The Corrupt Billionaire COMPLETE Box Set

by Hope, Camilla

  “So you like really looked after her?” he asked Peter.

  “Always,” Peter said. “And in the end it… it wasn’t such a bad thing.”

  “That’s right!” I said. “Just a layover in a lovely little town. The craziest little old lady ran the B&B.”

  “Nellie,” Peter interjected. “Crack shot with a rifle and a bottle.”

  “A bottle?” Danny asked.

  He relinquished enough of his hold, and Peter eased me back to his side as he smiled down at me.

  “Just a little inside joke,” he said as he started to kiss my brow. Despite the tension still ripe in the air, I was ready for his lips when he softly pushed back and extended his hand to Danny.

  “Mr. Horton,” he said. “I know you love her. I know you’ve looked out for her. I’m totally not trying to step on your toes or anything. But still I’d… I’d like to have your blessing.”

  “My what?” Danny asked.

  Peter gently lifted my left hand to his eyes, and Danny gasped as soon as he saw the ring.

  “Holy shit! You’re… the two of you…” he spluttered.

  “He asked me, and I said yes. I’m happy with him, Danny. And completely safe,” I assured him.

  Tilting his head to one side and then the other, Danny surveyed the ring without one trace of expression on his face. But Danny was all about the parts that made up the whole, and I focused on his mouth.

  “This what you want, Caroline?” he asked.

  “More than anything,” I assured him.

  It felt like forever, but when his lips finally curled into a smile, I left Peter’s hold and hugged my arms around his neck.

  “So you approve?” I asked. “Because I am happy, Danny, I promise.”

  “Guess I’ll have to take you at your word,” Danny grinned.

  He spun me around again, and I saw his latest exhibition just waiting for a proper showing. No more eyes or worlds under water; his canvases carried images of fire, soft candles complimenting raging flames. And I suddenly thought of how Morgan had died, screaming and pleading for some show of mercy. And I shuddered at the thought as I moved towards the nearest canvas.

  “What’s this about?” I asked as I touched my fingers to the brightest blaze.

  “Its life and death in the same space,” Danny said. “Burn one thing down, something new is bound to pop up in its place.”

  The sight of the painting nearly brought tears to my eyes, but I quickly blinked them back.

  “I get it,” I said. “And it’s sublime.”

  As I took Danny into my arms, I winked at Peter over his shoulder, and he bowed his head. He knew my secrets. And I had to wonder if he wanted me because of them or in spite of them. But I settled on something in between, something without a name, and I relaxed against Danny when he stared Peter down again.

  “You really want my blessing?” he asked.

  “We both would,” Peter said.

  “Then for Caroline, okay. But there’s one caveat,” Danny said.

  “Danny, I thought you were unconditional,” I whined.

  “Through and through,” he replied. Then he turned to Peter. “But let’s have no more accidents. One day I want to do a whole show around this one.”

  “Careful what you wish for,” I said. “I’m on my way to being a boring little housewife.”

  Danny seemed shocked by the possibility, but Peter just laughed.

  “Another joke I’m not in on?” Danny asked.

  “Every couple has their secrets,” I said. “But maybe one day I’ll tell you.”

  “Let’s see if we can make that happen now,” he said as he pulled out a bottle and started pouring shots of tequila.

  “Old Nellie would have a field day with that,” Peter whispered into my ear.

  “Should we do this without Sabrina?” Danny asked.

  Knowing that we’d catch hell, I still took a glass and clinked it to his.

  “She’ll be along soon enough,” I laughed.

  The tequila swirled down my throat, and Peter’s arm was warm around my waist when there was a knock at the door.

  “Right on time!” Danny said. “I’ll get it.”

  Peter polished off his shot and stroked my fading bruises.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “I am, I promise,” I said as I leaned into him for a kiss.

  His lips were almost against mine when a shattering crash pulled me from his arms, and I turned to the doorway.

  “Bree?”

