Billionaire Baby Daddy

Even when I ran away from the cabin and back toward Nate’s house, I felt more alive than I had felt in years. My adrenaline was pumping as I ran and I felt strong and powerful. It was like a drug and I wanted to feel it again.

I finally understood why guys like Nate went back to war zones over and over again. There was such a power in the fear your body felt and in overcoming it. I had felt that only on a small scale, but I wanted more of it. If I was successful in accomplishing my plan, I would be able to prove to Nate and to myself that I really was capable of anything.

We gave each other a quick kiss goodbye before Nate left with his boss to the airport. I didn’t go upstairs and I didn’t interact with the family. Instead, I put my running shoes on and cranked the treadmill up as high as it would go. I sprinted for at least five minutes before slowing the treadmill to a jog as I worked through my plan in my head.

Treadmill running wasn’t something I was very familiar with, but I actually liked it a lot. It made it much easier to know the speed you were running at as well as how far you ran. It was a great training tool, especially if you wanted to increase your speed or distance. But as much as I wanted to keep training on the treadmill, I had plans to leave the house later that night. I had a lot of plans, and none of them were going to make anyone happy.

Of course, it was going to be extremely difficult to get out of the house. Mr. Blankenship had a dog that really didn’t like me at all and he had a security system that only he and his wife could turn off. I was going to have to figure out a way to get out of the house, without being detected, and that was all I could think about at the moment.

By the time Mr. Blankenship had returned, I had my plan ready to go. He was a nice man and I really hoped that Nate didn’t take anything out on him after I followed through with my plan. The truth was that Mr. Blankenship didn’t stand a chance against me once I set my mind to something.

I was focused more than I had been in months. The cloud that had been hovering over my head for so long seemed to be lifting and I felt powerful and light. There was a light at the end of my dark tunnel and I couldn’t wait to get to the other side.

“Hey, Mr. Blankenship, did Nate get off on his trip all right?” I asked as I walked into the living room.

“Yes, he did great. Shouldn’t take them too long. How are you doing?”

“I’m starving. Do you have any sandwich meat or anything like that? I think I’ll make myself a sandwich.”

“Sure,” he said as I followed him into the kitchen.

I made myself a couple of sandwiches with an enormous amount of meat on them. I’m sure he couldn’t believe his eyes as he watched me load up the sandwiches and thought how on earth I could fit that much meat into my tiny stomach. But the meat wasn’t just for me; I had to win over their pit bull with it later on. I also needed to take some with me.

I stayed upstairs for an obligatory conversation before I made my way back to my room and gathered my things. Since Mr. Blankenship hadn’t turned on the alarm yet, it was the perfect time for me to escape, but the problem was that it was the middle of the day and I would be way too exposed. I needed to wait until it was dark for my plan to work.

I packed everything I wanted to take with me into one backpack that I found in the closet. I had a couple changes of clothing, my passport, some granola bars, and all the cash from Nate’s cash box. I hated to steal the money from Nate, but I hoped he would forgive me when everything was over. I threw the backpack out the window and then waited for just the right time to leave.

“Here, puppy,” I whispered as I walked out of my room and handed the dog a huge stack of meat to make him like me.

He followed me up the stairs. The window in my room was too small for me to climb out of. The backpack had to be pushed with all my strength just to squeeze through the window. Mr. Blankenship had set the alarm since the afternoon and I needed to use the dog as my way to get outside.

“Would you mind if I took the dog for a little walk? I’m dying to get out of the house,” I said to Mrs. Blankenship when her husband went to the restroom.

The timing couldn’t have worked out any better. She was more than happy to let me walk the dog and she checked to make sure the alarm was off before she let me go outside. She didn’t have any safety concerns for me, because she had no idea why I was really there. I was sure that Mr. Blankenship wouldn’t have let me out of the house at all if I had asked him.

I did take the dog for a walk around the block, and when we came back, I grabbed my backpack from behind the house before I opened the front door and let him in. I closed it behind him though and took off running. It would probably be a minute or two before Mr. Blankenship realized I hadn’t walked in the house with the dog, but I didn’t know if he would really go and look for me. He might be happy that I had left his house and reduced the danger him and his family were in.

In my bedroom, I had left a note for the family so they wouldn’t worry too much about me. I didn’t tell them where I was going, but I told them I appreciated their kindness for letting me stay there. It would probably be scary as hell for them when they realized I was gone and I didn’t want them to worry or think that someone had taken me.

I

knew I shouldn’t have been running, but I had to get to the airport. I had a flight to catch. Running down the street with a backpack would be a sure giveaway that something was up, and if a police officer had driven by I likely would have been asked some questions.

There had been so many ideas that rushed through my head about where I would be safe. One of them was to return home to Liechtenstein; it had been a very safe place for me and I doubted that Stephano would chase after me there. The problem with returning home was that I really didn’t want to go back to my boring life.

Sure, my life had been a little more exciting than I had hoped for over the last few months, but as I was coming out of the cloud, I realized how important it was to live life to the fullest. I couldn’t be that kind of girl who just sat at home and cried about her life. That just wasn’t me. I was someone who took risks.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I wouldn’t be safe anywhere if Stephano wanted to kill me badly enough. He had more money than I could even imagine and finding me and any of the other women who escaped would just be a fun sport to him. I couldn’t run off to hide somewhere else. I wouldn’t spend my life hiding from him.

No, instead, I was going to do something great. I was going to go to Syria and help rescue those families with Nate. I knew the area, I knew the people, and I could help whether he believed I could or not. I had a passport and plenty of cash to buy a plane ticket. I was going to show up at the office building and show Nate that I could work with him and I would be helpful. Maybe he would even decide to hire me to work for his new company. Or maybe it would all go horribly and he would send me home right away, but either way, I was definitely going to Syria.

Sure, I had a lot to learn still, but I was eager to learn whatever it was that I needed to know. I felt a drive and it made me forget all about everything else that had happened over the past few months. My focus was changed and it took up all my energy so I didn’t have to think about the other horrible things of my past.

I was pretty sure I had gone crazy. What sane woman would think that going to Syria was a good idea? I knew it wasn’t probably a sane idea, but I still wanted to prove something to Nate. But I wasn’t going just to prove something to him; I was going to prove something to myself as well. For months I had felt like a totally weak and helpless person. I had felt like I would never be safe again and would always have to have a man around to take care of me. But what if that wasn’t the truth? What if I could prove to myself that I was capable of so much more?

The idea of pushing myself farther and farther had all started when Nate and I went on our first run. I didn’t think I would be able to run at all. It had been so long since I had felt that power that I got from running when I was younger. It was like a drug though, not the running, but the power.

As Nate taught me how to fight off an attacker and how to attack someone myself, I started to get a small glimpse into what it would be like to feel so confident in your body and your skills. That must have been how Nate felt. I thought that it was probably the same feeling that Stephano and other horrible people felt too. I wasn’t sure I would be able to tell the difference between good power and bad, but I had to give it a chance.