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Chapter 43
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THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 44
As far as national bugaboos go, most conspiracy theorists would list the CIA as the most threatening organization officially sanctioned by any government on Earth. Sure, true-blue American patriots might go with the KGB – but the KGB is gone, a relic of the Communist past, now rolled into some other agency. The CIA is still alive and kicking. In the last five decades, you’ve got multiple ventures to overthrow other countries’ democratically elected administrations… collusion with drug traffickers to fund arms deals for foreign paramilitary groups… and assassination plots up the wazoo. Not to mention the roving torture ‘black sites’ used by the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan.Allegedly.Pretty scary, right?For my money, though, the NSA is scarier, because it’s the biggest global intelligence agency on the planet.The CIA is only supposed to work internationally. They can’t legally do anything on American soil, and they only concern themselves with foreigners.Not so the NSA. Their ter
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 45
We all go to bed a little after midnight. JP lends us the spare bedroom, while Dominique sacks out on the couch. At first she complains bitterly about it. Though she never states why, I figure it’s probably because of what she saw Grant and I doing on it earlier. JP lasciviously offers her a spot in his bed, but she turns that down – loudly. I think there might be another comment about swizzle sticks. In the end, JP throws a blanket at her, which she grumpily drapes over the sofa before biting the bullet.Grant and I lie there in the semi-darkness, his arm around me, me snuggled up against his chest. All my clothes but my panties are folded on the chair in the corner. Despite my being half-naked, though, all he does is hold me against his own naked body.“Level with me,” he says. “Just how fucked are we on the whole NSA thing?”I look up at him in surprise. “You mean, that whole display of confidence earlier was bullshit?”He shrugged. “Well… not exactly.”“Explain.”“I meant every s
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 46
I open my eyes the next morning. For a second, I can’t help wondering if last night was real.It seems real enough. My body retains the pleasant ache of having him inside me, the slight soreness of our passion. And my heart feels twice as big, as though it is stretched to overflowing with happiness.I turn around in the bed. Grant is just a few feet away and still slumbering.I lie there for a moment, smiling and watching him sleep. I replay the scene from last night in my head, and luxuriate in the joy it brings me.But, if I’m going to be honest… I am harboring a wisp of fear, too.Did he mean it? Or was he just saying it because we were in the heat of the moment?After all, it’s only been… I count in my head. Monday he hired me, Tuesday was the art gallery and skyscraper, Wednesday was Connor and Lily, yesterday we got to Paris, this is Friday morning – Jesus, has it only been four days since he walked into my office in LA?!It’s been six days since I actually met him – but seei
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 47
When I walk back in the bedroom, Grant is awake.He sees me and smiles sleepily. “There you are. I was wondering where you got to.”“Just getting breakfast,” I say, and smile nervously. I sit down next to him in bed, placing the plate between us.He rolls over and takes a strawberry. “Mmm… thanks.”“You’re welcome.”He frowns the tiniest bit. “Are you okay?”“Yeah, why?”“You seem… I don’t know, upset.”“No,” I answer a little too quickly.A cloud passes over his face. “Was last night… too soon?”The question is like a punch to my stomach. Because of my fear of losing him, I let down my guard – and for the first time since I’ve entered the room, I sound genuine. “No – no, not at all. I just…”I can’t tell him about what Dominique said. I just – I can’t. Not right now.So I go with what I was most worried about when I first left the room.“…I just wanted to know if you meant it. If it wasn’t just something you were saying because we were… you know.”He grins. The cloud has passed. “Oh,
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 48
“What is it?” Grant asks.“I call my police friend again, he does not answer. Then I call Luc – the contact for the guns – but he does not answer, either.”Grant shrugs. “Maybe he got drunk last night. Maybe he’s sleeping it off somewhere.”“No. I call the cousin of Luc, who works with him selling guns. He tells me Luc is dead.”We stare at JP. Besides obviously being bad news, the timing is a little too coincidental.“…quoi?” Dominique asks in disbelief.“There are men now in Paris searching for illegal gun sellers. These men find them, ask questions, torture them, sometimes kill them.” JP pauses, then says shakily, “They killed Luc.”Grant stands up. “Shit – did Luc know where you live?”“Non.”“Anything else about you they could have gotten out of him?”JP looks stricken. “He has my phone number.”“Shit,” Grant mutters, then turns to me. “If they have JP’s phone number, what’s the chances they can find us?”I hesitate. “If they have any sort of law enforcement connections, then th
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 49
It’s hard going. The rope ladder is a bitch to deal with. It’s twisty and shifts under my feet, and feels incredibly unstable. The only light is from JP’s flashlight, which he doesn’t exactly keep shined on me, so I have to feel my way down rather than depend on my eyes.Not to mention that all I can think about is I’m leaving behind the man I love in the middle of a gunfight.We climb down the ladder for what seems like forever. “What is this?” I whisper.“When they made the building almost two hundred years ago, they required ventilation and a way to transport supplies. When they were finished, they sealed it. Grant knew of this from his architecture, and created an escape route, just in case.”Of course he would. Grant has been obsessed with secret passageways all his life, ever since he was a child. It was the main reason he became an architect.I just pray I get the chance to tell him I saw your handiwork, and it saved my life. Thank you.What is disconcerting is how long we kee
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 50
We take a taxi and get to the restaurant in Montmartre 30 minutes later. JP has euros to pay with, so that’s no problem.We go to the rear entrance in the alley. After knocking on the back door, a fat man with a waxed mustache hustles us inside. He and JP speak rapidly in French, and then JP introduces us. “Marcel, Eve. Eve, Marcel.”I shake Marcel’s hand, after which he takes us upstairs to a small room with wooden tables. It looks like an overflow section of the restaurant, but it’s deserted.“You are safe here,” Marcel says in English.“Thank you,” I say gratefully.JP pulls off his hoodie and says something in French. Marcel laughs.“What did you say?” I ask.“I told him to burn it for me,” JP answers.I glare at him. “I wish I were that lucky.”Marcel asks, “Would you like a change of clothes?”“Oh my God, yes, PLEASE.”He smiles. “I will get one of my workers to take care of that for you.”“Do you have internet access here, by any chance?”“Of course.” He writes out the wifi net
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 51
I stare at him for a second until I realize he’s completely serious.“…what?!”“You heard me. We’re getting you out of the country ASAP.”“What about you?”“I’m staying here to finish this.”“What about them?” I ask, gesturing towards JP and Dominique.“If they want their ten million, then they’re staying, too.”“I think perhaps we should renegotiate that amount,” JP says, but shuts up when Grant glares at him.I cross my arms stubbornly. “Well maybe I want my ten million. So maybe I’m staying, too.”“No,” Grant says, cold as ice. “You’re not.”“Guys… we need a minute alone,” I say to the others, though I never take my eyes off of Grant.JP gets up slowly, his body language like This is suuuper awkward before he toddles off.The only time I break eye contact with Grant is when Dominique leaves the room and throws me a smug look over her shoulder: Told you so.I hate her for it, but it certainly seems that what she predicted has come true.Grant is trying to get rid of me.Once the oth
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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
