Billionaire On Fire: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Romance) (20 page)

CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT

Alex

I
could
hear Cam and Victor arguing in the front room, but when I cracked the door and
looked out, Cam shook his head letting me know that it wasn't safe to come out.
I shut the door and waited for the fire department to arrive and stop this
madness.

As the argument got more
heated, I heard the rise and fall of angry voices and then silence. That
worried me, so I cracked the door and saw Cam laying face down on the gasoline
soaked carpet as Victor pulled Liz off the sofa and positioned her next to Cam.

"I know you're in here,
Alex!" Victor called as he worked in the front room. I quietly closed the
door and replaced the chair under the handle, trying to figure out what to do
next. Victor kept talking as he prepped the apartment for whatever he was going
to do next. "I'm going to start this fire on the first floor because I
want it to spread upward and engulf this entire building. Do you know why,
Alex?"

When I failed to respond, he
continued talking.

"I want to burn this
fucking building to the ground with all of you in it," he shouted. "I
want you to suffer the way I've suffered, and the only way to do that is to
prolong the agony."

"Your logic is
completely flawed, Victor!" I yelled through the closed door. "You're
not going to make us suffer, you're going to make the innocent people who live
in this building suffer!"

"So what?" he
yelled. "I'll get my revenge!"

"You're stupid," I
muttered as I looked around the room for a possible weapon before yelling,
"Why is revenge so important to you?"

"It's the only thing
that sets things right," he said startling me as he threw himself against
the door and shoved it open enough to get the hand holding the gun inside.
"I don't have anything to lose anymore, Alex. Now I just want
revenge."

"Victor, none of this
makes any sense," I said as I moved toward the corner where he couldn't
see me, thinking that if he started shooting at least I'd have some chance of
avoiding the bullets. "You've decided to trade your own life for revenge?
Have you played this out? It's not going to end well."

"It doesn't
matter," he growled. "Nothing matters anymore."

"So, you're going to die
in a fire or a hail of bullets, is that what you're telling me?" I asked
as I searched for a way to keep him talking. "This seems really
short-sighted. I mean, you're looking for revenge, but you're not going to be
around to garner satisfaction from it."

"Shut the fuck up,"
Victor growled again. "I deserve retribution after all of the shit I've
had to eat thanks to your boyfriend."

"He's not my
boyfriend," I said in a flat voice. "But, hey, if that makes you feel
better about killing me and Liz, I guess it's more power to you."

"You can't possibly
understand how that man has made my life miserable," he said as I watched
his arm slide down the doorframe. It appeared that he was now sitting on the
floor, and I wondered if I'd gotten to him. "He's undermined me at every
turn and made my life a living hell."

"Are you sure that Cam
did that, Victor?" I asked, suddenly wondering if there was any truth to
what he was saying. "Did he really make your life hell or are you blaming
him for mistakes you've made? Have you turned Cam into the scapegoat for all
the mistakes you've made in your life?"

There was silence on the
other side of the door and I could see that he'd pointed the gun toward the
floor.

"Victor?" I said
quietly. "If you blame Cam for the mistakes you've made and then kill him
for them, then you won't be free. You won't get retribution or any satisfaction
from the revenge fantasy you've cooked up. All you'll get is life in prison for
murdering innocent people and destroying the homes and lives of every person
who lives in this building."

"I hate him!"
Victor sobbed. "He has everything and I have nothing!"

"But is that Cam's
fault?" I asked as I inched closer to the door keeping my eye on the gun.
I could tell that Victor had lost focus as he cried and I knew that if I could
grab the gun, I might be able to turn the tables on him. It was a big if, but
it seemed like a chance with odds I could take.

As I crawled along the far
wall, I listened carefully. Victor seemed to be in the throes of a breakdown,
but I didn't trust that this would last. He was obviously mentally unstable and
as a result, was also unpredictable. And yet, I could feel his pain as he cried
and cursed Cam for all that he was feeling.

Suddenly, on the other side
of the door, I heard a loud bang and then saw Victor pull the gun out of the
crack between the door and the frame. I heard a loud thud and then two voices
shouting in the hallway. I stayed crouched in the space between the wall and
the doorframe as the gun went off. I heard another thud, and then a voice broke
the silence that followed.

"He's dead, but I'm
going to burn this fucking building to the ground anyway," Victor said
quietly. His voice sent a chill up my spine.

"Don't do it! Don't do
it!" Liz screamed in the living room. I knew I had one chance to stop this
deadly plan and, that either way, I had a pretty good chance of dying. I
decided it was better to have it over with quickly rather than having to
suffer. So, I yanked open the door and ran down the hallway to the living room
where Victor stood poised with a lighter in one hand and the gun in the other.
I raced toward him with my eye on the lighter aiming to knock it out of his
hand before he could flick the flame to life.

Half way there, I heard a
loud crack as the balcony door shattered and Victor slumped to the ground.
Bewildered, I looked around trying to figure out what had just happened. Victor
rose up with the gun in his hand and pointed it at me. I screamed as the second
shot hit him and he fell over dropping the gun to the floor. I kicked it out of
the way and ran to Liz who was crying hysterically in a pool of shattered
glass. She'd been cut, but as I untied the ropes that bound her, I quickly
assessed that none of the wounds were life threatening.
 

