The Billionaire

by Jordan Silver

  "You see baby, they're innocent and perfect just like you were."

  She grabbed my hand and held on tight.

  "I'm scared Gideon." When she looked at me this time, at least there was no longer a look of stark terror in her eyes. She was still scared that much was evident but I was no longer in fear of her slipping into darkness.

  "I know baby but I promise, look at me...I promise you that if you believe in me, if you trust me, everything will work out great and in about nine months we're going to have a beautiful baby boy or girl who's going to grow up with both a mother and father who loves them unconditionally."

  She looked at me like I had the answer to the secrets of the universe. I'd settle for the secret to how to erase everything he'd done to her.

  Chapter 17

  I got her settled in a room downstairs for the duration when we got home later that day.

  My mom had been busy bustling around getting things in order and dad had already thought to set me up with an agency that provided outpatient service. There would be a nurse coming tomorrow and he'd hooked us up with a good doctor that he knew and trusted. I wasn’t sure about the nurse thing anymore but we’ll see how Blossom felt.

  Right now she's asleep. She's being understandably needy, wanting me near her at all times, which I can totally understand and it's no hardship for me to give her what she wants.

  I'm holding her hand as I work tirelessly on the phone to get my business in order for the next few weeks while I devote all my time to her care.

  Every once in a while her fingers would twitch in my clasp and she would make little sounds of distress in her sleep. I never took my eyes off of her as I spoke to the necessary people needed to handle things. After her little freak out at the hospital and the subsequent visit to the nursery she seemed to have come to terms with the baby. I haven’t really had time to let it sink in everything was coming at me hard and fast but one thing was certain, I’m happy as fuck at the idea. I wouldn’t know what the fuck to do with a kid and neither did she but I’m sure we’d figure that shit out.

  It took me a little less than three hours on the phone and she was still out. I think her mind needed just as much rest as her body, but she needed to take her medicine before the pain got to be too much so I’d have to wake her up soon.

  I eased onto the bed and kissed her lips softly, brushing her hair back from her temple. I whispered her awake. "Wake up sweetheart."

  She groaned and creased her brow until her eyes finally opened. That smile at the sight of me always went straight to the gut. “Hi.” She lifted her head for my mouth and we shared a kiss before I laid her back against her pillow.

  "Time for your pills baby, mom made some soup and sandwiches, how about we have lunch and then you can have your medicine, sounds good?"

  "Sure." Her voice was sleep soft and warm, luring me to kiss her again. She felt so soft and cuddly and warm, like I could just hold her like this forever and never get tired. When the kissing threatened to get out of hand I eased off. I’m a fucking animal, here she was battered and bruised and all I could think of was getting inside her damn. She clutched at me trying to pull me over her but I resisted. “No baby I don’t want to hurt you we need to get you healed up some first.” She pouted and rolled her eyes at me but whatever. I kissed her nose and eased out of her arms.

  I made sure she ate and took her meds. We hadn’t mentioned the baby again after we came home. I didn't want her freaking out again, not until I had some help for her. I hated the thought of her having to see a shrink but I think she might need it. She was also scared shitless of doctors, something I'd found out in the hospital when she was lucid enough to let her discomfort be known, so I’ll have to be with her if we did go that route. Fuck this is too much for me to think about right now. Just get her better and go from there Gideon one thing at a time.

  After clearing away our dishes from lunch I got in bed beside her and held her while I turned on the TV for background noise more than anything.

  "Baby can I ask you something?"

  "What?" She looked at me as her little hand drew patterns on my shirt. I was about to wade into murky waters here but I needed to get this shit taken care of. I’d decided to kill two birds with one stone. Since I’ll be taking time off from work I could use the time while she was asleep to plan how to eliminate the fuckers who’d tormented her childhood. But first I needed to know who they were, if they were local or if she even knew who the fuck they were.

  "Have you ever seen the doctor and the...monster anywhere else other than your house?"

  "Uh uh." Her body was only a little tense so she wasn’t going to go back into her fucking head again. At least I hoped not.

  "Would you recognize them, if you saw a picture?" She didn't answer for a long time and then...

  "Could you get my school bag please?" I figured that was her way of telling me she didn't want to talk about it anymore. I decided to let her have her way for now, but sooner or later we were going to have to go there again.

  I brought the heavy backpack over to her. What the fuck were they giving kids to read these days? It felt like she had a ton of bricks in there.

  I watched as she struggled one handedly to pull something out of her bag.

  "Here let me help you baby."

  "I got it." She pulled out a large envelope and passed it to me. She’d handed me a portfolio, I opened it up with a puzzled look on my face until I saw the drawings there.

  "Where did you get these?" I had no doubt as to what I was holding in my hands.

  "I made them." She was back to sounding scared so I sat next to her and pulled her onto my chest.

  The pencil sketches were of two men over time. In the earlier drawings you could see a bit of the fanciful as the person drew them with inhuman aspects, her monster.

