Billionaire Unbound: The Billionaire's Obsession ~ Chloe

by J. S. Scott

  She didn’t want to be with James.

  He was threatening revenge porn if she didn’t cooperate, films where James made the viewer believe that Chloe had loved every minute of his rape. It was probably the slimiest thing he could imagine a man could do to a woman—other than raping her to make the trashy films.

  His Chloe had been scared, afraid people would believe what they were seeing.

  Yeah, it would destroy her life and start a scandal for the Colters, but James was messing with the wrong damn family.

  Not one damn person would ever look at this video again. He’d find the original, and destroy what he had just seen. It would never see the light of day again, but Gabe knew the scenes would haunt him for the rest of his life.

  He locked the office and strode toward the house with Chloe’s equipment, pulling out his cell phone as he went.

  “We’re getting married today,” James informed Chloe casually. “Dress well.”

  Chloe had used every minute she was at James’s house to try to find the device that held the original video he’d sent her. Unfortunately, he’d rarely left her alone. She’d rifled through every single place she could rush through while he was taking a shower and dressing in the pristine suit he was now wearing, but she’d found nothing.

  She’d spent the entire night in her truck crying, and trying to find a way around giving herself up to James. Blurry-eyed and feeling defeated, she’d shown up at his door early this morning, knowing her only hope was to search for the original video he had taken without her knowledge.

  God, she remembered those few nights on those videos. They had been the worst experiences of her life. Having to live through it all over again had made her fearful once again, and physically sick.

  “I don’t have a dress,” she said hastily. “And I’m not ready to marry you. We don’t even have a license.”

  “We will. No blood tests required, and we get the marriage license immediately. I already made an appointment with a judge to marry us this afternoon.”

  Chloe looked over his kitchen table at him and wanted to slap the smug look off his face. “You were pretty sure of me,” she said casually.

  He shrugged. “Of course. Your weakness has always been your family. The revered Colter family has no blemishes. That’s why your brother has such a strong lead predicted for his next run in the senate.”

  Chloe wanted to tell him that Blake was favored because he was a damn good senator, but she kept silent. She didn’t even want her brother’s name mentioned by someone as slimy as James. The two men had no similarities to each other.

  “Wear the dress that makes you look fat, the one from New Year’s,” James told her nonchalantly. “If that’s all you have, I’ll try not to pay attention.”

  Arrogant bastard! “Nobody is going to be there. What does it matter? I have jeans, and that’s what you’ll get.”

  His brows rose. “Arguing with me again, Chloe?” He stood up and walked calmly over to her. He jerked her to her feet with so much force that she nearly fell. “Don’t do it. Don’t make me hurt you,” he demanded angrily.

  “I never made you do it. You did it all by yourself. All I wanted was for you to be happy when we were together. I busted my ass and turned myself inside out to make everything better for you. But it was never enough,” she answered, her tone hostile. She was beyond tired of taking whatever James wanted to give, which was always pain and criticism.

  “You brought it on yourself,” he answered, grasping both of her upper arms brutally.

  “I’m not playing this game with you anymore,” Chloe said furiously. She brought her knee up to his groin and nailed him, forcing him to release his hold on her. Promptly, she brought her arm back and let the bony portion of her hand crash into his nose as hard as she possibly could, her anger driving her.

  He wailed like a boy, landing on his ass on the expensive tile floor beneath her feet. She watched, shaking her fist at the pain she’d inflicted by crunching his nose with her hand.

  There was a certain satisfaction in knowing she could fight to protect herself. She might not be an expert, but she didn’t need to be. Lara had taught her every dirty fighting technique she knew to bring a bigger male to his knees.

  Guess she was right!

  She watched unemotionally as he whined, clutching at his groin and his nose.

  “You stupid bitch. You broke my nose,” he moaned.

  Good. “Would you like me to take you to a doctor?” She couldn’t help but say the sarcastic words.

  “I am a doctor,” he retorted angrily. “You won’t get away with doing this,” he warned ominously.

