The Billionaire's Casino - The Complete Collection: Billionaire Romance Box Set

by Sarah J. Brooks

  Of course, I wasn’t paying any attention to the fact that I was technically now in Belize in my capacity as a journalist, and I blocked out any thought that I could be returning home soon; my full attention was only in that bed. Brad’s bed.

  “Good morning,” he sighed, rolling over to face me. His eyes lazily opened, and he smiled. I wondered if there would ever be a time when the combination of his sparkling eyes and smile didn’t send my heart pounding in my chest and breathless energy moving through me. I smiled back, sending a hope to the universe that the answer to that question was: never.

  “Good morning,” I said. I propped myself up onto one elbow and felt the sheet slide away from my breasts. The cool air incited a smattering of goosebumps on my flesh, and I felt my nipples harden in response to the temperature. I smiled at the flickering of his eyes toward my chest. “Eyes up here, Mister,” I said, a smile spreading across my face.

  “Eyes up there, fingers right here,” he said playfully, and he reached his hand to my breast, running his thumb across my nipple. My body responded immediately, a flush rising in my cheeks as my nipples hardened against his touch. “See how talented I am? With my eyes closed…”

  “If you insist,” I said, moving my mouth to his and kissing him. His mouth fit over mine perfectly, and I felt my body begin to melt into a state of bliss. He replaced his thumb with his palm, and the contrast of heat and cool on my breast sent a shiver through me.

  His phone buzzed from the side table and he groaned. “Dammit, what now?” He rolled away from me and I sighed. Every morning had been the same. Though, to be fair, Brad was definitely sleeping in a lot later than he normally would have. It was nearly seven in the morning; usually, Brad had told me, he was up and into the daily action by five.

  Something was up this time, though. Brad held the phone to his ear and almost immediately sat straight up in bed. He stood up and moved quickly to get his clothes.

  “How close is it?” he asked. “How much time do we have?” He dressed and walked out of the bedroom. I could see him in the living room, standing at his desk turning on the computer and clicking online.

  I sat up in bed and wrapped the sheet around my chest. I looked at my phone and saw a text from Emma.

  Are u ok? The message said. I was an hour behind her in central time, and she had sent the message two hours earlier.

  Yes, why? I replied.

  Thank God u answered. Check the news. Huge storm. Headed your way. How much longer will u be there? Her response was immediate.

  I frowned, then looked back up at Brad. He was looking at me. He mouthed “Business” to me and pointed at the computer. I nodded and held up my phone, letting him know I was occupied as well.

  A few more days, I texted back. Not sure.

  U may be there longer than u think. Hurricane warnings. Belize in direct path.

  I felt my eyes widen and I looked out the window, seeing for the first time the swaying of the palm trees and the windy activity that was far more than just a morning sea breeze. I got out of bed and dressed quickly, then walked out to the living room to join Brad.

  He was looking at the weather online, a circling, moving radar that showed Belize in the direct path of a category five hurricane, scheduled to make landfall in less than forty-eight hours. I put my hand on his shoulder and he jumped, as if he’d completely forgotten I was there. He smiled and put his arm around me.

  “I understand,” he said into the phone. “We need to make it happen. The shipment is coming whether we’re ready or not, and, if we don’t have a place to put it, well, I don’t need to tell you how bad that will be for us.”

  I stepped away from him and moved into the kitchen to make coffee. One thing I had learned over the course of my time with Brad was that he needed his space when he was talking business. I had first slept with Brad two weeks earlier, interviewed him the next day, slept with him that same night, and we’d been together every night since then. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say I knew him yet, I was starting to get a feel for his habits. When he was with me and his phone was off, he was the consummate gentleman, paying for dinner and showering me with affection. When he was talking business, he was edgy, full of tension. He would pull away from me not only as if I wasn’t to be privy to his conversations, but as if I was an actual spy, sent to eavesdrop on his business transactions and report back to an enemy. The first few times it had happened, I’d pouted, acted mad. Now… now, I made coffee.

  I poured two cups and doctored his with cream and sugar, just as he liked. I brought it to him and set it on the desk without making eye contact. He was in a terse conversation with either the same person he’d been speaking with or someone else. I felt a ball of tension fill my stomach; today was not going to be an easy day.

  I took my coffee, straight black, onto the lanai. The wind was shocking, blowing a combination of hot and cold air, mingling with the occasional raindrop. Based on the clouds rolling in, we were in for a stormy day. I sat on a chair anyway, and watched the wind create huge whitecaps on the water. The power of the ocean never ceased to amaze me. There were a few brave swimmers trying to take on the waves, but I knew that, if the waves continued to build, in another hour or so the beach and the water would be deserted. All of the tourists would migrate inside, to the restaurant, to the bar, to their rooms, and the island would look like it was completely deserted.

  “I have some bad news,” Brad said from behind me. I turned. He stood in the doorway to the lanai with his coffee in his hands.

