“One never knows how the future will unfold,” Amy said, attracting Tia’s ironic smile.
“Indeed not,” Tia said, returning her attention to Camden. “If you ever change your mind, you’ll give me a call?”
“Don’t count on it,” Amy said, slipping her arm through Camden’s, setting the other on his muscular arm, her body language telling Tia everything her sharp retort hadn’t.
Tia took in Amy’s commanding, confident tone. “You seem to have come a long way, Amy. I’m very glad we could provide the help you needed.”
Amy nodded. “Everything I needed, Ms. McBride. Thank you.”
Looking up at Camden’s loving face, his smile telling her everything she needed to know.
Whatever Amy would have to face in her life, she wouldn’t have to face it alone.
Lean, dark Tal Farlo slinked around the party, taking candid shots of the guests, the camera in front of his face, clicks rattling out of the little device, countless shots per minute.
Kate was happily working the open bar, a white shirt and smart black necktie giving her a professional look that flattered her curvaceous, ample frame. Danny was sitting at the bar, flirting to the very best of his ability.
Amy and Camden glanced at him from across the beautiful churchyard, where the private reception was being held.
Amy asked Camden, “Think he’s got a chance?”
“Not once she’s got her hooks into him.” They shared a chuckle, Amy nuzzling into Camden’s tuxedoed chest. “She’ll be good for him, I think.”
Amy turned to look into her new husband’s eyes. “Love will always discover the truth.”
HBO’s Claire Appleby, Tyler Tate, and Randall Ott stood together, laughing and drinking, enjoying the tales of their project’s success, one of the most highly anticipated films on the network’s roster. There was already talk about an Emmy nomination for Camden, whose career was suddenly one of the hottest in Hollywood.
Margaret and Jonathan stepped up to Amy and Camden, Margaret offering warm hugs and Jonathan firm and friendly handshake. “What a beautiful ceremony,” Margaret said, “I’m so happy for you both.”
Camden said, “Thank you for being here, Margaret.”
“Of course, darling. And call me Maggie, please.”
Jonathan said, “I gotta say, Amy, we … we were selling you short, kiddo. You were more than capable of taking care of yourself, there can’t be much doubt about that now.”
“No more tethers on your inheritance either, darling.” Giving Jonathan the side-eye, Margaret went on, “If anybody in this family has earned their birthright, it’s you.”
Amy asked, “What about Danny?”
Jonathan shook his head. “Danny’s not fit. But we’ll take care of him, don’t worry.”
“No,” Amy said. “Let him off the leash too. It’s only right, it’s only fair. And it’s what Dad would want.”
Margaret and Jonathan glanced at each other, Margaret finally nodding before Jonathan shook his head and rolled his eyes. But Margaret said to him, “She has a point, Jonathan … or do you disagree with me?”
Jonathan stood, trapped, knowing the danger of his own dissent. In the irony of his lifetime, Jonathan was trapped by the authority he himself wielded for so many years.
“If that’s what Amy thinks,” Jonathan said, “who am I to disagree?”
“That’s right,” Margaret said with an angry snap.
Jonathan held his hands out to calm his riled matron. “Hey, she’s got my full support.” Turning to Amy, he added, “You’re one tough cookie, Amy. I … I’m really proud of you, Sis. I don’t know what I’d have done against that bear.”
“You’d have run away screaming like a little girl,” Margaret said.
“Why would you say something like that? Why are you trying to embarrass me?”
Margaret rolled her eyes and waved him off. “Please, dear, give it a rest.” Margaret walked away, Jonathan on her heels.
“C’mon, Mom, that’s just mean. Mom? Mom! Don’t just walk away from me!” Jonathan followed her into the crowd, Amy and Camden sharing an amused chuckle.
Camden asked her, “What about those two?”
“They deserve each other.” Amy turned to Camden and wrapped her arms around his expansive shoulders, kissing him both playfully and passionately, a silent salute to their new union. “I can’t wait for the honeymoon baby” Camden gushed, and Amy squealed in delight.
