The Scandalous Billionaires Collection (67 page)

Harrison stared at him until Steve grinned
and walked over to the refrigerator.

"Can I get you all something?"

Harrison shook his head. When Stacy emerged
he nodded to her to follow him and then left without a word to her
boyfriend. The door closed behind them and Steve slammed the door
of the refrigerator shut, rattling the cans and bottles of cheap
beer inside.

"What's that goddamn bitch up to?" He
muttered as he found his phone and furiously dialed Bella's
number.

When her phone rang Bella shook inwardly. Had
she thought through her plan fully? She couldn't be sure. She
needed to get Stacy out of Steve's reach, even temporarily, then
convince her to make a run for it and that Harrison could take care
of everything, even protecting her relatives from Steve. The
hardest part would then be talking her into going to the
police--Stacy was no fan of the boys in blue.

She picked up the phone.

"You just made a big mistake honey." Steve
growled at her. "A big, big mistake."

"It was the best I could do. Harrison
wouldn't have it; you alone with me here. There was no way he'd
agree to it, but Stacy can take whatever it is you need--"

"No she fuckin' can’t. I need to be there.
Me. Do you fucking understand me bitch? We had an agreement. You're
gonna be so sorry you ever crossed me Bella. You don’t know me, not
like Stacy does. She knows what I'm capable of. Someone's gonna get
hurt over this and it's your fault."

"I'm not double crossing you Steve, I promise
you. I swear to God. I'll get you in here somehow but this was the
best I could do tonight."

"You know Stacy has family in Brooklyn,
right?"

Bella froze but her mind worked furiously.
Stacy was on her way here, it was her first victory over him. She
couldn't give up now.

"Do you know Harrison's got you under
surveillance?" She challenged.

Steve's breath was hard and fast at the other
end of the line.

"Don’t make no difference."

"It will to the police."

He was silent again, the sound of his angry
breath filling Bella's ear.

"Steve. I'll get you whatever you want. You
can speak to Stacy later and tell her what you want. And I'll get
you in here eventually, but I promise you that if you hurt anyone
tonight, anyone at all, this game is over."

Bella listened, trembling, praying that her
bluff was going to work.

"You better be telling the truth bitch." The
call ended. He was gone. It had worked. She breathed a huge sigh of
relief and then dragged herself from the bed to go and take the
shower she had missed an hour ago.

*******************

When Stacy and Harrison arrived back she let
them in to the apartment and then stopped for a moment to take a
good look at her friend. She was relieved to see that she looked
fine; there were no cuts or bruises, no black eyes. Or was Steve
was becoming more devious and making sure to keeping all of her
injuries below the collar to avoid arousing suspicion? She would
have to find out.

Harrison stood for a moment and then excused
himself.

"Call me if you need me." He said.

"Harrison, you don’t need to go." Bella said,
but a terrified glance from Stacy stopped her. "Okay," she said.
"I'll call you later, don’t go too far." He nodded and left.

As soon as the door was closed Stacy shook
her hands free from Bella's and hissed at her.

"Bella, what the hell are you doing kid? You
could get us killed over this. Or worse."

"I got you away from him, didn’t I? Stacy,
you’re safe here, you can relax, you're free."

"But what about my family? Bella, Steve is a
goddamn psycho, he could go after anyone I care about."

"It's okay, he won’t be going to Brooklyn
tonight."

"Brooklyn? Why the hell should I care about
Brooklyn?"

"Your relatives Stacy, they're safe. Harrison
has Steve under surveillance. At least that's what I told him and
he bought it."

"You mean he's not really under
surveillance?"

"Well, not just him. Harrison is keeping an
eye on both of you but obviously they can't see behind closed
doors."

Bella felt another wave of shame come over
her. She so badly wanted to protect her friend. She stared at the
floor until Stacy took her head into her hands and lifted her
friend's gaze up to meet her own.

