A Double Dose of Billionaire: Part Four (3 page)

***

These ropes—I couldn’t do anything with them tying me down. I was starting to feel dizzy from the blood loss. My adrenaline had run out and I couldn’t fight back properly. I shouldn’t have quit those judo lessons so early on when I was a kid. Those skills could have came in handy now.

Click.
That was the third picture of my bare breasts. My dignity was getting sucked away bit by bit. My hatred for these two people had manifested into the need for pure murder. Damien unbuttoned my entire shirt and was about to peel it off

“Fuck you both. Burn in hell,” I cursed, still struggling. Much to my dismay, my strength was no match for Damien’s, and he held tightly to the back of the chair. The disadvantageous circumstances had made me begin to lose all hope. As the seconds ticked by, my resolve to fight back wore thin, and my energy ran low. Only the bloodcurdling feeling of Kelly’s fingers trailing across my clothes, and Damien touching my skin, gave me renewed reason to fight back.

Smirking, Kelly said, “Take her shirt off.” Her camera was poised and ready for action.

Damn it.
Was there really no way out of this? Kelly’s gun was still on the counter. I could try lunging for it, but Damien barely let me move. Since when did he get so strong? Perhaps it was the bullet wound that made me too weak in comparison. My breath began to run short, and the room spun around my head. The blood loss was getting to me.

Right when Damien reached for my shirt, and when I thought all hope was lost, I heard knocking on my door.

I screamed as loud as I could, before stopping and hesitating to do it again. What if Kristie had returned? I didn’t want to pull her into this mess. She wouldn’t stand a chance against these two, with or without their gun.

But that person wasn’t Kristie, and lucky enough for me, it was someone capable enough to have a chance at handling this situation.

“Ms. Fontaine, are you alright?” a man shouted. Tyrone had arrived. I’d leap for joy if I weren’t so terribly constrained and injured. He had the ability to save me. More than once, he doubled as a bodyguard, removing pesky paparazzi from my vicinity. The twins explained to me he had been in the military before working for their company. He should know how to subdue these two amateurs, right?

I tried to shout back to Tyrone, but Damien muffled my response with a hand.

My lack of response wasn’t enough to discourage my driver. “I’m coming in, ma’am!”

Swiftly, he knocked down the door with one strong kick. It landed on the floor with some of its hinges torn from the wood. Kelly swung her head toward his direction while Damien looked up. They were distracted, giving me freedom to try and roll my shirt over my breasts with my shoulders. It was a sad attempt, and I barely looked decent, but it covered enough. 

I despised Kelly, but I had to admit, she was a quick thinker. Without flinching, she dived for the gun. It was in her hands before Tyrone or I had time to do anything about it.

She pointed her weapon at him. “Don’t move.”

Surprised, he stopped in his tracks, but he wasn’t so easy to ward off. He, too, had a gun in his hand. It was pointed straight at Kelly.

The intensity at which they glared at each other seemed as if it came straight out of an action film. Both their fingers were on their triggers. They could be set off at any random second.

“Who are you?” she asked, warily studying Tyrone. She appeared a lot less malicious and more panicky now that the ball had fallen out of her court.

He pulled on the gun’s slide to arm it. “Release her and you won’t come to any harm.” Eyeing me, he took a step forward.

“Don’t fucking move! Tell me who the hell you are.”

“Her driver.”

She snorted, “What the fuck is a stupid driver doing here?”

“And her professional bodyguard.”

That stopped her from being condescending.  She pulled her face back together. “Hired by the Crawford brothers?”

“Yes.”

Kelly narrowed her eyes. “Well, tell your fucking bosses that I’m not going to let her go until they deposit fifty thousand dollars into my bank account by tomorrow.”

“I can’t do that.”

“What do you mean you can’t?” Swiftly, she pointed the gun at me instead. “I’ve shot her once. I can shoot again.”

