Heart of Money (Alpha Billionaire Bad Boy Romance Thriller) (10 page)

“I didn’t fuck anything up, your boy down here did. The one lying dead on the ground.”

“He’s not dead.” I said.

“Good as dead.” Brad shoved him with his foot.

“Shut up,” Richards said, “I just had a good idea. Seems to me you must have a safe lying somewhere around here. Right?”

“Yes.”

“You’re going to open it for me, and you’re going to give me what I want. That’ll take the whole bank equation out of the plan, and make things easier. That’ll most likely give me more than a hundred thousand, right?”

“I only keep fifty thousand in the safe.”

“
Shit
!” Richards squealed, and began to sob.

“It seems to me you’re in a pickle, Detective,” Brad said smoothly, “How exactly were the two of you planning to drain me of my money? Did you think it would be as simple as me walking into my bank and withdrawing millions of dollars?” Brad grinned ear to ear.

Richards lunged forward and pressed the handgun into Brad’s chest, “I’m not messing around anymore, Stone. Now get up slowly, and take me to your safe. The girl will walk in front of you. If you try anything, I’ll blow both your brains out.”

“Fine. I’ll do what you ask, Detective.” Brad stood and held his arm out as a peaceful gesture. Richard shifted around to his back and pressed the gun back against his spine. He motioned for me to stand, so I did. Brad put his arms on my shoulders and guided me to where he kept his safe, which happened to be upstairs in his bedroom. It was hidden in the closet in the wall, and I’d have never been able to find it because there was a secret hole behind the drywall which slid out like a big drawer. The safe was inside, and Brad carefully turned the combination until it ticked and then opened it.

“Oh, yes.” Richard was ogling the stacks of cash in the safe and a bit of drool slid off his lips. His eyes bulged out and he crouched down, seemingly in a trance by the smell of the crisp bills. It looked like a hell of a lot more than fifty thousand, and Brad stared over at me with calm eyes. Richards still seemed to be in a trance, as if he forgot we were even standing above him. Brad swiftly bashed him over the back with his right elbow, sending Richards smashing face first into the drawer of the safe. The gun went off in his hand and I heard a blood curdling scream which didn’t sound like it came from Brad.

Richards rolled over, still holding the gun, and blood was seeping out of his thigh like a can of spray paint. His face was drenched with perspiration and it was purple. His tongue rolled out and lay slackly against his chin, and his eyes rolled back in their socket. He tried to raise the gun and Brad kicked it out of his hand, and then knelt down slowly and grabbed him viciously by the shirt collar.

“We’re done here, Richards.” He pressed him back onto the floor and punched him in the jaw. Blood went flying out of his mouth and he closed his eyes slowly. I looked down at his leg and saw it was still spurting blood, and I felt my stomach turn in disgust. He was going to die, and his death was going to be on our hands. Would the police believe us? It suddenly occurred to me that Daniel’s body was also downstairs, and then I felt relief wash over me. That would make things easier when explaining to the police. It would be apparent then that they were working together, or it would at least back up our story somewhat.

Brad stepped over Richards’ dying body which still twitched and convulsed, his arms occasionally writhing outwards and then flapping back towards his body like a fish out of water. His eyes looked like they were going to bust out of their sockets, and the amount of pain in his face almost made me feel sorry for him. The bullet must’ve hit an artery in his leg, because it was bleeding more than I’ve ever seen anything bleed in my life.

“Are you okay? I’m so sorry you’ve had to deal with this.
God, I’m so sorry.
” And for once, Brad’s tough man expression softened, and tears began to form in his eyes. But he never cried. He hugged me tightly, his lips pressed against mine, and in that dramatic moment I felt like everything was going to be okay because he was kissing me and I could feel his comforting body heat wafting over me.

Everything was going to be okay.

No. Everything was not going to be okay.

“Daniel is dead downstairs too,” I blurted out, “That’ll give us some believability as far as this damn story goes.”

He stared at me with concerned eyes, “Honey, I don’t want you to worry about this. We’re telling the truth. Nothing is going to happen to us now. It’s over, baby, and we’re going to go back to California as soon as we can. We need to call the police when we get downstairs.”

As my foot released from the last step on the staircase, I turned the corner and let out a screeching cry. Daniel’s body was gone, along with all of his blood that had spilled out onto the floor. We had only been upstairs maybe five or ten minutes, but it didn’t matter. He was gone. Vanished without a trace.

