Heart of Money (Alpha Billionaire Bad Boy Romance Thriller) (7 page)

Once Brad was released we walked slowly out the hospital doors and into a bright day without a cloud in the sky. It was hard to deny the beauty of the town despite the darkness beneath it, but I reminded myself that all the darkness I’d experienced the last night had been caused by a single, twisted man. I couldn’t hold it against the town itself.

“Where to?” I asked with a clueless tone.

“I don’t know.” Brad stood hunched over on the edge of the sidewalk and scratched his chin which had a thick five o’clock shadow grown over it. He looked at me with his deep blue eyes and then his face hardened, “I think I know where he might be, if the place even exists anymore. Or if he even owns it.”

“What?” I asked.

“Back when we first bought up some property here he mentioned to me that he was going to be buying a place on a secluded stretch of beach under his wife’s name to help her build up a shitty credit score. He’s divorced from her now, but she might still own the place, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he still had an old set of keys, not that he’d need them. He could just break through a window and hide out there, she wouldn’t be there because she never liked it here anyway.”

“Do you really think he’d go there? And why wouldn’t the cops think of that already?”

“They might have. But maybe they haven’t. It’s the only lead I’ve got to go on now.”

“Let’s go there then, if you’re sure it’s a good idea.”

“I am.” He said slowly. The limousine driver pulled up and before the he had a chance to get out and open our doors Brad pulled the door open himself, “After you, hon.” He rasped.

I crawled in and then scooted over to let Brad in beside me, “Take me to the end of town; the far stretch of beach out yonder. Not toward the city, the opposite direction. You know what I’m talking about?”

The driver scratched his nose and looked down at the glovebox, “Ah, yes. I believe I do. The north side? There isn’t much there, business wise or even residential.”

“That’s right. That’s exactly where I want to go.”

“Right, sir.” The driver said, and hit the gas smoothly.

As we pulled up to what Brad had accurately described as very secluded, we stepped out onto a narrow beach road and watched as the limousine driver flipped on his double lights and sat waiting for us. Brad nodded his head toward him and then walked with me hand in hand. We were walking toward the Beach and I didn’t see a house in sight, but apparently Brad knew what he was doing. He pointed to the right once we got about twenty feet from the tide, and I squinted my eyes as I placed my hand over my brows. I could see it; a lone beach house that was large and slightly ominous, though it could’ve just been the circumstances or the fact that the skies had darkened and turned ashy gray; signs of an approaching storm.

“That’s it?”

“Yes. I hope she still owns it. Come, we need to go back into the weeds and walk slowly towards the back of the house. I wish my shoulder wasn’t fucked, otherwise I’d crawl. It would be nice if we could keep low to the ground, so I’ll do my best using one arm. I don’t want this guy to see us if he’s posted up by a window or something with that rifle in his hand.”

I was scared, that much was true. But I was also slightly excited. I felt like I was one of those girls in an adventure story, with the big hunk of a badass at my side. Brad nudged me suddenly and it shook me out of my confident adventure mood. He ducked down quickly, falling onto his knees and then his right elbow. I followed suit and stared ahead, wide eyed and terrified.

“What?”

“I just saw someone in the window.”

“Is it him?”

“I don’t know. We’re going to have to stay still for a few minutes and then crawl the rest of the way.”

The situation quickly flashed through my eyes for the first time. Brad didn’t have a gun. He didn’t have a knife that I knew of, and he didn’t really have anything. I didn’t know what his game plan was once we entered the house. Tackle the guy? Kick his ass? Knock the rifle out of his arms with a swift blow and then hold him down until the police arrived? Or even more farfetched; kill him with his own hands. I wanted to ask him but I felt like it was too late, we were already there. The moment was here and Brad was adamant on doing whatever it was that he had planned in his vengeful head.

We began to crawl, slowly and carefully. I feel like we must’ve crawled for twenty minutes before finally reaching the back of his house. There were five or six big palm trees behind the back porch, and we crawled past those in silence until we reached the corner of the house by the cellar. Brad breathed heavily and pulled himself up, and then rested with his back pressed firmly against the exterior wall. Sweat ran down his reddened face and his mouth hung open as he took big breaths.

I leaned up next to him and grasped his hand in fear, not knowing what to expect. He looked over at me and whispered slowly, “You have to stay here.” Then he pulled up his shirt and produced something that caught me by surprise, a large steel handgun.

“When did you get that?”

“Keep your voice down. I had it in the limousine, asked my driver to bring it from my house. I’ve got another on me, a smaller gun, but this one is yours. Do you know how to work it? The safety’s off.”

My father had taken me shooting numerous times as a young girl out in the desert, and I figured I knew how to work a gun by heart. I nodded my head.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

His eyes lit up with blazing heat and he kissed me softly before suddenly standing to his feet and breaking into an all-out sprint around the corner. I heard a window shatter followed by footsteps, and then my heart almost exploded as the backdoor was kicked open and a darkly dressed figure ran wildly past me.

It was him. Daniel. He didn’t even notice me as he sprinted past the palm trees with the rifle flailing in his right arm. Brad came out shortly after and charged after him, and for a moment I thought I’d hear a gunshot any second, but it never came. I wanted to shout for Brad, but I felt so helpless, so clueless of what to do. My heart was pounding so fast that I could hear it, and when Brad walked slowly back through the palm trees his chest was rising and falling even faster than my own. He held his gun limply in his hand and crouched down next to me, but never made eye contact. He kept looking out in the distance in the direction Daniel had taken off in, and neither of us said anything. Five minutes later we had finally caught our breath, and then the sound of an engine filled our ears.

“He’s got some kind of vehicle, Brad.” I rose shakily to my feet, the gun feeling heavy and wet from the sweat of my palms.

