Billionaire Boss

by Scarlet West

  “In there,” the man on my left said. He grabbed my arm and marched me to the door. My eyes hurt with the sudden brightness of the light.

  I stared. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the brightness. But when they did, I let out a shriek of amazement.

  “Brady!” I said. And then, because it didn’t seem possible and my mind refused to accept it for a moment, “Adam!”

  They both looked at me and the room swayed and faltered, and I fell.

  22

  Adam

  “Cassidy!”

  The word ripped through me and out of my throat, a wild cry of anguish. She collapsed in the middle of the floor. Her hair was messy, her face dirty and bruised. With a twist of my heart, I noticed she was still wearing my faded t-shirt and shorts. My eyes clouded with rage and I stepped forward.

  Beside me, Brady put a restraining hand on my arm.

  Not yet.

  I strained against his grip, but I knew he was right. We couldn’t let them see how much we loved her.

  I swallowed hard and made myself stand still.

  In the middle of the warehouse, Cassidy was on her knees, now trying to get up. She was really out of it and my first horrible thought was that they had drugged her.

  “Cassidy,” I whispered. “No.”

  What if they had brought us here just to see her killed?

  I stepped forward, not caring about Brady’s restraint. I saw a man in a gray coat nod fractionally, and I stopped. Two thugs went to her, hauling her up under her arms. I felt my body catch fire with rage and I had to ball my fists at my sides, fighting the urge to attack.

  “Easy, man,” Brady whispered. His fingers were still tight on my wrist. I shook him off, but I stayed where I was. He was right.

  “You see?” The thin-faced man with the gray coat said to me. “She’s alive. You can trust us to keep our side of the bargain. Now can you keep yours?”

  I swallowed hard. I was never a good liar. Whether or not I could make them believe me could save Cassidy’s life, or kill her. I cleared my throat.

  “Sure,” Brady said, getting in before me. His voice was ordinary, like we were talking in the street. “We have the cash. Let my sister go.”

  Cassidy looked at us. Her eyes went to Brady’s face, hope and fear blended in them. Then her eyes locked on mine. Fear dissolved, and her eyes shone.

  I love you, I thought. Cassidy, please know that I love you. I think I always did.

  I wished I could say it aloud. I prayed she could read it in my eyes.

  I stared into those lovely, inscrutable pools. She wasn’t scared now – she looked quite calm. Her lips quirked in a sweet smile – ironic; regretful.

  It’s okay, she seemed to be saying. I’m not mad at you anymore.

  My eyes took in all of her and my heart ached. She was dirty, a black bruise on her knee and another one on her brow. She looked desperately tired, her face a picture of resignation. What if we couldn’t pull this off? What if she was killed? I felt my vision cloud with a red rage. I wanted to kill them. All of them.

  “So,” Brady said, pulling my attention back to the moment. “We have the cash. You can have it now. But let go of my sister first.”

  “Not so fast,” the gray-suited man said firmly. “Show me this cash first. All of it.”

  I gulped. This was the most important bit. We had to draw it out as long as possible. Our plan depended on it.

  “Adam?” Brady said.

  I had the suitcase in my hand. I had almost forgotten about it. My fingers felt hard, like wood. I felt Brady reach for it, and I made my fingers unclasp from the handle.

  “Here,” Brady said to the guy, putting the suitcase on top of an oil barrel in the middle of the floor. “It’s all here.”

  I looked at Brady in amazement. He looked perfectly calm, his face relaxed and expressionless. This was a side of him I’d never known; a side that came alive here with double-bluffs and hostages and warehouses. I felt like maybe I’d never really known him at all.

  In another life, he would have been a smuggler.

  He was fumbling with the key. I saw the men on either side of Cassidy step slightly closer to her, as if suspecting a trick.

  Be careful, Brady, I willed him. Don’t play this bit too hard.

  My heart thumped. My ears strained, listening for the sound we were both waiting for.

  “Damn,” Brady swore. “The lock’s jammed.”