  Her brown hair was matted and soaked in blood and the violet of her eyes was suddenly rivalled by the blue splotches covering her face. She barely stood on shaking legs, a burner phone in her hand as she tried to speak and collapsed into Danny’s arms.

  “Jesus fucking Christ!” Danny said.

  He pressed her limp body to his chest, and Peter sprang into action. Fixing the deadbolt to the door, he helped Danny lower her body to the couch. Even as he posed her in place, I saw no desire to paint in his eyes, and he moved fast to wet a rag as he wiped down her bloodied face.

  “Sabrina, what the hell…?” Danny whispered.

  Even as I knew, feared, what this might mean, Danny beat me to the punch and fixed his glare on Peter.

  “Are you a part of this?” he asked. “Is this what’s going to happen to Caroline now that she has my blessing?”

  Peter stayed silent, and suddenly I was as terrified for him as I was for Sabrina. I looked to the burner phone fallen to the floor. The most recent caller was blocked as unknown, and I held my breath and Peter’s arm as I waited for some answer from the other end of the line.

  “Hello?” I asked when I heard the call come to life. “Who is this?”

  “Your father, Caroline.”

  ***

  The ‘Happy Ever After’ ending that Caroline wants with Peter seems to be in her grasp. Until her best friend arrives, beaten and terrified and an old enemy surfaces to make their lives a misery.

  As Peter is contacted by his old boss and his return to his old way of life is unavoidable, it seems that Caroline has no choice but to return to her old home and her father.

  Can Peter find a way to leave his past behind and be with Caroline? Or will she forsake him forever and stay with her father?

  The Corrupt Billionaire Romance

  Part Five: Fate

  Camilla Hope

  Chapter One

  Looking to Sabrina, watching Danny as he kept trying to wash the blood away with his cloth and his sleeve, I clutched the phone close to my ear.

  “Daddy?” I managed to ask. “Why… what are you…?”

  His laugher hit my ear like a smack, and I found Peter’s hand and felt him seething as the familiar voice filled my brain.

  “Your little friend just got a preview,” my father said.

  “My… what the hell is wrong with you?”

  I shuddered as I screamed, and Peter leapt to his feet as he wrestled the phone away from my hand.

  “Did you do this?” he seethed. “Can’t hurt her anymore, so you turn to…”

  Sabrina moaned from the couch, and I fell to her side, working with Danny to clean her up when I saw Peter’s face grow white.

  “What?” I demanded. “What the hell is he saying now!”

  Peter offered no resistance as I got the phone back in my hands, and I heard my father say ‘you know how this works’ when Peter started to scramble from my side with his head in his hands.

  “Don’t you leave me!” I yelled as I put my hand over the phone.

  He stopped in his tracks as I rushed to his side, and I kissed his lips before turning my attention back to the phone. Peter hung close as my father laughed again.

  “Ask him who he is,” my father said. “Might be a real surprise to you.”

  “I know who he is. He’s told me the truth. But I’ll never believe anything that you say ever again!”

  “You think so?” he said. “Just talk to the girl. She has a story to tel
l.”

  The call died, and I tried to grab Peter’s face when he shied away from my touch.

  “What… what did he say to you?” I asked.

  Peter shook his head, and I was ready to pound my fists into his chest for answers when I heard Sabrina moan in pain. Forgetting my questions, hoping that they would keep, I fell to Sabrina’s side and parted her matted hair as I touched her shattered cheek.

  “Bree?” I begged. “Who did this to you?”

  She licked her lips and tried to sit up. Groaning, the slightest move causing her all kinds of pain, Danny steadied her in his arms, and I kissed her fingers as her gaze focused on my eyes.

  “Someone… someone with so many scars,” she said.

  “Scars?” I asked.

  Looking to Peter, I saw him slipping back, moving deeper and deeper into the corner. His shoulder hit hard against Danny’s painting of death and rebirth, and I was ready to fly into his chest when Sabrina clutched my hand.

