Slow burn but so worth it! Enjoy!


Book Nine: The Auction

Sam Evans stared at the man sitting across from him, he hated this part of his job, but he had to maintain order. "Jack, I have to let you go."

"I am sorry, what? I am the best analyst you have here!"

"You were, but your work has become lazy and sloppy, and I have it on good authority that you have done a little insider trading. You gave Harmony Pearce private information about our upcoming merger."

Jack's face fell. "I…no, that's not what happened! She came onto me, and I… I was weak, but I need this job!"

"Please clean out your cubicle; security will escort you out." Sam said firmly.

"I can't believe you are doing this! No wonder they call you Ice Man! You are cold-hearted. What am I supposed to do?!" Jack growled, standing up and slapping Sam's desk. "I have been here five years!"

"And you should have known better!" Sam roared. "This is my company, and I told you to get out! Don't make this harder than it has to be!"

Jack was about to say something else when Azimio and Karosky, his security team, came in and flanked both sides of him. "Ah, right on time, guys." Sam said to his team. He had met Azimo Adams and Dave Karofsky a few years back when they were down on their luck. Sam offered them a job working for him, and they had his back ever since.

"Sam! Don't do this!" Jack said, pleading with him.

"Guys, please take him out to his desk; he has five minutes to clean out his cubicle."

Jack grew angry. "You bastard! I can't believe you are doing this! I will kill you!"

Sam sighed. "And this is why you no longer work here." He looked at Azimo. "Make sure you take his parking pass and ID card. All his expense accounts are closed." He sat back in his seat. "And Jack, remember you signed an NDA upon working here, so if you speak a word about what you know and I find out, I will sue the hell out of you."

Jack lounged towards Sam, but Azimo grabbed him, and he and Karofsky dragged him out of Sam's office. Sam sighed. "Come on in; we both know you were eavesdropping."


Mike Chang, Sam's CFO, walked into his office. "That was an interesting development. I thought you were going to let me fire Jack."

Sam shrugged. "I gotta have some fun every now and again. So you have the numbers for this quarter?"

"Sam, can't you stop working for one moment and actually start to enjoy a moment? You fired Jack, the pain in our ass for months."

"I have a deadline, and Jack was only a small piece of my problem…We still have so much more to fix before the quarter ends."

Mike shook his head, sitting across from his best friend since freshman year of high school. "Sam, I have known you for a long time, and you need a break. Will Schuester from the Schuster Group invited us to this club and said they put on this big event at the end of the month. If we appease him, he will definitely invest, and that's what we want."

"Schuster Group?" Since when is he interested in investing?" Sam asked, confused.

Mike handed Sam a folder. "He recently acquired a building and wants us to renovate it, bringing it up to par with our other resorts. In doing that, he will invest in the company."

Sam opened the folder, looking through it. "What kind of event is it, and why can't we just do this the normal way? Have a meeting and go from there?"

"It's Schuester; when has that man done anything the normal way? As for the party, I don't know, but he said it's a good time." Mike assured him.

Sam looked over the folder again before sitting back in his chair. "Let me think it over." He said, checking his watch. "I gotta run anyway; I have a meeting with the contractor at the new site."

"Sam, I need to let Will know if we are going. He said it was exclusive and needed to know ahead of time."

Sam ran his hand through his hair and shook his head. He didn't want to get in bed with Will Schuster, of all people, but unfortunately, the man was good for business. "Fine. I'll go. Now I have to go to the site. Tell Harmony to hold all my calls until I get back."

Mike nodded as Sam grabbed his keys to head out. Mike was right; Sam did put his work first; he buried himself in it so much his life was going on without him. He couldn't remember the last time he even had a date, let alone a second date; he didn't blame them. He would treat them to fancy dinners, but his phone was always on, and he never missed a call… he couldn't afford to do that.

Coming from humble beginnings gave him that drive to keep going, but he also had to keep up appearances for his siblings. His father, Dwight, had long lost his job, and instead of going out and hitting the pavement, he put all the financial burdens on Sam. His siblings were lucky; they never had to experience everything he went through, being seventeen and having to support everyone because their father had just checked out.

It didn't take long for their mother to leave after Dwight lost his job; the only issue was that she left with his siblings Stevie and Stacey. She'd left him to take care of his father and still expected Sam to help her as well. He should've been a regular teenager going to parties and flirting with girls, but he couldn't. Instead, he graduated early and worked his ass off to get as many scholarships as he could while working two jobs. His first year of college was online, using the leftover scholarship money to give to his parents and letting them know he wouldn't be taking care of them any longer before finally going off to Yale.

It was an absolute culture shock leaving the South and going up north; he learned quickly that women loved a cute boy with a Southern accent. This meant he caught the eyes of many women, but he didn't pay them any mind, past flirting, maybe a dinner, until he came across Quinn Fabray.

She was bold, told him she wanted him, and proved it by marking her territory right there on the Quad, and Sam was a goner. She was intelligent and beautiful, and Sam became the envy of everyone on campus. He wrapped himself in her, what she wanted, he wanted to give her, and he felt that was his duty as her boyfriend.

