Read Billionaire On Fire: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Romance) Online
Authors: Claire Adams
CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
After
I paid Alex's and Liz’s tuition bill, I headed
over to the station to tell Chief Riley that I needed to take a couple of days
off. I had vacation time coming, and I couldn't think of a better reason to use
it than to help Alex find Liz. I also needed to talk with Leo and be at the
press conference for Richard Metzler later in the week, but first thing's
first.
"Connor, what's up?
Isn't this your day off?" Chief said as he looked up from his paperwork.
"It is, but I need a
favor," I said as I stood in front of his desk. "I need some time
off, Chief."
"Is that so?" he
said leaning back in his chair. "And what brought this on? I hope it's not
something that's going to interfere with your duties here at the station."
"No, sir," I said
shaking my head vigorously. "I just need a few days to straighten out a
few things and tie up some loose ends."
"Well, this is rather
inconvenient, Connor," he said as he studied me. "Given that Vangel
has called out sick for the week."
"Oh? That's weird; I
didn't know he was ill," I said in a sarcastic voice.
"He's not, but I'm not
his daddy, so I'm not going to go digging around in his business," Chief
said as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his desk. "I'm going to
assume that this is something important."
"It is, sir, or I
wouldn't be asking," I nodded. "I've got some things that need to be
taken care of and they are urgent."
"Alright, I guess we can
transfer a guy over from one of the other stations for a few days," Chief
said as he picked up the schedule and drew a line through my name on it.
"This had better be good, Connor."
"It is, sir," I
said as I turned and headed for the door. "It's of vital importance."
As I left the station, I felt
my phone buzzing in my pocket, and when I pulled it out and saw the message
from Alex, I knew she knew. She was mad, and probably rightfully so, and I was
going to have to answer for my actions. It wasn't going to be an easy
conversation, but first I needed to talk to Leo.
I drove to the office, but
Leo was out, so I left a note on his desk telling him to let me know when and
where I needed to be for Metzler's announcement and that I'd be there.
After I'd taken care of the
first three things on my list, I knew it was time to call Alex. This was going
to be a difficult discussion and I knew it was possible she wouldn't understand
my reasoning behind paying her bills, but I crossed my fingers and hoped that,
at the very least, she'd hear me out before she dumped me.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
A
hot breakfast of eggs, home fried potatoes and
bacon with sourdough toast went a long way to making me feel less angry at Cam.
I was still annoyed, but by the time I'd finished my meal, I'd decided that it
was possible for me to listen to his side of the story before I decided whether
I was going to dump him or not.
I kept my phone next to my
plate as I ate, waiting for a text or a call, but nothing came. By the time I'd
paid my bill, I was starting to get irritated again. If we were going to
discuss this, he needed to respond, and soon.
On the way to the library, my
phone rang. I smiled as I pulled it out, but when I looked at the screen I was
shocked to find that it was Liz calling me, not Cam.
"Liz! Liz! Where are
you?" I yelled into the phone.
"Alex, I need
help," said the voice on the other end. It was Liz, but she sounded weak
and scared.
"Where are you,
Liz?" I asked. "Tell me and I'll come get you."
"I'm not feeling so
good, Alex," she groaned before she started crying. "I'm in trouble.
I need help."
"Tell me where you are,
Liz," I repeated. I knew that I needed to find a way to figure out where
she was, but she didn't seem to want to tell me. "Liz, tell me where you
are."
"North Side, I
think," she said. "I'm looking out the window and I can see the
street signs."
"What do the signs
say?" I prompted her. "Liz? Tell me what the signs say."
"Um, one says Jarvis and
one says...um..." she faded away.
"Liz! What does the
other one say?" I yelled into the phone. If she was high, I needed her to
tell me where she was before she passed out again. "LIZ!"
"Um, the other one
says...um...Jarvis," she slurred. "I need help, Alex. I don't like
him."
"Liz, one sign says
Jarvis. What does the other one say, sweetie?” I said dropping my voice to a
comforting tone. "Tell me what the other sign says."
"It says Pauline,"
she sighed as her voice faded. "Pauline is such a nice name, isn't
it?"
"Paulina?" I asked
as I looked up the cross streets on my phone. "You're at Jarvis and
Paulina? Who took you there, Liz? Who is the guy you're with?"
"Dunno, he's some
guy," she slurred. "He had good stuff. He's handsome."
"Who is he, Liz?" I
asked. "Have you met him before?"
"No, nice guy, I saw him
hanging around campus a few times," she said sounding a little more
cheerful. "He gave me flowers once."
"Do I know him?" I
asked wondering if I'd met this guy before and if I could identify him to the
police.
"Nah uh, don't think
so," she said fading out again. All of a sudden, I heard a loud noise in
the background and Liz shrieked in my ear.