The fabled streets of Paris were more romantic than Amy remembered from their trips there in her youth. Winding stone streets were filled with tobacco shops, cobblers, cafes, it was like stepping into another time, another world.
But that was something both Amy and Camden knew all about. Strolling down those winding streets, though, it was easy to forget.
The lights danced in the Paris night, the Champs-Élysées glittering and dizzying, a glittering array that Camden had never seen or even imagined. The Eiffel Tower was even more impressive in person than in the countless pictures and film clips.
“It’s beautiful,” Amy said, taking in a deep breath of the mist off the Seine.
“It’s beautiful because you’re here,” Camden said. “It’s beautiful because you’re here with me.” They kissed, a tender touch, before walking on. “I can’t believe how lucky I am.”
Amy smiled warmly. “That’s true.”
“You and me, that’s real, that’s true!”
“And love will always discover the truth.”
Camden smiled. “Yes.”
“And we’re not going to live without each other, not any longer.”
Camden answered, “No.”
“We live our lives together, straight down the line, right to the end.”
“Oh, yes.”
“No matter where we are or what we’re doing,” Amy said.
“And … you’ll call me mistress.”
Camden broke a smile. “Don’t make me gag you.”
They chuckled and walked on into the soothing darkness of the Paris night. But the romantic haze of the city was momentarily disrupted by a bump from passing stranger. “Oh, I’m sorry,” the young woman said, pretty, in her late twenties, clinging to a man who looked about the same age, with long, dirty blond hair. Physically, he was a match for Camden himself, both men sharing a similar, muscular build.
“Not at all,” Camden said, “entirely my fault.”
“Ahhhh, a couple of Americans,” the man said with a warm smile, extending his hand. Camden shook it readily. “Carter Fields, this is my wife, Kathleen.”
“Call me Kat,” she said with a smile, shaking both their hands. “You two are on your honeymoon, I take it?”
Amy couldn’t help break out in a surprised chuckle. “That’s right! How did you — ?”
“Lucky guess,” Kat said, glancing at Camden. “What line of work are you in, hun?”
Camden smiled. “Actor.”
“No kidding,” Carter said. “Isn’t that something? Tough gig, I hear.”
“I got lucky.” Camden said modestly.
Amy hugged his arm, pressing her face into his shoulder. “You’re not the only one.”
Camden asked the man, “You?”
Carter and Kat glanced at one another before Carter pulled a business card out of his pocket. Saying simply, “I’m a business manager.” He handed the card to Camden for both of them to read. Amy leaned over and read the single word printed above the phone number.
Longshadows.
“Longshadows?” Camden read, glancing at Amy.
She shrugged. “Never heard of it.”
THE END
Billionaire Benefactor Daddy
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by Natalia Banks
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of br
ief quotations in a book review.
NOTE: This is a work of fiction, names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real life is coincidental. All characters in the story are 18 years of age or older. Intended reading audience 18+
A room without books is like a body without a soul.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Prologue
Bam! Bam, bam, bam! The gun shots rang out, sending the massive crowd running in every direction. They heaved in a tide away from the library, but that sheet of terrified humanity tore itself to shreds running for some shelter—any escape.
Bam, bam!
Lorraine Devonshire looked up at Griffin Phoenix; their eyes locked. Both knew that their worst fears had come to life. Some of those bullets had found their mark, digging deep into tender flesh, ripping through organs, pushing the very living breath out of their victim.
Little Ashe Phoenix’s eyes widened with shock, his mouth falling open, the terror of the moment beyond his ability to comprehend. But the three were frozen where they stood, none leaving the other’s side. Sweat broke out over Lorraine’s face, cold even, as a wave of heat passed through her.
