The Billionaire and His Driver

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

After the meeting and after Zack and Perry and their assistants were gone, Sully ordered his assistant, the only black lady in the group, to go back to the office, and he ordered Brina to wait on Ronny out in the corridor.

Although Sully behaved as if he was the boss of all of the other brothers, including Ronny, she knew who buttered her bread. She looked at her boss.

Ronny knew his brother too well. “She can hear what you have to say.”

Brina could tell Sully was surprised that his brother would defy him, but she also could tell he was a man who knew how to pick his battles. She stayed put, and he moved on.

“What’s this I hear about extra security around Bradshaw Manor?” Sully asked.

Ronny frowned. “Who told you that?”

“I have my spies.”

“Like Elvira Dash? Like Tex Graylin?”

“Just answer my question. Is it true?”

Ronny stared at his brother. A little taller than Ronny and far more muscular, he was the epitome of elegance and sophistication. He also had some nerve. “You have no problem delving into our personal business when you won’t let us so much as think about mentioning yours.”

“Stop deflecting and answer my question, Ronald.”

“Who the fuck is deflecting? Are you married, Sully? Do you have children, Sully? Where the fuck do you live, Sully?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“But heightened security at my personal residence is your business?”

“Yes.”

Ronny frowned again. The nerve he had! “When did what happens at my home become your business?”

“Because you and everybody else in this family involves me in your affairs. I don’t involve any of you in mine. That’s why! Now answer my question. Is it true?”

Ronny gave up. There was no arguing with Sully because his reasoning was always flawed. Although he was right about one thing: they all did lean on Sully too much. They all did go to him with their problems. “Yes, it’s true,” he said.

Brina could tell Sully was upset to hear it, which suggested to her that he really cared about his brother.

“Are you in danger?” Sully asked.

Ronny shook his head. “No.”

“Then why the extra security if there’s no threat?”

Ronny didn’t look at Brina, but a distressed look appeared on his face. “My driver may be in danger.”

“ Your driver ? Why would that matter to you? Get another driver.” Then Sully realized who he meant. He looked at Brina. “Her? She’s the one in danger?”

Ronny hated to admit it. “Yes.”

Sully looked from Ronny to Brina. “What kind of danger?” he asked her.

Brina’s heart began to pound. There was something about the way Ronny’s brother looked at her that made her feel as if she was in the principal’s office. As if she was beneath him. But she steeled herself and answered. “A man broke into my apartment last night and attempted to kidnap me.”

“Kidnap you? For what reason?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Sully looked at Ronny.

“I have Reynolds looking into it now.”

Then Sully, who seemed very troubled by this news, looked at Brina again. “Do you know this man that broke into your place?”

“No sir.”

Sully continued to look at her doubtfully. “Are you sure?”

“Yes sir. I never saw that man before in my life.”

“So you’ve never been around any bad guys before in your life? Is that what you’re telling me?”

“No sir.”

“So you’ve been around bad people before?”

“Only when I was in prison,” Brina said.

Sully’s hard blue eyes stretched beyond the largeness they already were. “ Prison ? You’ve been to prison ?”

Ronny was staring at Brina too. But for a far different reason than Sully’s stare. To Ronny, the fact that she would tell the truth to a man that even a blind person could see would not look kindly on anybody’s failings, said a lot about the kind of woman she was. She was never ashamed to tell the truth no matter what people thought of that truth. That impressed him.

But Sully was more alarmed than impressed. “What were you in prison for?” he asked her.

“Crimes she didn’t commit,” Ronny said before she could say a word. Brina was grateful. Sully’s fierceness and unrelenting questions were making her extremely uncomfortable.

Sully looked at his brother. “How would you know?”

“Because she told me so.”

That shocked Sully too. “Because she told you? That’s all it took?”

“For my sake, yes. And for her sake, I’ve got a team of lawyers looking into it as well.”

Brina was shocked to hear that. “You do?” she asked him. Sully looked at her.

Ronny nodded his head. “Yes, Sabrina, I do.”

“Since when?”

“Since three months ago. The same day you told me of your innocence.”

Brina was floored. Nobody had ever believed her, let alone looked into it for her. “Have they found out anything?”

Sully could tell she wanted to jump out of her skin with anticipation. He wasn’t sure if her reaction was because she hoped those attorneys would confirm what she told Ronny and thereby keep her in his good graces, or she feared they would expose her for the liar she is and undermine what she said. He continued to stare at her.

“They’ve found quite a bit,” Ronny said.

“Like what?” Brina anxiously asked.

“Enough so far for each of the attorneys to conclude that there’s been a grave miscarriage of justice. They don’t have all their ducks in a row yet, and they’ve warned me that it could take months rather than weeks before they could confidently state the facts, but they have more confidence than not that you will be exonerated.”

Brina covered her mouth in shock, and to prevent herself from screaming out happily. She could not believe it! With tears in her eyes she jumped up from that chair and ran to Ronny. “Oh Ronny!” she cried out. “The whole time I was in prison I was praying somebody would believe me. I was praying somebody would listen to me. But I was nothing in their eyes. But you’re actually helping me. Thank you. Thank you so much!” She was balling now.

