The Billionaire and His Driver

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

“What does it show?” Ronny asked.

“No movement in or out,” said Reynolds as their SUV turned onto the long dirt road that led to Troy Cannigan’s shack.

“So that means we’ve been tracking him via satellite all this time?”

“Yes and no.”

Ronny frowned. “What do you mean yes and no?”

“We’ve been tracking him, alright, but the satellite was down for about four hours, up until a couple minutes ago when we were able to pick back up the feed.”

“Why didn’t you call our guys inside? Aren’t they in there?”

“No cell service in these woods. None.”

“So we don’t even know if he’s home?” asked Sully. “Or if our guys are okay?”

“They have satellite radios, but nobody’s responding so far.”

“What was Cannigan doing before the feed went down?”

“He went inside and stayed inside the full three hours our guys were observing on satellite. Then when our guys showed up, he was out chopping wood. That’s when they took him inside at gunpoint. And we were able to communicate with them via satellite radio. But then all satellite communications went down. Which isn’t unusual at all. It happens a lot in these woods. But when it came back online a few minutes ago, there’s been no movement in or out. And the radio is still down. But it has a tendency to lag behind the wider area, so that’s not unusual either. So we assume that’s he’s still inside, given the lateness of the hour, and our guys are with him. But that’s only an assumption.”

“And assumptions are dangerous things,” said Ronny.

“Yes sir,” Reynolds agreed.

Ronny looked at Brina. Sully could tell he was concerned. “What are you thinking?” he asked his brother.

“I’m thinking I should have left Sabrina on the plane.”

“That would have been more dangerous,” said Tex.

“On a forty-thousand-pound plane would have been more dangerous? Get out of here!”

Tex and Reynolds exchanged a glance.

“What he means is the isolated area,” said Brina. “That’s all he meant.”

Ronny exhaled. “Yeah I know.” He ran his hands through his hair. “I’m just fucking tired of putting you in these dangerous situations. All this shit for what? Because somebody’s lying on you?”

Brina took his hand and squeezed it. “The beginning of the end, remember?” she said to him. “And then we can plan the wedding we haven’t discussed after a marriage proposal you haven’t given. Won’t that be fun?” she added, and they all laughed.

Even Ronny eased up and squeezed her hand back. “I’ll stop tripping,” he said.

“Good,” said Brina. “Because we’re in it now. Let’s just get out of it alive.”

Ronny looked into her eyes. He still harbored guilt and regret. But he nodded his head.

And the SUV drove up to the small shack of a house in the woods.

Ronny had to decide which of the two security guys he wanted to watch Brina. But it was no contest as far as he was concerned. Reynolds was Tex’s boss. He ran all of their security apparatus. “Mac, you stay here with my lady,” he said to Reynolds.

Reynolds knew the trust he had to have in him. “Yes sir.”

“You guard her with your life,” Ronny added.

“I will sir.”

“If you see anything out of order, you blow this horn or fire a shot, I don’t care which. And likewise if you hear gunfire inside, you get her out of here.”

“Yes sir.”

Ronny looked at Brina as he, Sully, and Tex piled out of that SUV. Brina wanted him to stay with her, but she understood he couldn’t. “Behave yourself,” he said.

Reynolds laughed. Brina smiled. “Boy bye!” she said, and Ronny, his brother, and Tex made their way to the front door.

Sully counted to four and then Tex kicked the door open. Once they ran inside, they saw four men playing cards at a table in the kitchen area. All four men jumped up and tried to either pick up their guns off the table or pull their guns out, but Sully, Tex, and Ronny began shooting and took all four of them out.

Then they heard a door slam down the hall. They took off in that direction. When they kicked in the only door that was closed in that hall, they saw an open window and an older white man slumped down on the floor in the corner, holding his bleeding stomach where he had apparently been shot. At the same time they saw their men, all three of them, dead and piled up in that room.

“Mother fuck !” decried Sully.

But just as Sully went to make sure all three men were dead, and Ronny headed over to the one man still alive, presumably Troy Cannigan, gunfire erupted from outside.