Police poured over the area, the innocent and the guilty scattering for their lives. For Lorraine, Griffin, and even for Ashe, it was too late to run; there was nowhere to hide. Lorraine and Griffin looked at one another, silently knowing that the only thing left to say was goodbye.
Chapter 1
ONE WEEK EARLIER
“Shut down the library?” It wasn’t until she said it that Lorraine Devonshire knew how terrible and how serious the problem really was. “Mister Jenkins, you can’t do that!”
Albert Jenkins waddled down the aisle, his big belly nearly glancing against the books on both sides. When he turned to glare at Lorraine, with Carmen Mendez following behind him, Lorraine knew it going to be a long week, and it wasn’t even Monday noon.
“Not my choice,” Albert said, inspiring Carmen to imitate his glare, short-tempered and inflexible. “There’s just not room in the budget.”
Carmen nodded, her own chunky physique much smaller than the moving mountain in front of them. “We’re already down to three days a week, Mr. Jenkins.”
“Then you’re only losing three days, aren’t you?”
Albert walked on, Lorraine and Carmen trailing behind him. Lorraine caught sight of herself and the others in a mirror as they passed; with Albert’s big, dark, round, presence, Carmen’s smaller, mocha self, and Lorraine’s small, pale frame and short red hair, she felt like the scoop of cherry ice cream on the top some strange, moving triple-cone of bureaucracy.
“If I may, Mr. Jenkins,” Lorraine said, Carmen’s glare telling her that she shouldn’t, but both knew it was too late. Lorraine went on, “This is a public library; it’s vital to the community. Children come here to be read to; we provide internet for people who can’t afford it. It’s a meeting place, a center of social interaction—”
Albert looked her over. “Miss Devonshire, I appreciate your position. You went to school, chose this as your profession, now it’s being threatened. Believe me, you have my every sympathy. I won’t have a job much longer either.”
“It’s not just about that,” Lorraine said. “Don’t you remember when you were a kid? You’d come and get these free books, and then read them with such appreciation and gratitude? It made you feel, I dunno, cared for, like the city cared enough about you to—”
“Enough,” Albert barked out, attracting the odd glances of various patrons around the otherwise quiet library. “You think I enjoy this? You think I want to shut the library down? You think I don’t care about the community, the kids? But the reality of the new budgets take the choice out of my hands, Miss Devonshire. There simply isn’t enough money to keep the doors open! Can I be more clear?”
“No, sir,” Carmen said, shooting little looks at Lorraine to shut her up. “We understand, of course.”
Albert nodded and walked on, Lorraine and Carmen following. “Nothing’s official yet, but you’d both better get your affairs in order.”
Carmen asked, “How long?”
“Three months,” Albert said, “six tops.”
Lorraine couldn’t help be struck with the resemblance their conversation had to a doctor’s terminal diagnosis and a patient’s sad acceptance. Albert Jenkins had just handed the Hadley branch of the Denver Public Library a death sentence.
Three to six months.
After Albert left, Carmen led Lorraine into her private office, closing the door behind them. “What was that, Lorraine?”
“I’m sorry, Carmen, I didn’t mean to speak out of turn, but…they’re gonna shut us down, and you’re just gonna take it?”
“What else can we do? Lorraine, this is government stuff, real political shit, baby. You go along, you get along. So they close this place up, maybe Albert’ll find us something somewhere else.”
Lorraine shook her head, short red hair clinging to her scalp. “He said he’ll be fired too, Carmen; he won’t be any use to anybody. Anyway, that’s no way to live—ass kissing.”
“So you say.”
“And it won’t save the library!” Lorraine exclaimed.
“You got me there,” Carmen said, shaking her head. “Still, you can’t fight City Hall.”
“No, I… Wait a minute, why can’t you?” Carmen tilted her head, looking at Lorraine from under her brow. Lorraine went on, “We can stage a protest or something, right? Save our library, something like that?”
“Not unless you have some other career in your back pocket.”
