Page 8 of Billionaire’s Promise

“Ten grand.”

That wasn’t a lot of money. Not for Mack. Not for me.

“Fine.” I knew that there was a possibility that Mack was toying with me. Testing me. Now I’d just given him the upper hand.

“I’ll be in touch.” Mack said as he tried to slip me something, a card or a piece of paper from his pocket. I took the opportunity to shut my car door and drove away as quickly as possible. No blood.

Mack shouted behind me. I had no intention of finding out what the bad man was saying. What could he possibly have said really? I’d rather not know what he wanted to do to me if I didn’t give him his money.

My escape plan had been rather smooth. At least I didn’t have to clean off any blood or pick up any severed fingers. But when my car approached my building, I drove straight past it. I couldn’t bring myself to go home.

I needed time to think.

I needed someone to talk to, but who?

Chloe. The best friend who had left me grieving for 10 years would be my first choice. She had dealt with many lowlifes and scumbags as a stripper in her past life. She would know what to do – or even know a few people who could help in this kind of situation. It turned out that her cousin Marie – whom she never knew she had – was the head of the Mafia or something like that.

The only problem was I didn’t want my brother Lincoln to find out about this. The sweet couple had been through enough over the years. Not just ordinary tough times that normal human beings went through, but black mailing, kidnapping, and robbery just to name a few.

In some ways, they were the perfect people to go to for advice. But I really didn’t want my brother to think that I couldn’t deal with my own problems. My problem was nothing compared to what they’d faced, so if they could do it, I could as well. I just needed to figure out how. Besides, they were all the way in Myrtle Beach, and I wasn’t eager to drive or fly there right this very second. And I was definitely not calling.

Dad? Nope, he just remarried not too long ago and should enjoy his honeymoon with his new bride.

Mother? I could just picture her wrinkling her nose, squinting her eyes at me – wondering how on earth I brought this on myself. Her solution could be powerful though, but a bit unconventional and not quite legal. I wouldn’t mind illegal conduct to be honest, if it was done properly and untraceably. Could I trust my mother on this one though? Probably not.

Liam, my other brother, would not be a good option. He was very nice, clean cut and…geeky. Sure, my geeky brother made a great surgeon, but he would be useless in this situation.

“Call the police,” I could hear Liam saying already.

There was one other person…

The car behind me had been the same silver SUV for a while now. The same car with a bird dropping at the top right corner of the windscreen–that really annoying spot that was just out of the wiper’s reach. I remembered thinking how much it would be bothering me if I couldn’t get the bird shit out of my sight. But that thought was almost ten blocks away.

Could it be Mack?

When he said he wanted ten grand, I thought I heard him wrong. For someone like Mack, who did nothing other than eat, drink and party, ten thousand dollars wouldn’t last him long – especially when he had such expensive tastes.

“Call Chloe Bennet,” I gave a command to my car. My fear had overridden my reluctance to call her.

No answer.

“Wendy Gupta,” I shouted at my car. The Indian Goddess who had helped to hide Chloe and helped her avoid many other troubles along the way. She might have an idea or two. I was convinced that she was connected to some powerful people.

“Wendy!” I called out as soon as she picked up.

“Hey, greetings to you too.” Wendy’s sarcastic tone had no effect on me. I was just overjoyed there was someone to talk to right now.

“It’s so good to hear your voice.” Realizing that it was an odd thing to say to someone I had only met a handful of times, I continued, “I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch. I don’t really have an ex–”

“Are you in trouble?” I almost screamed and I knew that I had called the right person. Not only was I useless at thinking when I was nervous, I also sucked at getting my words out.

“Yes.”

“Are you safe?”

“Yes.” Then weakly, I said, “Maybe not.”

“Put me on video,” she demanded.