Ronny suddenly thought about Brina and he didn’t hesitate. He took off out of that room and ran toward the exit. Tex ran after him.

Sully was devastated by what they’d seen in that room, but he hurried over to the man bleeding in the corner. “Are you Cannigan?” he asked him.

“Help me,” the man cried. “They shot me.”

“Are you Cannigan?”

“Yes!Help me.”

Sully knew they needed answers from him. That was why he grabbed the bedspread to see if he could staunch the man’s blood flow, but it had bled out so much already. And his brother might need him. He pressed the spread on the wound, and pressed Cannigan’s hand on that wound.

“You help me I’ll tell you where the money is,” Cannigan said.

Sully needed to leave, to get outside, but he needed info too. “Where?” he asked him.

But when Ronny and Tex made it outside, two men were already shot down but still alive, and Reynolds was standing over both of them, his gun aimed at their wounded bodies.

When Brina saw Ronny, she got out of the SUV and was running to him. “Are you okay?” Ronny asked as he ran to her. “I ordered Mac to get you out of here if gunshots were heard.”

“He was backing out when those two men ran out shooting at us. He had no choice but to fire back.”

Ronny hated to hear that. But Brina kept looking over at the men on the ground. “What is it?” he asked her.

“One of them is my father, Ronny.” She was pointing to the black man on the ground, laying on his back.

Ronny knew this was their only chance to find out the truth. He and Brina hurried over to him.

When Joe Mosley looked up and saw Brina, he frowned. “What are you doing here?”

Brina fell on her knees as soon as she heard his voice. Ronny fell on his knees beside her. “Now is the time to find out what you need to know,” he whispered to her, as he considered the grave extent of her father’s wounds. “He doesn’t have very long.”

Brina only had one question for her father as her face was a mask of anguish. “Why?” she asked him, that anguish in her voice too. “Why would you steal from a charity like that?”

“I needed money,” Mosley said in a voice that was losing strength, “and they had it hand over fist.” But he was staring at Brina.

“But those supplies were for poor people in need.”

“I am who I am!” Then he frowned. “What do you expect from me?” Then he tried to contort his body. “This really hurts,” he said of his wounds.

“Did you follow her to Oregon?” Ronny asked him.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Warren Bradshaw. Her fiancé.”

“You’re that rich guy? And she’s your fiancé? Shit! I should have kidnapped her ass and got you to pay her ransom. But I didn’t figure anybody would pay up just to get her back.”

Ronny was stunned by his lack of concern for his own daughter. “Don’t you care at all for your child?”

“Her mama left me. I didn’t leave them. She left me.”

“What does that have to do with caring for your children?” Brina asked him.

He closed his eyes. The pain was intensifying. “When she left me, that was over.” Then he frowned this time. “It really hurts.” He seemed only concerned about his wounds.

“Who helped you to divert those trucks?” Ronny asked.

“The truckers,” said Mosley. “Who else?”

‘When she went to prison, why didn’t you speak up? Why didn’t you help her?”

“And I go to jail instead? You don’t know squat, rich boy. Besides, she only served two years.”

Ronny could not believe the inhumanity of the man. Reynolds could not either. Sully had come outside, and he couldn’t believe it either.

But Brina knew the inhumanity of her father. That was nothing new to her. “Why did you send Drez Wilburn to my apartment?” she wanted to know.

“Because Cannigan was in prison talking about you was the woman that had that big pile of money. That even he didn’t know where you had put it. Me and my men came here when we got word he was out of jail. I knew about this place and figured he’d come here to hide out. I was torturing his ass trying to get info from him when y’all showed up.”

He began moaning. “Oh it hurts. Baby girl, it hurts!” He tried to lean up, but he couldn’t. “I’m gonna die, baby girl. Don’t let me die!”

He had that look of terror in his eyes Sully had seen too many times before. But for Ronny and Brina, it was tough to see.

Brina even took her hand and rested it on his forehead. “It’s alright,” she was saying to him. “It’s alright.”