  As the drawings got better with time, the facial features became more pronounced until every detail was there. Even a mole on the left side of one mans cheek.

  You've got to be shitting me, it couldn't be. No wonder Cliffy boy thought he could flounce my words and go after her anyway. This shit had just gone to a whole other level but that won’t stop me, it just meant a change of the game plan.

  I picked up my secured phone and called Gage my head of security and the only other person I’d trust with this. "Double security, I need you to come in."

  She looked at me so scared, like just the fact that the pictures were out in the open could bring her harm.

  "Do you know them Gideon?" Fuck me she began to shake. I hugged her as tight as I could without hurting her.

  "They'll never come near you again baby, they'll have to go through me first and no way that's gonna happen.

  “Why didn't you tell me you were an artist baby?" I tried to change the subject she didn't need to be worrying about this shit right now. It was my turn to do the worrying for her. It took all my control not to leave and go put a bullet in the fucker's head right then and there. But I had a bad feeling in the pit of my gut that there might be more victims out there, this shit was huge. I had to handle this with care from here on out. This wasn’t just about some small town cop and some perverted fuck looking to buy a young virgin anymore. These people had the best spin-doctors on their payroll if I showed my hand too soon they might walk, fucking politicians.

  Chapter 18

  I had security doubled on my place around the clock.

  Gage had come in for a briefing and was waiting downstairs for me to come to him. I might have to call in a few markers by the time this mess was over, but it would be worth it. I've been on my secured computer ever since she'd fallen back to sleep trying to find everything I could on the senator and one of the nations' Premier physicians.

  Why two men from such pedigreed backgrounds would be involved in something as unethical and downright immoral as this, is beyond my imagination but it takes all kinds.

  Funny thing is, the senator is one of the loudest voices in the Senate against child abuse of a
ny kind. He heads committees that fight child labor, he petitioned and fought for stiffer sentences for child molesters. So why the fuck had he been trying to buy my wife and what the fuck was he planning to do with her? Lying fuck, he’d touched her him and the fucking doctor had had their hands on my fucking wife. Hate was too tame a word for what I felt.

  A young no doubt terrified little girl had been at the mercy of that deceitful fuck and all the while he’s been in the public eye spouting his bullshit lies. Well senator you’re fucked, you didn’t see me coming you fuck. I find myself with the task of muddling through his background and trying to sift through the public lie and the conspiracy theorist for any nugget, just a little string to pull on.

  So far nothing was popping up, no red flags. He came across on paper as just what he wanted the world to believe he was; an upstanding member of society with nothing but accolades and support for his many endeavors.

  It turned my stomach to read each word as the young girl he had traumatized laid sleeping in fear not too far away. What were you planning to do with her you fuck? I wanted to punch something but my gym was on another floor and there was no way I was leaving her here alone. I felt like a caged beast about to gnaw my fucking arm off in frustration.

  Had it been only a few short weeks ago that I’d seen her for the first time? How could life change so drastically in such a short space of time? And what the fuck else was going to come at me next? I walked over and looked down at her as she slept peacefully I had to go see Gage which meant I had to leave her. I took the monitor with me in case she woke up while I was gone.

  Gage was looking out the windows of my home office when I got there. He turned at my entrance and with a nod took a seat across from my desk.

  "Do we know as yet how Halston and Sanders paths crossed?"

  I've had him doing some digging while we were in the hospital. Though the tapes had revealed much, they hadn't answered that little kernel. Those two didn’t move in the same circles and I needed to know everything before I moved. I wasn’t about to leave any stone unturned I wanted the names of all the players down to the smallest one.

  "She was having you followed. I pieced that little tidbit together from all the surveillance pictures I found in her house of you and Mrs. Thorpe. It looks like it went on for a few weeks at least."

  Probably from the first day I broke things off with her, fuck. Why hadn't I thought of that? I should've known that would be her style. She'd been so convinced that there'd been someone else, I should've known she wouldn't just let things go.

  "What else did you find?"

  "Nothing much, except for these pictures." He dropped a Manila envelope on the desk between us.

  Inside were pictures of me outside Ashley's school, the two of us shopping and coming and going from the building. One of the last of the bunch was an excellent shot and could very well be the reason Lynn Halston had lost her mind.

  It was a shot of Ashley and I after we got married, the look on my face as I looked down at her. Anyone with eyes could see what was there. Hell I didn't know I was that fucking transparent, but it was all there captured on film. Love, lust, and complete adoration.

  I separated that one from all the rest. I wasn't quite sure what direction I was going to take as yet, I just might need these as evidence; but I was sure I wanted to hold on to that particular photo, it captured the essence of what was in my heart for her.

  "May I say something sir?"

  "Sure, what's on your mind?"

  "She's not going to stop, the shit I saw in her place, she's obsessed. If you don't want to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, or cleaning your wife up after she's been attacked by this loon, you'd better act now."

  "What did you see in her place?" He pulled a pen from his pocket, hit some keys on his MacBook and with the pen pointed at the screen showed me a slide show of what looked like the inside of Lynn's house.