  “He… I was on my way here,” she started. “I… I think I had…”

  She searched her trembling hands and stared at her palms in confusion when her arms slipped back to her sides, and she sighed heavily.

  “Bree?” Danny asked as he jostled her in an effort to keep her awake and talking. Somehow Sabrina smiled, and I was tempted to let her drift off when Peter pushed past me and took hold of her shoulders.

  “Peter! What the hell are you doing?” I asked.

  “Keep talking!” he said.

  “Lay off her!” Danny said. Peter elbowed him back and pressed his hands against Sabrina’s bruised cheek. She shot him a curious stare and laughed through a swollen mouth.

  “He… he said he knew you,” Sabrina continued. “Said he saw you guys in Virginia or something.”

  So much for Nellie’s so-called handiwork! Swanson was back and looking for all kinds of vengeance. Maybe that was to be expected, and I ordered Peter back to his feet with a harsh glare.

  “I thought Nellie put him off our scent?” I challenged.

  “I… I believed her when she said…” Peter began.

  “And he said that he had to return a favor,” Sabrina said. “He… he pulled up my skirt, and I…”

  She searched her hands again and gave me her dazed eyes.

  “I had a bottle of champagne,” she said. “Guess I… guess I lost it along the way.”

  “Bree, it doesn’t matter. What did he do to you?” I asked, not really wanting to hear her reply.

  I watched her start to slip into sleep, and I followed Danny’s lead, forgetting her bruises as I shook her shoulders.

  “Sabrina!” I cried.

  She managed to fix her gaze on my eyes, and I waited with a dry mouth as her lips curled into a grimace.

  “He… he pushed up my skirt,” she said. “And I… I…”

  Knowing, remembering what it was to have an unwanted man between my unwilling legs, I gnashed my teeth as Peter tried to touch my shoulder, and he fell back again as Sabrina busted out laughing.

  “But the sick son of a bitch couldn’t get it up,” she said. “Even said something about how he was too badly scarred to make it work anymore.”

  So Nellie’s efforts hadn’t entirely been in vain, and I started to return her smile when she gripped my arm and held me hard.

  “But he… he still hit me,” she said. “And he said that your man would know why.”

  Passing her back to Danny, I stood tall and grabbed Peter by the collar. His body was limp as I pressed him into the wall and shook him hard.

  “What does it mean?” I cried.

  “Gypsy, I…”

  “You said he was gone!”

  “He was!” Peter exclaimed. “You should have seen Nellie put the fear of God into him!”

  “But I didn’t” I screamed. “You did!”

  Peter nodded as I seized his chin and made him look into my eyes.

  “You’re really out?” I asked.

  “I told you that I was. I’m done with the drug trade. And with Swanson scared off and the house burned down…” he continued.

  “Excuse me?” Danny interrupted. “Drug trade? House burnt down? What the…?”

  “Shut up!”

  Peter and I voiced the warning in unison, and I would have felt closer to him than ever if Sabrina wasn’t still groaning at my back.

  “I… why did I believe you?” I asked shaking my head. “And now what? He has my father doing his bidding?”

  “Your father doing his bidding…” Peter laughed shortly as he turned away, and he stopped before Danny’s latest painting.

  “There’s always something,” he said wearily. “One thing stops and something surprising always pops up in its place.”

  I was on the verge of laying into again when he suddenly spun around and grabbed my arms.

  “What the hell do you think…?” I yelled.

  “I didn’t know,” he swore. “Until now it was just a name. My boss, he was just a name. I never met him and …”

  “What about Wallace?” I spat. “Don’t try to sell me another story.”

  Peter’s shoulders sagged. Here it was. The truth that he could no longer deny, and as much as I wanted to stay with him forever, I didn’t see how could when he… he was bound to reveal that all of this was because he was still in too deep. That he had no way out.

  “Fine,” Peter said. “Just the truth then.”