Ronny pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. He didn’t give a damn that Sully was in the room too. But that information confirmed to him what he knew all along: She was different. She was truly that one in a million. It also confirmed to him that he did not deserve her. But yesterday morning, when Jockey did not show up for work, he weakened and ordered Elvira to let Sabrina take Jock’s place. Then last night happened and changed everything.

Sully opened his suit coat and placed his hands on his hips as he watched his brother comfort his sobbing driver. He was absolutely dumbstruck. Warren Ronald Bradshaw comforting anybody who wasn’t one of his brothers was amazing. But the way he held her. The way his eyes were squeezed shut. The way he went so far as to hire lawyers to exonerate her and to have the venerable Reynolds McNabb, their chief of security, investigate the break-in at her house, all astounded him. Ronny was not an altruistic man. He only did what was in his best interest. But he was looking out for her interest? Sully would not have believed it had he not seen it with his own two eyes.

When Brina stopped crying, she kept her back to Sully as Ronny handed her his handkerchief and she wiped her tears away. “I’m so sorry,” she muttered. But Ronny made clear she had nothing to be sorry about.

Then he looked at Sully. And Sully didn’t mince words. “What is she to you, brother?” His look was sincere, perplexed.

Brina’s heart nearly dropped when he asked that question. She remained turned toward Ronny. She could see the distress in his eyes. He wasn’t a man who made commitments to women or he would have been married with children by now. Or at least in a committed relationship. “I’m his driver,” she said to Sully.

“What kind of driver?” Sully asked. “The driver of his car, or his heart?”

Brina could not believe he asked that kind of question. It was like he could see right through her, and she didn’t like anybody having that close a view. “The driver of his car,” she said.

But Ronny wasn’t playing games anymore. “She’s my lady,” he said as they stared into each other’s eyes. And then to put an even finer point on it: “She’s my girlfriend,” he added.

Brina looked at Ronny as if she was seeing him for the first time. Did she just hear him say what she just heard him say? She didn’t know what to make of it!

Sully didn’t either. He seemed frozen in place. And then he spoke. “You’ve never claimed a woman as your lady in your entire life. Now you’re claiming your driver ?” It seemed nonsensical to Sully.

But Ronny had surprised himself and gone out on that limb. He wasn’t going back. “You’re correct, I’ve never claimed any woman before. But I’m claiming Sabrina,” he said. “She’s my lady. She’s my woman. She’s my girl. Pick your choice.”

Brina could hardly believe it. She went from settling for a man like Jeremy who turned out to not even care about her, to one of the most powerful men in the world claiming her as his own. The first man to ever publicly do so. But he did so, she also realized, without saying anything about it to her first. Which was bothersome.

Ronny saw the apprehension in her eyes. He knew he had skipped a very crucial step. “If she’ll have me,” he added as he looked into her eyes.

If she’ll have you , Sully wanted to blurt out in a mocking tone. There wasn’t a woman in Oregon that didn’t want to have herself a Bradshaw man, or at least all the money and power that came with that name, and Ronny had to know that too. Why, he wondered, was he being so solicitous to this particular woman?

Brina wanted to jump at the chance to have him the way Sully seemed convinced she wanted to jump. Or course I’ll have you , her heart was screaming for her to respond. But Ronny seemed so anguished, as if his head wasn’t as sure as his heart seemed to be. Or vice versa. And what about that woman they mentioned who was waiting for a ring from him? What was that about? And he was so damn moody, she didn’t know if she could trust his words. Would he claim her today, then on a whim dismiss her tomorrow? Her livelihood was at stake in this conversation too. “I think we’d better take it slow,” she said, to alleviate that look of terror in his eyes, and her own fears too. This was a heavy conversation she wasn’t prepared for. For the past three months, she thought they were done for. Now this?

But in that instant, when Brina said they should take it slow, Sully fell in love with her too. He knew in that moment why his brother was singling her out. It wasn’t her physical attributes: Physicality was too easy an explanation. It was seeing that rare diamond in the rough. That diamond nobody would regard unless they took a deep dive and a much closer look. Because Sully thought he’d never live to see a woman turn down any Bradshaw man ever. And he wasn’t being arrogant or cocky about it either. It was a natural fact. “That’s a very good idea, young lady,” he said to Brina.

But it wasn’t his approval Brina needed. It was Ronny’s. And Ronny seemed surprised by her response, maybe even hurt by it. She could never really tell with him.

Ronny was both those things: surprised and hurt. But he also knew Sabrina was her own woman. And a very in tune to his needs woman at that. She had to sense that making commitments wasn’t something he did lightly. And to confess his interest in her in front of the one man he respected more than any man on earth was a tremendous leap for him. And he knew, at the end of the day, she was right. Slow and steady for two people like them, both of which were old enough to understand the risks of impulsivity. It made perfect sense. “I agree,” he said with a smile that seemed to lift that burden of his confession off of him.

And it relaxed Brina too.

But neither one of them could take the time to think about what it all meant long-term because Ronny’s intercom buzzed, and his secretary announced that Reynolds McNabb, the head of Security for all of Bradshaw Technologies and all other Bradshaw interests, was there to see him.