Married by Midnight (The BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES Series, #12)

by Judy Angelo

  She went downstairs and just the thought that she would have to pass him on the way out made her grow tense. She was pleasantly surprised when she saw him by the front door, helping her mother into her coat.

  “Carl is taking me out to lunch,” Eugenia said, beaming. “He said it’s his turn to give me a treat for a change. And then he’s taking me shopping. Isn’t that sweet?”

  “Wonderful.” Golden returned her mother’s smile but she was watching Carl’s face, trying to figure out the smug expression there. She did not trust this man one inch. Why was he being so nice to her mother? Something was afoot.

  But there was no time to worry about that now. She just wanted to see the back of them and then she would head out herself.

  “Off you go,” she said and went over to give her mother a kiss on the cheek. “Have fun.” She waved as Eugenia and Carl went through the door.

  She’d already turned and was heading toward the kitchen for a quick check that her mother had turned off the stove when she heard the front door open.

  “Forgot my keys,” Carl called out.

  Golden didn’t even bother to answer. She just kept on walking. Soon she heard the engine of his souped-up Peugeot roar to life and then she heard the car heading down the driveway and onto the road.

  Finally. With a sigh of relief she went back to the foyer and grabbed her purse from the hall table then she went through the door, closing it firmly behind her. She glanced at her watch and smiled. Still good timing. Reed had secured a four o’clock appointment with the judge and it was just a little after one. Plenty of time for her to fight the traffic into the city and grab some lunch before meeting Reed at the judge’s office.

  Still smiling, she climbed into the car, stuck her key in the ignition and turned it on. At least she tried to. Nothing happened. She turned the key again. Still nothing. What in the world was going on? Golden turned the key one more time. Silence. Not even a rumble.

  Worry rising inside her, she opened the car door and got out, her mind racing the whole time. Had her battery gone dead? Had the alternator gone kaput? Her car wasn’t exactly what anyone would call ‘young’ but so far it had been pretty reliable, so what was going on all of a sudden?

  She lifted the hood and peered in. She had no idea what she was looking for but she couldn’t just sit there in the car, waiting for a miracle. She had to do something.

  Her eyes fell upon a flat panel that somehow looked bare. Suddenly realizing what was wrong, her heart lurched.

  Now she knew why her car wouldn’t start. Her battery was gone.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  God help me. Golden threw her hands up and slapped her cheeks, the words flying out in a loud gasp. Someone had sabotaged her car. Carl Manchester.

  At the thought of the snake Golden scowled and her nostrils flared with fury. If she could get her hands on him right then she would gladly strangle him.

  He’d done this to stall her. She was sure of it. He wanted to trap her at the house until his father got there.

  It was not going to work. Marching around to the passenger’s side she flung the door open and grabbed her purse. She would call Reed. Although he would have to struggle through traffic to get out to the house there was no avoiding it. He would have to come and get her.

  She flipped the latch on her purse, reached in and pulled out house keys, tissues and her driver’s license. There was no cell phone to be found.

  Holy Moses. Golden’s mouth fell open. He’d stolen her cell phone, too? No, it couldn’t be. How in the world could he have gotten her purse? And then she remembered. It had been on the hall table when he’d come back in search of his keys...or so he’d said. Now she knew he’d come back into the house for another reason, a diabolical one...and she was his victim.

  For a moment she felt faint. How could he be so evil? Closing her eyes she drew in a deep breath, summoning her courage about her. Stay calm, Golden. It will be all right.

  Clutching her purse to her she slammed the car door shut and hurried back to the house. She had to call Reed. Things were suddenly looking a lot more serious and she needed to be away from this place as fast as possible.

  She went straight to the sitting room which was where she would find the closest phone. Her breathing shallow with worry, she picked up the receiver and began to dial. She was greeted by a loud and ominous silence. No dial tone.

