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THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR 236
Bert said goodbye to us in the prison parking lot. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he cautioned me. “Give it 48 hours. The system will work.”“Right,” I said sarcastically. “Because it’s worked so well so far.”Bert gave me a scolding look, then nodded at Sebastian and Johnny. “Gentlemen, I’ll be in touch,” he said, then got in his Mercedes and drove off.“What do we do now?” I asked Sebastian and Johnny in despair.“Apparently, we go home and wait,” Sebastian said, sounding almost as hopeless as I felt.As we all got in the car, I heard my cell phone chime. Eve had sent me a new text message:Screw waiting. Want to do something crazy?An hour later, Sebastian, Johnny, and I sat around my phone in the penthouse, staring at the screen.I used your document on Miranda as a starting point. I thought you were exaggerating how secretive she was.“I wasn’t,” Sebastian said.I figured that out pretty quickly. She’s good – I’ll give her that. I searched high and low, and I finally found several
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR 237
“I cannot fucking believe I am going to fucking Tanzania,” Sebastian groused.It was almost midnight as we stood on the tarmac at the airport. Two private jets owned by Connor were fueled and on the runway. Johnny stood there with an overnight bag; Sebastian had a decidedly larger one.“There’s no fashion show in Tanzania, Sebastian,” I teased him.“Do not say a thing to me,” he sniffed, then muttered to himself, “I could be going to Venice…”“Be careful, okay guys?”“We’ll be fine,” Johnny said.A head popped out of the open door of the Africa-bound plane: Stan, one of Connor’s four bodyguards. “You ready to go, Sebastian?”“I’ll be right there,” Sebastian called, then turned back to me. “Do NOT do anything stupid while we’re gone, Lily. I mean it. Johnny and I are doing this as part of a deal. Your end of the deal is that you’re going to lay low and be there for Connor and not do anything crazy.”“I know, I know,” I muttered.“Do I have your word?”“I already told you yes!”“I want
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Connor
After the skinheads tried to kill me, things actually got worse.I got tossed in solitary confinement, right after my hospital visit with Lily, Sebastian, Johnny, and Bert. Apparently in prison, even if you try to defend yourself against a murder attempt, you get thrown in solitary.Maybe they would have been more forgiving if I’d let the skinheads kill me.I didn’t complain, though. The longer I spent in SHU – the ‘security housing unit’ – the fewer chances Miranda had to have me shivved in the back. Despite my relative safety, the next two days were not fun. No word from Bert, no word from Lily, just 40-plus hours in an 8x10 concrete cell with a toilet that stank of sewage. The ‘food’ they shoved through the feeding slot three times a day tasted only marginally better than the toilet smelled – but I wouldn’t let them get to me. I shut my mind and ate the food, did hundreds of push-ups and crunches, and plotted like the Count of Monte Cristo for whenever I got out of prison.Miranda
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR 239
I sat there in stunned horror.Miranda’s involved in sex trafficking, Connor. She’s shipping slaves across the globe, and she’s using your family’s planes to do it.It made sense now.Why would my father sign away his entire empire to me?Because his daughter-in-law – the one who would be the power behind the throne, the one who would manipulate my mother and brother – was evil beyond reckoning.A multi-millionaire, someone richer than 0.01% of all humanity, was trafficking in human misery, just to make a few dollars more.I wanted to vomit.I wanted to scream.But I couldn’t.I had to stay clear-headed.I had to act.I reached in my pocket for my phone and turned it on.As soon as it booted up, hundreds of texts and voicemails showed up. Friends, maybe? Reporters?Within seconds, a new message appeared:Eve.I hit the button for the text app.Connor – thank God.I started to tap out a response, but Johnny said, “Just talk to her. She can hear you.”I looked at him, startled, then spo
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR LILY
I stared at my mother in shock.“Augustus!” she cried out, and reached out to me with her thin arms. “Augustus, where have you been?”I knelt down beside her and took her hands in mine. “Mother, it’s me… it’s Connor.”She was shaking now. Tears were rolling down her cheeks from behind her sunglasses. “Augustus, I’ve been waiting for you… why did you leave me?”“Mother, I’m not Dad – it’s Connor.”She looked at me in confusion, then pulled back in fear, like she had just realized I wasn’t who she thought I was.“Who are you?” she wailed. “What have you done with my husband?”I looked up at Johnny, who stared back at me helplessly.I had no idea what to do, so I tried repeating it once more: “Mother – I’m Connor… your son.”“I don’t…” She looked around in distress, as though searching a crowded room for someone, even though we were by the edge of the pond and there was no one else around. “Augustus! Augustus, where are you? Where are you?!”The woman in black pushed me aside. She grabbe
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Lily
