and walked up to the rear steps. They just stared, as another undescriptive man followed the 'great Charles' with the Captain scampering behind them both.

Within a half hour the plane smoothly hurried down the runway and into the sky.

Anger, hurt, sadness and little empathy for the passengers of the plane were left in its wake.

***

"What a shit show," commented Charles as his plane was guided to the private Hangers of MyLife. The only thing missing was the tent and circus animals. A crowd was out in the tarmac. Charles could recognize several Board Members and Mega Jeanne from a distance. The Press was already set up and he knew he could not power the plane directly into its hanger as he desired.

But the idea did cross his mind.

"So, Captain, how much do you think it would cost me to broadcast a warning and then send everyone scurrying. Just because I want to park the plane where I want to?" asked Charles.

"Since this is purely a hypothetical question, let's see. If I had to guess, both of us stripped of our ability to pilot any plane, potential damage to the engines as they suck up an onlooker or two or maybe one of those cameras...could blow up the plane if that happened...and then millions in lawsuits just because you...are you?" Captain McHenry responded thoughtfully.

"It sure would be fun though," he continued with a smile. "What a fucking circus! I'll stay with the plane until we can get it towed into the hanger. You sir have a show to put on." And with that they shut down the engines and started post flight checklists.

As the Captain unstrapped and stood in the cockpit, he put out his hand. He bent to look in Charles's eyes. He could see the change in the Billionaires eyes.

"It's been a pleasure flying with you today and the talks we had. I hope that you can come out of this with some semblance of reality. Being ex-military and meeting those 'gentlemen' I flew out there to hunt you, you need to get them called off. They will continue the hunt until someone pays them off. They are evil men, and you are not safe until they are paid and sent back to the hell they came from."

They gathered up their gear and grabbed Brian as they moved down the plane to the rear entrance. The captain unlocked the rear door and swung it down since it was also the stairs. He clambered out first and stood on the tarmac and saluted. Charles came down to screamed questions and clicking of cameras. He turned to the captain and put out his hand.

"Next time we fly together, the name is Chuck. Thank you again for honest conversation regarding the status of MyLife and my personal life." Chuck commented and then shook the captain's hand.

"Now on with the Circus!" commented Charles.

"Keep up Brian. We don't want you getting lost in the crowd," stated Charles as he moved forward at a 30-degree angle from the impromptu open space that had been created by security. He wanted nothing to do with a false public display of affection from either Mega Jeanne or the on-site board members.

All he wanted was the safety of the hanger and then his penthouse. He would take and Uber if he had to.

His angling away from the dignitaries caused an uproar. No one knew what to do or where to go. Security held the line they were told to hold, but this change, threw them in to disarray too.

As he quietly but forcefully pushed through the crowd, he saw one of the minor CNN reporters in shock. He was headed almost dead center of her camera crew. As he started to sweep by her cordoned area, she asked the simplest of questions.

"Charles, where have you been?"

His reply, put together with as much hutzpah as he could manage, "What Mitzie, isn't a person allowed to take a vacation?" and he was past and headed for the hanger. He stopped briefly because he had seen another security detachment already staging at the hanger.

The crowd surged around him barking questions his mind had decided, did not exist. He backtracked, causing people to fall under the weight of his change of direction. He forced a way open and made it seem polite as he stopped to pick up some of the fallen. He apologized along the way, causing more confusion.

He and Brian made it back to the CNN field crew, and Mitzie was wide eyed and confused. She was a minor correspondent, which was why she was in deep centerfield for his arrival.

"My friend and I need a ride back to my penthouse, how about one of the CNN personnel vans, the one with all the windows. You can bring one cameraman and a driver. That should give us an hour to talk about life, love, and song.

Her mouth moved like a carp for a moment and "Oh hell yes," came out.

He and Brain headed to the van while she gathered her two crew. As he stepped into the van, he used the added height to scan the crown and could see three separate groups of security converging on his location.

Two police cruisers pulled up. He walked up to the one that held more stripes on his sleeve.

"Officers, I need your help. I need out of this crowd now. Some of the "security' may not be security. We had problems at one of my country estates, where supposed security had tried to kidnap me. Get us out of here and I'll make it worth your while."

Smiles broke out and they raced to their cruisers as the first of the crowd breached the CNN security buffer. Red lights flashed, sirens blared, and they were moving briskly down the tarmac and then turning into the exit pathways to home.

Mitzie tried but failed to get any true news out of Charles, but she found it exhilarating to make the effort. It was live streamed, so by the time they reached his penthouse, they had as many watchers as the OJ Bronco chase in LA.

The CNN van was fobbed into the secured lower parking lot while the police cruisers blocked the entrance for the short term.

Charles thanked Mitzie and kissed her cheek. He did the same for the female driver and video operator. He sent an envelope with one of the building security staff up to the police officers blocking the drive entrance. He was sure they would enjoy the added cash contained within.

And with that, Charles got in the express elevator to the penthouse. He had already cancelled Mega Jeanne's access to the building by the time the elevator dinged.

"Brian, take the second guestroom on the left. The view is great, and it has an in-suite. I'll be in my enclosed balcony off my master suite in 30. Come for a drink, the hall door will be unlocked."

Charles went to his security room and saw that his interior camera system had been shut down. He turned it back on. The secondary hard drive, the one that no one knew about, showed the entrance of four male individuals that had a way of moving that made him think military.

He went to his safe and verified it had not been breached. He got it open and reverified the history of the safe from the IP port behind the lock. Charles extracted his father's well-preserved Colt 45 1911. He also retrieved a special instrument he had procured from his original security company.

He started to sweep the bathroom and discovered a new camera in the smoke alarm mounted on the wall. He did not remember a smoke alarm on the wall previously. The old Charles would never have noticed. He twisted and it came off in his hands. He filled the large, expensive tub with water and threw it in.

He continued with the rest of his suite and found 6 additional devices, some video, and mics. They all took a swim.

He reached in, using his private laptop and cancelled every security access he could find. He kept two fobs active.

He sent emails to the building security to set up a meeting with him before he filed a lawsuit. He then sent one to the private security company for his penthouse, telling them they were fired.

While sweeping the massive living room, he heard an odd noise. He knew what it was. It made him smile for some reason because it seemed so old fashioned. The intercom at his front door was pinging.

He pushed the button and said "Yes?" looking at the screen on the intercom that showed the security desk in the lobby and the desk security officer making the call.

"Sir, this is building security and your fiancé, and several gentlemen are here to see you, but their clearances have been cancelled."