  “I’ll try it,” the guy in the grey jacket growled. “If you’re shitting me, I swear I’ll…”

  “Wait,” Brady held up a hand, stopping Boss as he stepped up. “Do one of you guys got a flashlight? Or a phone? I can’t see for shit.”

  I stared in amazement as the two thugs beside Cassidy went through their pockets, looking for something to make a light. While one of them scrolled through his phone menu, the boss went red.

  “For shit’s sake,” he swore. “What’s your problem? Jax, put a gun on the guy! And here’s some light.”

  He shone torchlight on the lock of the case.

  Brady looked at me, brown eyes questioning.

  Was that long enough? He seemed to say. Should I open it now?

  I glanced at where the two guys were still flanking Cassidy. I didn’t like the look of that at all. We couldn’t draw this out too long. Jax had taken out his gun, and so had their boss. I nodded fractionally.

  The boss took a step forward. He seemed to have intercepted our look. Only a few seconds more, and he’d guess there was something funny happening. I felt my heart pound.

  Do it now, Brady. Before he guesses we’re up to something.

  Brady opened the case.

  “Here,” he said. “All fifty thousand. Want to check?”

  “Fifty thousand?” the boss spat.

  Jax and his silent companion were staring into the suitcase, which had fallen open. The bills shone dully in the torchlight. It was there, and it was genuine. We’d stopped off at the bank and emptied my checking account. He could count it if he wanted. I willed him to start.

  “Yeah,” Brady frowned. “That’s what I owed you, right? Fifty thousand?”

  The boss was pale now. “That’s what you owed me last year!”

  I tensed. This was the dangerous moment.

  At this point, they might guess that we were bluffing, and things could go horribly wrong. Jax had a pistol pointed at Brady. The other guy was pointing one at me. And Cassidy was still in the middle of it all.

  I looked at the gun. There was something mesmerizing about it. A small hole in black-dark metal, trained on the center of my chest. I felt drawn by it, as if it was a magnet. It had a terrible beauty.

  I had never been on the wrong side of a gun before. As it happened, I’d only even seen a pistol once – my dad’s revolver; when I was twelve. He’d thought I might be interested in shooting. I wasn’t.

  Now, I went very still. Brady, taking a step ahead of me, was unruffled.

  “Look, man,” he said to the boss, gesturing as if he was bargaining in the marketplace. “I owed you fifty thousand. I brought you fifty thousand. You can let her go and let us go, too.”

  The boss grabbed Cassidy and put a gun to her temple. I felt my heart stop.

  No. Just give us five minutes more. Five more minutes!

  Cassidy was crying, silent tears running down her cheeks.

  She struggled, and the boss jerked her toward him.

  I stepped forward. Brady stepped in front of me, physically blocking my route. I took a breath, forcing myself to calm down.

  “Quit this shit,” the boss shouted in the following silence. “I need to spell it out? You pay, she lives. I need all of it. You know you owe me five hundred thousand.”

  “Okay, okay,” Brady said. He stepped forward, making the boss step back, dragging Cassidy with him. “Listen, I need time to get that much together.”

  “You had time,” the boss said.

  “Five hours?” Brady said. “I just need fiv
e more hours. I’m waiting on a client to pay up. Please?”

  The boss shrugged. “Three hours. I’m running out of patience.”

  Brady let out a long sigh. “Okay,” he said.

  “Okay,” Brady said. “You can take this now. But, please. Put that gun down.”

  The boss looked at Brady. He was holding the key to the suitcase, which he’d strategically shut again. I felt the room ache with tension. Cassidy sniffed. Everyone was quiet.

  “Fine,” the boss snarled.

  He pushed Cassidy in the back. She stumbled forward. I took a step forward, but Brady blocked me off. He handed the boss the key.

  “Here.”

  “Phone them,” the boss demanded. “Now.”

  Brady shrugged. “Sure,” he said.

  I stopped breathing. There was no client. Brady had taken the bluff into the realms of impossibility. We were going to get found out.