  Heart pounding, Golden returned the receiver to its cradle. Carl had cut her off from contact with the outside world and now she was frightened. What would happen next?

  She drew in a few slow breaths, trying to steady her nerves. Okay, Golden, what to do now? Think. She could walk to the neighbors and borrow their phone but this was the drawback of living out in the country on what used to be a turnip farm. The nearest neighbor was almost a mile away. She looked down at her feet. There was no way she would make it in slippers. On the gravelly road they would give out after the first few hundred yards.

  Her mind made up she turned, ready to hurry back to her room to get her running shoes when she heard a bang and a loud wail. Her heart leaped to her mouth. Sir Winston. She would know that wail anywhere. Chest tight with fright Golden hurried in the direction of the sound, breathing a prayer that Sir Winston was all right. Had Carl hurt her beloved pet? She didn’t know what she would do if he came to harm.

  The sound had come from the cellar. Golden went straight there and without hesitation she pulled the door open and flipped on the light. “Sir Winston, are you all right? Where are you, hon?” She heard not a sound. She started down the steps, peering into the dimly lit room. “Come here, baby. Mummy’s here now.”

  She’d hardly gotten the words out when she heard a loud bang and whirled around to find the cellar door slammed shut. “Hey, what are you doing? Who’s out there?” Golden raced back up the steps but by that time it was too late. She grabbed the knob and twisted and turned but it was no use. It would not budge.

  “Let me out,” she yelled, pounding on the door. “Let me out of here.”

  She pounded and pounded but there was no answer. Finally, exhausted, she turned and sagged down onto the top step. She was trapped and now there was no chance of her making it to her own marriage ceremony.

  As the realization sank in, Golden’s body went cold. Dunstan Manchester had done this. Somehow he’d sneaked back to the house and locked her in the cellar. He’d set things up so he would win. The money would be all his.

  At the thought Golden almost had a breakdown but she bit her lip, determined not to cry. She couldn’t let him get his hands on the money. She wouldn’t let it happen, not without a fight.

  Golden hopped up off the steps, anger surging through her, and began to pound on the door again. “Let me out, you swine,” she yelled. “Let me out or else I’ll have you arrested. Just see if I don’t.” She pounded and shouted for a full minute before she slumped back down, her fists smarting and her throat sore.

  It was no use. Her threats would not make him yield. She would have to approach this from a different angle. If he wasn’t going to free her then she would have to free herself.

  But how?

  She got up from the steps and as she descended her eyes skimmed the dimly-lit room. There were boxes piled high in one corner, broken furniture in another and in the middle was an ancient sewing machine, one that didn’t need electricity because it was powered by a foot pedal. There were trunks full of clothes and linen, a standing lamp with a shade from which dusty beads dangled and there was a fuzzy couch. But the walls were solid rock, not a window to be seen. Although she hardly ever came down here Golden could swear she’d seen a tiny window somewhere. She pushed her way behind the pile of boxes, looked up and there it was. The only passage through which natural light could enter the room.

  “Yes,” she yelled, laughing out loud. “Dunstan Manchester, you lose.”

  Kicking off her heels, she grabbed a smaller box and pushed it close enough so she could jump on and then climb onto
the tall pile. It was hard, being in a dress and not her usual slacks, but she hiked up her skirt and climbed on. At that height she was perfectly positioned to see the source of light.

  Her heart slipped from on top of the boxes where she crouched and slid down to the floor. What she’d thought was a window was a square of thick, solid blocks of glass. They almost looked like bricks. There was definitely no hope here. Her face sagging in defeat, she slid down to join her heart on the floor.

  Dunstan Manchester had won. There was no hope for her now.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Where the hell was she?

  Reed glanced at his watch again. Three forty-three, only seventeen minutes before their scheduled appointment with the judge and Golden was nowhere to be seen. He’d been calling her since three, the time they’d agreed to meet at a nearby coffee shop but six calls later she still hadn’t answered her cell phone. He’d even called her home number. Same thing. No answer. As a last resort he’d called to find out if she’d arrived early for the appointment. The answer was negative.