“This is my career, Carmen, and yours! And why? We didn’t get into this in order to get rich or famous!”
“Lo’, I got into this so I could work in a nice, quiet place. With my family, library was the only place you couldn’t shout at the top of your lungs!”
“Exactly, but today’s kids need that as much as we did, as much as any generation!” Lorraine couldn’t ignore the fatalistic expression on Carmen’s face. “What if we had a fundraiser, raised enough money to keep the library going?”
“You know how much that would take? You’re talking about a hundred grand just for this branch and just for one year! Then there’s the overall pattern, Lo’. It’s not just this branch. Pretty soon the whole concept of the public library will be a memory. Like phone booths, you remember those? Or those photo development places—little shacks in parking lots where people would drive up and get their pictures? Times change, Lo’—y’just gotta deal with it.”
“But that’s just the problem, Car. Those government fat cats are always cutting all the social service agencies, from welfare to planned parenthood. Those rich bastards are slicing up our country and eating it like a Christmas turkey, and we’re left to starve! It’s not fair and it’s not right! We have to draw the line somewhere, right?”
“Not across my neck, we don’t. You wanna draw a line, Lo’, do it someplace else.”
“But this is where it matters, Car, this is where it counts!”
“No, Lorraine, no, this is just a library. This is where homeless people come to get out of the sun. This is where old people come to read magazines—another dying institution. This is just a job nobody wants to pay for, just a building filled with books nobody wants to read.”
Lorraine couldn’t disguise her sorrow, and Carmen couldn’t ignore it. “It’s okay, Lo’, you’ll find something else. We both will.”
“Go along to get along,” Lorraine repeated. But she didn’t mean it, and she wasn’t ready to accept it.
The problem wriggled in the back of her mind all the way back to her apartment. The one-bedroom apartment wasn’t much, but it represented promise; it was Lorraine’s independence, her future as an adult. It had been the first place she’d ever had on her own after childhood with the Devonshires and then college years rooming with Jeremy Bush. This was supposed to be the beginning of the rest of my life, Lorraine said
to herself, a voice in the back of her brain. Is that it? Is it over already?
No, she told herself, I’m not just going to let go of it, or of the library. What are they going to cut next? No more public schools? No more emergency rooms? People dying in the streets? No. The libraries may not save any lives, but they inspire educations and they employ a lot of good people.
There must be something I can do!
Lorraine’s smartphone rang, the familiar name on the screen bringing her no particular solace, much less joy. “Donal, hi.”
“Hey, you know my number by heart,” Donal said, deliberately cheerful. She didn’t bother to explain, and she didn’t have the chance. “Just thought I’d give you a call, see what’s up.”
“Nothing good, I’m afraid. They’re dropping the axe on the library.”
“Oh, that sucks, Lo’. Sorry to hear it.”
“Not any sorrier than I am to say it.”
“Okay, well, we’ll get married and you can raise my children—no big deal.”
Lorraine spat out an amused chuckle, but the underlaying frustration almost hurt her teeth. “That’s your solution to everything.”
“It would solve all my problems, yeah, yours too.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” A tense silence passed. Neither wanted to pursue the conversation where both knew it was going. “Anyway, one thing at a time, eh?”
“Sure, right, exactly. So let’s talk about this weekend. Six o’clock Saturday?”
“Oh, did we…um, did we nail that down?” Lorraine said hesitantly.
“We’re doing it now.”
Lorraine thought about it, and not nearly for the first time. “Sure, right, exactly.”
The conversation trailed on for a while until Lorraine managed to end it gracefully. She knew she wasn’t in love with Donal; they had been together for a few months now, known each other all throughout school, and she couldn’t help contemplate that she just wasn’t in love with him the way she ought to be. She had never been in love before, but from what she had seen in other relationships, and from her parents, she just didn’t feel that spark she knew should be there. Sure, he was a nice enough guy, but she never felt butterflies, and most of the time spent together felt platonic.
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