When I first came back to some hazy semblance of consciousness, I felt things gently rocking beneath me, like I was adrift on a raft on a lake.I opened my eyes.I was in a small, dark, windowless room, with a strip of light coming from beneath a door.I was lying in bed – a narrow bunk set into a wall, with a thin mattress underneath me. Just a few feet away from me was a toilet and a sink. Other than that, the room was bare.My throat was dry as sunbaked concrete. There was a chemical taste on my parched tongue.Then I remembered.The crunch of metal. The shattering of glass. The sickly sweet smell on the wet cloth forced against my face.Overcome by panic, I fought to sit up. Whooooaaa… that isn’t good. Nauseated, I lay back down and waited for the drugs to wear off. Or at least for the room to stop spinning.While I lay there, I tried to figure out where I was.The rocking sensation was real. It was gentle, but it was definitely there – so I was probably on a boat.Where the bo
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR 242
Armin escorted me down the hall. It was narrow, with lots of closed doors and fluorescent lights. There was no one else around. Then we left the hall and stepped onto a wooden deck with a railing. Cool, salty air rushed over my face, and silver moonlight sparkled on water.We were under a covered walkway, so I couldn’t see above us, and Armin pushed me forward roughly when I tried to look behind him. But from the hallway we’d exited to the bow of the boat was at least a hundred feet. Between them lay a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, and multiple deck chairs.We were on a giant yacht of some sort. Fitting for an evil mega-millionaire bitch.Armin opened a door that led into a dimly lit room without windows. There was a table inside, and chairs bolted to the floor all around it. In one of the chairs sat a figure with a black bag over its head.Fear surged through me. I watched the shape, afraid it might rear up like in a horror movie – but it stayed slumped over.Armin forced me into a ch
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Connor
The sun had set an hour before. The limo was almost back to Manhattan, and I was in hell.I was completely powerless. Lily and Sebastian had both been abducted, and there was nothing I could do. If Eve couldn’t find them, there was no way any of my company’s security guys could – although I still worked the phones relentlessly, talking to my employees, praying for a miracle.We had just entered the city when a text message pinged my phone.Connor – I found her cell.“What?! Where?!”In international waters near the Grenadines, in the Caribbean. “Smart,” Bert muttered.I looked at him.“She’s out of the jurisdiction of any local police forces,” Bert explained.“Good. Then she can’t count on them when I go after her,” I growled, which made Bert recoil.Eve continued, The phone’s signal is super weak, but it’s there.“Can you see or hear anything?”No. All I get is blackness and muffled voices.I looked at Johnny and Bert.“It’s a trap,” Johnny said. “It has to be.”“If she’s in interna
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THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Lily
The only part that was slightly sad was that Connor’s mother and brother didn’t attend. His mother was still under heavy psychiatric care. She wouldn’t have even known what was going on, according to Connor. As much as I disliked Lenora Templeton, that news saddened me. I only wanted her out of my life. I didn’t want her to end up like this.His brother had checked himself into rehab. Though he sent his congratulations, Vincent told Connor that he didn’t think he could attend, knowing what Miranda had done and how she had met her end. He felt he was still in too precarious a situation emotionally to leave the safety of the rehab center.I know that Connor still bore a lot of anger and hurt towards his mother and brother, but he would have liked to have had them there – as long as they behaved themselves.Things were improving, though. His mother was gradually getting better, and Connor had worked out a deal to take over as interim CEO of the Templeton Group while his brother was in r
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Lily
But as far as wedding days go, it wasn’t the only one.Come on, I’d gotten married in sopping wet clothes, on a deserted island in the Caribbean, with only four people total in attendance.Did you really think I wasn’t going to have a billionaire-style shindig, with all my family and friends?Connor and I decided on it spontaneously, as soon as we got back home. But rather than hold it in New York City, with all its bad memories from the last couple of weeks, we held it two weeks later in Lake Cuomo, Italy. Have you ever seen pictures of Lake Cuomo? It’s like an Italian Renaissance fairytale. George Clooney bought a residence there, with good reason – it’s one of the most beautiful places on earth. And that’s where we had our wedding.There was only one shadow hanging over the entire day.After we were escorted back to St. Vincent by the policemen, Connor immediately hired a team of divers to go down to inspect the yacht’s wreckage. There was one body in particular he wanted found.B
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Lily
It turns out Johnny was right: we didn’t see a single shark the entire way.That doesn’t mean it was a piece of cake. What with Johnny and Connor’s wounds, and my needing to rely on their help when I was tired, it took us almost an hour. By the time we got to the island, we were exhausted. But Sebastian was there to greet us. As we approached where the waves started to break, he saw us and started yelling and waving ecstatically from the beach.“A little help!” Johnny shouted at him. Sebastian immediately raced out into the waves and dragged me to shore. “Thank God, thank God,” he kept sobbing as he helped me lie down on the sand. Then he went back out and helped Johnny and Connor limp their way onto the beach.We all collapsed next to each other. Connor and I held hands as we stared up into the blue sky, too weary to speak.“I thought I’d never see you again,” Sebastian said, wiping tears from his face.I was touched; it was the most vulnerable I’d ever seen him.“No such luck,” Co
