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Chapter 56
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THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 57
We’re lying there in the blissful afterglow, snuggled against each other in the tiny single bed, laughing whenever our movements cause the springs to squeak, when a stray thought enters my head.“It is kind of weird that you gambled everything – your career, your fortune – on what’s basically an illegal hobby,” I muse.“Well, it makes me feel alive. Nothing else really does.”Warning bells start going off.“…nothing?” I ask, shocked.He laughs. “Well, what we just did obviously does…”“But nothing else?”I guess he thinks I’m fishing for a compliment, because he tries to kiss me. “Nothing else until I met you.”I straight-arm him and back up to the edge of the twin bed so I can look him in the eye. Something tells me I need to see his eyes when I hear his answer.“Hold on. Nothing makes you feel as alive as being a thief?”He gets an irked look on his face. “Don’t use the word ‘thief.’”“Why not?”“Because it’s cheap.”“Uhhh, and accurate.”“No, it’s not. A thief is somebody who bash
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 58
When I wake the next morning, Grant isn’t in his bed.I feel bitter and tired, and my eyes hurt from crying. I want to apologize just to make all the awful feelings go away – but I don’t even know what to apologize for. For telling the truth? He’s a thief. Period. Yeah, he’s brilliant… charming… incredibly hot… and good-hearted… but he’s still a fucking thief. All those other things don’t cancel out the one. And his denial about it is just so… ugh. He thinks he can cover up his worst attributes by using a fancier name, like a wino claiming he’s a sommelier, or a meth cooker claiming he’s a chemist. Whatever.I dress and go downstairs to the private dining room, where JP is smoking a cigarette and Dominique is playing solitaire. Both of them ignore me.Grant is nowhere to be seen.There’s a platter of croissants and pastries, and a decanter of coffee. I pour myself a cup.“Anybody seen Grant?” I ask.“He is talking to Marcel,” JP says.“…oh.”“I realized something last night,” JP con
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 59
Two hours later, Grant and I are in the backseat of a car with tinted windows. One of Marcel’s men is driving. JP and Dominique elected to stay behind, which is perfectly fine by me.Grant has one of the pistols with him, and keeps it in his hand as he watches the streets of Paris fly by.“Why did you bring the gun?” I ask.“For our little meet-and-greet, of course.”“It’s not necessary. Nothing’s going to happen.”“Well, if it does, we’re prepared.” “I thought you didn’t believe in planning for ‘end of the world’ scenarios.”He shrugs. “You getting kidnapped by the FBI isn’t ‘end of the world.’ More like… ‘hemorrhoids of the world.’”“What?!”He grins. “In other words, a giant pain in the ass.”“What the hell are you talking about?”“It’ll be a giant pain in the ass to get you back, that’s all. But you’re wearing one of your GPS thingamajigs, and you have another one inside you, so – easy peasy, Japanesey, right?” he says mockingly.“If you want me to wear it, why won’t you wear one
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 60
So starts an epic round of ‘catch me if you can.’ Two more times we drive to a location and watch through the telescope as Mailin makes a fool of himself; two more times Grant discards a burner cell phone and we drive to a new vantage point.“Dude, are you going to wise up at some point?” Grant asks on the final try. “‘Cause I can do this all day.”By this point I’ve started listening to Mailin’s voice over the phone. My insides roil with rage every time I hear him speak.“Look, I could lie to you again, but you know what’s going to happen,” Mailin says. “They’re never going to let me meet you alone, no matter how much I want to.”Grant ponders for a moment. “Alright… since the FBI doesn’t have jurisdiction in France and can’t do shit without the local authorities, you can bring one FBI guy other than yourself. Understand?”“Understood. And thank you. Where do you want to meet?”Twenty minutes later, Grant and I are in the Tuileries, a giant public garden near the Louvre. The gardens
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 61
We’re back in the car, with Marcel’s driver speeding us through Paris.“Well, that was pointless,” I mumble. “Sorry I wasted your time.”“Don’t be,” Grant says. “It was worth exploring the option. Now you know.”More than anything, I’m disappointed in Mailin and how he lied to me. My friend sold me down the river. Or tried to, at least – and no amount of sticking up for me in front of Agent Duplass can change that.I’m also uncomfortable with how he’s become one of them. Yeah, Duplass treated him like shit, but Mailin’s joined the other team. It’s beyond obvious. He’s not the high school hacker buddy I used to know.Unfortunately, there’s an uncomfortable parallel there with my own life. I watched Mailin get caught as a teenager. As a result, I’ve walked the straight and narrow ever since. I got my college degree, a pat on my head from society, then a nice, safe job at an internet security firm…Until I met an international art thief and started hacking again.I’m not just talking abo
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 62
He leads me by the hand into the glass-enclosed penthouse, which is as dark as the roof outside. We pass by shapes in the darkness – luxurious leather sofas and chairs and tables – until we reach a bedroom with a king-size bed. Grant pulls me inside the room and shuts the door. I let him kiss me everywhere on my body as his fingers loosen pieces of my clothing, one by one.Before I know it, I am standing naked in front of him, while he still wears his pants and shirt. I feel an erotic charge in the imbalance; I feel vulnerable yet sexy, an object of desire, nude in front of this man I desire so much.He pulls back the sheets and then lifts me onto the bed. As I lie there on my back, he parts my legs and begins kissing my belly… then my thighs… then the spot where my legs meet my body. I sigh and close my eyes and grip my fingers in his hair, urging him to go where I want to feel him most – but he resists.I playfully force him towards my pussy – but he refuses to kiss me. I can feel
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 63
Going back to Marcel’s restaurant is basically the most brutal return to reality ever.As we return to the restaurant hideaway, it hits me square in the face: this is really happening. I’m leaving. And I don’t know if I’ll ever see Grant again.I am on the verge of tears the rest of the morning.JP and Dominique are moving to the new safe house ahead of Grant. He will drop me off with the smuggler first, but after that, he’ll join his friends… without me.I don’t have anything to pack, so I just concentrate on tying up what few loose ends I can. At Grant’s request, I transfer three million to an offshore account for Marcel. Then I set up a string of smaller accounts that Grant can access – or give access to – in order to pay anyone who might help him.I back up the laptop to a secret server – all the bank account information, plus the GPS tracking program I wrote. It’s someplace Epicurus will never find, and even if he could, any attempt to hack the files will cause them to overwrite
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 64
When JP hears what I want, he flat out refuses. “No.”I lean over the desk. “JP… if you don’t tell me what they’re saying, I’m going to walk down into the main restaurant and find somebody who will. And if I can’t find them in the fucking restaurant, I’m going to go out in the street and find somebody there.”He looks at me fearfully. I wouldn’t do it. No way. It would be insanity. Suicide. What I would do is upload the audio to an outsourcing service and get it translated that way. But he doesn’t know that – and with my red eyes and tear-stained cheeks, I’m pretty sure I look just unhinged enough to follow through on my threats.“We both know you didn’t sign up for this,” I say. “I get it. You hate being part of somebody else’s love triangle. But I’m leaving in a few minutes, and you’re never going to see me again, so either you tell me what they’re saying, or I go find somebody who will.”He looks at me worriedly for a few seconds more… then gives in.“Putain d’merde, this is a ba
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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