Quinn could be hard to please and hard as Sam tried. Sometimes she had him feeling as if he were dumb, and though he didn't like that, he liked the feeling of having someone by his side. He was determined to be what she needed, but he didn't realize what he thought was best for them to be together forever; Quinn thought it best was shoving her tongue down Biff McIntosh's throat.

That was made painfully clear when he walked in on her and Biff in the Chem lab. He stared at her as she let Biff touch her, kiss her, and she whispered his name so lovingly it caressed his ears. Stepping away from the door, Sam grew angry, angrier than he had thought he could be.

When Quinn came to them for her date, he broke up with her. Not letting her know what he saw, but just breaking up with her and leaving. She didn't question why he'd done it or even acknowledge him afterward. When they saw each other on campus, she looked at him like he was a complete stranger, and a small part of him hurt, but it faded the more he focused on his studies.

That's when he met his best friend, Mike. They had a great deal of math and accounting classes; Mike helped him keep his numbers straight when Sam finally admitted to being dyslexic.

The next person Sam met on his short list of trusted allies was Tina, Mike's wife. Sam met her one day when he went to the diner off campus. She was funny and cute and asked him out. Sam agreed to a date but halfway through he knew she was gonna be more like a sister than a girlfriend. It was a bowling night for friends when Sam introduced Mike and Tina, and they fell in love at first sight. They all formed a really tight friendship and throughout all of his successes, they stood by his side.


"Sam! Sam did ya doze off on me?" Puck asked, looking at him.

Sam snapped out of his thoughts looking at Noah Puckerman, his contractor for many of his projects. The man was a menace when it came to women but he and his brothers were hard working and dedicated to their craft.

Sam glanced around the empty lot that would become a fifteen story hotel and nodded. "It looks like progress is moving along. When will you be laying the foundation?"

"First thing tomorrow morning. We've already laid out the base and made the adjustments you asked for." Handing Sam a hard hat, Puck led him to the back of the lot. "We extended the size of the pool to separate it from the lounge for adults to the slide for the kids."

Sam nodded. "And the hot tub will be here?" He asked, moving towards the end of the lot.

"Yes. It's going to be great Sam. Now that you are up to date. Lets talking about getting you laid. You and me, tonight, that club on Maker and Pine?"

Sam shook his head. "No."

"Just no, not even a reason." Puck asked.

"No. Now catch me up on where the parking lot will be."

As Sam finished his inspection, he felt good about the project. Even though he was CEO and that meant a lot of paperwork, a lot of meetings, he made sure he stepped on all of his properties, because he took pride in everything he did.

Walking back to his car he pulled out his phone as it rang not recognizing the number, "Hello?"

"Hello can I reach Mr. Sam Evans?"

"Can I ask who is calling?"

"This is Sergeant Jackson Wallace."

"What did he do?" Sam huffed.

"I'm sorry?"

"I am pretty sure you are calling about Dwight Evans. What did he do?"

"Does that mean you are Sam Evans? His son?"

"Yes."

"Your father was found walking around Walmart…drunk and without any pants on."

Sam ran his hand down his face. "I am not in Nashville I can't bail him out."

The officer sighed. "Look, have you ever thought of putting him in rehab? Your father has a real problem we see him here at aleast once a week."

Sam closed his eyes, shaking his head. "How much is the bail?"

"Twenty-five hundred."

"I will wire it over but tell him that is it. I can't keep doing this." Sam groaned.

"Mr. Evans?"

"I will send it within an hour." Sam said, hanging up and closing his eyes. This wasn't the first time that he's gotten that call. He had been dealing with his father and his drinking most of his life. His dad had been in and out of the drunk tank for years.

Nothing like having the cops bust up your celebration for winning state with a trip to bail your father out of jail. Or have him run inside covered in puke and God knows what while you have a Zoom interview for college.

Sam stepped into his SUV and called his brother.

"Sammy! This is not a good time, I am heading out." Stevie said sounding rushed.

"Stevie, I just wanted to make sure dad didn't call you."

"I wouldn't answer a call from Dwight if you paid me, so no he didn't. But you should call Stacey, even though that man was never a dad too, her she still loves him."

"Stevie…" Sam said, shaking his head.

"You know its true! You were more a father to me then he was. You are paying for school, you give us a stipend, and you are the one who I go to when I need help. Whatever Dwight got himself into, I really don't care."

"Okay, that's fair."

"Now I gotta go. But I will call you Sunday okay?"

"Okay. Ima call Stacey but yeah call me anytime. Love ya."

"Love you too."

Sam hung up and dialed Stacey.

"Hey Sammy! You will never believe what happened to me today, I was called into the Dean's office and I made the Deans list!"

"Stace! That's amazing! I am very proud of you. We have to celebrate. Maybe I will fly you and Stevie out here for Spring Break."