  “I’ll try to beat your ass any time you touch me,” Chloe returned with just as much rancor. “I may be forced to protect my family, but you are nothing to me.”

  She folded her arms in front of her as she watched him struggle to get up. Chloe didn’t even lend him a hand. There was no sympathy left in her for him. He was a sociopath all the way to his soul. There were no redeeming qualities in his entire being, and there probably never had been.

  Once, she’d been a fool.

  Now, she was a fool’s captive until she could figure out where he, the man who claimed to love her—her rapist—had put the original video of her violation.

  The longest scene, the one of him torturing her with brutal anal sex, had occurred soon after she’d returned to Rocky Springs. He’d apologized when she’d confronted him about his behavior, telling her sometimes he liked it that way, but that it would never happen again. Foolishly, she’d let it go. James had been contrite, and she’d been a complete idiot. The last scene when he’d held her down amid her protests that she didn’t want to have sex with him was the very last time they’d been intimate, which had proved to be her fertile time and had resulted in her pregnancy. She hadn’t told him he’d succeeded in getting her pregnant, and she never would. Chloe refused to do anything that would give him any satisfaction unless she had to.

  “Go get dressed. Wear whatever the hell you want, but we are getting married unless you want to be the most watched Internet whore in history.” He stumbled over to the sink and grabbed some paper towels for his bleeding nose.

  She let his insult fly over her head. Nothing he said about her could wound her anymore.

  Chloe walked toward her suitcases with a small, sad smile on her face. Kicking his ass had been one of the most satisfying things she’d ever done, but she missed Gabe so much her heart ached.

  Mostly, she hated herself for lying to Gabe. It had been the hardest thing she’d ever done. But she’d gotten herself into this mess, and it was her disaster to deal with right now. Chloe didn’t want anyone to get hurt because of her stupid choices. She just hoped she got lucky and could keep her family safe by finding the original video. It had to be on a computer…but where?

  She grabbed her oldest pair of comfortable jeans that were worn in the knees, and a butt-ugly green fluorescent t-shirt. Without speaking another word to James, she went to take a shower, locking the bathroom door behind her.

  “So the bastard is blackmailing her?” Blake asked Gabe wrathfully.

  “Yes.” Nobody had been more relieved than Gabe when he found out Blake had just landed in Rocky Springs. He needed his best friend right now.

  “We need to find her. Anybody checked his house?” Blake rose from his seat on Gabe’s couch, agitated.

  “Zane went. He called just before you got here. Nobody’s there. He’s searching the house right now,” Gabe answered unhappily, worried as hell about where James had taken Chloe. Her truck had been out front of the bastard’s house, but nobody was there according to Zane.

  “How in the hell did this happen? Why did I never see it? She’s my only sister, my baby sister.” Blake paced Gabe’s living room, still dressed in a suit because he hadn’t gone home to change.

  “She’s been gone a long time, Blake. Nobody really knew. Forget the past. We have to figure out how to get her back safe. She’s
terrified that he’ll release the video and the news will be a scandal. He’s forcing her hand.”

  “I don’t think a single one of us give a shit about scandal. We love Chloe,” Blake answered huskily.

  “You’re running for re-election next year,” Gabe reminded him.

  “You think a damn senate seat means more to me than my sister?”

  No. Gabe knew it didn’t. He was just pointing out the obvious reasons why Chloe wanted to keep the disgusting video under wraps. “No,” he answered aloud.

  “Mom said she was working for you. How did she seem? I didn’t see much of her last time I was home.” Blake’s words held regret.

  “She was doing good, getting over his abuse.” Gabe had spilled everything to Blake, knowing he was going to need the help of Chloe’s family. The only thing he’d refuse any one of them was access to the video. Chloe wouldn’t want her brothers or any of her family to see her like that.

  “Do I have any reason to kick your ass?” Blake asked bluntly, stopping his pacing to glare at Gabe, who was seated in one of the living room chairs.