“What in god’s name?” Brad rasped.

“He was… He was just here, Brad, I swear,” I stammered in a panic, “I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

“Baby,” He groaned, “I know. I was here too, I sat right above him.”

Then I began to cry, “
Wasn’t he dead, Brad? I thought he was dead. He wasn’t moving, and there was so much blood. Oh, god, I thought he was dead for sure
!”

Brad walked over slowly like a homicide detective and crouched down. His eyes darted back and forth over what was left of the table. All the broken shards of glass had apparently been swept up, and there was a smell of bleach on the floor. In fact, it looked like it had been soaked with bleach. It was sparkly and damp looking. The smell was strong.

“He cleaned up his mess,” Brad said passively, “Ah, yes, he cleaned it all up.” He pointed to a box of trash bags that had been left beside the chair.

“Are you
fucking serious
?”

“Unfortunately, yes. He’s not dead, and not only that… He was thinking well enough to get rid of any DNA evidence. Surely to god there’s
something
that will prove he was here.”

“But it won’t be enough to back up our story. Not like his body was. We’ve got a
dead detective
upstairs, Brad.”

“A tremendously
crooked
dead detective.” Brad added with a calm tone.

“What does that matter? It could be a sign of the whole force being crooked. Or it could just sound like a lie considering we have no proof.”

“I have a plan.”

“What?”

“Come back upstairs.”

We walked back to the closet in the bedroom. Richards’ blood had soaked into a huge circular shape in the carpet. Brad groaned and stepped back over him then looked at the safe.

“I don’t know if this is worth a try, but I’m going to put some gloves on and then rub his finger all over the safe’s combination lock. I’m going to get his prints all over it, as if we came in and caught him trying to break it. Then we’ll say he held us at gunpoint and… And…” His plan didn’t sound that promising, but I had to give it to him for trying something. He sighed, “I don’t know what our best option is.”

“Shit, Brad. I’m worried. By doing this we might get ourselves into even more of a pickle. Trying to create false evidence?”

“
But it’s true!
” He screamed angrily, and his face reddened. He took a deep breath and his body relaxed, “I’m sorry I yelled, but I’m stressed as hell right now. I say we just go downstairs and call the cops, and tell them the truth.”

I hesitated and bit my lower lip tightly. I could feel myself perspiring heavily and my heart was thumping rapidly in my chest like a jackhammer. It was probably the best idea, and I nodded my head. I didn’t want to go to jail for years by getting us into a situation we couldn’t get out of, and I figured the best bet would be telling the truth. “Okay. Yeah, okay. I’m here to back you up. We’ll tell them that we’ll take polygraphs if they want us to. I just hope like hell the force isn’t crooked like this bastard was.” I peered down at Richards’ lifeless body. The blood had dried somewhat on his leg and turned a dark maroon. Brad stared at me clenching his teeth together and nodded, then walked past me and I heard him go down the stairs.

I couldn’t move. I’d never imagined myself being in a situation like this and I wondered if I was worrying over nothing. Surely the cops were good people, and they’d understand the situation. Surely Daniel had left some kind of DNA evidence that the bleach hadn’t covered up. But then I remembered how the floor was soaked in it, even all the way to the edges of the couch where his blood hadn’t been spilled. He’d only had a few minutes, but as soon as he heard us going upstairs at gunpoint he must’ve booked it to the kitchen to get cleanup supplies and then scrammed. I thought it was possible that he was still in the house, but then why would he have bothered to clean up if he was still hiding out, waiting to pounce and kill us?

I shrugged my shoulders, took an ominous breath, and walked out of the bedroom. I could hear Brad’s voice speaking downstairs. He must have been talking to the police, and he sounded muffled so I couldn’t make out what he was saying. I just hoped it sounded believable because it truly was the god honest truth.

When I made it to the living room I sat on one of the bar stools and sat down, then looked over at Brad who was pacing nervously near the couch. He glanced up at me once or twice, and then looked out the window.

“Yes. Yes. Okay, thank you, I’ll be waiting.” He put his phone in his pocket and sat down next to me, cradling me in his arm and squeezing me tight. I balled my face up into his muscular chest and looked into his eyes. He was peering back at me with them, blue and warm, and most of all hopeful. We didn’t speak. There wasn’t much else to say. About five minutes later there was a series of knocking at the door and Brad stood to his feet and took a big breath.

