Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ And We Were Angels ❯ Trials of the Heart ( Chapter 13 )

And We Were Angels

By: AMCM74

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Chapter 13 - Trials of the Heart

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Bulma carefully looked over the files on her desk, calculating the numbers over and over again. She had to make sure this presentation was absolutely flawless.

A soft knock at her door broke her concentration. She frowned and looked at the clock on the wall. Bulma was shocked when she realized that it was already 7:45 pm. She had to look at her wristwatch just to make sure. Sighing, she could not believe that the time had gotten away from her as quickly as it did.

Getting up from her chair, she walked across the room and opened the door. Bulma smiled when she saw who it was. "Mr. Hikari!" The building was eerily silent and Bulma realized that, besides the sparse cleaning crew, they were probably the only people in the building. Johanna Marley's warning flashed in her head, but she still dismissed it. After all, Robert Hikari had always been kind and respectful to her and her father. Why would she believe anything that witch said.

"I assume you know that Johanna sold her shares to me today," he said as he walked past Bulma and into the CEO's office. Hikari looked around and shook his head. "Bulma, how could you let something like this happen during your father's absence?"

Bulma whispered, "I gather you have seen the newspapers." She shut the door, not wanting eavesdroppers listening in on this private meeting.

"That your father has cancer? Yes, I have heard, but I know your old man. I can't see this being anything more than a temporary setback for him. He is, after all, the single greatest genius of our time." Hikari crossed his arms and lustfully stared at her body. "I thought you would have held the bitch at bay until he returned."

"To be frank, I've had enough of her shit." Bulma walked past Mr. Hikari without looking at him. She hopped up on the desk and crossed her legs. "So tell me, what are you going to do now that you have enough shares to take control of this company?"

"Well, I certainly don't plan to keep them." His pearly white teeth flashed as he smiled, but the look in his eyes made her skin crawl. "The Briefs family must remain in control of Capsule for it to continue to be marketable. If word gets out that you are no longer in charge of this corporation, the market will fold and we will lose it all."

Bulma sighed in relief. "So, you are willing to sell them back to me?" For a moment she thought her worst nightmare had come true, and that Johanna had sold her out to the lecherous corporate wolf.

That's when Hikari made his move. He walked across the room and ran one hand over her cheek, neck and shoulder. "Bulma dear, I am going to give you those shares. You won't have to pay me a dime."

Bulma pulled her head back and to the side, her eyes narrowing with distrust. "What are you doing?"

"It's simple, Bulma baby. I want you to come to my beach house this weekend. I will hand over the legal papers giving you possession of Johanna Marley's shares. Then you can give me what I want."

"And what exactly is that?" Bulma could not keep her voice from trembling.

Hikari took the slight waver of fear and horror as a completely different emotion. Clasping one thin hand onto her hair he pulled her mouth to his. His lips muffled Bulma's scream as she struggled to get away. He grabbed her arms and pulled her close, moving his kisses down to the base of her neck.

"Mr. Hikari!! Let go of me this instant!!" She growled while trying to push him away from her.

"Come on Bulma." He slammed her down on the desk, sending papers and a pencil holder scattering all over the floor. "I know you want this. You've been teasing me with your short skirts and coy smiles. Hell, you even invited me in here and shut the door. You're practically begging me to make a move." One hand held her shoulder down as the other slid between her legs, slowly hiking up the skirt in it's wake.

"NO!!" She cried out and tried pushing herself off the desk. "You are so wrong Robert!" Bulma felt his fingers working their way into the folds of her panties. She screamed and struck out violently as one finger brushed over her tender nub.

"You don't have to lie and play games with me Bulma. I understand." He whispered in her ear as he pressed his fingers over the sensitive flesh. "I am a married man, you're the boss's daughter. We have to be discreet about this."

Suddenly, a voice was heard coming from the doorway. "Excuse me."

Bulma was relieved to hear those words. Hikari quickly removed himself from her, and stepped in front of Bulma to keep the intruder from seeing her disheveled appearance.

Hikari snapped at the man who held the door open. "We're busy in here! You can come in and sweep or whatever after we have left!"

"Sorry, but I am not here to clean. I am here to take Miss Briefs home." Vegeta stood his ground, his dark eyes pinned on her assailant.

"Well she isn't finished here. You can leave and I will see to it that she gets to her house safely."

Bulma jumped off the other side of the desk and straightened her skirt. She was doing all she could to hold back her angry tears. "He can't leave, Mr. Hikari."

"Why the hell not?" Hikari turned to glare at her and she knew just what that look meant. Her father's company was hanging in the balance. She could not ignore that fact and go about her business like nothing had happened. She had done that once today and it had come to no avail.