He didn’t answer. I observed the two of them as my pulse quickened. With both of them fully equipped, this could play out any way. They were at an uncomfortable standstill. I didn’t think it’d last very long, or anyone was going to walk out of this uninjured.

And Tyrone was outnumbered. I caught sight of Damien walking out of the shadows wearing a nervous look. He was creeping up to Tyrone, a sharp, glinting knife gripped in his fist.

“Behind you!” I shouted to my driver. Damien jumped toward him as soon as he heard me. Luckily, Tyrone was agile and quick. He whipped around, caught my ex-boyfriend’s arm and threw him over. The knife swung across the room, stopping right next to my hand—my chance to free myself.

A gunshot rang as I tried to cut my ropes away. It was Kelly. She had tried to shoot Tyrone, but the stupid bitch wasn’t as experienced at using a gun as she’d like to think, and in the heat of the moment, missed. As soon as he heard her gunshot, he leapt toward her before giving her a chance to take another aim. I nearly stopped trying to cut the ropes away as I watched them, fearing for Tyrone’s life. He had jumped straight toward the gun.

Finally, I was free, but I sat there, paralyzed by fear and confusion.

Attempting to disarm her, Tyrone fought to get her hands in his grip. Their movements blended together into a blur.

The third gunshot of the day sounded.

And then another.

It took some time for me to get past the shock and numbness. My lower lip quivering, I bent my head down to look at my stomach. A gaping hole was torn through my clothes. Red was spreading across my shirt, getting everywhere. My hand shivered as I brought it to the wound. Dazed, and unable to grasp what had happened, I looked at my bloodstained fingers, speechless.

Kelly had shot me again. This time, in my stomach.

My child, please let it be okay.

The background noise turned into a buzz. I heard Kelly shouting, but I couldn’t decipher her words. Damien’s voice soon echoed beside my ear.
What is he saying?

My eyelids fluttered down. They were getting too heavy to keep up. My life was slowly fading away and the slithering tendrils of death got closer.

The last thing I remembered were two strong arms lifting my body up. All I could think about was how they weren’t Ryan or Riley’s.

The unpleasant smell of medicine and disinfectants hit me before I even lifted my eyelids. My head swirled around. Was this the scent of heaven? If so, heaven wasn’t leaving a good impression.

As my eyes fluttered open, it soon became clear that I’d woken up in a hospital. It took me some time to recall how I’d landed here, but not long. My mind was still functioning well—a good sign. I shifted my gaze left and right, until
they
came into view. The twins. Ryan was sleeping in a corner, while Riley laid at my bedside, one of my hands in his.

“You’re awake,” Riley said.

For a brief second, seeing him pleased me. Then I recalled our unresolved misunderstanding. “Hi.”

“Thank God.” He rested his forehead onto my hand. “We thought we might have lost you.”

“I thought the both of you were mad.”

“We’re sorry.”

I waited for him to elaborate, but after some silence, I realized that was it.

Then, it suddenly occurred to my mind—I was shot in the stomach. My baby! “How is it? Is the baby safe? Please tell me it’s okay.” I’d been so excited for it to arrive. I didn’t want to lose my child.

Putting a hand onto my shoulder to try and calm me down, Riley replied, “It’s fine. It was a close call. The bullet missed your womb, but we’re not sure how the blood loss is going to affect it. We need to visit the gynecologist.”

My heart took some time to stop its erratic pounding. “That’s good. Oh, my God. I wouldn’t know what I’d do if…” My voice trailed out. I didn’t want to say it out loud. It’d be ominous.

Riley gave me some time to recover before saying, “There are so many things I need to tell you, Scarlet. It’s funny. I was thinking of all the things I’d say, and now nothing is coming to mind. I’m just so happy you’re here, safe. The doctor told us you might not make it.”

Riley seemed haggard. A light stubble had grown around his mouth and jaw, and dark circles framed his eyes. Even his eyes looked duller. The shimmering sparkle they used to carry wasn’t there. “How long was I out for?” I asked. His condition couldn’t have worsened this much within a short time-frame. Yet, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that the incident with Kelly had happened only yesterday.