  My eyes went to Cassidy, where she was crouching on the floor. I bent down toward her.

  At that moment, the sound we’d been waiting for all night sounded, high and thin on the night air.

  Sirens.

  “Cops!” Jax yelled. His friend ran to the door.

  A round fired into the night and the boss lifted his pistol.

  “It’s a trap,” he said. He was aiming at Cassidy.

  I dropped. Cassidy was before me and I rolled my body around hers, pulling us both to the side as the boss fired.

  Cassidy screamed. I grunted as something hit my shoulder but I kept rolling.

  “Adam!”

  “Run!” I yelled. “To the wall.”

  I got to my feet, quickly. The cops had surrounded the building. I could hear shots firing through the door and windows. The two thugs were manning the openings, all their attention on the battle with the police. The boss was at the door, back pressed to the frame. As I watched, he fired.

  My eyes darted around the room again. Brady was leaning against the wall. He was down, and I could see a spreading stain on his shirt sleeve.

  “Cassidy!” I screamed, my attention going to her as she made a wild run for him.

  I grabbed her as a bullet sailed through the door, narrowly missing our heads.

  She dropped to her knees beside Brady. I lay beside her, my body curled around hers. The bullets were a deafening onslaught now, a bombardment that made my ears ache. I wrapped my arms around Cassidy, drawing her into the shelter of my body. I closed my eyes and prayed.

  Let us get out of here.

  Brady was grunting in pain; breath hissing between tight jaws. I could feel his feet where he had collapsed in front of us. They were cold.

  “Fuck this!” the boss was screaming. “Jax, Stone! Go around the back.”

  The noise of gunfire had abated for a moment. I half-sat, then dropped as it resumed again.

  “Put your guns down!” a policeman was screaming from outside. “Weapons down.”

  I knew these guys were never going to listen. We’d have to wait for them to run out of ammo. I gritted my teeth as the gunfire roared, on and on.

  Cassidy nestled closer to me. I buried my face in her neck and breathed in the sweet, wild scent of her hair. I felt a strange calm fill me up. If I died now, lying like this, it wouldn’t be so bad. I closed my eyes and drew her closer and whispered in her ear.

  “I love you, Cassidy Williams.”

  She went still. Beyond us, the gunfire rattled and roared. After what seemed like a long time, she twisted around in my arms. Her lips found my cheek, kissing it.

  “I love you, Adam Stern.”

  I kissed her face. She twisted around again, and we lay as we had been, two bodies nestled close, waiting for our lives to end.

  Silence. It was deafening, after the rattle and roar of the gunfire. I had gotten so used to the noise that the silence was almost more frightening; an eerie, threatening thing.

  Cassidy seemed to notice it around the same time as I did and she sat up.

  I followed her example. I looked around. The room was empty. I breathed in, smelling the acrid scent of gunfire, and the dusty damp of cement. A bullet-hole above us rained dry dust and little chips of stone down on the floor. The tiny sound of them hitting the concrete below seemed loud.

  Cassidy gulped.

  “Brady!”

  I turned my attention to her brother. He was lying very still. His shoulder was black with blood, a pool of it on the floor below him. Cassidy was clinging to him, her face twisted in horror.

  “It’s okay,” I said. I wrapped my arms around her and she collapsed back against me. She was shivering, her body shaking with silent sobs. “It’s his shoulder, not his chest.”

  “I know,” she whispered. “But he’s bleeding. So much blood.”

  “I know,” I whispered as she hiccupped and sobbed and cried. “It’s okay.”

  I rocked her and she sobbed into my chest.

  “Hello?”

  I twisted around as a policeman came in. His boots scuffed the cement floor. He looked as if he’d just gotten off the parade ground, brisk and crisp and efficient. I felt my body collapse. I could finally afford to rest. We were alright now.

  “Help us,” Cassidy pleaded. “My brother’s bleeding.”

  “Where’s he hit, Miss?” the officer said. He crouched down beside us.

