Romance: The Billionaires Collection (Watched By A Billionaire, Stranded With A Billionaire, Caught By A Billionaire, Billionaire Stepbrother) (30 page)

Chapter Four

“
So, two million as originally agreed upon?”

The man nods, stern expression giving nothing away.

“
Tell me,
Panther
, what exactly happened with
these earrings? Last I saw, you'd been rumbled with them by the man
you stole them from. Managed to escape his clutches did we?”

“
You could say that. Put it this way, he got a lot
more from me than these earrings are worth.”

“
Did he now?” questions the man with a suggestive
tone.

The sound of a roaring plane rumbles overhead, and a
loudspeaker blares with more announcements. We're at JFK, in a small
cafe, and I've got a packed suitcase right next to me.

“
Planning on being gone for long?” asks my contact,
setting his eyes on my bag.

I shrug.

“
How long is indefinite?”

“
Too long. I've grown accustomed to working with you.
You're not retiring are you?”

“
Not retiring. Just looking for a career change.”

“
Well, that's a real shame. What will the press write
about if there are no more thefts by the
Night Panther
...”

“
They'll find something. They always do.”

I look at my watch purposefully, and my contact sees me
do it.

“
Right, to business,” he says.

He opens his laptop, and begins typing and clicking,
before turning the screen to me. It's littered with small boxes and
numbers, but in the middle is a loading icon, with the number
2,000,000 written onto it. It moves at pace, and quickly completes.

“
There you go. Two million, wired to your account.
Now, let me have the merchandise.”

I reach into my purse and remove the earrings, placed
into a new box without a tracker. I pass it to my contact, who opens
it up, inspects them quickly, and shuts it just as fast.

“
Excellent,” he says, before standing abruptly.

He takes my hand, and kisses it.

“
If we don't see each other again, it's been a
pleasure buying from you.”

He winks, pops the earrings into his bag, and sets off
toward the exit of the airport.

Around me, the world hums and drums, crowds of people
moving in a thousand directions with a thousand voices in the air. I
look up at the departures board, and see that my flight is due to
depart soon, and that boarding has commenced.

I stand, small suitcase in hand, and begin making my way
through security. I contain a little chuckle as I pass through, these
people having no clue who I am, and than I'm responsible for one of
the biggest jewelry thefts in American History.

The Night Panther strikes again.

That is the headline this morning. The story already
leaking out that the world famous necklace was taken, daringly, from
the neck of the hostess of a high society party at a mansion on Long
Island.

If the press are anything to go by, the cops have no
real leads whatsoever, but the media seem to have already concluded
that it was the infamous
Night Panther
once more.

And yet here I am, walking through security at one of
the largest airports in the world without a second's hesitation.
Without my heart rate lifting even a single beat beyond its normal
pace.

Because I know that no one knows me. I am anonymous,
never brought in for questioning by the police, never even looked
upon by a single law enforcement officer with any hint of suspicion.

I pass through security, and laugh as I do, each step
taking me one step closer to total freedom. I pass a man waiting in a
seating area for his flight to be called, and my eyes drift to the
newspaper in his lap.

I see the headlines again, and take in the image of the
necklace that's now on the tips of everyone's tongues.

The necklace that only two nights ago fell around my
neck as I lay under Sage, feeling the thrust of his loins. I wonder
what he's really going to do with it. Whether he'll try to sell it on
and cash in his chips.

He will never be able to tell anyone about it, save his
closest confidants, and I find it hard to understand the obsession
that people have with storing stolen pieces of jewelry and works of
art. But, for me, that's been my life, delivering these items.

And frankly, I've never questioned a buyer's intentions
until now. Because Sage wasn't just any buyer.

He was something a lot more...

The sound of the speakers dotted around the airport
blare once more, and I hear the last call for my flight. I search the
boards, check the gate, and begin making my way through the departure
lounge.

I get there just in time, tailing onto the back of the
line as the final few people get checked for their tickets and walk
up the tunnel to the plane. Excited faces are everywhere – faces of
those going on vacation, escaping their lives for only a week or two.

It's not the same for me.

I'm escaping my life forever.

Up the tunnel I go, last to step onto the plane, and
into my seat in first class. I decided that I'd treat myself on this
occasion, wondering if it might be the last time I leave these
shores.

If that's to be the case, it might as well be in
style.

So I settle into my luxury seat, and gaze out the window
at the wide stretch of tarmac, lined with plane after plane. And I
look at the world beyond as we begin taxiing out onto the runway,
waiting our turn to launch into the sky.

And as the plane begins to shake and charge down the
runway, I feel no spike of adrenaline. My heart doesn't begin to
pace. All I do is sit and watch the world rush by, see the airport
grow small in the distance, and set my eyes over the nation of my
birth for the last time.

And when we're level, and the seat belt signs have
stopped glowing, a stewardess comes to me with a glass of champagne.

“
Champagne, Miss?” she asks.

I take the glass and thank her and, looking once more
out of the window, toast the nation I'm leaving behind. Toast the
life I'm leaving behind.

And finally, I toast Sage.

For setting me free.

Chapter Five

I've spent little time on the beach in my life.
Vacations when my parents were alive, and I actually had a family,
weren't quite so lavish as to include beaches or mountains.