"What are you doing,
bitch?" a male voice demanded. "I thought you took her damn phone,
you idiot!"
"No! NO!" Liz
screamed. There was a loud bang before the phone went dead.
"Oh God, no," I
whispered in horror as I stared at my phone. I quickly dialed the number again,
but it went right to voicemail. Seconds later my phone rang again. The number
was unlisted, but I answered it.
"Look, I've got your
friend and she's a massive pain in my ass," a male voice on the other end
said. "Come get her and get her the hell out of my house."
"Who are you?" I
asked. "Why did you take Liz?"
"I didn't take her,
lady," the man said. "She came with me and now I want her out of my
house. Come get her or I'll dump her ass in an alley and let her figure out her
way home herself. I'm sick of her whining."
"Where are you?" I
asked thinking his voice sounded vaguely familiar. "I'll come get her
right now, please don't hurt her."
"Lady, I'm not into
hurting chicks," he laughed. "It's the apartment building on the Northwest
corner of Jarvis and Paulina. Ring apartment 3A. Just get her quick, would ya?
She's really getting on my nerves."
"I'm on my way," I
said before I hung up. I needed to get up to the North Side of town and fast. I
hailed a cab, gave the driver the intersection and told him to step on it. He
gave me a funny look before shrugging and heading north. The whole ride, I
tried to figure out what would have possessed Liz to go anywhere with someone
she didn't know that well, and all I could come up with was drugs. It had to be
the drugs.
Twenty minutes later we
pulled up in front of a run down apartment building. The driver looked at it
then back at me skeptically before asking, "You want me to wait?"
"No, this might take
some time," I said as I ran my card through and paid the fare. "But
thank you."
"No problem," he
said as I got out of the cab and headed to the front door. The neighborhood was
shabby, but not completely run down, and as I rang the buzzer and waited for
someone to answer, I saw two young women pushing a stroller covered by a heavy
blanket and wondered where they were headed.
"What?" a voice
said over the speaker.
"I'm here to pick up my
friend," I said adding, "I talked to you a little while ago?"
"Come up. Third
floor," the voice said before buzzing me into the building. I walked into
the lobby and was surprised to see an intricate tile mosaic depicting a mermaid
deep under the sea on the floor. The walls were painted in a light lavender
giving the space a light airy feel. I marveled at the creativity as I waited
for the elevator, and wondered who'd put such time and effort into the project
in such an odd place.
I found the apartment,
knocked on the door and was surprised when someone I recognized opened the
door.
"Victor, what are you
doing here?" I asked. Without saying a word, he reached out, grabbed my
arm and pulled me into the apartment slamming the door behind me.
"Shut up," he said
as he squeezed my arm and dragged me down the hallway to a back room.
"What are you
doing?" I shouted as I struggled to pull away. Victor clamped down harder
on my arm and then wrapped his other arm around my waist and lifted me off the
floor. I screamed, "Stop it! Stop it! You're hurting me!"
"Not even close,
sweetheart," he sneered as he marched down the hall. "But if you
don't shut the hell up, I will."
"Why are you doing this?
Where's Liz?" I asked trying to will myself to stay calm. The tone of his
voice told me that he wouldn't hesitate to hurt me if he needed to, but I
couldn't figure out why.
"In here," he said
as he pushed the door open and threw me inside before slamming it shut again. I
heard a lock click and assumed that he'd made sure we couldn't escape.
I looked around the room and
saw Liz lying on a dirty mattress in a far corner. There was a bathroom
attached to the room, and that gave me a sense of relief that I wouldn't have
to beg to be allowed to use a toilet.
"Liz! Liz!" I said
as I sunk to the mattress and gently shook her limp body. "Liz, wake up.
It's Alex. I'm here to take you home. Liz!"
"Alex?" she mumbled
with her eyes closed. I could see that she'd been drugged with something to
keep her pliant and quiet, but what I couldn't figure out was whether she'd
taken the drugs willingly or not. "Alex, is that you?"
"It's me, Liz," I
said as I rubbed her arm trying to bring her back to consciousness. "Wake
up and talk to me, Liz!"
"I don't feel so
good," she moaned as she rolled over on her side and dry heaved a little.
"My stomach hurts."
"I know, I know," I
said, smoothing the hair back from her forehead. "We'll get you out of
here and to a hospital."
As I said this, I realized
that I needed to call for help before they realized I had a phone and took it
away. My phone rang as I was pulling it out of my pocket. It was Cam.
"Cam! I'm with Liz at
Jarvis and Paulina, call the cops and come get us!" I shouted into the
phone. "Apartment 3A! Come find us now! Jarvis and Paulina! 3A! Mermaid in
the purple lobby! It's Vic--"
The door to the room burst
open and Victor stormed across the room grabbing the phone out of my hand
before I could say anything else. He took the phone and threw it against the
wall.
