The Billionaire’s Lighthouse Series: A Billionaire, Bad Boy, Romance

by Michelle Love

  She disengaged from him, pulling her dress down and walked towards the kitchen, Isaac behind her. She saw at once the back door was open. She let out a shaky breath. It had been busted open with something, she guessed a tire iron, a crowbar. Then she saw it. Reflected in the window. It made no sense. Something painted on the wall behind her. She turned and put her hands over her mouth in horror. Isaac looked at her face and turned with her.

  WHORE

  Red paint, dripping. Sarah gasped, humiliated, shaking.

  ‘Oh my God.’ Isaac was shocked. He put his arms around her and coaxed her onto a chair. She couldn’t say anything. Isaac crouched beside her.

  ‘I’ll call Finn. Get him over here.’ He stood to go to the phone but she grabbed his hand.

  ‘No.’ She whispered. ‘No. I don’t want him here, I don’t want him to see this.’

  ‘But I really think – ‘

  ‘No.’ Her voice was stronger, determined. ‘Please, Isaac. I couldn’t bear it. Please.’

  He looked uncertain then nodded. ‘Okay, but on condition you let me deal with this. Go into the other room. I’ll fix you a drink and then I’ll clean this up. You have cleaning products here somewhere?’

  She nodded and pointed to the cupboard under the sink. He put his arm around her and steered her into the living room. She let him tuck her into an armchair. She put her head into her hands. A few moments later, she heard him come back into the room.

  ‘Here.’

  Isaac was offering her a glass. She took it and sipped it, wrinkling her nose. Scotch. Isaac smoothed a hand down her hair.

  ‘It’ll help. Sit here and relax. I’ll be in the kitchen.’

  She wanted to protest, to ask him to stay with her but she couldn’t speak. Hurt, shock, humiliation, anger flowed through her. Whore. Whoever it was tormenting her had just upped their game. She hadn’t realized it was that easy to get into her house, to get to her. Was she in actual danger? From whom, though? She shook her head and stood, the irritation outweighing the shock now. She went into the kitchen to see Isaac, stripped to the waist, his expensive shirt and jacket hung over a chair, a bucket of soapy water at his feet. He looked up as she came in.

  ‘You okay?’

  She nodded. ‘Yeah, I’m sorry about freaking out. Listen…let’s take a couple of photos, just to have a record.’

  Isaac stopped, his fist clenched around a sponge. ‘You sure you don’t want me to call Finn? There might be fingerprints.’

  She hesitated then her shoulders slumped. ‘Okay.’

  Finn sighed. He recognized the writing immediately and cursed out loud. ‘Fucking, fucking woman…’

  Sarah, by now calm, and with Isaac’s arms around her, watched him. ‘Dude…I’m kind of relieved if it is Crap-o-line….sorry, I mean, Caroline.’

  Finn grinned and she heard Isaac’s soft chuckle. Finn looked at Sarah. ‘You wanna press charges?’

  She shook her head. ‘I cannot be bothered with all that – just make her pay for the door if you can.’

  ‘I’ll pay for it.’

  Sarah frowned at her old friend. ‘You will not.’ She knew Caroline’s family were rich – not that it had done Finn any good – he was too proud to take her money. ‘Caroline can pay – unless she wants her mom and dad to know about this.’

  Finn scrubbed his hands through his short blonde curls. Isaac cleared his throat.

  ‘Any idea why she’s doing this?

  Finn shook his head. ‘I really don’t but I’ll talk to her about it. Look, guys, I’m sorry, if it is her, my relationship with her isn’t helping.’

  ‘Not your fault, buddy.’

  Sarah smiled gratefully at Isaac as he clapped her friend on the shoulder. Finn nodded and bade them farewell. Sarah sighed and leaned against Isaac.

  ‘Well, look. I’ll clean this up and get to the coffee house. You should go, this nonsense shouldn’t interfere with your day.’

  Isaac put his arms around her. ‘Forget it, I’m staying.’

  ‘Iss, really. I’m just going to go on as if nothing’s happened.’

  Isaac looked unconvinced. ‘But I’m coming back this evening. I don’t want you alone here.’

  ‘She returns!‘ Molly threw herself dramatically across the counter as Sarah entered the coffee house, and feigned a faint. ‘God bless us everyone, we are saved!’

  Sarah, laughing, hugged her friend. ‘You are a lunatic.’