  “Not unless you want to beat me up because I love her, too.” He was done pissing around. Blake needed to know how he felt.

  “You care about her safety, or you love her?” Blake looked at Gabe frankly.

  “I love her. I love her so much I can hardly breathe. If we don’t find her soon, I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep my sanity. So yeah, I love her. I want to marry her more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”

  Blake’s eyebrows rose. “You’ve been busy.”

  Gabe nodded. “Busy losing my heart to your sister. I’d never hurt her, Blake. I love her.”

  Blake answered, “I know you wouldn’t. And I wouldn’t complain at having you for a brother-in-law. At least I’d know she was safe.”

  “I haven’t done such a great job at keeping her safe. Look what’s happening now,” Gabe grumbled, still angry at himself for losing the entire night thinking that Chloe was telling him the truth about wanting James back. He’d spent the night feeling sorry for himself rather than keeping her out of that asshole’s hands. He should have gone after her, refused to accept her explanation. Instead, he’d let his broken heart blind him to the truth.

  “It’s not your fault, buddy. Didn’t you just say that I needed to focus on now and forget the past? I’m telling you the same thing.”

  As usual, Blake could almost read his thoughts. He knew him that well. Gabe nodded. “Let’s focus on now.”

  “What happened?” a feminine voice asked as Lara entered the room. She was dressed casually in jeans and a sweater, like she’d been on her way to school.

  Gabe nodded at Tate, who was right behind his wife. Lara looked too frantic to acknowledge much of anything.

  Blake took over, filling Tate and Lara in on what had been happening with Chloe. Lara burst into tears, looking guilt-ridden, as Tate held her in his arms, trying to comfort her while seething with anger, and making threats against James.

  “I should have known he’d try something. He was pissed, determined to marry her. I was so damn relieved when she broke it off for good and called off the marriage,” Lara said breathlessly, her tears finally stopping.

  “You knew?” Tate asked, a look of surprise on his face as he looked at his wife.

  Lara nodded slowly, sadly. “Some of it. I set her up with counseling she could do over the Internet with an incredible psychologist. She was doing so much better. But I should have known that James wouldn’t let it end that easily. I think he just wanted her money.”

  “You didn’t tell me,” Tate replied, sounding hurt.

  “I know. I’m sorry.” Lara reached a hand up to run a palm down the side of his face. “I didn’t tell anyone. Chloe begged me to keep her secrets. She was humiliated. I couldn’t break her confidence. She was making too much progress. I didn’t want her to go back on the defensive.”

  “You know more than me about those things, I suppose,” Tate admitted, reaching out to clasp her hand. “I understand. I think.”

  “We’ll talk about it, later. I promise. Right now I’m worried about Chloe.”

  “They still aren’t there,” Zane’s voice sounded from the entrance as he stepped into the living room. Gabe had left the front door unlocked because he was expecting this kind of traffic. He’d called every member of the Colter family except Marcus. “I searched the entire place, and I finally found the laptop hidden underneath one of the floorboards in his office. Jesus, couldn’t he be more original?”

  Gabe’s heart started to race. “Is everything gone?”

  “Yeah. I think he only made the copy to send to Chloe, and he didn’t send it by email. I don’t think he wanted to take the chance of it ever getting replicated, especially if he was going to marry her.” Zane went and flopped on the other side of the couch from Gabe.

  “You destroyed it?” Gabe rechecked, wanting to know everything was gone.

  Zane rolled his eyes. “Do you think I’m an amateur? Just because I haven’t worked for the CIA or the FBI doesn’t mean I don’t know how to get rid of evidence for good. Nobody will ever be able to recover it, and I’m positive there’s nothing else out there except for your copy.” Zane eyed Gabe carefully. “You did destroy it, right?”

  “Almost immediately,” Gabe admitted. He’d been unable to stop himself from destroying the video for good. He never wanted anyone to see it. Ever.

  “Where is my baby girl?” Aileen Colter entered the large room, looking frantic. “What did he do to her?”

