The Billionaire and His Driver

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Brina lost her home during her wrongful imprisonment when she was forced to use it as collateral for an attorney. The attorney wasn’t worth a damn: he couldn’t even get a first offender like her probation. But desperate people do desperate things. That was why, when she turned into her apartment complex in Eugene, Oregon’s less-than-desirable neighborhood, she didn’t feel an ounce of shame.

“Thanks,” she said to Ronny when as she unbuckled her seatbelt. “But you’re sure you’ll be okay, sir?”

Ronny smiled. It was this caring side of her that drew him to her to begin with. “I don’t like to drive,” he said, “but I can drive. I’ll be fine,” he added as he got out of the car too.

Brina hurried around, forgetting to open the door for him, and that flustered look on her pretty face only endeared her to him more. But as he opened his suit coat, placed his hands on his hips, and looked at her surroundings, he didn’t feel comfortable with her living situation at all. “So this is where you live,” he said to her as if it wasn’t a question.

Brina knew what he meant. Coming from Bradshaw Manor, this place looked like a dump. It was a poor area to be sure. And many of the residents, like her, could barely rub two nickels together in a pinch. But it was clean and safe and orderly. “Yes sir. This is my home.”

He looked at her with that look of concern in his eyes she didn’t understand. Why should he care where she lived? Unless, she thought. “It’s safe,” she said to him. “Nobody will bother you.”

Ronny couldn’t believe that was what she thought his look suggested, but he didn’t correct her. Better she think that, than the truth of the matter. Better she think he was worried about himself, rather than worried, as he was, about her. “Which floor are you on?”

“The third floor.”

“I’ll walk you up,” Ronny said, and they walked across the parking lot and up the three flights of stairs. It was dark and everybody seemed to be indoors. Ronny was impressed with how clean the stairwell was.

When they made it to the third floor, Brina’s apartment was the first one they got to. She unlocked her door and then turned to him. “Thanks again for letting me drive myself home.”

He smiled. “The least I could do.”

She smiled too. He was a most attractive man. But then an awkwardness occurred as they both just stood there. Brina wasn’t going to invite him in. She wasn’t trying to put herself into any compromising positions and risk losing her job, but the urge was there.

It was an even stronger urge for Ronny. He kept glancing at her lips that seemed eternally puckered. And at her breasts, that seemed so big and juicy. He wanted to devour every inch of her. But to what end?

“Well goodnight,” she said, apparently thinking the same thing. But she still didn’t walk away.

And it was that hesitation that gave Ronny permission. He moved closer to her, felt that sense of connection that tugged at his heartstrings, and pulled her into his arms.

It was, at first, an awkward hug. Neither one of them had expected it. But once they realized they were touching again, and those feelings encircled them again, they closed their eyes and relished the affection they felt for one another. And when they finally stopped embracing, Ronny wanted to kiss her. But again: to what end?

When Brina said goodbye this time, she didn’t hesitate. She went into her home and closed and locked the door.

She walked toward the light switch, which was a lamp a few feet to her left. But just as she was about to turn on the light, she felt a hard body slam against her from behind and flung some type of cloth over her mouth, muffling her screams.

But when she felt a wet substance on that cloth, and her attacker was trying to move it up to her nose, she knew it would be a matter of time before she passed out if he got a good enough grip on her.

She refused to let him get that grip on her.

She fought back. She jerked her body all around the room, causing that cloth to dislodge several times. The man, who apparently had orders not to harm her, was larger than she was and kept trying to force her to the floor where he could have better control of her. But she wouldn’t go down. He was overpowering her, and she knew it was just a matter of time before he overtook her.

She had only one option. Her neighbors probably heard their bumping and stomping, but they weren’t going to get involved unless they heard her screams or gunshots or something much more definitive. She had to get Ronny’s attention. That was her only option. She had to get his attention before he left her complex. And the only way she knew to do it was dramatically.

As her attacker couldn’t tie up her arms or legs because he knew, if he released that cloth from her mouth she’d scream out for help, she utilized what she had and began moving toward the small desk near her front picture window. As he kept trying to wrestle her to the floor, he didn’t seem to realize where she was moving, just that she was moving, and pretending to move downward, which was where he wanted her to be. But what she was really doing was moving for leverage, because she knew, when she reached her goal, she was going to need it.

Within seconds, she reached her goal: her small desk chair. And as her attacker thought he was manhandling her to the floor, she lifted up that chair and threw it with all the strength she had. The chair sailed to that single pane picture window, slammed against it, and then had the force to shatter it and sail through the window.

Downstairs, Ronny was just getting to his car when he heard the window shattering and looked up as the chair sailed down to the ground. When he realized that chair had come from the first window on the third floor, which would make it Brina’s apartment, his heart dropped through his shoes and he ran with all the speed he had right back up those stairs he had just ran down. Only he was running up so fast he was taking them two at a time. He had to get to Sabrina!

He could hear bumping sounds inside her apartment as soon as he got to the third floor, and he didn’t hesitate. He leaned back and kicked that door in as if it was as thin as paper, and he ran inside.

The attacker had wrestled Brina to the floor and was on top of her poised to punch her in the face, as if his rage and impatience with her fight for survival superseded his orders not to harm her. But Ronny grabbed him off of Brina and flung him across the room. He ran to him to finish him off, and Brina stood up to go and help him, but the man pulled out a gun. Ronny was a businessman. He didn’t go around with a gun in his pocket! Just seeing that weapon stopped him in his tracks.

But the man didn’t shoot. Ronny believed it was mainly because they could hear sirens in the distance as if one of Brina’s neighbors had already called the cops, and the attacker was spooked that he was about to be surrounded. But also because they were eyeball to eyeball and Ronny knew in that instant that the man knew who he was. It was one thing to attack a poor, powerless girl like Sabrina. It was another thing to attach a powerful billionaire like Ronny.

“Give me the girl,” the attacker said, “and I won’t shoot.”

But Ronny was shaking his head and making sure he kept Brina back behind him, out of the line of any bullets. “No way.”

“I’ll kill you both!” he yelled out.

But Ronny knew he would have killed Brina already if that was his intention. “Who are you and what do you want with her?”

But the man knew he didn’t have time to reason with anybody. The cops were already closing in. His window of opportunity had passed when she cleverly threw that chair out of it. The attacker ran out of that apartment and didn’t look back.

Ronny, relieved, quickly turned to Brina. She was traumatized, there was no doubt about that. But he could see she was otherwise okay.

And he was suddenly angry that the world was attempting to destroy the little light she still had left once again. And he somehow knew that her former troubles were directly related to why that man was in her apartment. He could have been a burglar. He could have been a rapist lying in wait. But it didn’t feel like that. That attacker wanted to take her to another location even after Ronny’s arrival, which meant that was his original assignment. He was there to take her away.

Away from her home.

Away from Ronny.

Over his rich , dead body, he thought to himself.

And he emphasized rich because he was going to utilize every resource at his disposal to find out who broke into her home and why, and to make certain nobody ever again even thought about harming her.

He pulled her into his arms.