  ‘And you – let’s see you properly – ‘Molly held her friend at arm’s length and studied her then nodded satisfactorily, ‘have been screwed good and properly. I can tell.’

  Sarah rolled her eyes while going scarlet but she joined in with her friend’s high spirits. It felt good to fool around. ‘You are correct, Ms. Jewell. I have been fucked good and properly, right into next Wednesday. In fact, I need to sit down so you’ll have to do all the work.’

  Molly shrugged. ‘What else is new? I’m just kidding.’ She hugged her friend. ‘Good to have you back.’

  ‘Glad you think so… don’t think everyone will be.’

  Quickly she filled Molly in on the vandalism to her house. Molly listened with growing annoyance.

  ‘That bitch,’ she hissed when Sarah had finished.

  ‘Yep. Just when you think she couldn’t get any lower.’

  Molly chewed this over while Sarah put on her apron and began to work. ‘Hey, Sar…you absolutely sure it was her?’

  Sarah shrugged. ‘Finn recognized her handwriting. Besides, I don’t think I’ve pissed anyone else off.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘No reason.’

  Sarah nodded then went out into the kitchen. Molly mulled over what she’d been told – and what she herself was keeping secret. Finn had finally convinced her that she hadn’t seen Dan Bailey that night but the thought had kept nagging away at her. Then there were the letters that had come to the Varsity while Sarah was away. Molly had them in her apron pocket for three days – she didn’t want to give them to her friend, not after everything.

  ‘Oh hey…’ Sarah stuck her head out of the kitchen, ‘I’m having a cookout at my place on Saturday – Isaac’s brother and his family are invited. Wanna come? Bring Mike and the kids, it’ll be a family thing.’

  Molly smiled. ‘Now that sounds like fun. Want some help setting up?’

  Sarah grinned. ‘Oh hell yes.’

  ‘Are you two actually here to help or are you just too much in awe of my twinkle lights?’ Sarah grinned down at them from the loft. Finn and Molly were gazing at the hundreds and hundreds of tiny white lights she’d strung up around the barn next to her house.

  ‘It looks like Tinkerbell threw up in here.’ Finn ducked as she hefted a piece of wood at him. He grinned and started up the ladder to join her. Sarah grabbed the top of the ladder and pretend to push it over.

  ‘Give it up, woman.’ He hoisted himself onto the loft beside her. ‘Hi.’ She smiled at him and handed him a staple gun.

  An hour later, they went into the house and Sarah fixed sandwiches and lemonade for their lunch. The kitchen smelt of freshly baked bread and cookies, food for the party on every available surface. Finn looked around in astonishment.

  ‘When do you have time to, I don’t know, sleep?’

  ‘It’s not much, George’s bringing most of the food.’ She passed him and Molly a plate of cookies then sat down heavily. ‘I am pretty beat, though. Hey, do you to mind if I skip out for ten minutes? I need to go to the drugstore, get some aspirin.’

  ‘Headache?’

  ‘Yep and I have a full evening’s….how can put this…’

  Finn demolished his sandwich in two bites. ‘Heavy fucking?’

  Molly spat a mouthful of coffee out as Sarah laughed. ‘Yeah, so I have to be on top form.’

  ‘When’s your boo arriving?’

  ‘An hour or so. His brother and his family are following him here. Some of his friends are coming too. Look, I’ll be quick at the store.
’

  ‘Go on, go,’ Molly shooed her away.

  The grocery store on the far side of the island was almost empty. Despite having been to the drugstore for aspirin and swallowing two with some water, her head throbbed with the beginnings of another migraine, her vision blurred, and she was nauseous. Sarah grabbed a cart and headed towards the bakery aisle. She stopped, closed her eyes, trying to ride out the wave of dizziness. She swallowed, the bitter taste of bile in the back of her throat. It took her a moment to realize someone was talking to her. Todd, the trainee baker, greeted her.

  ‘Hey Sarah, we don’t see you over here often. Hey…you okay? ‘

  She smiled weakly at the young man, his clear features clouded with concern. His carefully gelled hair stuck up in a Mohawk. He had been one of Dan’s favorite students.

  ‘I’m fine, Todd. Keeping up with your piano practice I hope?’

  Todd grinned, sheepish. ‘Ah, I got a guitar now. Me and Zane started a band. Maybe we could play at the coffee house sometime?’

  Sarah nodded. ‘Sure thing. Come see me, okay?’