“Two weeks,” Riley said. “You slept so soundly. We thought you’d never wake up.”

I glanced down at the sheets. “Two weeks? That’s a mighty long time.”

“Felt like an eternity.”

Fidgeting, I pointed out, “Weren’t you guys done with me, though? After the pictures.”

Ryan woke up, perhaps because our conversation disturbed him. “Hey, Riley.” He wiped his face with his hand.

“She’s awake,” Riley announced.

His mouth parted. Surprised, he tilted his head up and stared at me. “You’re awake?” He ran over to my side and bent down. Then, he continued, “Are you okay? Do you need anything?”

I tried to shift my body up so it wasn’t so awkward to talk to them—it wasn’t a good idea. A sharp pain on my rib stung. “Ouch.”

Ryan leapt into action immediately. His hands came to my sides.

“I’m okay,” I answered. “I just want to sit up.”

“I’ll give you a hand.”

Gently, he lifted me up. The stinging lessened into a numb ache.

When I sat up, I studied the two men, uncertain about what to say. I had so many questions. I started with the simplest and most obvious. “Why are you here?”

Riley sighed. “We came here as soon as we heard the news. I took over with most business dealings, but I visited every day. Ryan never left.”

I raised my brows. I thought they wanted nothing to do with me? “Why?” I was touched by how worried they were, but my last memory I had of them was them kicking me out of their house.

He scoffed, “What do you mean why? We were worried, Scarlet. We didn’t know what to do. You were in critical condition when you went into that operating room. Even the doctor didn’t think he could save you. We thought you were going to… to… die.” He kissed the back of my hand. “I’m so happy you’re safe. You were so pale when you went into that operating room. There was blood all over the place. I thought I’d never see you again.”

Not remembering any of that, I sunk into my bed. “Oh.” An unsettling pause permeated the air. I didn’t want to bring their rejection up, the memory of it cutting deep, but it left too many unanswered questions. “After the photos… you guys made me leave.”

Riley groaned softly. “We’re sorry. We should have trusted you.”

I imagined this confession from him to be much more fulfilling, and that I’d embrace it with as much haughtiness as I could. But I wasn’t smug about it. Instead, it made me happy. I had been angry about their lack of trust before, but after a while, I stopped blaming them. The evidence, splayed out in front of their desk, looked too real. Anyone’s trust would be faltered by it. What I
was
angry about, though, was how they were so quick to ask me to leave and not talk about it. Still, I tried to find it within myself to forgive them. They finally were on my side again. I didn’t want to lose them a second time.

“We asked you to leave because we needed time to ourselves and to investigate,” Riley said.

“It hurt me,” I quipped, recalling my sleepless nights.

He buried his head into the bed. “We know. We’re so sorry. If we had trusted you more, you’d still be safe with us. None of this would have happened.”

I smiled slightly, knowing the twins were back to being
my
twins. “Nevermind that. What’s done is done.” Perhaps I was too weak to feel angry, or my feelings for them made me forget my grudge. “What happened to the photos, then? I’m curious.”

Ryan’s face contorted into disgust. “Our mother.”

Big surprise.

“
Photo manipulation,” he continued. “We dug up Director Goodwill’s old scandal. We had to do some background checks, and research. We didn’t want to believe you’d do such a thing to us. Those images of his scandal fit the poses on the pictures with you, exactly. Wesley was added in through images of his own scandals. He fooled around a lot. They were fakes.” He shook his head. “We could only think about one person who would plan something like that, so we confronted our mother about it.”

Riley scowled. “She was so proud of her scheme. We never should have let her get between us. If we’d kept you by our side this whole time, Kelly and Damien wouldn’t have been able to do those… things to you.”

My stomach churned as I thought about Mrs. Crawford’s prideful face and remembered what Kelly had done. “What happened after that?”