Page 65 of Auctioned to the Billionaire Bodyguard

What the hell?

I turned to go in search of everyone. “Nadine?” I called. “Nora?” There was no response. My heart started to pound. Something was very wrong. I started backing up, about to turn and head to the back of the spa. I was going to get one of Byron’s agents.

I reached for my phone only to be distracted by a sudden sound. Then there was a muffled shushing noise. My hands were starting to shake. I headed in the direction of the sounds.

I turned into another large room and almost screamed.

“Hello, Jess.” Skeeter had Nadine in a headlock, a gun pointed to her head.

“No.” I shook my head, my body starting to tremble. “No, Skeeter. Don’t do this. You don’t need to, okay?”

“Idon’tknow, Jess,” he said smiling. But I saw the weird light in his eyes that meant he was really, really angry. “It sure seems like I needed to do this. I’ve been trying to get to you for weeks.Weeks!” he screamed suddenly, making everyone jump. Several of the women started crying.

“Let her go,” I tried to keep my voice steady. “Let all of them go.”

“You’ll come with me,” he said confidently.

I nodded.

“Damn right you will. Stupid bitch! I fuckinghateyou for leaving me.”

I flinched when I saw his arm tighten around Nadine’s throat. He didn’t realize he was starting to cut off her air supply.

I hurried towards him. “Let’s go, Skeeter. Just take me with you and let all of them go back to their day.”

He narrowed his eyes at me and tapped the barrel of the gun against Nadine’s head. “What kind of scheme are you cooking up, Jess? You always thought you were so much smarter than me.You’re not!” He tossed Nadine to the floor roughly. She lay gasping for breath for a minute before trying to crawl towards me. I shook my head at her, tears in my eyes. Jelly reached for her and held her back.

Skeeter grabbed me by the arm, jerking me along after him. Then he looked back at the women. “If anybody tries to come after us, I’ll kill her.” He tapped the gun against my head for effect.

He started dragging me down the back hall. “Slow down,” I begged. “I can’t keep up.”

“Fuck that,” he bent and picked me up like a sack of potatoes and threw me over his shoulder. “Better,” he said. He strode out the back exit. I looked right and left for the agents Byron had talked about. I knew they would step in and help me…

“You looking for him?” Skeeter pointed off to some underbrush where I saw a man lying unnaturally still, a pool of dark liquid under him.

“Oh! Oh, no. Skeeter, you’ve got to help him. He might still be alive…”

He snorted. “What the hell are you thinking, Jessica Fletcher? I’m the one who shot him. Do you really think I’m going to help him now?” He turned in the opposite direction,and I couldn’t see the poor man anymore. Tears were starting to fall now. I was so frustrated. I knew I shouldn’t have come out of hiding. Now I’d caused people to get hurt, traumatized, and maybe even killed.

Skeeter flipped me off him and set me down. “Put the helmet on and get on the bike. If you run, I’ll shoot you.”

He meant it. I could see it in his eyes. I did what he said, and before I knew it, I was flying down the road on the back of Skeeter’s motorcycle.

My nightmare had come true.

We didn’t ride far until we came to what looked like an almost hidden backroad. It wasn’t even paved. It was made from hard packed mud, it seemed, and I didn’t have much confidence that we wouldn’t slide on it. We swooped down it, going entirely too fast. God, Ihatedriding on motorcycles!

The road, if that’s what you could even call it, looked like it ended in the ocean, and for a minute I was convinced this was how I would die—that Skeeter would drive right in and drown us both. Just as I was plotting out how long I could hold my breath underwater, he took a sharp turn and sped down another dirt path. This one was just a few feet above sea level. I wondered if it was covered up at high tide, even. That’s how close to the water it was. But he just kept going.

I had no clue how I was possibly going to get out of this situation. I felt in the pockets of my robe. I had to call Byron, and this might be the only time Skeeter wouldn’t see me do it. I carefully let go of Skeeter with one hand while I checked one side pocket, and then did the same on the other side. I was terrified the whole time that he would fly over a bump, and I would be tossed off the bike because I wasn’t holding on tight enough. Or that he’d figure out I was trying to get help. I honestly didn’t know which one was worse.

My hands wrapped around my phone, and I pulled it out as gently as I could. I quickly texted two words to him: ‘Don’t talk,’ and then called him. I put the phone on speaker and dropped it back in my pocket.

“What the hell are you doing back there? Put both arms around me, or you’re going to fall off, idiot!”

“Sorry,” I yelled, “I had to scratch my nose.”

Suddenly, my stomach dropped as he took a sharp hill downward at roller coaster speed. I held on tight. I saw a few scattered caves as we rode closer to a path beside the bay. Skeeter jerked to a stop behind a huge clump of beach grass. He got off his bike and hoisted me back over his shoulder before he started walking down a small, but steep, hill.