Defying Dorian: Bad Boy Billionaire Romance (2 page)

The thoughts came quickly to me. Todd closed his eyes for an instant while I fought my panic. He opened them again, only this time he stared right through me like I didn’t exist, muttering a sentence I’d never forget.

“Go ahead. I don’t care what you do to her.”

My knees wobbled. Lightheaded, I caught a glimpse of the engagement ring still on my finger while the callousness of my would-be-fiancé echoed in my ears.

It got worse. He didn’t stop. Not even close.

Pointing at me, he continued. “Go ahead and do it. She doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“You…!” I yelled, about to unleash hell on him.

But before I could say another word, the gunman pulled the hammer back on his pistol and pointed it at Todd.

“Have it your way, shithead. Enjoy seeing the whore in hell.”

Bang!

I staggered backwards, raising my hands towards my mouth and covering it. Todd’s head exploded. Blood sprayed in a wave across the roof of the Mercedes, a few drops of it splattering inches from my feet.

Holy shit!
I shook. Quaked.
Fuck!

What remained of Todd’s semi-headless torso disappeared behind the outline of the car with a sickening thump.

* * *

T
he man behind me groaned
.

“What the fuck! That’s not what we were supposed to do! To get the bounty we had to bring his ass in with the case –
alive
. Now look, you…”

The other gunmen waved him off.

“That thieving shit was going to die one way or another. Don’t worry about the bounty. We’ll still get it. The only thing that matters is what’s in the case.”

I didn’t know whether to scream or cry. Standing there quivering in a mix of horror and disbelief, I tried to make sense of what they were saying to each other.

What the hell just happened? How could it be that the man who proposed to me would turn me over, put my fate in the hands of these men, these thugs?

For what exactly? For what was in that case?

The man who shot Todd pointed at my captor.

“Take that slut’s picture. Send it off. They’ll tell us what to do with her. Hurry up! We need to figure out what to do here.”

With that, the man who kept his gun on me circled around to my front. “Okay chica, smile big for the camera.”

I lifted my eyes towards him just long enough for him to snap the shot. He finished and admired his handiwork for a second, grunting with satisfaction.

“Damn. You fine.”

After he raised the phone to eye level, the man’s thumbs raced across the surface of it sending off a text to who knows where. Once finished, he slid the phone back in his pocket and took one giant step towards me. I flinched, trying to move away, but before I could he thrust his hand between my legs, cupping my pussy with a viselike grip.

“No matter what that rich fuck texts back telling us how to handle you, I know
exactly
what to do with this sweet culo.”

I didn’t even think. Rage overwhelmed me.

My fingers tightened, curling into a hard ball of knuckles. On instinct, I punched the shit out of him, using every bit of strength I had in my body.

Wincing, I groaned at the feel of the hard strike while the man staggered back. I took off. I hadn’t gotten more than a handful of steps when he yelled.

“Take another step and I’ll kill you, bitch!”

In every direction I looked there was nothing but open space,
endless fucking terrain
. Where the hell was I going to go?

From behind, I heard him walking towards me, his feet crunching on the dusty gravel. His presence closed in around me like a six-foot-tall scorpion.

“You do something like that again, and you won’t live to try it a third time.”

I swallowed hard, biting the inside of my mouth.

“Hey! Quit fucking around!” The other gunman yelled. “There’s plenty of time to fuck that whore later. Right now, we have a job to do. Now tie her slut ass up. We need to get the fucking case open.”

From behind, the man grabbed my arm and yanked on it, spinning me around to face him. There was no way I’d let him see me scared. Instead, I went along with him
for now
, remaining calm while he restrained me with layers of tape, wrapping them around my wrists in front of my body.

When he finished, he curled his fingers around my wrists, covering the tape binding my hands. He yanked hard and waited until I looked into his eyes before speaking. My gaze met the two soulless black beads behind the mask.

“Don’t run off again,” he snarled. “I’ll be back soon to take a piece of that sweet pussy. My cock sliding inside of you will be the last thing you remember.”

In a kind of sick romantic gesture, the psycho reached for my cheek.

Recoiling, I leaned away.

He chuckled. “Don’t worry. I promise you’ll enjoy it… Right up until the last second when I put a bullet in your skull. Now, sit down, and don’t say a goddamn thing.”

Once I had, he grabbed my purse and rummaged through it, pulling out my cell phone and tossing it to the man who killed Todd. He proceeded to destroy both Todd’s old phone and mine, smashing them to pieces.

Left alone, I watched the two of them discuss what they were going to do. It wasn’t long before their voices began to grow louder. They argued with each other about what to do next, about the case and about me.

“Can’t you get it open?” the man who had threatened me asked the other.

“Shut up! It’s not my fault.”

He paused and gestured towards me. “Her piece of shit boyfriend must have changed the combination.”

“So what the fuck?” the other man interrupted.

“It’s not our problem. It’s up to the boss to get it open. The only thing we’re here to do is get it. That’s it.”

The two of them walked around to the front of the Mercedes. The man who killed Todd slammed the shiny metallic case on top of the hood.

