The Billionaire and His Driver

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

With Tex behind the wheel, Sully on the front passenger seat, and Ronny and Brina on the backseat, they arrived at a construction site in a farming area on the outskirts of Eugene. Sully knew the location, since Bradshaw Tech owned the site, and he continued driving to the far back of the property. It was dark out, and but for two SUVs parked at the makeshift office building, and the lights emanating from that building, the site appeared to be devoid of all people.

But when they got out of the SUV and went inside, Reynolds McNabb, along with two men guarding their prisoner, was waiting. Drez Wilburn, the man that had attacked Brina in her apartment, was seated in a chair bumped up against the front of the desk.

When Ronny saw him, he recognized him immediately. Brina did too. And all the memories of the close call she endured with him came flooding back. Had Ronny not been there that night, and she had gone home alone on that van, there was no telling what might have happened. And suddenly fear gripped her just seeing him again. She moved closer to Ronny.

Ronny, Brina, and Sully walked toward the desk as Reynolds motioned for his men to place chairs in front of Drez. Ronny crossed his legs and held Brina’s hand after they sat down, which Brina appreciated. Tex remained at the door.

“We’re here. What do you have to say?” Ronny asked their prisoner.

But Drez, to Brina’s surprise, was defiant. “I ain’t got nothing to say. What I got to say? I ain’t got nothing to say.”

“We aren’t going around that mulberry bush with you again, Drez,” said Reynolds. “Tell him what you told me.”

But Drez was still defiant. “I SAID,” he spoke arrogantly, “I ain’t got nothing to say.”

Before another word could be said or anybody could so much as let out another breath, Sully flipped open the switchblade nobody knew he had in his hand and sliced it across Drez’s face. Which caused Drez to scream out in unbearable pain, Brina to gasp in shock, and Ronny to flinch. The only one not surprised was Reynolds McNabb. He’d seen Sully in action before.

And Sully didn’t mince his words. He was up off his seat and right in Drez’s face hovering over him. “Got something to say now, you twisted motherfucker? Got something to say now?!”

Drez continued to scream out in pain as he grabbed his bleeding cheek, looked at his hand to see that there was actually blood on it, and placed his hand back on his cheek trying to staunch the flow.

But Brina was looking more at Sully than at Drez. Sully was behaving as if he was some sort of criminal himself, which spooked her.

“Now your ass better tell my brother everything he asks you to tell him or there’s more where that came from,” Sully said.

And Drez started talking immediately, as he stared at Sully. “I was paid to do it,” he said with a cry in his voice.

“Paid to do what?” asked Ronny.

“I’m in pain over here! I need help. Somebody call an ambulance!”

“We’ll call an ambulance alright,” Sully said as Reynolds went into the bathroom off from the office. “But it won’t be to take you to any damn hospital. It’ll be taking your ass to the morgue.”

Reynolds came out of the bathroom with a towel and threw it to Drez. “Stop whimpering and tell what you know,” he ordered him.

Drez placed the towel against his still weeping wound.

“What were you paid to do?” Ronny asked him again.

“To take her to the big boss.”

“Who’s the big boss?”

Drez hesitated. “I don’t know. I didn’t have no contact with him.”

“What did this big boss want with me?” Brina asked.

Drez looked at her with bitterness in his eyes. “You know what he wants. You and your boss knew what he wanted.”

“Stop fucking around and tell them,” Sully said impatiently.

Drez put his eyes back on Sully. He and Reynolds were the ones he feared. “He wanted the money she stole for him.”

Ronny’s heart dropped. Brina’s did too. “I didn’t steal any money for anybody.”

“Yes you did and you know it!”

“That case was investigated by the FBI,” Reynolds said. “She spent two years in prison. Our Legal team is convinced she didn’t steal a dime.”

“I’m not talking about that crime she went to prison for. I’m talking about that other one.”

Ronny frowned. “What other one?”

“When she worked at that charity in Detroit. Before she disappeared and moved all this way to Oregon. But what happened in Detroit? That was the real heist. That was the one she got away with.”

Ronny was floored. So were Sully and Reynolds. They all looked at Brina.

But Brina was as confused as they were. “It’s a pack of lies,” she said. “I never stole a dime from Detroit Reach Charities. I worked there for less than a year when they got shut down. I had nothing to do with all that money that went missing. I had just gotten there.”

“After you got there the money went missing,” Drez proclaimed. “Because you and your boss Troy Cannigan stole it all. Cannigan went to prison and wouldn’t rat you out. That’s the only reason you did no jail time.”

“Just back up,” said Ronny with a fixed frown on his face. “Start from the beginning. What happened to lead to all of this?”

Drez looked at the towel to see if his wound was still weeping. It was. He pressed it back against his face.

“Talk!” Sully said.