  “Here,” Cassidy whispered.

  The policeman pulled out a radio and talked into it. Then he turned to us.

  “The ambulance is coming,” he said. “One for him, and one for you guys.”

  “We’re fine,” I protested. “I can walk.”

  I tried to get onto my feet to prove it. My legs felt impossibly stiff and I had to lean against the wall, catching my breath.

  “Sure,” the cop said grimly. “I can see that. Come on, guys. The ambulance is outside.”

  I was still protesting as he helped me to lift Cassidy to her feet and then, all together, we were walking out into the clean night air and into an ambulance.

  We were free.

  23

  Cassidy

  I sat on the bed in the hospital. My legs swung to the floor.

  “Okay,” the doctor was saying, the words registering slowly. “Your blood pressure is okay. No broken bones. You can go.”

  “Good,” I whispered.

  I glanced across at Adam. He was leaning on the wall. His face was white. We were checked out together – blood pressure taken, bones checked, breathing and eyes and ears. Apparently, there was no harm done.

  “Good,” Adam said, letting out a shaky breath. “You’re sure it’s alright?”

  The doctor nodded. “Yes,” he said. “But you’re going to need a lot of rest. You’ve been through a lot and it’s going to hit you like a ton of bricks sooner rather than later.”

  I nodded. My head felt like it was padded with wool. My legs had long ago given up on moving. I was tired, desperately tired. I remembered something and coughed.

  “Doctor?” I began.

  “Yes?”

  “Can I have some water? I haven’t had any all day.”

  The doctor nodded. Adam had shot across the room to my side, and was by the bed, his fingers gripped on my shoulder, another hand touching my head, gently, where the lump was. I looked up into those blue eyes and realized how obvious our love must be.

  It wasn’t so obvious to us.

  I giggled.

  “What?” Adam grinned at me.

  “Nothing,” I said.

  Our eyes held and I felt myself sink into the sapphire depths of his gaze.

  “Here,” the doctor said, handing me a cup. “Drink it slowly,” he warned.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  I sipped the water slowly. It tasted like heaven. I felt my eyes start to water and my fingers start to tingle. Eventually, my mouth stopped being dry.

  “If we can go,” Adam said gently, “I’ll get us a taxi.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  We waited until the doctor had fin
ished filling out some forms for us, and then we left.

  “Brady is going to be okay, isn’t he?” I whispered as we waited by the entranceway.

  “Sure, he is,” Adam said, squeezing my fingers. “He’s pretty tough.”

  Brady had had to have surgery to retrieve the bullet from his shoulder and repair the damage. They were keeping him in the ICU overnight due to the amount of blood he’d lost. The doctors said that no one was allowed after certain hours, so we were best served to go home and rest and then come back to see him the next day.

  “Here’s the taxi,” Adam said gently.

  I nodded. I was too weary to stand so he helped me to my feet.

  Arm in arm, we went to the door.

  Adam held me in the back of the taxi. I lay against his chest, and he cradled me as if I were precious china. I put my head on his shoulder and he squeezed my arm.

  “It’s not too much longer, now,” he whispered, as if I were a scared creature. “We’re almost back.”

  “I know,” I murmured. I had recognized the street near where my apartment was. “Adam?”

  “Yes?”

  “I don’t want to be alone.”

  After the accident, the threats, those hours of not knowing if I was condemned to die – the thought of being alone scared me like I couldn’t believe. I squeezed his hand, dreading that he would say “No.”

  He turned toward me. With such gentleness, he kissed my forehead.

  “I’ll stay with you.”

  Slowly, we drove to my apartment.

  When I let him in, my eyes went swiftly around the place, feeling a little embarrassed. Everything was as it had been on Friday afternoon – my jacket on the chair, trainers in the corner, a cup on the table. Not dirty, but untidy.

  All the same, it felt so strange being in my own apartment again. Like heaven.

  And it felt stranger having Adam there with me.

  I turned to look at him where he stood in front of the shut door. In the silence, our eyes met.