“It’s… It’s coming
towards us
.”

Brad clutched onto me the moment the limousine came barreling through a gap in the palm trees, the sidewalls of the car scraping against the sharp grooves of the bark, the headlights blinding me, and then everything went black for a split second before I opened my eyes.

The engine noise trailed off, and I saw that Brad had slung me clear to the other side of the house. We were on the opposite corner now, and Brad was at my side, breathing heavily once again. I wondered if that was going to be our new normality, breathing like we had just run twenty miles. I could see the limousine barreling madly down the beach, sand flying up into the air behind its rear wheels.

“Franklin.” Brad said quietly.

“He must’ve hijacked the car. But I didn’t hear a shot.”

“So he’s probably alive.” Brad said, and began to run in the direction of the road.

Franklin was lying with his back on the road, and for a second I thought he was sure to be dead. As we got within teen feet of his body and then stopped, both staring at him with wide, terrified eyes, we breathed a sigh of relief when we saw his chest rise.

“
Franklin
.” I said.

“My god…” His voice was hoarse and old, his old body sprawled out and his arms flailed slowly on the asphalt. His eyes were wide and his lip was bloody, and blood ran down in small droplets to his next. He craned his neck slightly, and that made me breathe another sigh of relief. Then he looked at us with horrified eyes, “The man slung me out of the car, but not before giving me a good sock in the face.” A humorless laugh erupted from his vocal cords.

The rain came next, as we walked with elderly Franklyn between us, his hands propped up around each of our shoulders and our arms held tightly around his back as we helped him walk down the road. Lightning bolts struck the charcoal clouds and thunder echoed above us. The rain came in flying dramatic sheets, and within ten seconds I was soaked. I kept looking back for the first ten minutes, hoping to see headlights coming toward us, but it just didn’t seem to be our lucky day. Just as I finally gave up and figured we’d be walking all the way back into town, lights appeared in the distance.

“There’s a car up ahead.” I said.

“Good,” Brad said, “They can take us into town. Start waving your hands. Can you stand, Franklin?”

“I think so, sir.”

Brad released his grip from Franklin’s back and began waving his good arm in the air. I did the same, but when I felt Franklin begin to lightly topple against my shoulder I held him again and waved with my other arm. The car was hard to make out in the distance because of the heavy downpour, and part of me trembled deep inside because of fears that it would be the stolen limousine with the psychotic Daniel behind the wheel. As it got within twenty feet of us I could see that it was a little blue sedan, and relief washed over me.

“Finally.” I said, feeling relieved.

The driver was a twenty something kid blasting R&B and when he rolled down the window he squinted and began to wipe the rain from his face as it spattered down on him, “What the hell happened to you guys?”

“It’s a long story,” Brad yelled through the wind, “Can we get a ride into town?”

“Sure.”

The kid was gracious enough to take us all the way to Brad’s after dropping Franklin off at the hospital, not asking for a thing as far as payment goes. Brad handed him a couple crisp hundreds anyway, and patted him on the back. The kid’s eyes lit up and he nodded his head excitedly, “Gee, thanks man… Let me know if you need rides anytime, want my number?”

Brad laughed, “It probably won’t happen again.”

As we walked into the house I instantly sat down on the couch and breathed a sigh of relief. Brad followed me and plopped down next to me, his hand smacking against my thigh with a mixture of playfulness and exhaustion.

“That was crazy. Shouldn’t we call the police?”

“Why?” He asked, “The bastard’s long gone now, for all I know. Or at least, he’s not in that house anymore and I assure you he won’t be going back. For all I know he’s left the state.”

“What about calling about the stolen limousine?”

“That’ll just get them to ask questions. The last thing I need is Detective Richards trying to charge me for obstructing justice. I don’t want him to know a thing about me being involved in going after Daniel.”

“Well,” I paused, “What do we do now?”

“Now? I say we rest here for about an hour, and then we get started. This time I’ll drive myself, it shouldn’t be an issue just using my right hand on the steering wheel. We’ll scout the town for signs of the limousine, and if we find it then we’ll get out on foot and search for him.”

“And if we don’t find the limo?” I asked.

“Then I don’t know,” He sounded annoyed, “I’m just kind of improvising here, Courtney.”

I glanced at him with a sense of anger, and then calmed, “This is just not what I signed up for.”

“Do you want out?” His eyes pierced through me like ice.

“No, of course not. You’re amazing, everything… Was amazing, until it happened.”

“Yeah, well, I can assure you… My life generally isn’t near this exciting.”

“Good, because I’m ready to experience your idea of normalcy.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Which I’m sure is still exciting as hell, but in a
fun
way. Not this scary way. I’m afraid to even poke my head outside alone now because of that guy. I just… Brad, why is he so focused on revenge?”

“Well, he’s had a mental breakdown combined with psychosis. I remember hearing about him being diagnosed shortly after our partnership split up. Heard it through the grapevine. That, combined with anger, a massive ego, and alcohol addiction, not to mention whatever numerous drugs he’s on, isn’t a good combination. In fact, it’s a recipe for disaster in the purest sense.”

I sat there grumpily and wished we’d never come. In some ways, I almost wished I’d never met Brad, if it would’ve prevented this. Not so much for my sake as his, but also for mine. I felt guilty as the thoughts ran through my head and then I remembered where I was a few days ago. Lonely and single, working a dead end job in an old two bedroom apartment in the valley. Sure, it was fine; the living situation at least, but I was getting too old for a roommate and I was tired of not finding a guy who would love me. As I looked up at Brad I saw that he was staring at me, as if somehow reading my thoughts. The face that had been so stern and full of anger all morning softened, and the Brad I’d known the day before came back. He was gorgeous, gentle, and yet still protective. I was giving him my best
fuck me
eyes.