  Danny held Sabrina close, and he beckoned me to his other side. But I held my ground as I watched Peter struggle to speak.

  “What?” I asked. “Too hard to find another lie.”

  “No,” he said sadly, a look of wonder crossing his face as he still tried to find the words. “It’s just… it’s too hard to tell you the truth.”

  Chapter Two

  Danny held my hand, and Sabrina iced her bruises. We stared at him as one when Peter drew a deep breath and sighed heavily.

  “It’s not what you think,” he started. “You don’t set off to hurt anyone. It’s just a product. So you… you push it. And you let the chips fall where they may.”

  Danny and Sabrina laughed, and I was ready to follow their lead when I met Peter’s eyes.

  “When you’re a young man,” he continued, “you just want a chance at getting out from under. I don’t expect any of you to understand it, but in dire straits you take all kinds of chances.”

  Danny was on his feet, and he pointed a firm finger towards Sabrina’s bruised face.

  “That include what happened to her?” he asked. “Or what went down with Caroline out of state?”

  I waited silently as Peter licked his lips and hung his head.

  “Peter?” I whispered.

  Danny tried to hold me back when I shrugged him off and took a few a slow steps towards his side.

  “Peter, I… I know that you didn’t want me hurt.”

  “Never,” he said as he dared to take hold of my hands. “I only want to hold you like this.”

  He kissed my wrists and tried to pull me closer when I held back, my fingers just resting against his chin as he ran his hand across his face.

  “But there was always someone else pulling the strings,” he said. “Wallace was a cover. I knew it wasn’t his real name so I never knew who really raked the money in.”

  “Convenient,” Danny hissed as he tried to bring me back to his side, but I waved him off and stared Peter down.

  “What’s happened?” I asked. “Why… why do you look so ashamed?”

  “Gypsy, I…” Peter began.

  When he couldn’t finish the thought, I did nothing but try to bring his face back to mine.

  “Because I’ve just connected the dots,” he said. “And your father, he’s… he’s the one that made me my money.”

  “You… what are you…? No, that can’t be true!” I said.

  “Pick up the burner and listen.”

  The room was still as I did as I was told, and after one ring, my father’s voice was at my ear
.

  “That’s more like it, Barton! You think you love my girl? And that she loves you? I’ll have Swanson give you all kinds of scars if you don’t get back into the game and then she won’t want you no more! You only leave if I say you leave, got it?” my father said with a harsh laugh. “But either way you won’t get her. She’ll come running back to me as soon as she sees you for what you really are. You’re just another greedy drug dealer.”

  “No!” I cried.

  Dropping the phone, I curled my knees into my chest and shook violently as Sabrina fell to my side. I heard her speaking through her pain as she stroked my hair.

  “Caroline, it’s okay, it’s… don’t you touch her!” Sabrina spat.

  I looked towards Peter to see Danny holding him back as he tried to reach for me.

  “Did you know?” Sabrina asked angrily. “When you first saw her, did you know?”

  “No!” he swore. “I didn’t know that her father was my boss until right now. I was just trying to get out.”

  Pulling away from Sabrina, I searched Peter’s face for any hint of menace. When I saw nothing but sorrow pouring through his gaze, I gently nodded my head for him to continue.

  “When I saw you, I… I just wanted to be with you. But if I had known the consequences, I… never would have…”

  “You would have stayed away, right?” I asked.

  Just one more thing that my father might have taken away from me, and I longed for a dark corner in which to hide when Peter took me back into his arms and shook his head.

  “No,” he said. “Stay away from you? Never an option, Gypsy.”

  He kissed me softly, and I started to hold him when Danny snorted at my back.

  “Small fucking world,” he said. “Who’s to say you weren’t in this with her father.”

  “Danny, I don’t think that…” I cried.

  Before I could put the point on my thought, Peter was on his feet, and Sabrina grabbed Danny’s arm with a wince as Peter raged into his eyes.