  “I know,” I said. “Hurricane. Emma texted me from New York.”

  “It’s bad,” he said, sitting next to me. “The radar says it’s a category five, but I just got off the phone with one of my advisors and he said that it’s supposed to be at the upper end of a category five. It’s more likely than not that we’ll be evacuated.”

  “To the states?” I asked.

  “Not at this point,” Brad said, shaking his head. “It’s too late for that. We’ll get shuttled back to the mainland and they’ll determine a place for us to be. Right now, it’s looking like we may be okay toward the center of Belize, but it’s a several hours’ drive, and that’s once we get to the mainland itself.”

  “What do we do?” I asked. I was trying to stay calm, but alarm was rising in me. The air felt wrong somehow, different. I couldn’t believe all of this had happened in the time since we’d gone to bed last night.

  “You’re going to take a shuttle to the mainland. I’ve arranged for one to pick you up in two hours. Pack only what you need; you can leave everything else here.”

  When Emma had flown back to the states, I had moved all of my belongings into Brad’s room. We agreed it made sense to open a room up for new guests, but, the truth was, we both just wanted an excuse to be together.

  “You’re coming with me,” I said. Statement, not question.

  “No,” he said firmly, shaking his head. “I can’t. I’ve got…” he paused, searching for the right words. “I’ve got an important shipment coming in from overseas. I need to be here for it. And, for the work that needs to happen to prep for its arrival.”

  “What are you talking about, you’re not coming with? That’s insane, you’ll be killed!” My voice rose and the tension that had been building within me finally exploded. “My ass you’re going to send me alone on a boat to the mainland and stay here. That is not happening.”

  I saw a flash of anger in his eyes and I knew I’d gone too far.

  “I’m going to try to keep from saying something I don’t mean, here,” he said, his voice low and controlled. “You and I, we are nothing. We’re not in a relationship. You don’t get to dictate where I go or what I do. You have no idea what will happen if this shipment falls through, if it doesn’t arrive, or if I’m not here to receive it. Now, I’m having a great time with you, but that will all come to a screeching halt if you don’t mind your own fucking business.”

  He was squeezing his coffee cup hard enough
that his knuckles had turned white. I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “Fine,” I said. “Die here. Go ahead. It’s not like I’m some possessive girlfriend not wanting you to go out with your boys to the strip club for the night. There’s a fucking hurricane about to pound down on us. Excuse me for giving a shit and not wanting you to get blown away into the ocean.” I set my coffee down and walked back into the room. I stalked into the bedroom and began throwing my stuff into my suitcase. I paused, breathless, staring at the heap of clothes. How on earth had they fit into my bag in the first place?

  “You know what?” I yelled to the empty room. “Fuck you! I’ll find my own way back.” I grabbed my purse and my phone, left my stuff, and walked past a stunned Brad out the front door. I slammed it extra hard, and then I walked down the hall. I waited to the count of ten for him to follow me.

  He didn’t.

  Brad

  I stood in my living room wondering how what had promised to be a very satisfying morning had ended up in such a disaster. Cassie had just stormed out, and I couldn’t even take ten seconds to go after her, no matter how much I wanted to. The hurricane was bearing down on us, and, if it arrived even close to when it was scheduled, I was in a shit ton of trouble.

  I shook my head and put Cassie out of my mind. I couldn’t worry about her now; either she would forgive me or she wouldn’t, and I didn’t have the time to wonder about it. I called my builder, Alejandro. He answered immediately.

  “I was expecting your call,” he said. His voice was calm, but I’d worked with him enough to know that he was feeling the same panic I felt. Well, not the same panic; that wasn’t really possible given the different stakes involved for each of us, but he felt panic all the same. I was sure of that.

  “What can we do?” I asked. “I’m desperate here.”

  “There’s not a lot we can do,” Alejandro said. “The supplies are all here, but the workers, the workers have demanded release to be with their families and vacate if they need to.”

  I slammed my hand into the kitchen cabinet near my head. “That’s not good enough,” I said. “This delivery is coming. It’s coming, hurricane or no hurricane. And, you know as well as I do, the sender won’t take no for an answer.”

  “I know, Sir,” Alejandro said. “The best we can do is build quickly, get started; I have two men who are very loyal, and very fast. They’re working as we speak. If luck is on our side, we can have the foundation set before the hurricane hits. Whether that will be enough to accept the shipment safely, I don’t know.”

  His voice was serious, and each word felt like a nail in my coffin.

  “Just do your best,” I said hoarsely, and I hung up the phone.

  I collapsed into a chair, my head in my hands. Images of Lorinda and Antoine flooded my mind, and I squeezed my eyes shut. I thought back to the last conversation I’d had with Manuel Brown in which I had disappointed him. Where I hadn’t had done what I’d agreed to.

  “Your wife will be very disappointed to hear that,” Manuel had said in a low, evil voice.

