The Billionaire and His Driver

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Sully was driving and Tex was on the front passenger seat as they left the construction site, but all was not well inside the car. Brina was seated beside Ronny, and he was holding her hand, but not a word had been spoken. Sully kept taking peeps at the couple through the rearview mirror as he drove. His patience was wearing thin because he wanted answers, but his normally impatient brother wasn’t pressing her for any.

Ronny wanted answers, too, but he could see how distressed Brina was. He knew she would tell him, in her own time, and he was giving her however much time she needed. But Sully, being a man of little patience, decided that questions needed to be answered so he decided to ask them himself. “Is it true?” he asked her.

It was the wrong move because Ronny exploded. “Don’t you dare ask her that!” he yelled out. “No, it’s not true! None of that bullshit is true! None of it!”

Sully and Tex both had never seen Ronny defend anybody so forcefully. Sully nearly ran off the road as he stared through the rearview mirror at his brother. Tex almost turned around to make sure they didn’t have an imposter on their hands. Ronny Bradshaw defended a woman? It was unheard of.

But it was everything to Brina. She looked at him, her big eyes filled with unshed tears. “ You believe me ?”

She asked him that question with such amazement and awe on her face that it broke Ronny’s heart. Her whole life she’d been piled on so often that it was a miracle to her that somebody decided not to join in. He squeezed her hand. “Yes, I believe you, Sabrina. Wholeheartedly,” he said.

It was too much for Brina and those unshed tears began to drip from her eyes. She leaned against Ronny. Ronny handed her his handkerchief and pulled her into his arms.

But Sully’s clandestine work for the government put him around masterful con artists more often than he cared to admit, and he was concerned that his brother might be falling for one of those master cons. Because if that asshole at the construction site was telling even a morsel of truth, that meant Miss Sabrina was a master manipulator at best. A master thief at worst.

And because of that, Sully couldn’t remain silent. He wanted to say if she’s telling the truth , but he didn’t go there or he and his brother, he knew, might come to blows. “ Since she’s telling the truth,” he said instead, “why did she react so strangely when that name was mentioned?”

It was a question Ronny wanted answered too, but he wasn’t going to force it out of Brina. And he was about to tell Sully that very thing.

But Brina removed her head from his shoulder, blew her nose, and sat upright again. She was ready to answer. “I know Joe Mosley,” she said.

Sully sat upright in his seat too. Now they were getting somewhere! “You know him how?” he asked her.

Another spat of tears dropped from Brina’s big, bright eyes. Even Sully could feel her pain. There was something about her that pricked at his heart too. But for his brother’s sake he had to know the truth.

Brina wiped her tears away again, and then she steeled herself to even discuss it. “Joe Mosley, the person Drez Wilburn mentioned . . .” But she still had to take a moment.

Ronny squeezed her hand again. But his heart was hammering. Was Mosley her husband? Was he her lover ? Was there more to her story than she’d let on? Was he being duped as Sully seemed to suggest? By the way she was unable to even discuss the man, a thousand questions floated through his head. But he allowed her the time she needed.

Brina was overloaded with emotions too. But she regained her composure, sat upright again, and responded. “Joe Mosley,” she said, “is my father.”

When she said it, Sully and Tex glanced at each other. She and her former boss were in cahoots with her own father ? Was it a family affair stealing from charities?

Ronny wasn’t that deep yet. Because it was a glaring contradiction that didn’t make sense. He had a totally different concern. “But you told me your parents died in that house fire,” he said to Brina.

When he said those words, Sully and Tex looked at each other again. What the fuck was on both of their faces. Sully looked through the rearview again.

“My mom remarried and she and my stepdad - who adopted my siblings and me – did die in that fire. Joe Mosley is my biological father. He left when I was nine.”

“Did you know he was a drug dealer?” Sully asked.

“That’s why his parental rights were terminated and my stepfather was able to adopt us.”

“So you say this Joe Mosley is lying on his own daughter?” Sully had skepticism in his voice.

“He’s lying, yes, or Troy Cannigan is. Because I never stole anything.”

“But what Drez Wilburn said makes sense,” said Sully. “How could the same crime happen at both charities? And you’re the common denominator?”

RAM !

Everybody in the car lurched forward violently when they felt a hard hit from behind. “ What in the world ,” Ronny said.

Sully looked at the back of the car through the rearview mirror, and Tex pulled out his weapon as they all turned around and saw a big, black Suburban speed up to Ronny’s Mercedes again and ram it once more with an even harder jolt.

“Get down, Boss!” Tex cried out as Ronny threw Brina to the floor of the car and got on top of her just as the SUV sped up yet again and slammed into the back of the Mercedes for a third time. But this time, before Tex could crawl back there, shots were fired from the SUV that shattered the back glass of the car and caused Sully to swerve wildly across the isolated rural road.

Tex started firing back as Sully kept control of the vehicle and floored it, while at the same time exercising defensive maneuvers that had their car going side to side as he drove to get away from their attackers.

Ronny kept Brina beneath him, with her body totally covered by his body as he attempted to reach into the compartment on the back of the front seat to pull out the Glock he placed there after what happened at Brina’s apartment. Once he got that gun out, and without exposing Brina, he began firing back too as he and Tex ducked the incoming from the SUV.

But Sully knew they weren’t going to survive any more rams from the back. Not a car versus that tank of an SUV.

He slammed on brakes hard, causing all of his passengers to slam against the back of the front seats as he flung the gear in Reverse and began backing up so fast that he backed right past the SUV, giving Ronny and Tex a clear shot to take out the driver.

But the driver of the SUV panicked, tried to ram the Mercedes with too much forcefulness that the big Suburban lost traction, went slightly airborne, and then began flipping and flipping until it landed on all fours but was still out of control. It sped across the highway, offroad, and began mowing down bushes as it took on even more momentum speeding down the ridge. Until it sailed into the river.

Sully pulled over to the side of the road and began getting out.

“Tex, stay here with my wife,” Ronny ordered as he hurried out and ran with Sully down the embankment.

Tex, exhausted from the adrenalin rush, looked at Brina as she was getting up. “Stay with my wife ? Did I miss something, Miss Brina?”

Brina had heard it as well. “I must have missed it too,” she said, and they both laughed. But it was a nervous laugh as both of them began looking around: spooked by the ordeal they had just endured.

Ronny and Sully made it down to the river’s edge and was able to see the Suburban sinking into the tributary. They both were breathing heavily as Sully looked from the river to his brother. “What has she gotten you into, Ronny?” he asked him, a fixed frown on his attractive face.

Ronny didn’t answer because he didn’t know. He looked around. “Let’s get out of here,” he said as they began hurrying back to the car. “I’ll call in Mac. Let him and his people take it from here. I don’t want any of this shit attaching to Bradshaw Technologies.”

Sully was not surprised. Ronny’s business empire always came first no matter what. Which didn’t bode well, Sully suspected, for just how much of Brina’s drama Ronny was going to continue to put up with. Because the lady was dramaville as far as Sully was concerned.