Beauty and the Billionaire

No one answered me. In fact, no one even turned to look at me. It was like I didn’t exist. I turned to watch the countryside go past as we moved along a back road. It wasn’t a major highway and it wasn’t a county road. Instead, we were moving down a gravel road at a speed much faster than I was comfortable with.

I knew gravel roads all too well and they weren’t meant for going 60 mph on them. These type of roads were unpredictable and way too dangerous at that speed. I tightened my seat belt and looked for something to hold onto. These guys had a much different level of comfort with speed and danger than I did. I wanted to ask again where we were going, but I didn’t. Instead, I just stayed quiet and tried to pay attention to as much as possible. We were going northeast and I could tell they seemed to know where they were going. They didn’t use directions and the driver guided the SUV along the back roads with expert precision.

The driver also looked familiar, his big build and blonde hair were very familiar to me. I thought I had seen him on the same night that Chris was shot. I thought he had been one of the men that actually carried Chris out to the SUV after he had been shot. The other person in the front seat did not look familiar to me at all. He had a reddish tint to his hair and freckles on his face. Although he looked equally built and muscular as the other two men in the car, he did not seem as stand-offish as the driver. The red haired man looked back and smiled at me a couple times throughout the drive.

Gunner seemed to be amped up and wasn’t nearly as friendly as the night when Chris got shot, but he seemed to have calmed down a bit since getting into the SUV. I still had no idea what was going on, but I started to feel a little more comfortable because they were all much more relaxed the further we got away from my house. I started to worry what Rebecca and Robert would think had happened to me. They knew things were getting crazy and they knew about Chris being shot. They knew that Chris had taken off to try and figure out who had come after him. It would be a likely conclusion that they would think something bad had happened to me. I couldn’t handle the thought of them worrying about me.

Rebecca wouldn’t sleep as she thought of all the bad things that could happen to me. I knew I needed to get word to them that I was alright. But I didn’t feel safe to say anything yet. I decided to wait until we got where ever we were going, wherever that was.

I leaned my elbow against the window and put my hand on my face. I closed my eyes for a moment out of extreme exhaustion. I couldn’t prevent my eyes from closing and my body drifted off to sleep. It seemed like a quick sleep but when I woke up, we were obviously very far from Bain. The city lights of what I thought might be Chicago flew by as we drove down a major interstate. It was late at night now and I had been asleep for several hours.

“Do we have anything to drink?” I asked Gunner.

This time he seemed to have no problem realizing I was there and he handed me a bottle of water. I guzzled it down quickly and then regretted it. We had been in the vehicle for at least eight hours and I had to use the restroom badly. When I drank the water, it just made everything worse. I couldn’t hold it another second, or at least that is what I felt like.

“Are we going to stop soon? I need to use a restroom.”

“We stopped about an hour ago, you were out of it. We will be there in an hour. Can you wait?” Gunner asked. I contemplated the question, but I really didn’t think I could wait. I wasn’t use to having to hold my bladder. It gave me anxiety right away.

“No, I don’t think I can.” I saw a look of compassion from Gunner that reminded me of the night I met him. The night Chris had been shot. He didn’t seem annoyed by my answer. Instead, he leaned forward to the driver and whispered something.

Within a minute, we had pulled into a gas station and Gunner got out and walked with me to the restroom. When a couple walked past, Gunner grabbed my hand and held it like we were a couple or something like that. I tried to hide the shock of the moment but was pretty bad at it. When the couple finally walked around the corner, Gummy let go of my hand.

I didn’t quite understand his reason for the hand holding, but it seemed that he really wanted to blend in as much as possible. Or perhaps he just didn’t want me to run away and start screaming that I had been kidnapped. I went to the restroom and Gunner waited outside, when I finished we went back to the SUV together and we quickly returned to the interstate to make our way to wherever we were going.

I took in everything I could see and I tried to remember each turn we made. I didn’t know for sure these guys were safe and I wanted to be prepared for my escape if that needed to happen.

Chapter 42

“Can you just tell me where we are going? Please,” I begged Gunner. He finally looked at me, but he still didn’t respond. It was like there was a big secret about where we were going. Obviously I didn’t know what was going on; I couldn’t tell anyone where we were even if I was asked. Why wouldn’t they just tell me something?

“We will be there shortly,” Gunner said.

Then he patted my hand with his. The gesture of kindness overwhelmed me and I started to cry. Everything over the past few weeks had been so emotional. At that moment I sat in a vehicle with three men I didn’t know and was so overwhelmed. I couldn’t take it anymore and I continued to cry.

What had happened to my life? I had been living a nice boring life where I remodeled my family home and took photos in my spare time. Now I was in the middle of murder and mystery that I didn’t want to be in the middle of. Yes, I liked Chris. Yes, I wanted him to be alright. But I didn’t want all the rest of this. It was too much for my fragile emotions and I needed it to end as soon as possible.

Gunner reached out and held my hand and squeezed it. He didn’t say anything and neither did the two men in the front of the vehicle. But his kind gesture erased my concerns that he was some sort of double agent. I could tell he genuinely wanted me to feel more comfortable and certainly wanted me to stop crying. Didn’t all men hate crying? It was that universal thing among all men. They loved their women but hated the emotions that often took control of them.

I took a couple deep breaths and did my best to calm myself.

I wanted to be strong. The last few weeks and everything that had gone on with Chris had brought up so many past emotions of Michael. When I lost him in that car accident a few years before, it had cha

nged my ability to cope with so many more things.

We were north of Chicago now, at least I thought, and exited the interstate. We moved quickly through some side streets and onto a country road. Again, the driver seemed to know exactly where he was going. He also did not care that the dirt road was not meant for going 60 miles per hour.

We pulled into a driveway to a very large Victorian house. It was in the middle of nowhere and the sign at the front of the driveway read Sweet B & B it seemed like a very odd place to be with an SUV full of combat men. Their special forces type skills did not fit with the sweetness of a bed and breakfast. I didn’t really know what their skills were, only that they were some sort of tactical team, but I thought they all had pretty similar skills to Chris.

I watched as we pulled up to the back of the house and the driver got out. He went into the house and then motioned for the rest of the men to come in.

“We are here,” Gunner said as he got out of the SUV.I waited for a moment and then he opened my door. I stood there for a minute before I followed the men inside. I obviously wasn’t being held prisoner as none of the men seemed to care that I looked around the house and made mental notes of everything I could before I went inside. Gunner waited at the door for me as I came up the front steps full of trepidation.

I breathed in deeply and walked into the house. It looked like an old bed and breakfast; everything was outdated and very run down. It wasn’t a current, working business that was for sure. The entryway was covered in huge flowered wallpaper and there was a large chandelier hanging from two stories above. Stairs curved around from one side of the room to the other as they made their way up to the second level.

I stood there and took in everything and then felt like someone was watching me. I turned around and saw a man standing in what looked like the sitting room. He looked very familiar, but my brain did not register who it was at first. The man was dressed in old clothes and had shaggy dark brown hair with a thick brown beard. I looked at him and he looked at me. He smirked and it suddenly hit me.

“Chris!” I said and ran and wrapped my arms around him.