And suddenly all of his bravado had faded away. And he was looking at his daughter seemingly for the first time. “Forgive me,” he said as tears stained his big hazel eyes. “Please forgive me, baby girl.”

Sully was staring intensely at Brina. This would make or break his decision about her. But Ronny already knew what she was going to say.

“Yes, I forgive you,” she said, wiping her own tears away. “I forgive you.”

He smiled and gripped her hand. And then it was a death grip. He was gone.

Ronny pried his hand from Brina’s and helped her to her feet. But Sully knew there was another piece to that puzzle. “Cannigan’s inside,” he said.

“Is he alive?” asked Brina.

“Barely,” Sully said.

Brina and Ronny hurried inside. Tex, as Ronny’s bodyguard, ran inside with them.

Sully looked at Reynolds. “What you think?” he asked his old friend.

“She forgave that bastard.” Then Reynolds nodded his head. “She’s the real deal.”

“I think so too,” Sully said. Then he went inside as well.

Inside, Cannigan was barely hanging on. And all he cared about was getting help. “Did somebody call 911?”

“We’ll call when you tell us why you lied on Sabrina,” Ronny said.

Cannigan was quick to respond. “Because I knew Mosley would come after me looking for that money I kept beneath this shack. I needed him off my scent. That’s why I gave him her name. I knew he’d spend all his time looking for her and forget about me. And when I got out early, I knew then I could disappear. I had no idea he knew about this place.” He shook his head with regret in his eyes. “I had no idea or I never would have come back here.”

“Why Sabrina?” asked Ronny, a confused look on his face. “Why did you say she was the person with the stash?”

“Because I knew she was his daughter.”

“How did you know that?” Brina asked him.

“He told me. That’s how he found out about the charity. He was in Detroit looking for you.”

Brina frowned. “Why would he be looking for me?”

“How should I know?” Then he leaned his head back. “I would have never come back to this place had I known,” he said again. Just like Mosley, it was all about him. Neither man gave a rat’s ass for Brina.

And then he, too, passed on.

Ronny placed his hand around Brina’s waist as she continued to stare at her former boss.

“He told me where the money is,” Sully said.

“Where?” Ronny asked.

Sully went across the room and removed a wooden plank. Inside the plank was what looked to be thousands of dollars. Only it all was chewed up to shreds.

Ronny looked at Sully. “Termites?”

“Paper money is made of a cellulose-based material, and that’s what they eat. So yeah. They all died, not over cash, but over trash.”

Brina covered her face in agony. It was too much.

“Let’s get you out of here,” Ronny said and she didn’t argue. They made their way out of that house of horrors. Sully and Tex did the same. It was a crime scene now.

They could hear sirens in the far distance as they sat on the top step of the front porch and waited for the Police. “Mac apparently called 911,” Ronny said.

“You and Brina can leave,” Sully said. “I know how you don’t want Bradshaw Technologies to be tainted by all this.”

“Too late for that,” said Ronny. “I want the story to come out. I want Sabrina completely exonerated.”

Brina looked at him and squeezed his knee. “Thanks.” Then she stared at her father’s lifeless body across the yard.

“Feel strange doesn’t it?” Ronny asked her.

But she shook her head. “Doesn’t feel like anything,” she said. “That’s what’s strange to me.”

Ronny stared at her. His timing was never perfect, but it seemed like as good a time now as any. “Sabrina?” he said to her.

She didn’t look at him. “Yes?”

He exhaled. “Will you marry me?”

Brina didn’t miss a beat, and she didn’t stop looking at her father. “Of course,” she said as if it went without saying.

Ronny smiled. It was that easy? “Really?”

Brina smiled and looked at him. “Really,” she said, and they both kissed.

Then Ronny looked up at Sully with a big grin on his face. “I’s about to be married now,” he said as if he was straight out of The Color Purple . And Brina laughed through her tears. He didn’t even get the line right. But it didn’t matter. Even Sully was laughing. It was the saddest, happiest day.