Beauty and the Billionaire

“Fuck.” I hit my steering wheel as I head toward Healing Homes. All my thoughts are on Whitney and how I’m going to explain some of this to her. One threat is gone and now another one has surfaced. This one is mine, though. That should make me rest a bit easier, but it doesn't.

“Mother fucker.” I push down on the gas. “Call Oz,” I tell my phone. It starts to ring instantly.

“Hey,” Oz answers.

“This might be a stretch, but I can’t get Whitney on the phone. If Brock can’t get to me he might go after someone close to me.”

If he really wanted to get back at me, Whitney would be the way to do it. I clench the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turn white. The fact that my fucked-up past has come for an innocent like Whitney has me seeing red. I’ll make that motherfucker wish I’d killed him the last time.

“I hear you,” he says before he ends the call. I’m sure to make a few others. I get to Healing Homes in record time. Taylor buzzes me right in.

“Whitney?” I ask, getting to the point.

“She just left. I’m surprised you didn’t see her.” I’m back out the door before it even closes behind me. I head to the right, the most likely way she went, as I call my sister to check if she might have picked her up.

“Give it up, Knox. You’re the one who messed up. I’m not telling you where she is. When she wants to talk to you, she will,” Faith says through the phone.

“She’s not with you?”

“No.”

The hell. Where would she fucking go? I head toward the diner and all the little shops down Main Street. This isn't like Whitney. It’s a realization that the things I do really affect her the same way she affects me with the things she does.

I pick up my pace, almost jogging down the sidewalk knowing she has to be out here somewhere if she left the shelter and didn’t get picked up by Faith. If Kennedy was with her, Oz would have let me know by now.

My phone starts to go off in my pocket. I slow down enough to pull it out to answer it. Oz’s name scrolls across the screen. Something catches my eye as I slide my finger across the screen to answer.

My bunny.

A man has a hold on her arm. I can’t see his face. He’s in jeans and a black shirt with his back toward me. Whitney’s eyes are wide with fear as she listens to whatever the man is saying to her. I can tell from the way he’s angled he’s got something pressed against her side so that she won’t fight him. Rage like I’ve never felt before fills me at the thought of this asshole trying to hurt my innocent Whitney. Try being the key word.

He starts to pull her down the narrow street along the side of one of the buildings. That’s when I get a glimpse of him, letting me know my suspicions were correct. I act fast. Whitney spots me before Brock even knows I’m on him.

“I’ll kill you,” I growl as I dig my fingers into his dark graying hair and yank him as hard as I can. He goes flying through the air, landing hard on the concrete sidewalk. The screwdriver in his hand drops clanging to the ground at my feet.

I lunge at him. His eyes go wide when he sees who grabbed him. He tries to scurry away from me but only rolls off the curb into the street. A car swerves, barely missing him. Good, I want to be the one to hit him.

I follow him into the street, grabbing him by his shirt and lifting him up a foot so I can punch him square in the face. I hit him again and again before I let him fall back down to the ground. He groans, trying to fight back, but it’s useless. I don’t feel his hits. All I feel is rage.

“You fucking touched her.” I stomp on his hand. He screams out in pain. “I’m going to break all your fingers. Then maybe you’ll learn to keep your hands to yourself.”

Someone grips the back of my shirt, trying to pull me backwards and away from Brock. “Knox.” Whitney’s sweet voice wraps around me over the sounds of sirens in the distance. “Please stop. I need you.”

That’s all it takes. I turn around and scoop her up into my arms. She wraps herself around me. “I’m okay,” she whispers into my ear. “He didn’t hurt me. You saved me.” She presses her mouth to the shell of my ear. I close my eyes, breathing her sweet scent in, letting her calm me.

“No one will ever take you from me.”