"I am here to protect Miss Briefs." Vegeta walked in without taking his eyes off the lewd man. This was the type of scum that had led Vegeta to lose his faith to begin with. There was no way he was going to allow this adulterous bastard to prey on his charge.

"What do you mean, 'protect'?"

"He is my bodyguard. My father hired him to escort me to and from work. He knows I am working late hours." Bulma stepped around the desk and moved to Vegeta's side. "There are set times that I have to be home by. I must have been late tonight. Isn't that right, Vegeta?"

"Whatever. Let's get out of here." Vegeta took her arm and headed for the door.

"Wait!" Hikari walked over to Bulma and handed her a card. His eyes bore into hers. "This is the address and phone number to my beach house. If you want those papers we discussed, well, you know what to do."

Bulma choked back her tears as she watched the man leave her office. It was then that she noticed Vegeta's angry glare. All the strength left her limbs and she sank to the floor. She was numb from her encounter with Hikari. If Vegeta had not shown up when he did, God only knows what would've happened.

Still, that was not the worst part. Bulma pondered his proposal, if you could call it that. If she didn't go see him this weekend, she could kiss her father's lifework goodbye. She would single-handedly destroy everything. On the other hand, how could she let Hikari touch her like that again? She shuddered as she felt the bile rising.

"You're not going, woman" Vegeta commanded. "It's not safe, it's not moral, and you will never be able to live with yourself if you do this."

Tears soaked into the carpet. "You don't understand Vegeta. I don't have a choice."

"You are not a prostitute. Your father will understand if you don't sell your body and your self respect for the company." Vegeta whispered just loud enough for her to hear.

"I know that he would never hold it against me." She could not even see through the tears in her eyes. "But this is something I have to deal with myself. It will be easier to play the part of Hikari's weekend whore than to lose Capsule."

"You're not serious!" A stunned Vegeta choked on his words. "You should not even be considering something so idiotic."

"It's not idiotic to want to save something my father worked his entire life to build. I am more serious about this than I have ever been about anything else." She felt despondent as the reality of her situation came crashing down upon her.

Vegeta crossed his arms and stood over her. "I can't allow you to do this woman. It's my job to protect you. There is no way that I am going to stand by and watch you ruin yourself." He dropped his arms and clenched his fists. "You need to think about your predicament! There are repercussions from this that you haven't even considered!"

Bulma snapped back at him "You don't know what you're talking about!" She stood up and wiped away her tears. "How can you possibly think to lecture or guide me through something you have not or ever will experience? My father has cancer and he could be dying. You have not even been able to find out for sure. That tells me there is a good chance he might not make it through the surgery. I won't let his last days on earth be spent worrying about my future, nor will I allow him to think I am a hapless failure, who can run a multi-billion dollar company into the ground in less than a month."

"You are being too hard on yourself." Vegeta reached out to touch her arm, but she pulled it back like he had burned her. "Just calm down and think this through. I don't want you rushing into a move you will regret."

Bulma looked at him with cold and emotionless eyes. He had seen that look before on so many faces of lost souls in this world. It sickened him to see her like this. He tried to think of some kind of solution, any kind of support that would help her. Damn it all to hell! He knew she could see the desperation in his eyes.

"I am sorry Vegeta, but you have failed here. I will sell my soul to Satan himself to keep from losing Capsule Corporation." She lowered her head. "I think it's best that you leave me now."

"I can't do that." Vegeta growled. "I will not see you become my enemy."

Bulma shook her head and turned away from him. It was a hard decision to make. All she wanted was to surrender her broken spirit into his arms and stay in the warmth and safety she had felt there. The fact was that God himself had sent her an angel to save and guide her. "I have failed them all." The thought consumed her fragile soul. Deeply saddened, she walked to the doorway, turned off the light and quietly closed the door.

As Vegeta stood in the darkness, an indescribable pain consumed his being. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before in his life. I have failed them all. That is what she thought. Bulma, his precious charge, fought to save her father's company on her own. She was trying to get over her residual feelings for Yamcha so that he could be happy with Tea. Bulma had even been trying to save herself so that Vegeta would not fail in his mission.

She was wrong. He was not the one who did not understand. Vegeta was her angel. It was his job to save her and he could see now that he was failing her. Failure. It was a feeling that he had never known before. He had been guided through his entire existence by the most powerful beacon of hope and light, but that light had faded. When Goku came to him about Bulma, the light had been so faint that Vegeta could barely see it.

Vegeta knew he had to help Bulma, not for himself or his unblemished record of perfection. This mortal had to be saved because he cared about saving her. He could not lose her light to the darkness as he had his own.

It was then that Vegeta felt something on his face and he lifted his hand to touch it. Pulling his hand away from his cheek, he looked at the moisture on his fingertips. Tears?