"He shot him!" she
cried as she pointed to the kitchen. I ran around to the entry and saw Cam
lying in a pool of blood on the tile floor. He wasn't moving. I dropped to my
knees and searched for a pulse, and then lifted him up to find that the bullet
had gone into his abdomen. I searched the kitchen drawers and found a handful
of dishtowels that I used to staunch the flow of blood.

"Liz, get help! Go get
help!" I shouted as I pressed the towels to the wound.

"They're already
here," she replied weakly as a team of police officers slammed open the
door and rushed inside the apartment with their guns drawn.

"Don't shoot! Don't
shoot!" Liz screamed as they aimed their guns at her. "He's over
there!"

They quickly assessed the
scene and called in the paramedics. Cam was loaded onto a stretcher and taken
down to the ambulance, which drove off in a blaze of sirens and flashing
lights. A second set of paramedics loaded Victor onto a stretcher as Liz and I
were taken down to the second ambulance. Meanwhile, the police secured the
apartment and began their investigation.

"We're going to take you
to the hospital to get checked out," the paramedic said. She helped Liz
and I up into the ambulance before closing the doors and taking off for the
hospital.

I held Liz's hand the whole
ride to the hospital wondering if Cam was still alive. Suddenly the fact that
he'd paid my rent and tuition didn't seem like something worth being mad about.

CHAPTER
THIRTY-NINE

Cam

"
Oh
shit," I groaned as I rose up
through the layers of drug-induced sleep and began to feel the pain. "Fuck
that hurts!"

"Shh, shh, lay
still," a voice said as someone moved around the room. I couldn't tell who
it was because my eyes felt like they were glued shut and it took an enormous
amount of effort to crack them open. When I did, everything was fuzzy, but I
could feel a hand holding mine.

"What the hell
happened?" I mumbled through cracked dry lips.

"You were shot,"
the voice said.

"How long have I been
out?" I asked as I tried again to open my eyes and focus on my
surroundings.
 
"Where am I?"

"You're in Chicago
General in the ICU," the voice replied. "You've been out for two days
and we were beginning to really worry."

"Eh, I'm fine," I
said as I struggled to try and move my arms. I wanted to sit up. I wanted to
open my eyes and see what was going on around me. I wanted to know whose voice
that was.

"No, no, no," the
voice said gently holding my shoulder to the mattress. "You are not in any
shape to be getting up, Mr. Connor."

"Alex, I need to find
Alex," I said suddenly remembering the events that had led to this point.
"Where is Alex?"

"I'm right here,
Cam," Alex whispered in my ear as she squeezed my hand. I opened my eyes
and focused them on the face next to me. Her blue eyes were bright with tears
as she gripped my hand more tightly and smiled. "I'm right here."

"Oh, thank God, you're
okay," I sighed as I felt the pain in my side begin to throb intensely.

I groaned as Alex tucked the
button that released pain medication in my other hand and said, "Press it
when you're in pain, it'll ease it."

I pressed the button and a
few minutes later, I felt the pain begin to ease as I fell back into a groggy,
half-wakeful state. I could feel Alex's hand tucked in mine as I drifted back
to sleep.

CHAPTER
FORTY

Alex

Liz
and I were checked out in the ER and kept
overnight for observation despite the fact that I pointed out I hadn't been
hurt and protested loudly. Mrs. Rikka had been summoned to the ER to tell me
that I didn't have a choice in the matter, and her word was final. I grudgingly
accepted the edict, but requested that they put Liz in the bed next to me,
which they quickly did.

Liz didn't talk much as she
began an intense process of detox, but it was nice to be near her while the
police questioned me and got the whole sordid story before filing me in on the
details of the aftermath. Victor had survived the shooting, but was down in the
ICU under lock and key. They weren't sure he'd come out of the coma, but they
weren't taking any chances.

"What about Cam?" I
asked every person that came in the room. He'd been in surgery for most of the
day and the doctors said it was touch and go. I nodded when they told me he had
a slim chance of surviving, but that he was strong and healthy, so that tipped
the odds in his favor. I desperately wanted to see him, but they wouldn't let
me visit until they were sure he was out of the woods.

"Someone needs to check
on Tesla!" I said to the nurse who came in to do my vitals.

"What are you talking
about?" she asked as she wrapped the blood pressure cuff around my arm and
pressed the button.

"Cam has a dog, someone
needs to go check on her," I said. The nurse assured me that she'd let the
fire fighters down in the waiting area know.

When they released me the
next day, the first thing I did was go down to the ICU and ask to see him. They
agreed to a short visit, but told me that I couldn't stay.
 
Cam looked very pale under the fluorescent
lights. I held his hand and spoke quietly telling him that everything would be
all right, but that he had to wake up. When my time was up, the nurse kindly
told me that I could come back the next day, but that visiting hours would be
limited to short periods until he regained consciousness.

I went down to the lobby and
found Newsome sitting in a chair in the corner staring at the television set
mounted to the wall.

"How's he doing?"
Danny asked.

"He's still out, but
they said that's normal considering the amount of damage and the length of
surgery," I said. Danny looked like he hadn't slept and I suggested that
perhaps he go back to Cam's house and take care of Tesla.

"Already taken care
of," he said as he ran a hand through his hair and then rubbed his eyes.
"The chief drove over and brought her back to the station. We'll take care
of her until Cam's up and about again. I gotta get back to the station."

"Thanks, Danny," I
said giving him a hug and then watching him head out the door. There were a
number of things I needed to take care of, not the least of which was finding
out whether Liz and I had been cleared of the cheating charges.