Page 40 of Guarding the Billionaire

He pressed the heavy tape over my mouth, then I heard the tearing of another strip of tape. My hands were pulled behind my back, secured with more duct tape. Once he was satisfied that I was secured, the man started leading me down the stairs. It was painfully slow with my high heeled shoes, and I debated whether to ditch them or not.

“Hurry the fuck up.”

When we hit the next landing I pushed off one shoe, then kicked the other one out, sending it down a few stairs below us. Unencumbered by fashion, I was able to move a little faster. The man brought me all the way down to the lowest level, leading me into the bowels of the building. I’d never been down there, but I knew it was where the boiler and electrical boxes were, as well as file archives and other storage.

I was relieved he wasn’t taking me out of the building. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but if we stayed here surely Teresa would find me here before things went awry.

The man led me through the basement and into a little room with a desk and a single overhead light. I had no idea what it was used for, but it was clear that no one had been down here in a while. My nose itched from the layer of dust that covered the surfaces.

I was shoved into a folding chair, and then my kidnapper turned to face me, taking off the ski mask he was wearing. I gasped against the tape on my mouth.

Jake! What the hell was he doing?

He was wearing overalls with the logo of a plumbing company on the front, telling me that he was the one who’d told Amy to send me downstairs to use the bathroom. He leaned on the desk, and that’s when I saw the large knife in his hands. He made a bigshow of using the very tip to clean under his thumbnail before looking back to me.

Just like the last time I saw him, he seemed twitchy. I wondered if he was on drugs or just nervous.

“You took something of mine,” he said, his voice conversational. “You’ve got two choices: get it back for me or die.”

I stared at him, unsure what he was even talking about. After staring back at me for a few long, unnerving seconds he came closer.

“No one can hear you down here anyway, that HVAC system makes a shit ton of noise.”

He leaned forward, pulling the tape off my mouth and making me gasp.

“Jake. What’s going on? What are you doing?”

“You took something of mine,” he repeated.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve seen you, what, once in the last fifteen years?”

“Do you know what my father always says about you?” he asked, his voice turning hard. “Ever since I was a little boy he’s said to me, ‘Flora is the daughter I never had’, as if his son doesn’t count. As we got older there were the lectures.”

He lowered his voice to mimic his father. “He’d say to me, ‘Why can’t you be like Flora?’ or ‘Flora has a steady job why can’t you do that?’ as if he didn’t know you got the job because your mommy and daddy gave it to you.”

“I worked hard for my job,” I said hotly.

He leaned forward again, landing a sharp crack across my face that made my eyes water.

“I was talking, bitch.”

“I don’t understand what you want. What do you think I have that’s yours?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know about the will.”

“What will?” I asked in confusion.

“My father’s will,” he enunciated like I was a particularly slow thinker. “He cut me off. All his money’s going to you. Like you don’t already have more money than God, but no, you need to take my money too. I want my inheritance back, and if I have to kill you to get it back, I will.”

Teresa

Ilooked up from my computer, realizing that Flora had been gone for a while. I couldn’t imagine what was taking her so long in the restroom. It wasn’t uncommon for people to stop her in the hallway and ask her a question, but usually she’d be back by now. Hopefully she didn’t have food poisoning or something.

Closing my computer, I stuck my head out of the doorway of the office.

“Hey Amy, did you see where Flora went?”

“She had to use the ladies, but the one on this floor is closed, so she headed down to the next floor.” Amy frowned. “Seems like she’s been gone a long time though.”

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