"It's okay honey, you did good, you did good.
Really. Steve is a psycho but he's no genius and he doesn't want to
go back inside. He spent half of his life in the pen and all he
wants now is to make some money and disappear."

Encouraged by the words Bella pulled her
friend to the living room and sat her down. "Stacy, you have to
trust me, we can beat him. It's like you say, Steve's no genius and
he's been caught plenty of times before. If we work together we can
do this."

Stacy shook her head. "I can't Bella, I just
can't. It's too risky. The only way is to give him what he
wants."

"There's always more than one way Stacy."
Bella said. "Now listen to me; what if there was a way to get him
put inside but without him knowing it was us who got him locked
up?"

Stacy looked shocked.

"There's no way that could happen. If he's
inside he'll blame me one way or the other and then he'll get his
friends to take it out on me or on my family, I already told you
that."

"Well what will it take to get rid of him?
How much money does he need?"

"One million." Stacy said instantly.

Bella felt her breathing get tight. She had
considered the possibility of talking Harrison into giving him some
money that she would eventually work to pay back herself, but one
million dollars? That was impossible.

"I can't get that much, Stacy. That amount is
ridiculous. Totally ridiculous. Does Steve think billionaires leave
sacks of cash lying around their houses? And how long would we
all
go to jail for that if we got caught?"

The thought was harrowing to Bella and her
chest became heavy and tight as a cloud of black thoughts gathered
over her.

"Jesus Christ Stacy, we'd be better off just
kill--"

"Don’t say that Bella. Don’t even think it. A
million bucks is just money, Demovic will make it back in a day,
but a life?" Her voice trailed off.

Bella knew she was right. She felt another
wave of nausea come over her.

"I know that, of course I do. It's just a
figure of speech." She felt herself begin to retch. "Stacy, I'm
sorry, I've gotta go…" She jumped up and headed for the toilet. The
heaving was more intense than ever this time and she had nothing in
her stomach to work with.

Stacy listened to her friend struggling to
hold things together in the bathroom and then decided to go for a
walk in the main living area. There was a laptop on a desk by a
window. Steve would want something from this visit but the laptop
was too big by far to carry with her. There was however, a memory
stick protruding from the side which could be easily pocketed.
Probably there was nothing on it worth having but even if it was
his vacation photos they could still be sold to Chauncey Tales on
Gossip TV for good money. In a second she had taken the stick and
then returned to the bathroom where her friend was still contorted
in painful spasms on the tiled floor. She saw the crumpled box of
the pregnancy kit in the waste basket together with one of the used
sticks and fished them out. Could it really be? Her friend from
prison was about to become the mother of a billionaire's child?

"Jesus honey, I had no idea."

When Bella looked up she felt like heaving
all over again.

"Bella," Stacy's craggy mouth hung open, "is
it him?"

"Give me that." Bella snatched at the
test.

"It's him, isn’t it. My God honey, I had no
idea. Come here, come here."

Bella tried to push her away--of all the
people to find out first--but Stacy was a physically strong woman
even if she had been worn down by life, and eventually she got her
arms around the struggling girl and hugged her in close.

"It's okay honey, it's okay. Now you got a
reason to give Steve what he wants. You need to take care of that
life inside of you. You got family of your own to look after
now."

Bella gave up resisting and sobbed herself
out in Stacy's arms. At least it was one less secret to keep from
one less person. Sure there were better people to unburden herself
to but this would have to do for now. Eventually she pushed the
woman away from her and hauled herself up to her feet.

"Does he know?" Stacy asked. Bella shook her
head.

"I only found out today myself, just before I
asked Harrison to bring you over."

Stacy took a deep breath and put her face in
her hands for a moment.

"You really are one of the good ones kid."
She said in a voice that Bella recognized from their days together
on the inside. For a second she was the same strong woman she had
known back then--her protector--not the servile, frightened woman
she had become under Steve's reign of terror.

"Come on." She said, pulling herself up.
"Show me where he keeps all those fancy watches."