"NO! You can't do
that!" I screamed as he backhanded me and grabbed me by the throat.
"You shut the hell up,
you stupid bitch," he growled as he looked right into my eyes.
"You're going to do what I say, and if you fuck up again, I'm going to
kill you and your friend. And I won't lose a wink of sleep over it."
"We didn't do
anything!" I sobbed. I felt the air being forced from my lungs as he
punched me in the gut and dropped me to the ground.
"Shut the hell up, and
don't make me come in here again," he warned before grabbing my phone off
the floor, slamming the door shut and turning the lock.
"Liz, what's going on
here?" I cried as I crawled over to the dirty mattress and curled up next
to her holding my stomach. "What happened?"
"Don't know," she
said in a thick voice. "He took me from the hospital. Said Cam told him to
pick me up and take me home. He stuck a needle in my arm. Then I was
here."
"This is screwed
up," I said as I grabbed Liz's hand and held on tightly. "I hope Cam
heard me and comes to find us."
"He will," Liz said
before she fell back into her haze.
I hoped that she was right,
because from my vantage point, I wasn't sure he'd be able to find us.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FIVE
When
I heard Alex's frantic scream on the other end
of the line, I immediately went into action mode and began driving north to the
intersection she'd told me to find. With the exception of the address, none of
the rest of what she'd said had made sense, and I wasn't sure how I would be
able to find her, but I trusted that once I got there, I would be able to
figure it out.
I was tempted to call in
back up, but the last thing I needed was publicity like this before Leo and I
made our first public appearance with Richard Metzler.
"Jarvis and Paulina. 3A.
Mermaid in the purple lobby," I kept repeating to myself as I drove north
on Sheridan. She'd started to say something else, but I had no idea what that
was, so I just kept repeating what I knew until I was sure I wouldn't forget
it.
In the meantime, I called the
Rogers Park police and reported a kidnapping. I told them what I'd heard over
the phone and said I was on my way to the intersection. They assured me that
they would send officers over to check it out as soon as they could, but at the
moment the bulk of their force was dealing with a gang shooting on the West
Side of the neighborhood.
I swore under my breath as I
made a left onto Jarvis and slowly drove down the block. I wasn't sure if
whoever had kidnapped Alex would be waiting outside or if they'd have lookouts.
I drove past the intersection Alex had told me to find and then parked my truck
around the corner before walking around the block to enter from the other side.
I felt ridiculous playing spy in the middle of the day, but I didn't want to
take any chances.
"What the hell is going
on?" I muttered under my breath as I looked into the front door of an
apartment building on the Southwest corner and saw nothing. I crossed the
street and found exactly what Alex had said: a mermaid and purple walls. I knew
I was at the right place.
I dialed Alex's number, but
the call went straight to voicemail. So, I snuck around the side of the
building to see if there were any doors open. I found one that led to the
basement and carefully pulled it open and snuck inside. The whole basement was
full of cobwebs and dead animals and I nearly vomited the contents of my
stomach when I saw the stack of dead rats piled in the corner. Someone had been
out hunting and I'd have been willing to bet it wasn't the neighborhood feral
cats.
"Where are you, Alex?"
I whispered as I looked for a way out of the basement to the lobby. I felt my
way along the far wall and finally found a door that lay flush with the wall I
tugged at the handle for almost a minute before I felt the door begin to give
way and then all at once, I yanked it open and found myself staring into the
basement laundry room where I surprised two women who were transferring
clothing from the washing machine to the dryer. One of them screamed.
"Sorry, ladies!" I
said as I stepped through the doorway and pulled the door shut behind me. No
sense in letting the beasts that roamed that side of the basement out.
"I'm looking for apartment 3A. Unconventional entrance, I know."
"I'll say," said
the older woman with a skeptical look on her face. "You kids need to stay
out of the basement, it's dangerous in there."
"It's okay, I'm a
trained professional," I offered as I moved quickly to the elevator.
"Sure, right," said
the other one raising an eyebrow as she continued transferring her laundry from
one machine to the other. I nodded and tipped my invisible hat as the elevator
doors slid shut.
"Three A, she
said," I muttered as I hit the button and waited for the elevator to
slowly grind its way up to the third floor. My phone rang as the elevator
passed the third floor and when I looked down, I saw it was Alex.
"Alex! I'm on my
way!" I shouted into the phone.
"Don't bother,
Connor," a familiar voice replied. "If you come anywhere near this
apartment, I'm going to burn it down."
"Victor? What the
hell?" I said. "What are you doing?"
"I'm getting what I
want," he replied in a cool voice. "This is all your fault, you
know."