He took two steps toward the door and then turned back to me and smiled. I smiled back, forcefully. The truth was I didn’t feel much like smiling at all, and it certainly wouldn’t have come on naturally given the situation we were in. Brad turned back to the door and when he got to it he opened it.

A small officer walked in, followed by two more. Then a man in plainclothes walked in and pulled out a notebook. He looked frustrated, like he didn’t want to be there. He had shaggy hair and a thick mustache. Brown eyes sunk into me as he looked me up and down with a blank expression, as if he were merely studying me. One of the men I recognized as the officer who’d been with Detective Richards when we first met in the hospital that morning.

Brad took them upstairs and I followed. My heart was beating faster than it ever had before. I gulped as we stepped into the bedroom and watched from behind as Brad held out his arm and pointed. The three cops and the detective all had expressions that varied slightly, but mostly they were the same. The small cop grimaced, the one I recognized from the hospital opened his mouth in horror, the third cop shook his head and grinned, and the detective had no expression at all, save for a small twinkle in his eye. He looked away from the body and pulled out his notepad, clicked the pen open and then shifted his eyes up to Brad.

“So, Brad. I want you to go ahead and tell us step by step what happened.”

Brad went over the entire story, word for word. He even included the bit about how we tried to go after Daniel this morning in Franklin’s limousine. He came clean about it all, down to the very last minute detail. The detective stared at him and then gazed at me. He still looked bored.

“Is this true?”

“Yes sir.”

He looked at the officers, “What do you guys think?” He asked as if he really didn’t care what they thought. They shrugged.

The officer from the hospital stuttered anxiously and then spoke up, “Sir, can I say something that won’t get me in trouble?”

“That depends.” The detective looked at him curiously.

“Well, I’ve had a weird feeling about Detective Richards for a while now. He’s been working a long time I know and solved a bunch of cases, but last month I wash helping him pull some stuff out of his trunk at the station and I accidentally lifted the cover for his spare tire up. Except there wasn’t a spare underneath it, sir. There was a bunch of stacks of cash. Hundreds of thousands, if I had to guess.”

The detective paused and placed the notepad in his pocket, followed by the pen. “Well if that’s true, then it sounds like Richards had a bit of a dirty nose, eh?” His bored face suddenly shifted into a smile.

“I guess so, sir.”

“Did you tell anyone about this?”

“No, I was scared. Detective Richards always seemed kind of threatening to me.”

“He killed a lot of the bad guys.”

“Yeah, he told me lots of stories about killing guys.”

“But he might’ve been a bad guy himself, it seems.”

“He was.” Brad said bluntly.

The detective eyeballed him for a moment as if he was thinking it over. Then he sighed and closed the notepad, stuck it in his pocket and averted his gaze to Brad once more, “It looks like your story checks out, Brad. At least, I’m not suspicious of you. I don’t see why you’d have a single reason to kill Richards, and I can’t figure out why he’d come to your house for any reason other than the one you told me. You’ve got grease on the back of your shirt if you hadn’t noticed, and I can tell it’s the grease of a gun barrel, so that part checks out too. I don’t think you two are some criminal masterminds who just decided to kill this man, but what concerns me is the Daniel fella. I almost wish you’d just killed him rather than beat his ass, ma’am.”

“I thought I had. I didn’t want to, but now I wish I had for sure.”

He laughed and walked past me, “We’re going to have people come clean this fucking mess up. In the meantime, you two stay in town for a few days, okay? You’re not suspects or anything, as of yet, but it won’t look good if you just leave tomorrow. And you’ll be questioned again, of course. But for now, try to relax. We’re going to focus on getting this Daniel fella.”

“Detective.” Brad rasped.

The detective turned his head, “Yes, son?”

“I can’t promise that I won’t go after him myself tonight. I lied to Richards, yes, but now that I know he was crooked I don’t feel bad about that. But I can’t lie to you. I’m going to catch this guy if no one else does.”

The detective’s glare intensified and then returned to normal, “I didn’t hear a word you just said. You never told me any of that. Or them either.” He pointed at the three officers.

“No sir.” One of them said.

The detective winked and walked out, the officers followed him. I looked at Brad silently until I heard the front door close, and then I broke out into a joyous laughter.