  I didn’t bother to correct him that Lorinda wasn’t my wife. Antoine was my son, and we shared him; we were engaged to be married. Of course, at that moment, she was as much my wife as she would ever be, though I didn’t know it at the time.

  “Let her go,” I whispered. “Please, just let them both go.”

  “No,” Manuel said. “You seem to think that there’s some sort of negotiation at work here, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. You had a job to do, and you failed. Had you succeeded, your payment would have been the safe return of your wife and son. Now, your wife and son belong to me.”

  In the background, I heard Lorinda scream. It wasn’t a scream of pain; it was a scream of rage. She was putting up a fight, trying to save her son. It nearly split me in two.

  “Let me talk to her,” I demanded.

  Manuel laughed. “And say what? What could you possibly say that would change the outcome of the future? No, no, Mr. White, you will have to say whatever words you can come up with to yourself, for your wife is no longer available.”

  And, in a moment I will never forget as long as I live, Lorinda’s scream stopped. It didn’t fade or slow down; it broke off as if choked. Then, there was silence.

  “What did you do?” I screamed into the phone.

  “Be still, Mr. White,” Manuel said. “Remember, this is what happens when you disobey a simple order.”

  Though it was a memory several years old now, it played out in my mind as if it was happening right before my eyes. Manuel was back with his demands… and he still had my son. I cursed out loud to the empty room. I felt powerless… impotent. What good was having all of the money in the world if it continuously cost you what was most dear?

  For as long as I could remember, since my grade school days, I’d set my sights on being a millionaire when I grew up. I didn’t care how it worked out; the details truly hadn’t mattered. I’d wanted to keep everything legal, of course. Now, that thought made me laugh. I was one of the top five billionaires in the world, and not a single one of us had earned all our money a hundred percent honestly. I had stopped losing sleep over it, until moments like this. I never could have imagined how much all of my wealth would cost me… and it didn’t look like I was yet paid in full.

  I stood up and walked out the door to my suite, anxious energy propelling me as if I was moving by remote control rather than under my own power. The build site for the arms drop was in a remote part of the island that was off the beaten path of the tourists but, due to the size of the island, still accessible by foot rather than by golf cart. I walked quickly along the path, keeping an eye out for anyone who might be watching my movements. The pressure in the air had dropped so much it was an effort to breathe; I imagined that I could actually see the swirl of the hurricane in the wind, though, of course, that was my imagination.

  When I arrived at the site, Alejandro was there with two other men. The two men didn’t look up; Alejandro had instructed them to continue their work no matter what.

  We had to shout to be heard over the noise of the wind and the rain.

  “How large will the shipment be?” Alejandro asked.

  “I don’t know,” I shouted back. “The last time, when it was sent to India, it was enough to fill a thirty by thirty foot space from floor to ceiling.” I looked at the space the two men had dug. It was, at most, ten by ten. “Of course, this shipment size will be somewhat limited by the size of the plane that can land on the water, but it will still be giant.” The shipment was to arrive by private plane to Belize City, then transported in unmarked trucks to the water’s edge. There, privately owned boats would divide the shipment and bring it to the island we were currently inhabiting. I shook my head. So much potential for catastrophe… even without the forces of nature that were threatening to wipe the island off the face of the Earth.

  Alejandro was shaking his head. “It’s not enough. If you clear the hotel…”

  Of course. A light pinged in my head loudly enough that I was sure I’d heard the sound itself. Evacuation meant a terrible drop in revenue for the hotel, but it also meant empty, deserted rooms. It meant all of the energy I typically spent masking my business, watching for anyone who might notice something amiss, could be spent solving this problem.

  “I’m ordering an immediate evacuation,” I said. Alejandro nodded. “Tell your men to hold their work; we may be able to salvage this.”

  I walked away as the rain began to pour down in torrents. I went to the front desk and paged my entire management team. Within a few minutes, everyone had gathered. Fear and anxiety were palpable in the air.

  “I’m ordering a mandatory evacuation of the Legacy property,” I said, “effective immediately. Use the protocol and emergency procedures. Notify the guests, and activate the alarm system. I want to have this island cleared of our guests within the hour.”

  There was no hesitation, no questions. Heads nodded and a flu
rry of activity ensued as my team stood up and moved to their individual tasks.

  When they had all cleared the room, I clicked my iPad on and scanned the electronic blueprints of the property. I needed to find space for more than a thousand semi-automatic weapons, all scheduled to arrive at any time, storm be damned.

  Cassie

  I received notification to evacuate as I sat in the bar sipping, no, guzzling, a pina colada. I thought back to the first day of my vacation with Emma and how I didn’t think anything could get better than that first sip of that first pina colada. Now, that seemed like a lifetime ago.

  I signed my tab, barely blinking at putting Brad’s suite number down on the slip of paper. By now, all of the staff knew I was sharing space with him. Fortunately, none of them cared. Or, if they did, they didn’t let on. Brad was their leader, and it was in all of their best interest to keep their eyes averted when anything questionable rolled around.