"My fault that you're a
fucking psycho?" I shouted. "How is that my fault?"
"Oh, Connor," he
sighed. "You are so common. Such a idiot. This is your entire fault
because if you had given me what I wanted to begin with, none of this would be
happening now. Your little girlfriend wouldn't be crying in the corner and her
friend definitely wouldn't be hooked on heroin."
"And this is all my
fault, is it?" I replied realizing that he didn't know I was on my way up.
"So, if I stay away, you'll let the girls go?"
"No, I didn't say
that," he replied in a bored voice. "I just said that if you came
anywhere near, I'd burn the place down with them in it. So, I would suggest
that as soon as that elevator opens up on the third floor, you hit the first
floor button and get the hell out."
"What are you talking
about?" I said feigning ignorance.
"I'm talking about the
fact that I can see you riding the elevator and talking to me on the phone
right at this moment," he said. "Your phone is in your right hand and
you're leaning against the wall closest to the buttons. Good enough for
you?"
My heart dropped as I
realized that he could actually see me, but I forced myself to stay in the same
position so as not to give him the upper hand. Meanwhile, I began plotting out
my next steps.
"And if you're
wondering, I've got the staircase wired as well," he said as if he knew
what I was thinking. "Like I said, you're an idiot, Connor."
"What do you want,
Victor?" I asked wondering what game he was playing.
"Nothing," he said.
"I want absolutely nothing from you. No, strike that. What I want from you
is to get the hell out of my building."
"Or else what?" I
asked wondering what he was planning to do.
"Or else I burn it
down," he said talking slowly as if speaking to a child. "What part
of that didn't you understand?"
"I'm just trying to
understand what it is you'll gain from doing that," I said as the elevator
opened on the third floor and I looked down the hallway.
"Uh uh uh," he
scolded. "Press the down button and go away."
"What kind of sick game
are you playing, Vangel?" I demanded as I stepped back and let the doors
slide shut. I pressed the first floor button and felt the elevator grind as it
slowly moved down to the ground floor.
"I'm not playing any
game, Connor," he said. As he continued, his voice rose to a crescendo,
"I simply want to cause you as much pain as you have caused me. I want you
to feel the loss of things you care about. The humiliation of NOT GETTING WHAT
YOU DESERVE!"
"You are so far beyond
fucked up, Vangel," I muttered as I quickly tried to figure out how I
could stop him before he did anything irrevocable.
"I'm not fucked up,
Connor," he said calmly. "You've been an asshole to me since the day
I started and now I'm going to make you pay for the fact that I did not get the
Lieutenant position. That's on your shoulders. It's your fault that I didn't
get what I deserve."
"How in the hell is that
my fault?" I yelled. I was running out of patience with his delusional
ranting and I was afraid that he was actually going to harm Liz and Alex.
"You turned Chief
against me and he refused to recommend me for Lieutenant," Victor said.
"You told him I didn't deserve the position. You poisoned
everything!"
"I didn't do shit,
Vangel!" I shouted. "I had nothing to do with you getting or not
getting the promotion. Jesus H. Christ, you are fucking delusional! The
promotions all go through HQ and you have to pass the Lieutenant exam then wait
for a station to open up. No one has that kind of power, you fucking
idiot!"
"You do," he said
coldly. "I know you do. You're the fire department poster boy after your
horrible tragedy. People listen to you. They take your advice, and you hate me.
You've always hated me."
"Victor, I'm not sure
what you've been smoking, but what you're saying is complete and utter
bullshit," I said as the elevator reached the ground floor and opened up
into the lobby. I hesitated a moment, then pressed the button and decided to
risk going to the basement.
"Where are you
going?" he said suspiciously. "Get out of the building!"
"I'm getting out,"
I said hoping that he didn't have the laundry room wired with cameras, too.
When the doors opened, I stepped out and walked toward the back of the room.
The two women who'd been doing laundry were still there and I motioned to them
to get out of the room.
"Where are you going,
Connor?" Victor screamed into the phone. "You must get out of the
building!"
"I'm getting out, you
psycho son of a bitch," I growled as I pushed open the door to the back
room and slipped through. "Don't get your twisted little panties in a
bunch."
"I'm going to set this
place on fire, and it's all YOUR FAULT!" Victor yelled as he disconnected
the phone.
"Not if I stop you
first," I muttered as I backtracked to the outer door and called the crew
on Engine 102 and alert them of the possible danger since I had no idea what
Victor was going to do. They assured me that they'd alert the Rogers Park
police and send a truck if necessary.
As I scanned the backside of
the apartment building, I noticed the fire escape stairs climbing up the
structure, and decided that there was no way Victor could have wired those
stairs with a camera -- or if he had, I'd get a call letting me know.
I decided to take a chance
and start climbing.