  The worry worming its way into his mind, Reed pushed his coffee aside and got up. There was nothing to do now but head to the judge’s office and hope Golden would come rushing in, telling him she’d had a flat tire, her phone battery had died, anything that would clear up this inexplicable silence.

  It wasn’t until he was walking out of Aroma Café that he realized that the weather had taken a turn for the worse. He was shocked to see the sky now covered in ominous black clouds. Had he been inside that long? And how could he not have noticed the clouds rolling in? He’d definitely been out of it.

  What if this was the reason for Golden’s delay? She might have been caught in a thunderstorm on the way here. Rainy weather always wreaked havoc on traffic flow. He just wished he knew what was going on.

  “Right on time.” The receptionist greeted him with a smile as he walked in the door. “Judge Sandowski wants to get started on the dot of four. He’s attending a function this evening. You’re his last appointment.” Then she frowned, apparently just noticing that he was alone. “Where’s your wife-to-be?”

  Reed’s heart was beating a weird rhythm in his chest, a beat that was growing more frantic by the minute. “I don’t know,” he finally managed. “I was hoping she would have been here waiting for me.” Then he decided to check again. “Did she call? Golden Browne is her name.”

  The woman shook her head. “No. Sorry.” Then she frowned. “Did you call her cell phone? Her office, maybe?”

  “I can’t reach her on any of her numbers.” He grimaced. “I just can’t figure out what’s wrong.”

  The receptionist gave him a sympathetic look. “Maybe she got cold feet? It’s happened before.”

  “No, that’s not it.” His voice adamant, he glared at her. “Golden wants this as much as I do.” Then he looked away, his thoughts racing. “Something’s happened. I can feel it. I just pray to God she’s okay.”

  “I’m sorry. Do you want me to postpone the appointment? I can reschedule you for next week.”

  “No. Don’t do anything yet.” He glanced back at her. “It’s still five minutes before the hour. Maybe I’m overreacting. She’ll probably come in through that door any minute.”

  Reed sat there in the reception lounge thirty more nail-biting minutes. Golden did not show. He was getting to his feet when the judge himself came out of his inner office.

  The heavy-set man walked over and held out his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Davidoff,” he said and pumped his hand vigorously. “Millie has informed me about the situation.” Then he gave Reed an apologetic look. “I’m afraid I can’t wait longer, though. I have an engagement this evening.”

  “I understand.” Reed nodded then shoved his hands inside his pockets. “I’m leaving now, anyway. I have to find Golden.”

  “You do what you have to do.” Judge Sandowski put a big hand on Reed’s shoulder. “Good luck.” Then he went back to his office, shaking his head as he went.

  Reed looked across at the receptionist.

  She shrugged. “Like I said, this wouldn’t be the first time this has happened.”

  When Reed left the office and went back to his parked car his heart was racing but it wasn’t out of fear that Golden had decided to back out of the marriage. It was the fear that Golden was in trouble that had his heart racing. He had to find her. The first place to check was her home.

  Reed tore out of the covered parking lot into a blinding sheet of rain. Not what he needed right now, not when he was consumed with the thought that Golden might be lying somewhere, hurt. He wanted to fly to her but how could he, with this sudden deluge that brought London traffic to a grinding halt?

  Get a move on, godammit. Reed slammed his hands on the steering wheel, feeling like he would punch his fist through the windshield. He’d been sitting in a knot of cars for the past fifteen minutes and they hadn’t moved ten yards. It was like a friggin’ parking lot.

  He pulled out his BlackBerry and dialed Golden’s cell phone number again. Nothing.

  With a growl Reed threw the phone onto the passenger’s seat and flipped the radio on. There had to be something else going on with this traffic. The weather alone couldn’t have brought movement to a standstill.