  She waved goodbye at him and steered the cart around the rest of the store, still trying to shake the nausea.

  She turned into the breakfast cereal aisle and almost collided with Caroline. She let out a groan before she could stop herself.

  Caroline grinned. ‘Hey, slut. Fucked any helpless billionaires lately?’

  Sarah wondered if she could batter Caroline senseless with a roll of frozen cookie dough and get away with it. ‘Drop dead, dumbass.’

  Caroline’s eyes brightened and she smiled, a strange grimace, almost triumphant.

  ‘Oh you first, Sarah. You first.’

  Sarah pushed past her, irritation making her skin itch. She shoved the cart too hard against the checkout, smiled an apology at the girl behind it as she jumped. A couple of lanes over she could see Caroline talking to two women. They were glancing over and laughing. Sarah gritted her teeth.

  Then she saw it.

  The shock was icy cold, constricting. Sarah couldn’t look away. She breathed in short gasps. The front page of the Bugler. A child, covered in blood, being carried out of a trailer by a cop. Blinded, shell-shocked in the glare of flashlights. Tears. Her tears. Sarah felt her knees give way and she clutched the side of the checkout for support. More photos – the body of a woman with her throat cut. And another picture of Sarah, grown, from the other day. Looking tired and worn down. She couldn’t breathe.

  ‘Hey, are you okay?’

  Somewhere in the turmoil in her mind, it registered that the question was one she had been asked too much lately. She couldn’t stop looking at the photo of her mother, her eyes staring, mouth screaming silently. Sarah pushed herself away from the checkout, abandoning her cart and staggered out of the door. Behind her, she heard the catcalls and hysterical laughter of Caroline and her friends.

  She made it to the door of the store before she threw up.

  At Sarah’s house, George’s face made Molly rock back as the elderly man jumped out his car, waving a newspaper.

  ‘Hey, hey what’s up?’ Molly went to greet him. He was out of breath, and she guided him into a chair. He caught his breath but without a word, handed her the newspaper. Molly took it. Her hand flew to her mouth.

  ‘Oh my God…’ A whisper. She met George’s gaze.

  ‘Where’s Sarah?’

  A squeal of tires answered them. They looked up as she saw Sarah’s truck appear from the wrong direction, weaving wildly along the road to her house.

  ‘What the hell?’ Molly dashed for the door to see the truck slam into the streetlight at the end of the road. The impact crumpled the truck’s hood, the metal screeching against the concrete.

  ‘Sarah!’ George and Molly sprinted over to her truck, seeing out the corner of her eye, Finn, bursting out of the barn at the sound of the crash, followed behind. Molly, her breath coming in short panicked breaths, wrenched open the cab door to see Sarah slumped over the steering wheel. Finn flew around and opened the passenger side and slid in next to his friend.

  ‘Oh God…sweetheart?’ Molly touched her friend’s shoulder, felt her shift. She sighed with relief as Sarah sat up, obviously dazed, but unharmed.

  ‘You maybe shouldn’t move, sweetheart.’ Finn’s brown eyes were serious as he pressed two fingers to her neck, feeling her pulse. He shared a concerned look with Molly. Sarah shook her head slowly, her face set, angry.

  ‘Have you seen the paper?’ Her voice was flat, dead. She didn’t look at them, staring straight ahead.

  George and Molly exchanged a look. Finn cleared his throat.

  ‘Sarah, maybe you should come and lie down.’

  ‘No.’ She looked at George, more focused now. ‘Did you see it?’

  ‘Yes,’ George answered her at last. Molly had gone back to the house and now returned with the paper, handing it to Finn.

  ‘These are crime scene photos,’ Finn hissed, ‘what the hell?’

  ‘How did they get hold of them?’ George's voice shook with anger, with pity for Sarah. He touched her arm but she shook it off.

  ‘I know exactly who gave them to the paper,’ she said, suddenly glancing in her rearview mirror. They all turned to where she was looking, and before they could stop her, she was out and sprinting.

  Caroline Jewell – infuriatingly invited to the party because Finn would be there - drove up to the house and got out of the car. She turned just as Sarah launched herself onto her, crying out in surprise as the two women tumbled to the ground. She tried to grab Sarah’s hands as the smaller woman whaled on her, cussing and shouting.

  ‘You fucking, fucking bitch! I know it was you, you piece of human shit.’