  For the next fifteen minutes I looked at image after image of what appeared to be a shrine to me. There were oversized pictures of me all over the walls in one room, some of just my eyes, me in all different poses. But that's not what scared me, no what made me cold were the pictures of Ashley with her face slashed, or her head removed, purely demented shit.

  This shit was way out of control; this was about more than a woman scorned. This was a twisted fuck that had apparently gone off the deep end. I felt like running upstairs and scalding the fuck out of my dick because I’d had the bad sense to go there. Who or what the fuck was this bitch and how had she kept this side of her so well hidden for so long?

  I had to put my own personal shit aside and focus on Blossom for now. I couldn't have so many of her enemies on the loose. She would never be safe with these fucks still alive or free.

  I took some time to think of my next move, my enemies were piling up by the minute and having that many bodies on your tab will take time and planning. This was in no way an easy decision to make I have to carry this shit out with precision so that there’s no way any of it would come back to me. I’d thought to torment her ass for a while for what she’d done, like a game of cat and mouse but she couldn’t stay here in the city. Not so close to my wife.

  "How can we get her out of the hospital undetected?"

  "That's easy, we know the routine there already we just need someone to go in in the wee hours of the morning. That's when the nurses are having their down time; most of the patients are asleep so they're not as alert then. Moving her with her broken legs might pose a problem but it can be done. What did you have in mid sir?"

  "I'm thinking Miss. Halston might be going for a long stretch in a secure mental hospital outside the country. One of those nice places that believe in shock treatment and solitary confinement; I'll make the arrangements, just fine tune the details from your end and I'll handle the rest."

  "Damn boss that's cold, I would've just broken her neck, but this, this will be never ending torture for someone like her. How long do you plan on leaving her in this place?"

  "How long did you say it would be before my wife was safe from her?"

  "Uh, never."

  I just gave him a look; that should be answer enough.

  "Let me just say, I'm glad we're on the same side, your mind scares the shit outta me and I'm supposed to be the muscle in this outfit." I smiled that away.

  "Now I just have to figure out what's the deal with the senator and the doc. So far I can't find anything that points to them being involved in anything shady."

  "Well those drawings your wife did are spot on so we know it's those fuckers. You check their travel rosters?"

  "That was going to be my next step. Also who is the senator's biggest opponent? I'm not much into politics those shysters make dirty business dealings look like child's play I have no stomach for that shit."

  "I'll get you a list he's a politician I'm sure he has enemies coming out the woodwork."

  "Good man, now let's deal with this psychotic bitch, I want her out of the country by the end of the week.” I heard movement on the monitor, which meant she was stirring, time to go.

  “My wife's waking up I gotta go. I'll handle my end before end of day. You think you can get something worked out by then?" We both headed out the office.

  "It's just the logistics, we've got the manpower just let me tinker with it a little and I'll get back to you."

  "Good enough."

  I saw him out and went to the kitchen to get my baby a snack, she'll be hungry again by now, plus she needed to keep her strength up we had a baby to feed. Can’t think about my kid right now or I’ll say fuck it and go on a one-man killing spree.

  As I put together a salad and some fruit for her I thought of ways to keep her safe. There was no doubt in my mind that the senator already knew I had her. Sanders would've had to tell him that his sick plans whatever they were were sidelined. They'd want to shut her up, they had no knowledge of the drawings I was sure, but they wouldn't take the chance of her someday rec
ognizing one of them and spilling the beans. I have to think like a criminal, get into their heads so I could stay one step ahead.

  If I couldn't figure this shit out the US senate would just be one man short in the not too distant future, as well as the medical community. It would only take an experienced pilot with a parachute to send a plane crashing into the Rockies, or maybe devil's tower.

  Shit happens.

  Chapter 19

  She was awake when I got to the bedroom with her snack. She looked so small and lost it tore at my heart. I knew she was afraid and that more than anything else pissed me the fuck off. She shouldn’t have to be afraid.

  Her leg and arm will mend, but fear is something that lived inside and was hard to exorcise. She alone knows the terror that she felt at the hands of these people, not even my anger can negate that.

  Looking at her brought me to a decision, something I thought I would never do now made perfect sense. I hope to God it was the right thing to do.

  "Hey Blossom, after you've eaten, I'd like to talk over some things with you okay?" She nodded her head as she took her salad.

  She still had that wary look in her eyes; she was too young for this shit. How had I forgotten that she was this young? She was still weeks away from her eighteenth birthday and I felt guilt pull at me.

  I'd gotten a seventeen-year old girl pregnant. The fact that she was my wife didn't do much to alleviate the guilt, the fact that she wasn't the first eighteen year old to get pregnant nor even the fact that it was perfectly legal here didn’t help much either. I still felt...wrong somehow, fuck. I watched her as she ate her salad making sure she was eating enough.

  "I'm not being a very good wife am I?"

  "What? What do you mean?" I took the empty salad plate from her and put it on the night table, passing her the cut up melon.