But as I sit under the sun, a cocktail to my side and a
trashy magazine in my lap, I realize that perhaps I've been missing
out all these years.

Ahead of me, the ocean laps gently against the shore.
Further out, waves crash and swirl, tossing amateur surfers in the
tumult. Some ride confidently, though, looking lean and slick as they
cut across the surface of the water.

And I think to myself, that maybe I should take it up.

But not today.

Today I'm relaxing, as I've been doing everyday for a
month now. A month of acclimatizing, or finding my feet. A month of
figuring out whether I want to stay here, in this tropical paradise
with all the comforts of home.

Bali.

That's where I am, and not only because it's got all a
young girl could need. I'm also here because, well, there's no
extradition with the US. So, in the unlikely situation that I am
found out, there's just about fuck all anyone can do about it.

I've been weighing through my options, though. Buy a
beach bar was one of them. I've had a few fun nights out locally, and
have managed to ingratiate myself with some of the locals well
enough. They seem like a friendly bunch, and maybe I could join their
little fraternity for good.

I could buy a diving school here, or maybe on another
part of the island. Of course, I don't know the first thing about it,
but I've had a few goes now under the waves and each time I come up I
just want to go straight back down again.

It's like visiting a whole new world. There's a
simplicity to it all, an innocence of nature that really appeals to
me. All these creatures going about their business, following their
instincts and nothing more.

And that's really what I'm looking for now. The simple
life, away from the pressures of the world. Something that will give
me peace and let me rot away without any interference.

That's what I desire most.

The good news is, it's all so cheap out here. I could
buy a diving school and a beach bar and a nice villa with a pool and
have plenty left over. I could become a part of this little island
and actually have friends.

Friends...

The world has become so alien to me over these last few
years. I guess, for as long as I can remember, I've been alone. Never
settling anywhere or getting to know anyone. Perhaps it's time that
changed.

The great irony is that only Sage truly got through my
defenses. The mark became the only person who was actually close to
me, who began to get to know the real me.

And, strangely, he's the only person I actually miss.

I wonder if he misses me, though? That night, after we'd
had sex in the living room, with me wearing only the necklace and
earrings, I left as he slept. He took me to bed, and we fucked once
more, and once he'd been overtaken by exhaustion and alcohol, I
slipped away in the dead of night, creeping over the same wall I'd
climbed over to steal the earrings several weeks before.

I did it that way because that's just me. I had to cut
things off right then and there, just in case I got in too deep. And
already, he'd begun to push at my buttons, to get inside my head.

It was too much, so I left him there, naked in the bed,
with one final glance at his face as he slept. I left the necklace on
the bedside table next to him, leaving the earrings on my ears, and
escaped.

And before two days had passed, I was on that flight to
Bali, leaving my world behind, and never intending to look back...

The sun continues to beat down on me, and I continue to
sip at my delicious cocktail from a twirly pink straw. I read my
magazine, listen to the sound of the ocean, and slowly begin to feel
drowsy, the heat and alcohol combining to send me into a peaceful
little siesta.

I'm awoken by the blocking of my sun, the world suddenly
growing cooler and darker.

My eyes crack open, and I peer from behind my shades at
the shape of a man, standing right in my light. I pull my shades
down, blink hard to try to recover my eyesight, and gradually, some
features comes into view.

Sharply cut hair, dark, almost black, eyes, and the
frame of an athlete, strong arms sprouting out of the arms of a
t-shirt.

“
I've been looking for you Kristen,” comes a deep
voice. “You ran a long way...”

The shadow continues to grow in clarity, and I see
Sage's white smile shining from within his firmly set jaw.

“
Bali,” he says. “Very smart. No extradition. You
planning on staying?”

He sits down on the sun lounger next to me, clearing the
path of the sun. It half blinds me again, and I shield it with my
hand.

“
What the hell are you doing here?!”

He shrugs, and speaks casually.

“
Like I said...I've been looking for you.”

“
Why?”

“
Because I never really got a chance to thank you. Not
properly, anyway...”

“
You did thank me. You did more than enough for me,
Sage.”

“
But I'd like to do more, if you'd let me?”

He leans forward, and sits on the lounger facing me. His
fingers drift to the shades on my head, pulling them from my hair.

“
I wanted to ask you something...not order this time.
Just ask.”

My heart flutters slightly, jumping a beat.

“
What?”

He assumes of posture of significance, like he's about
to reveal something really serious. And then his face breaks into a
smile.

“
I'd like to ask you to dinner, Kristen. So...what do
you say?”

“
So this one isn't an order?”

“
I'd never give you another one...”

“
Well, in that case, how could I refuse.”

And with that, he leans in to kiss me. And I know that,
perhaps, even though I'm on the other side of the world, the best
thing that I left behind has just caught up with me.

Chapter One

My heart is pounding so damn hard I think it might just
explode.

I fidget excessively, not quite knowing what to do with
my hands and arms, not knowing whether to sit comfortably and wait,
or stand at the door, spying the corridor outside through the peep
hole.

I obsessively check my cell for the time, watching time
slow down to a trickle as I nervously, anxiously await my guest.