  George and Finn hauled Sarah off, arms hooked under her shoulders. Caroline got up, grinning maniacally despite the blood pouring from her nose. Sarah struggled against her captors’ grasp.

  ‘Sarah!’ George’s sharp voice finally broke through the madness and Sarah calmed herself, never taking her eyes off Caroline.

  ‘George, I know she’s the one who gave them all that…’ she trailed off as Caroline laughed again.

  ‘Prove it, psycho,’ she wiped her nose with her hand. ‘Ain’t nothing people didn’t already know anyways.’

  Finn nodded to George, who locked his arms around Sarah, as Finn stepped over to Caroline. He picked her bag up, shoving it at her.

  ‘Is it true?’

  Caroline sneered at him, brushing the dirt from her pants. ‘I couldn’t say. Nothing to do with me where they get their stories from. Like I said, everyone knows she’s trash. As far as I’m concerned, The Bugler’s just saying it runs in the family.’

  ‘That’s enough,’ said Finn and Caroline quelled under his hard stare. ‘Those photos were police property. If I find out they were stolen...’

  Caroline gave up her simpering. ‘Like I said, prove it.’

  ‘What the hell is going on?’

  They all started and turned. Isaac was standing behind George, Sarah, and Finn. A man, who had to be Isaac’s brother and a tall, elegant Asian woman stood by his side, looking wide-eyed and concerned. In the car behind them, two children stared out at them. Sarah started to tremble. Isaac raised his arms towards Sarah and she went straight into them. He held her close and looked up at Finn.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  Caroline smiled nastily. ‘I don’t think we’ve met. I’m…’

  ‘I don’t give a shit who you are. I asked what was going on.’ His voice was like ice and Caroline balked. She scowled.

  ‘I’ll tell you. Sarah, Sarah, Sarah Bailey, got all chopped up by her mo-ho-mmy,’ she sang out of tune and cackled. Sarah lost her temper again and they all reached for her. Caroline turned towards her home. ‘Lock that bitch up. Oh actually,’ she swung around again and spoke directly to Finn, ‘I’d like to press charges. Assault charges.’

  Molly gave a squeak of disgusted alarm but Finn winked at her. ‘For what?’ he said calmly
, looking at Caroline. Caroline waved at Sarah.

  ‘She attacked me, of course. Christ, how did I pick someone this stupid for my husband.’

  Finn looked at her steadily. ‘Attack you? I didn’t see anything of the sort.’ He turned to the others. ‘You?’

  Various shakes of the head and murmurs greeted his question.

  Finn stared his wife down. ‘Go home, Caroline, no-one wants you here.’

  Caroline huffed in irritation, getting back into the car. George sighed and turned to Sarah, still locked in Isaac’s arms.

  ‘You okay, bubs?’

  She nodded, a strange expression in her eyes. ‘I’m fine, pops.’ She extricated herself from Isaac’s embrace. ‘Thanks, baby. ’ George saw Isaac smile down at her.

  ‘Anytime. Now, you going to tell me what’s going on?’

  ***

  Sarah looked out at the people on her lawn, in her barn. She could see Saul, Isaac’s brother chatting with Finn, his kids, Christopher and Rosie, running around with Molly’s kids, Becky and Mike Jr.. Molly and Maika were chatting and laughing at the food table, George playing host.

  ‘They’re basically doing my job for me,’ she fretted but Isaac drew her into his arms.

  ‘They’re okay, baby. Now, do you want to tell me what happened?’

  She looked at him, a sad smile on her face. ‘I come from a very different background to you, Isaac. There was no family estate, no happy family. I grew up in a trailer park south of the city. My mother was a prostitute. She was an illegal immigrant from Shanghai. Barely spoke English, didn’t bother to learn. I spoke Mandarin until I was five. Never knew who my father was, could have been any one of her clients.’

  ‘What happened to your mother?’

  Sarah sighed. ‘When I was six, I came home from school and found her happy. Believe me, it was unusual. She barely even noticed me anymore. But this one day, she seemed almost giddy. She had made dinner – just sandwiches and juice. We ate together. I started to feel odd. She was watching me, smiling all the time. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Just before I feel asleep, I felt her take my arms. There was a stinging pain I didn’t recognize and then nothing. When I woke up, she was lying next to me. Dead. She had cut her wrists. And mine. What she hadn’t realized was that by giving me a sedative it had slowed down my pulse and the cuts on my arms weren’t deep enough. I crawled through all the blood and got help.’