“That’s bullshit!” the man who taped me up protested. “The deal is that we can’t collect the full bounty without proving the contents of the case. We need to get it open and do it now. I sent that picture. They know our GPS coordinates. They know we’ve got the case. What the…”

Letting go of the handle on the case, the other man stepped away from the car and raised his pistol.

“Who said anything about ‘we’ being able to collect the bounty?”

I don’t think I blinked. I don’t think I took a breath. The guy who tied me up backed away, drawing his gun at the same time.

“Don’t do anything stupid. There’s plenty of money -- enough to go around for both of us.”

In the setting sun, I watched a modern-day version of an Old West showdown. The two of them stood there, arms rigid, guns at the ready. For several seconds, nothing but silence followed and then,
hellfire
.

The sound of bullets leaving the chamber deafened me. Brightness blazed from both gun barrels. Their bodies wobbled back and forth until at last they struck the ground at the same time, riddled with bullets, lifeless and covered in blood.

I squirmed in place, yanking on my restraints, stunned.

Todd was dead.
They
were dead. I was all alone, somewhere between Las Vegas and Reno with no phone, no clue and no hope. My eyes darted in every direction. I had to figure something out and fast. After managing to get up on my knees, I staggered to my feet when I heard the sound of a cell phone ringing.

Where was it coming from?

Squinting, I looked towards the dead men. The one who took my picture… Someone was calling his phone. My heart raced. I didn’t want to get anywhere near him, but at this point I really didn’t have a choice.

Scrambling over towards his body, I looked down at him just in time to hear the ringing stop. I knelt down next to him before trying to figure out where the cell phone was. Luckily, it started to ring once again.

I reached for it, sliding my hand inside of his pants pocket and pulling it out. Answering it was a different story. It took me a few seconds, but at last I slid it on and kept it between my hands, holding it against my ear.

“Hello? Who the hell is this?”

Nothing.
I didn’t hear single sound on the other end of the phone. Whoever it was, they weren’t expecting me.

“Answer me! Who is this?”

I heard the sound of a person clear their throat. A man. “Where is the person who this phone belongs to?”

I was on my knees. The incessant, unrelenting sun of the high desert amplified my rage. “He’s dead! You still haven’t answered my question!”

The man didn’t respond right away. There was silence once again. “I see. Did you kill him?”

Curling the fingers of my free hand into a fist, I yelled in response. “No!”

“What about his associate? Is he…?”

“Dead!” I screamed, cutting him off. “What is going on! They killed my fiancé! I’m stranded.
Who the hell are you
?”

The line went dead.

I pulled the phone away from my ear, blinking in disbelief. After standing up, I dropped it from my hand. The phone clattered and bounced on the hot gravel at my feet.

The anger I felt talking to the mysterious man on the other end of the line changed into something else…

Fear. No, terror.

Someone’s
employees are dead.

They know where I am. They know about the case. I glanced towards the Mercedes. I had a flat tire. What the hell was I going to do?

Should I grab the keys to the Rolls and try to make a run for it? Should I call the police?

No, no. Calling the police would be the worst thing I could do. I didn’t trust cops, especially not now -- not after what happened with my dad.

Oh my God. Oh my God.

Reaching for the case I exhaled, shaky breath sputtering from my lungs. Slumping against the side of the Mercedes, I slid my back down it until my butt hit the ground. I looked down at the sickening blood spatters across the top of the case and pulled it between my legs.

Shit, I forgot.
“Locked.” I muttered.

It took everything I had not to panic. I still had no idea what I was going to do, or how I would get out of this situation. That seemed to be the worst of my problems until a much more sinister realization popped into my head.

My gaze snapped to the case.

Who was coming for it and when?

* * *

W
hile the sun
continued to set, I struggled to free myself of the thick coating of tape around my wrists. After nearly an hour, I finally managed to get the last of it off me.

Once I did, I climbed inside of the Rolls, desperate to escape the intensity of the brutal orange ball of fire blazing in the sky. I didn’t know how much time I had left to figure out what I was going to do, but it wasn’t much.

Closing my eyes, I exhaled.

“Think, Tempest. Think.”

I opened my eyes again and looked out of the open car door towards the case. Whatever was in there, it was worth people dying over. I didn’t want anything else to do with it. Right then and there I decided I would take the car and drive back to Vegas. Once I got home, I’d figure out what to do next.

I’m not stupid. It was a terrible fucking plan. I knew it was, but what other choice did I have?

For all I knew, an
army
was on the way.

I had to get as far away from there as I could and do it as quickly as possible.

Getting out of the car, I walked towards the dead gunman, determined to find the key to the Rolls-Royce. While I did, I noticed Todd’s legs sticking out from behind the Mercedes. A sickening sweet feeling crept into the back of my throat, like I might puke.

Numbness set in – no it was shock. This was totally insane. How had I gone from a marriage proposal to mass murder in the span of a couple of hours?

Somehow, I managed to put one foot in front of the other until I arrived at the bodies of the dead men.

I stood there, trying to catch my breath.

Looking down at them I realized there was something I had to do. It wasn’t because I wanted to, but if for any reason my ass was on the line, I had to know what they looked like. And this was the only chance I would ever get.