  It took another three minutes of flipping channels before a news report enlightened him on what was happening. There’d been a major accident up ahead and the police had blocked off the street and were diverting traffic away from the scene. And he was caught smack in the middle of it. Damn!

  According to the GPS there was a minor road that could take him out of this mess but it was almost another mile up ahead. How long would it take him to go that far? At the rate this traffic was moving – or more accurately, not moving – it would be a good hour before he got there. Christ.

  Fuming with frustration, Reed gritted his teeth and peered through the driving rain. He wanted to floor the gas pedal and rip a pathway through the cars up ahead. Of course, he couldn’t. Seething, he settled in to wait.

  As he’d expected it was close to an hour before he was able to exit the motorway and merge onto a local road but by then it was drawing close to six o’clock in the evening, a whole two hours after the time that had been set for his marriage ceremony and over six hours since he had last spoken to Golden. God, he just hoped she was all right.

  Now Reed was on a road where the traffic was moving, albeit at a pace that was much slower than he wanted, but at least he was getting somewhere. The weather was no help, though. Instead of easing up, the sudden summer storm seemed to be intensifying, thunder rumbling in the distance, lightning tearing up the sky and billowing winds buffeting the vehicles on the road. Some drivers began to pull over into parking lots and gas stations, probably to sit out the storm. Not Reed. He was going to Golden’s house if it killed him.

  When Reed finally made it onto the country road leading out to the house the rain-weakened daylight had long passed and the night, with its sky still covered by rain clouds, was dark as pitch. Even with the headlights on high beam, more than once Reed had to slam on the brakes to avoid plowing into a pool of water that had settled in a sink in the road. Once, he’d had to leave the road altogether and climb the grassy bank at the side. And he kept on going.

  Finally, he turned onto the lane he sought and then headed up the driveway of Golden’s home. What he saw made his heart go still. The house was in total darkness. There was no way Golden would be here.

  Oh, God. Had his journey been in vain? Reed slowed to a stop in front of the house and peered through the sheets of rain. There were no signs of life, not even the flicker of a candle through the window. Nothing.

  He slumped forward, resting his forehead against the steering wheel, suddenly feeling drained, knowing that under the circumstances the rational thing to do was to turn right around and head back the way he’d come.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  But right then Reed was feeling anything but rationa
l. He was going insane. He hadn’t come this far to then not find Golden. He had to.

  He switched off the engine and threw the car door open then ran through the pounding rain to the front door. Banging the knocker like he was about to break it he shouted through the deluge. “Hello? Anybody home? Anybody in there?”

  The only answer was the sound of raindrops slapping the earth and the deafening crack of thunder. Meanwhile, tucked under the eaves, Reed was getting drenched by the showers.

  “Hello,” he yelled, and began banging again but he already knew it was useless. If there was anyone in the house he would have a better chance of attracting attention if he banged on a window or maybe the back door. Ducking his head, he ran through the curtain of water and when he got to the side of the house he peered through the first window. All he saw was darkness but that didn’t deter him from rapping at the glass and yelling his head off. When that didn’t work he ran to another window and then another, rapping and yelling like a madman. By the time he got to the back of the house he was exhausted.

  Panting, rainwater streaming down his face, Reed staggered back to the front of the house for one last try. He lifted his hand to the knocker just as his foot slipped on the front step, making him grab the knob to keep from falling.

  Immediately, the door swung open. Shit. It had been open the whole damn time.

  Without hesitation Reed stepped into the entranceway, the hall so dark he could hardly see a foot in front of his face. He flipped the light switch by the door. Nothing. The storm must have knocked out the power. He took one step then another then came to a complete halt. He couldn’t see a thing.

  Digging into his right pocket he pulled out his cell phone and held it up, the dim light lifting the thick curtain of darkness just enough that he could make his way deeper into the room.

  “Hello,” he called out as he slowly made his way farther into the unfamiliar house. “Anybody here? Golden?”