“My boss ran drugs for the cartels, okay? But he was living this lavish lifestyle and was stealing the cut the cartels were supposed to get to maintain that lifestyle. So to make up for the deficit, he needed cash. And I’m not talking chump change either. I’m talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s when he found out about that charity she ran.”

“I didn’t run anything,” said Brina. “I was there for less than a year.”

“Go on,” said Ronny.

“Boss found out about these shipments filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of goods traveling up and down the Midwest. So he got with Cannigan and they came up with this scheme to have those goods diverted to various warehouses.”

That made no sense to businessman Ronny. “Why?”

“For half the price they would normally pay, he had a network of store owners from across the region buying those goods from him. Cannigan, and her too probably,” he said, motioning toward Brina, “was manipulating the books to make it look like supplies were delivered to the various communities in need when they had never even been ordered.”

“And these store owners paid half price?” asked Ronny.

“Give an example,” Reynolds said.

Drez was still wincing as if he was still in tremendous pain, but he saw Sully lurking nearby and kept on talking. “If a truck carrying a haul worth a hundred thousand dollars, Boss would sell them to those store owners for fifty thousand. The store owners are happy, and the boss gets to pocket, after the little cut he gave to Cannigan, nearly all that fifty thousand. And we aren’t talking about fifty thousand every now and then. These trucks were making deliveries every few weeks sometimes. It adds up.”

“No shit,” said Sully.

“But when a smart auditor were auditing their books and she called some of those places that supposedly received these large shipments, none of them had received a thing. The Feds got involved and Cannigan got arrested.”

Brina was glued to every word Drez was saying. She had no idea what was going on. She had no idea!

“So when Cannigan got convicted,” Drez continued, “he was in prison making all kinds of noise about having continued those shipments to those warehouses during the months while he was awaiting trial since he was innocent until proven guilty and he was still in charge of that charity. But he was doing it behind my boss’s back. He was taking all the cut for himself. And he claimed he stashed away hundreds of thousands of dollars during that time. But Cannigan wouldn’t say where the money was. Only that he had a gal on the outside that’s keeping it for him. Claimed he didn’t even know where she hid it. So naturally, we wanted that bitch’s name. But he wouldn’t tell for years. Not even after threats. But then, recently, he admitted who she was. He named her.”

Then Drez’s blue eyes looked dead into Brina’s bright eyes. “He said Sabrina Hawkins is her name.”

Brina couldn’t believe it. She just sat there numb. Ronny placed his arm around her, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t concerned about what he’d just heard. “Go on,” he said to Drez.

“Boss wanted that money. He had paid off the cartels long ago, but he was still dipping into their profits. They just didn’t know it yet. So he wanted that money. He ordered us to find her. And we did. Here in Oregon. So I came here to take her back to Detroit so she could lead the boss to the stash.”

“There is no stash,” said Brina. “None of that is true. I wasn’t even implicated in all that missing money in Detroit.”

“Funny how that same scheme started up at that Eugene charity too,” said Drez. “Only you didn’t get away with it that time.”

Ronny and Sully couldn’t help but find it all strikingly coincidental too. Ronny dared not look at Brina. He didn’t want her to see his concern. But Sully was staring at her.

“Who’s your boss?” Ronny asked Drez. “You know too much of the backstory to not know his name. Who is he?”

“I told you I don’t--” When Drez saw Sully coming toward him again, he flinched. “Okay. Just stay away from me!”

“Who is he?” Ronny asked again.

Drez removed the towel from his face to see if his wound was still weeping. It was. He knew he was losing too much blood. Somebody had to help him. “Mosley,” Drez said. “Joe Mosley. Now that I told y’all all I know, please get me some help. I need this thing stitched up.”

“Get help for the man that tried to kill my brother’s driver?” asked Sully. “You’d better sew that shit your own damn self.”

But Ronny noticed a decided change in Brina after Drez had said that name. She looked at Drez. “Describe him,” she said.

Ronny and Sully glanced at each other.

Drez had to think about that. “Tall. Thin. About your complexion. Big forehead. Talked like he was talking out of the side of his mouth because he said he had a stroke when he was a kid. I didn’t even know kids had strokes.”

Brina suddenly stood up.

Everybody was staring at her. “You know him?” Ronny asked her.

“I need to . . . I need. . . Can I leave?” Her voice was distressed. Her face looked devastated.

Ronny stood up too. The change in her demeanor perplexed him. “Yes, we can leave,” he said as he placed his hand on her back. He did it mainly because she looked as if she could barely walk on her own. He glanced back at Sully as they made their way toward the exit.

Sully looked at Reynolds. “I’ll let you know where we go from him. Keep him under guard.”

“Will do,” said Reynolds, who was confused too, as Sully made his way out of the office too.