Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless

Also By Kiki Swinson
 
 
Wifey
 
I’m Still Wifey
 
Life After Wifey
 
The Candy Shop
 
A Sticky Situation
 
Still Wifey Material
 
Playing Dirty
 
Notorious
 
Sleeping with the Enemy
(with Wahida Clark)
 
Heist
(with De’nesha Diamond)
 
 
Also by Noire
 
 
Maneater
(with Mary B. Morrison)
 
 
Published by Kensington Publishing Corp.
Lifestyles of the RICH and SHAMELESS
 
KIKI SWINSON NOIRE
 
 
Kensington Publishing Corp.
 
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Shamelessly Rich
 
Kiki Swinson
Prologue
 
My Worst Mistake
 
B
lood. There was so much blood everywhere. It was clouding my vision. And the smell. It was so strong and overwhelming. The smell was one I could never forget.
“Aggghhh!” I screamed as my body moved involuntarily. I didn’t even realize I was jumping up and down. The sight in front of me was ghastly and I thought I would go into shock. I had stood by and done nothing and now I was going to pay for it.
We
were going to pay dearly for it, I should say.
“Megan, shut the fuck up! If you scream again it’s over! I put a bullet in his ass and end this whole shit,” Eric yelled at me. His face was contorted into a scowl I had never seen him wear before. One of his fists was clenched tightly and his other hand gripped a gun so hard that his knuckles were pale. I knew he meant business, so I tried to obey his demands. I clasped my hands over my mouth, trying to keep the screams in. It didn’t work. As I looked down again, trying to muffle a scream proved futile. I was brimming with emotion. This whole shit was out of control now.
“What did you do?” I belted out through wracking sobs. I could feel my face swelling from all of the crying I had been doing. There was blood everywhere—on the floor, on the table, some had even squirted on the wall. It was clear that our victim needed medical attention, and fast. I stared at the almost lifeless form in front of me. Things had gone terribly wrong. Eric had gone berserk punching and kicking and hitting. It was supposed to be easy. There wasn’t supposed to be any violence involved, just a snatch, grab, and collect. “Oh God, Eric ... What did you do?” I hollered again.
“I did what we planned to do! Remember whose fuckin’ idea this was in the first place. Now shut the fuck up and get on the phone and make them believe us now!” Eric growled cruelly. I knew he was right. This had all been my idea. All for revenge. I never meant for it to turn out like this.
“Start fuckin’ movin’! I’m gonna snap the fuckin’ pictures of his half-dead ass. Just in case they don’t believe that this shit is serious,” Eric continued in the same cruel, ruthless voice as before. It amazed me how he could just stand in a pool of a helpless person’s blood and not even care. Eric was definitely not the man I thought he was. My vision had been clouded. Too clouded.
“I—I ... can’t!” I wailed. My stomach was cramping and my entire body trembled. I couldn’t stop staring at the victim. I couldn’t help but think that this was all my fault. I had done all of this to myself and to my family. Now here I stood feeling like the worst person alive. Now I wanted to just save him—take him and run far away from Eric and his goons that were outside. I wanted to ask for forgiveness for being such a selfish and spoiled little bitch.
“Help me ... Me ... gan,” he whispered weakly through his bloody, battered lips. That broke my heart. I was so happy he was still alive, but his words and hearing him rasp out my name sent a pang of hurt throughout my body and a cold chill down my spine. How could I have done something so wretched to my own flesh and blood?
“Shut the fuck up! She can’t help you. The only one that can help you is your accountant!” Eric barked, rushing over to where I stood. I shot Eric an evil look. I wanted to kill him with my bare hands. All this time, I’d thought I was in love with Eric, but I realized right then that I was just infatuated with his bad boy style and the things he represented.
Being with Eric had been like a walk on the wild side for me ... like an adventure. Being born with a silver spoon in my mouth wasn’t enough. I had grown bored with growing up wealthy and having everything at my disposal. From the time I could remember, I’d had everything. And I do mean
everything.
I guess all of the international trips, the private school education, high-priced gifts for doing absolutely nothing at all, having enough money at my disposal that I could afford to lose thousands at a time and not even care and having every material thing that I wanted just wasn’t enough for me. I was still bored as hell. By the time I was eighteen, I wanted more.
I went out with a ghetto bad boy for the thrill of it. Eric was the complete opposite of me. He had grown up dirt poor and his story was stereotypical of what my parents had tried to keep me away from—Eric’s mother was on crack, his father was never in the picture, and he was raised by a grandmother who was in such bad health that she couldn’t discipline him or keep up with him. He was a street hustler by the time he was fifteen years old and he came from the worst part of Virginia Beach. Although Eric was just thirty-one, he had already done two stints in prison. I had thought of him as such an adventure. Not to mention that all of the hot sex, ecstasy pills, and weed, run-ins with the law and making other girls jealous also excited me about Eric. Every chick in Virginia Beach wanted a piece of Eric Chambers, but he had chosen me. That made me feel more special than any gift my father could have ever given me. But look where my stupid infatuation and need for a walk on the wild side led to.
“You think I’m fuckin’ playing, right?” Eric hissed, walking over and kicking the already defenseless victim in the side.
“Aggh!” he screamed out in pain. I had not even realized I was daydreaming and hesitating to make the call. “Stop it! You said you wouldn’t hurt him!” I screeched. The tears were uncontrollable now.
“Bitch, if you don’t pick up the phone and dial somebody to get the money, I will fuckin’ kill him and pin all this shit on you! Or better yet, I might just kill your ass too,” Eric barked. His face was so serious. I knew when he was bluffing and this wasn’t one of those moments. I knew that if I didn’t do it, Eric would be committing murder for real.
My hands were trembling fiercely as I dialed the familiar number. I clutched my cell phone tightly against my ear and prayed that the accountant answered. Eric was standing over me menacingly as he brandished his gun so both of us could see it.
“Hello,” I breathed into the phone through the computerized voice disguiser. I swallowed hard when I recognized the familiar voice on the message service that picked up. I felt like I would piss on myself. Eric snatched the phone from me. He could see that I had frozen up like a deer caught in headlights.
“We want three million in cash for his release. We ain’t callin’ again! If you involve the cops, he dies. No second chances!” Eric screamed into the phone.
My heart sank as I looked into the battered face of my own father. I felt a sickening mixture of emotions. Part anger, part regret, and a large part fear. I wished we weren’t at this point. I wished my parents had hidden their disapproval of my wild life instead of treating me so badly. In time, we could’ve worked it out. But we didn’t, so I set up this scheme to get revenge. I’d wanted them to hurt as much as I did, but now I see that I was being greedy and self-centered. Damn, I wished that I could rewind time.

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