  Blake, Zane, Tate, and Lara all hugged her, and they huddled together to explain.

  The gang was all here, and Gabe hoped Chloe would forgive him for revealing everything to her family, but now they needed to know.

  “We have to find her. What do you think he did to her?” Aileen’s voice sounded terrified.

  “We’ll find her, Mom,” Zane promised in a comforting voice.

  “Should we call Marcus?” Aileen asked hesitantly.

  Blake answered. “Not yet. He’s halfway across the world right now. He can’t help us much. If we need more help, we’ll call.”

  Gabe knew that Blake was trying to spare his twin worry. With Marcus being so far away, the last thing he needed was bad news from home.

  “Blake and I already called the police. They should be here any time.”

  “We need to start looking, but I’m not sure where to start,” Lara answered nervously. “I wish I knew his plan and why he’s blackmailing her.”

  “He wants her to marry him,” Gabe answered, thinking about the note he’d read from James. “He’s trying to force her into marriage to get his hands on her money.”

  “You don’t think he’d do it this fast, do you?” Blake asked worriedly.

  At this point, there wasn’t anything he’d put past Chloe’s ex. The guy was a psycho. “They’d need a license.”

  “It can be obtained in a single day. No blood tests and they don’t need anything except an ID,” Tate pondered.

  Blake pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “This is my district. Let me see what I can find out.”

  Gabe watched as his friend made a few calls, hoping like hell that they’d find Chloe quickly, before he lost his sanity.

  Aileen fidgeted nervously.

  Tate and Lara sounded like they were in a heated conversation, possibly about the fact that she’d kept Tate in the dark about what was happening to his baby sister.

  And Zane looked like he was in his own little world, his eyes facing forward, but Gabe could tell he wasn’t really looking at anything. Zane was lost in thought.

  Gabe rose from the couch and went to put his arm around Aileen. “I’m sorry, Aileen. We’ll find her.” Or I’ll die trying.

  “It’s not your fault, Gabe. You’ve been looking after her just fine. It’s James. I’m not sure what he’s capable of. I wish I would have seen what he was really like earlier so I could help my girl.” Her voice was wee
py and distraught.

  “She’s not a girl anymore. She is a woman, a daughter you can be proud of. She’s worked so hard to find her strength.” Gabe squeezed Aileen closer, wanting to comfort Chloe’s mom because she wasn’t around to do it herself.

  “She is,” Aileen agreed readily. “But I’m going to make you marry her, Gabriel. No more messing around with my baby girl.”

  Gabe nearly swallowed his tongue, but he recovered. “I plan on it…if she’ll have me. I love her. More than anything.” He wasn’t going to bullshit Chloe’s mother at a time like this.

  “I know,” she answered with a sigh. “The look on your face when you see her reminds me of how Chloe’s dad used to look at me.”

  “You still miss him.” It was a statement, not a question. Gabe could tell that Chloe’s mom still missed her husband, even after all these years.

  She looked up at him and nodded. “Every day since he was killed.”

  Hell, Gabe couldn’t imagine how she felt, living every day without that one person who you’d die for, but he supposed having kids helped. Aileen had always been there for every one of her children. Regardless of how guilty she felt about Chloe right now, she’d been a wonderful mother.

  “I’m going to need to get clearance to land somewhere near the courthouse,” Gabe heard Blake say in an authoritarian voice.

  Gabe’s head swung to Blake, trying to hear what he was saying.

  “We’re cutting it close. Expect us to be there shortly.” Blake concluded his call and shoved his phone back into his suit pocket, and then glanced at his watch.

  “You found her,” Lara said excitedly.

  “They already have a marriage license. They have an appointment at the courthouse in just over two hours,” Blake told the entire room, his voice booming through the large space. “Tate, we need your helicopter now. Gabe, Tate, Zane, and I will fly. Mom, can you and Lara wait for the police here?”

  “Yes, of course,” Aileen said eagerly. “Lara knows about some of the earlier things. She can help. You’ll call us the minute you know she’s safe?”