“I can’t believe it. They were actually
good
. They believed the truth.”

Brad shook his head, a small grin filling his face, “Yep. We’re good. It’s over, save for Daniel. Sweetheart,” He stepped toward me and placed a hand on my shoulder, then bent to kiss me, “I’m going to find him now. I don’t know how or where, but I know it’s going to be tonight. I can feel it. I can’t stand it anymore. He’s a rabid dog and he’s never going to stop until he’s caught.”

“I feel guilty, like I should’ve made sure he didn’t move. I seriously thought he was dead, or at least not in the condition to get up and go anywhere.”

“You fucked him up good. I’m sorry I left in the first place. God, I could’ve gotten you killed for goodness sake.”

“Don’t blame it on yourself, baby.” I kissed him again.

“We make a pretty good team, don’t we Court?” He asked.

“That we do. That we do…”

**

Brad and I left around six o’clock in his Ferrari. He drove aimlessly around town before finally getting pissed off and deciding to go home. That’s when we passed the old decrepit looking house. It looked ancient and run down, and was about ten miles down the road from Brad’s property. He said he’d noticed it before but never struck him as anything but an old piece of shit house, and he didn’t know why it hadn’t been torn down. As we passed it slowly, our eyes glued out the window, a flicker of light erupted from the top window. It looked like the quick flame of a lighter. Perhaps someone was inside smoking a cigarette. Brad hit the brakes and looked in sudden interest.

“What? Did you see that too?” I asked.

“Yeah. Light.”

“Somebody struck a match or a lighter, I think.”

“In the far right upstairs bedroom.”

“Do you think it’s him?”

“Who else would it be? There aren’t that many squatters around here and we don’t exactly have much of a problem with the homeless people. I never see any of them, really.”

“Shit. I was kind of hoping the cops would find him before us. What do we do?”

“First thing, we turn off the lights and pull the car over. You’re going to sit in the driver’s seat with the lights off, and watch very carefully in the rearview mirror. If you see
anyone
approaching, drive like a bat out of hell. I can’t risk him sneaking out when I go in there and then running out here and hijacking you like he did Franklin. And after what you did to his face, I don’t think he’ll be so polite this time. Understand, babe?”

“Got it. Do you have your gun?”

“Of course. It’d be suicide to walk in there without it. I’m…” He paused, “I’m just hoping I don’t have to use it.”

“I know. I’m worried about you this time, Brad. I feel like you’ve been lucky so far. Almost too lucky. It’s creepy in a way.”

He laughed and looked over at me with his big blue eyes, “Baby, I know. And I feel guilty more than anything. Guilty over this whole damn week so far. I thought taking you here right after I met you would be the coolest second date you’d ever been on… And I know it was farfetched considering we’d just met each other, but I felt a weird connection with you. Like I knew it was going to
last
or something. Like you might be the one. Does that sound cheesy?” He blushed.

“No. You’re such a gentleman, and so sweet. I normally wouldn’t have accepted a short notice offer to go to Hawaii with someone I didn’t know hardly at all.”

“I normally wouldn’t put out the offer, but I’m a free spirit I guess.”

“Now
that
sounded cheesy. But you’re right, you are a bit of a wild one.”

“Hell, I feel like I’ve turned into an action star since I met you. Like I’m in the twilight zone or some shit, trapped in an eighties action movie.”

“It’s been crazy for me too. And I feel like I’m the damsel in distress.”

“Nah, you’re the badass in all honesty. What you did to him back at the house… Good god, that took some serious cajones.”

“We both know I don’t have those.”

He laughed, “Mental cajones, I mean.”

“Right…” I drew out the word and laughed. We stared at each other like that in the dark, only the light of the moon shining in on us. The skies had completely darkened by then and the stars twinkled in the sky. They looked so far away, yet so close where we were. I felt a surreal notion of something swell up in my gut, and then it vanished. I still don’t know what it was, but I think it was just butterflies and anxiety. I had a bad feeling that it might be the last time I would ever see Brad.

Then I felt his hand stroke my face as he did so often, softly and caressingly. I looked over at him and could feel tears swelling up in my eyes. I wiped them away and choked softly on my own emotions. I felt like I was going to start bawling any second, and then he spoke to me in a loving, reassuring voice, “Baby, it’s okay. I’m going to be fine. I’m just going to finish this now. I’m going to make sure he doesn’t get back up and run away like the cowardly criminal he is. I’m going to bring him right in to the station with you by my side and tell them that’s how it’s done. Then you and me are going back to LA, and we’re going to have a
normal
relationship.” He let out a big deep laugh.