"I would love that. With Stevie at UCLA and me at Yale its been hard to be apart so getting to come to New York and hang with my brothers sounds great!"

"Well then consider it done."

"Oh I totally forgot you called me for a reason. Whats up?"

"Did dad call you?"

Stacey was silent for a moment.

"Stacey, how much did you send him?"

"Don't be mad Sammy, he said that he was in jail and needed money, so I used some of my savings."

"Stace! How much did you send him?"

"Fifteen hundred…its okay I can get a job to replace it."

Sam put his phone on speaker as he pulled out his cashapp.

"Check your cashapp. You don't have to get a job, your job is school. Nothing else."

"Five thousand dollars! Sammy that's more than double what I gave dad."

"Consider it a bonus for making the Deans list. Now go and enjoy your day, I am gonna video chat with you and Stevie on Sunday okay?"

"Love you Sammy."

"Love you too. And Stace, congratulations."

Hanging up, Sam punched the steering wheel, frustrated that this was his life. This is what he had to do to protect his siblings, he looked down at his watch and sighed. He still had a few more plans to run over with the contractors, reluctantly he got back out of his car and headed back to the site.

His phone went off again, he looked and saw that the wire was confirmed and right as he looked up, he ran right into a woman causing them both to stumble.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't see you there." He said.

She offered a small smile. "It's okay, my head is usually down, I should've been paying attention." She replied before walking away.

He started to say something else but she was gone before he could. "Hey man come on, T's rushing me to come home early." Mike said and he nodded walking over so they could finish.


"I don't understand, why did the payment increase? His treatments haven't changed." Mercedes asked, she'd been going back and forth with an insurance agent since leaving work and the longer she stayed on the phone, the worse everything got.

"I'm sorry Ms. Jones but you've capped out."

"Capped out? What does that mean?"

"It means that with all of your brother's treatments and medications you've reached your insurance cap. We can't pay any more. Not until the New Year when it starts all over."

"But I don't understand, he needs insurance. He needs this treatment plan. Does this mean Insurance isn't paying for any of it?"

"I'm sorry. They will keep paying for his stay at the facility but this new treatment can not be covered."

Mercedes felt a lump in her throat, she was stretched thin as is and now she had to figure out a way to cover his treatments while maintaining her own bills. "Is there nothing you can do?" She asked.

"Can he wait until the New Year? I know it's six months away, but if he can wait, then as soon as January hits we can cover it."

"No… he can't, without it he won't last six months. Thanks… I guess." She answered before hanging up, forcing herself not to cry on the side of the road.

She made herself walk the six more blocks to her best friend's place, in hopes that sometime with her would distract her from her present life drama. She'd met Santana one night when she needed a break a few years ago and stumbled into her bar, wanting to drink away her sorrows. The feisty Latina made sure no one messed with her the whole night and provided her with unlimited drinks while letting her vent until the bar closed. She spent the whole night talking about herself, and not once did Santana judge her; she went back the next day to thank her only to be told that she didn't need to thank her.

After exchanging numbers, they started to build a strong friendship and in time Santana became her rock. Her sassy wit and blunt attitude was a great contrast to Mercedes strong will and stubbornness. Santana helped her get out of her head and actually start living, though she didn't do it often.

Knocking on the door to Santana's Duplex, the moment the Latina opened the door, Mercedes was in her arms. Santana didn't even hesitate, she just pulled her close and into the house.

"I'll get the drinks and you take a seat, tell me what is going on?"

Mercedes took a seat and wiped her eyes. "I'm screwed Santana. I don't know what I am gonna do…I don't know how to get out of this mess."

Santana walked over to her, handing her a glass of Maker's Mark. "Tell me what's going on?"

Mercedes took the glass, looking at the brown fluid before seeing one of her tears fall into the glass. "San… I can't do this anymore." She sobbed. "I have done everything I can and now I can afford to save my brother."

Her friend let out a deep sigh. "I thought things were turning around?"

Taking a sip, Mercedes shook her head. "It was until I got a call from his insurance saying they wouldn't be covering anything else until the new year. Fucking people actually had the nerve to ask if he could make it six months like they of all people should know!"

Santana took a sip of her drink. "Well how much do you need to cover the treatment or surgery?"

"At least two-hundred and fifty dollars. But I can't even begin to think about what I would need if he needs new meds or additional care after the surgery. Santana this is just… I don't know."

"Two…well how much do you have?"

Mercedes heaved a sigh. "I don't know, like a hundred grand. I tried to get more but I just can't. They won't allow me to take a lien against the house and I don't know what to do."

"Breathe, Merce…just breathe. We can figure this out… you don't have to do this alone." Santana said, putting her drink down. "Why don't you try to sell something?"

"I have nothing to sell! I sold my car and my grandma's car to pay for half of his stay at the facility. All I can do now is pray but I can't even muster up the strength to do that! I don't know what to do."

Santana took a long sip of her drink before putting her glass down. "Well if you need big money, I know a way but you won't like it."

"At this point, I'd do anything."


It's about to get juicy!