"How should I know?" Bella said. "This is my
first time in his apartment."

"And you're carrying his baby?" Stacy shook
her head. "Men." She hissed and then strode to the bedroom. After a
short search she pulled out a lower drawer from his dresser and
looking inside she found cufflinks, watches, a ring.

"Stacy, what are you doing? I can't let you
take those things. Harrison will find out, he'll call the
police."

"On the pregnant mother of his child? I don’t
think so."

"Stacy, please, you can't do this to me. I
have no idea how he'll react when he finds out. He could throw me
out, demand an…" she couldn't say the word.

"An abortion? No way. Look Bella, this is the
only way to keep Steve happy. I won’t take it all, but you see
these cufflinks right here? Solid gold. They must be worth at least
two, maybe even three grand. Guy like him won't miss 'em. And this
watch right here--"

"Stop it Stacy." Bella pulled her friends
shoulder and was shocked when the older woman turned and smacked
her hand away.

"Stacy?"

"Tell him you took them because you needed
money for the baby. Tell him you sold them. He'll forgive
you--don't you worry about that--and it'll get Steve off our backs
for a week or two."

"I'll call security Stacy. They'll throw you
out of here if you're lucky and haul you to the nearest police
precinct if you're not."

"Where I'll tell 'em all about the watch you
stole."

"Harrison knows about that. He won't press
charges."

"Just like he won’t press charges over this
crap either."

The more Bella heard, the more disgusted she
was. Harrison was the father of her child and Stacy she was liking
less and less. The older woman watched her ex-cell mate, caught her
mood and then softened her tone.

"Bella, I'm desperate, please, you have to
help me. Harrison is a good man but he can't protect us. He loves
you honey, just tell him you need money but you can’t tell him
why."

Bella was shaking with anger and fear, her
mouth was dry, her fingernails digging into her palms.

Stacy looked her friend hard in the eye and
then pulled up the shirt she was wearing. Her abdomen was black and
blue all over.

"You know what this is?" She said. Bella
nodded. "Do you want this to happen to me again? Tonight?"

"You can stay here."

"I can't." She shouted. "I can’t. You don't
know him. And you don’t want to know him. What if he did this
you?"

"I'd kill him." Bella said without
hesitation. Stacy was taken aback by the speed of the response.

"In your condition? Is that what you want for
your child? You want this to be a prison baby with mommy on death
row?"

Bella backed away and sat down on the bed.
She couldn’t win. Stacy had an answer for everything. She watched
as the determined woman pushed more small items into her bag before
sitting down next to her and then putting her arm around her
shaking shoulders. A shiver ran through Bella and she felt like
pushing Stacy away but an unaccustomed fear of her old friend ran
through her and she didn’t dare move.

"Don't worry honey." Stacey said with
menacing sweetness, "I'll keep your secret, just as long as you
keep mine."

Bella looked down to her belly and then
timidly nodded her head.

Please God,
she thought,
show me
the way out of all this.

********************

Bella didn’t wait long after Stacy had gone
away. She found her old clothes, got dressed and then left the
building trying to look as nonchalant as she could but the security
detail didn’t buy it.

"Mr. Demovic gave us strict orders. Either we
come with you or we call him to come and attend you personally. I'm
sorry Ms. Wilson, but it's your call."

"Okay, you can come with me, but keep your
distance. I need some privacy. Did Harrison ask you to respect my
privacy?"

The burly guards nodded to each other and to
the tall, angular woman who seemed to be their boss but never spoke
a word to Bella. They set off down the avenue at a slow pace, all
three keeping a distance of about two meters away from her.

She knew the 23rd precinct wasn't too far
away from where they were so she began heading there, picking up
the pace, but she wouldn't need to walk that far; she spotted a
patrol vehicle parked by the side of the road and made her way
quickly to the window.

"Officers please, can you help me?"

The tough looking police woman in the
driver's seat didn't look particularly impressed.

"Depends what it is."