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Lily
The happiest moment of my life was when Connor proposed to me.The second was when he burst through that door.And the third was seeing the look of surprise on Miranda’s face when she realized what I had done to her.While Connor kept her talking, I picked the lock and undid the handcuffs from my right wrist. (Bobby pins to the rescue!) Then I grabbed Miranda’s arm and slapped the cuffs on her.Anytime I’m ever depressed about anything from now on for the rest of my life, I’m just going to remember the look of surprise on that murderous bitch’s face, and everything will be better. Instant anti-depressant.Miranda yanked her arm up with a clank! of the chain, but she was locked to the metal armrest of the chair – which was bolted to the floor.She screamed in fury, and pulled the gun’s trigger.BLAM!But I’d purposefully bumped her aim away from Connor – so all that happened was one of the creepy glass spider cases shattered into tiny shards.The gunshot hurt my ears, but I’d been expe
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Connor
I couldn’t take the shot. I wasn’t Johnny; my aim was good, but not stellar, and the floor was already at a 20 degree tilt. Miranda had her gun at point blank range to Lily’s head. If she pulled the trigger before I got her – I slowly held my .45 away from my body and let it fall to the floor.All the ugliness I knew was inside Miranda revealed itself on her face. It was the evil leer of a serial killer, the grin of a Great White Shark.“I win,” she gloated.My heart sank.It was over. I had failed.I looked at Lily, both sorrow and love welling up at once. She was seated in some sort of chair bolted to the floor, and was handcuffed to the metal armrest.Lily’s eyes were frantic, but her lips were moving. She was mouthing something…Keep her talking.I couldn’t tell for the life of me what she had in store, but I complied. I looked up at Miranda. “You win. You can do with me whatever you want, but please – let Lily go.”“Don’t waste your breath,” Miranda snarled. “Walk towards me w
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Lily
The door suddenly burst open, and there stood Connor with a gun in his hand, just like the star of an action movie.My heart soared with love – and fear. Because Miranda was standing behind my chair, just like the villain in an action movie.I was between them – Miranda’s human shield.I felt the barrel of Miranda’s pistol jam against the back of my head.“Drop it,” she commanded, “or I kill her.”Connor looked at me helplessly.“Don’t worry about me – shoot her!” I begged him.But he wouldn’t take the chance. He held the gun slowly away from him and let it fall to the floor. CLUNK.I felt Miranda’s pistol stop pressing against my scalp, then saw it appear next to me as it pointed at Connor.“I win,” she said, and I could hear the sneering triumph in her voice.
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Connor
I rushed over to Leo’s body, staggering in the tilting hallway as I ran.He was lying face-up on the ground, a pool of blood spreading out beneath him on the floor.He saw me coming. Tried weakly to lift his AR-15 – I put two more rounds in him with my .45.BLAM BLAM.He lay still after that.Adrenaline coursed through me like a drug, sharpening my senses while making everything unreal.I felt sick. I had just killed a man. I had just taken a life. He was a traitor, yes, and someone who was planning to hand me over to be killed – but still, I felt queasy.Lily.She was all that mattered. I pulled myself together.“Nice shooting,” Eve said in my ear. “Oh ye of little faith.”“What?” At first I thought she meant something about me doubting my abilities to shoot someone, which didn’t make any sense.“You thought I was a turncoat? AGAIN?”“Oh,” I said sheepishly. “Sorry about that.”“Hmph. We’ll talk later. Go down the hallway the way you were originally heading – there’s a half-dozen g
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Lily
BOOM.There was a massive explosion somewhere on the ship. Every glass pane in the spider terrariums rattled, and a couple cracked.“What the hell?” Miranda said, and stumbled to her feet as the yacht began to tilt to one side.After my initial shock from the blast, I watched Miranda’s face. She was reacting with more fear – in fact, with more emotion – than I’d ever seen her display before.She looked back at me, her eyes wide with surprise.After all the indignities the bitch had put me through, I couldn’t resist. “Guess my fiancé’s here,” I said, and gave her a little smile.
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Connor
I was halfway down the deck when Eve spoke in my ear. “Connor, there’s a problem.”“What?” I whispered.“Juan and Leo are on the other side of the yacht, but I’m not getting any video feeds of them.”There was a dull WHUP in the distance, then another one a few seconds later.Not like gunshots, exactly. But they did sound like a heavy book being dropped on a wood floor.I ducked into an alcove with a door in it, and hunkered down into a squatting position. “Juan? Leo?”“We separated, and Juan ran into a guard,” Leo’s voice said. “Juan’s dead, but I got the other guy before he could sound the alarm.”SHIT. Already things were going to hell, and we’d barely engaged the enemy yet.But… something didn’t make sense…I frowned. “I heard two silenced shots. How come I didn’t hear any regular gunfire?”“They’ve got suppressors, too. The first one was the guy shooting Juan, the second was me shooting the guard.”I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something seemed off. I just chalked it up to