I chuckled too. I had to admit it was funny how things had been since we’d met, and how this was certainly a strange beginning to a new relationship. Yet through it all, in such short of a time period it had been, I still felt so drawn to him, so lustful for him. I figured if it had been any other guy I’d have run for the hills, but I knew that none of this was Brad’s fault. The fault rested in the hands of the man who was most likely up there in that window, puffing away on a cigarette as he lay on the filthy old floor staring out at the stars. Who knew what he was thinking? Maybe he was simply taking things as they came, or he was planning some big escape, but the idea of him being able to hitch a plane ride off the island was a farfetched one, and I realized that he must have felt pretty hopeless at that time.

I wondered if he’d regretted any of his actions, and then I remembered how bonkers he was. So no, probably not. Brad shook me out of my thoughts with a quick rustle to my hair, “I’ll be back gorgeous. Remember what I said. You hit the gas pedal if you see anyone coming toward you. Don’t look at your phone, or the radio stations. Don’t do anything but keep those pretty eyes glued to the mirror. Okay?” He leaned forward and kissed my forehead, and without waiting for my reply, he hopped out of the car and slammed the door. I crawled over to his seat and sat there nervously, watching him go in the rearview mirror toward the dark house. A big sigh came from deep within me, and I felt my eyes swelling up with tears once again.
Oh shit, I hope so badly that he’s going to be okay…

Everything was quiet for a few minutes. I still sat there in the car, the engine rumbling quietly, and then I heard shots fired. Although I knew Brad would want me to stay in the car, I simply couldn’t. My eyes widened frantically and I pulled the keys out of the ignition before crawling out of the car and breaking into an all-out sprint for the house. I had no weapons on me, and I didn’t have any kind of plan. I was acting solely on instinct; the instinct to help Brad.

I reached the house in what must’ve been twenty seconds, but it felt like an eternity. My legs felt like rubber and the dark grass seemed to be shifting in slow motion as my feet clomped across the soft blades wet with evening dew. The ocean’s night tide could be heard as it slammed into the rocky beach a hundred yards to my right, and my nostrils were overwhelmed with the scent of salt and sand.

And gunpowder.

I crashed through the front door, though not as dramatically as it sounds. It was unlocked, and I merely bashed against it with the right side of my body as the darkness of the house’s interior seemingly swallowed me up. It was silent in there, and I couldn’t find any sign of Brad. There were no lights to be seen, and I couldn’t even hear footsteps.

“
Brad
?” I let out a helpless squeal.

Then there was a crash that sounded like glass shattering, and directly ahead of me out the back window of what must have once been a kitchen, I saw a body drop past it and thud loudly on the ground.

“
Oh my god
.” I couldn’t tell whose body it was, it was simply too dark. Rushing out the front door and scurrying around back, I peered nervously around the corner. Relief hit me like tidal wave as I saw the dark figure slowly flip onto its stomach. It wasn’t Brad.

“Bastard.” He murmured, and began crawling on all fours to wherever it was he planned on going.

“Get in the car!” An angry voice broke out and I looked up at the shattered window. Brad was standing there bloody faced, clutching a crowbar in his hand, “He’s got his gun still, Courtney.
Get in the damn car
.” He bellowed louder and louder, and I looked down in sheer panic to see Daniel aiming his rifle in my direction. He was still on his side, and the moonlight hit him just enough so that I could see he had the sickening twisted grin stretched across his ugly face.

The rest was a blur, but it happened in a matter of seconds although it seemed to be in slow motion. Jumping to my left, I managed to avoid the blast of the rifle as it smashed across the corner of the house. I crawled hurriedly to my feet and heard a thump behind me. I knew immediately that Brad had jumped out of the window. Then there were footsteps, and the sounds of a rabid struggle.

“Brad, are you okay
?” I screamed.

“Get to the car.”

I ran frantically toward the car, and heard a loud smacking noise like bones breaking. I stopped and began to run back, but then I saw Brad walking around the corner from the back of the house and my heart rose back up into my chest. He was dragging Daniel’s limp body from the shirt collar, and he had the rifle held in his injured arm.