Billionaires Runaway Bride

“Nope, I think we need to handle this. It’s sounding like scare tactics and no actual threats. I’m not too worried about it.”

It was a lie.

I was worried about all that was going on, not because I cared if someone hated me, but I cared that they had contacted Delilah. She was the only good thing that had happened in my life in a very long time, and I wasn’t going to let whoever was behind all of this get between what she and I were building. When they contacted Del, that was the last straw. I wasn’t going to hold anything back; I was coming after them.

“Let me call him and see if he can just come over and talk to us. I think you and he can work together and figure out what the best next step is. He’s been around some crazy shit as a private investigator; he knows a lot and nothing really surprises him.”

“Sounds good.”

He called in a favor with his friend and the guy arrived at my house less than two hours later. His hipster suit made Josh’s friend look more like a marketing agent than any sort of investigator – but I didn’t know any investigators, so I had no idea what they were supposed to look like.

Being a billionaire had its advantages. When you called someone and wanted to hire them for a job, those people dropped everything else to come make you happy. It was a perk of my fortune and I knew it, but I still really liked it. I probably hadn’t had to wait longer than a couple hours for anything since the sale of my company; I was getting spoiled by my wealth and I felt it.

Yet, I wasn’t going to be the person to tell people to treat me like everyone else. Who wanted to be treated like everyone else? If that happened, I’d be ignored and pushed off for weeks or months and nothing would ever get done.

“Hey, I’m Billy Stalling. I hear you’ve got an issue on your hands.”

“You can say that. I’m not sure how much of my current issues are connected or not. It could all be connected, or maybe none of it at all.”

I went on to describe all the strange things that had come up in the recent weeks. Each issue on its own seemed to be no big deal, except maybe the large man in the suit who had shown up at my house. But when I said them all aloud, they started to sound like I had a rather large problem building up that could explode at any moment.

I told him about the women in my life, the business partners, friends I’d talked to recently, and everything else I could think of. Josh chimed in and filled in details where I skimped and the investigator took notes the whole time. When we had finished telling him about everything, Billy looked through his notes and underlined areas before turning toward me to ask some more questions.

“Tell me about the girl who works at Dating the Rich,” Billy said while he wrote down some more notes.

“She’s a great girl. Funny, easy to talk to, she’s a lot like me. I don’t know, what do you want to know?”

“All these issues seemed to start popping up when you met her. What part could she be playing in all of this?” His question hit me in the gut like a sucker punch. I hadn’t expected him to question Del or her motives. She was such a kind person, so loving and devoted to her family. I absolutely didn’t think she had anything to do with the mess that was going on.

“What? No. Why would she have anything to do with this?” I said defensively. “Delilah is a widow, she takes care of her son all by herself, and she’s by far one of the best women I’ve ever dated.”

“Please know I don’t mean any offence here. I’m hired to dig into everyone and figure out what’s going on. From what I know about Dating the Rich, there is a large following of women who are scam artists. I’m not saying this girl is; she could very well be exactly who you say she is. I’m just letting you know I’ll need to include her in my investigation.”

My eyes darted over to Josh, and I knew he was in agreement with his friend. Josh had been warning me about the website and Del since I first started talking to him about it. I understood their concerns. Sure, there were women on the site that were trying to land themselves a rich man and would do anything necessary to make it happen.

I knew Del, though. I knew her better than either of these guys and she wasn’t like that. She hadn’t joined the website to hook up with guys; she was simply doing her job when I’d messaged her.

“I messaged her. She didn’t reach out and contact me. She didn’t chase after me or try to get me to ask her out. It was my initiation that started our contact. She was even here with me when one of the messages was sent to her. She showed it to me in her email. This is not Del causing all of this. I know it.”

“Did she have an overly provocative profile picture up?” Billy asked.

Josh raised his eyebrows at me and mouthed the words, “I told you.” He had told me, and I didn’t think he was right then – and I still didn’t. Delilah wasn’t that kind of woman. She was honest and kind, no

t a manipulator like they were making her out to be.

My blood pressure was rising the more we talked about everything that was going on. We were wasting time by turning the questioning to Del; instead, Billy needed to be getting information on the other women I had recently dated.

Love life decisions weren’t always my best decisions. I was much better at making business decisions.

In business, there was an ability to keep everything neutral. Numbers guided my decisions in the business world. With numbers, you had a right and wrong answer. Sure, there were different ways of analyzing the numbers, but I still felt very confident in making these decisions.

I was not as confident in my love life. My gut was a soggy mess when it came to falling in love. I knew it and had protected myself from that mess for years. But as Billy mentioned the possibility that Delilah wasn’t who she said she was, I couldn’t imagine what that heartbreak would do to me.

Normally, my confidence in my own opinion was high enough to squash anyone who got in my way. I wouldn’t have thought a moment longer about the ideas that Billy and Josh had brought up regarding Del.

But since losing my son, I had a distinct lack of confidence in my own ability to see things when they were going wrong. I hadn’t seen his illness in time to make an effective fight against it and that devastated me and my trust in my decision-making skills.

“Yes, she had a bikini photo,” I reluctantly answered Billy’s question. “But that doesn’t mean anything. I know her. I know she’s not involved.”