The Scandalous Billionaires Collection (74 page)

"You're following Frank?" Bella said.

"Of course we are." Marsha said. "He has a
tracking device in his shirt pocket. Why do you think Mr. Demovic
grabbed him by the collar so many times in the diner?"

"Marsha gave me clear instructions on what to
do." Harrison added. "He thinks he's shaken us but we have him
covered no matter where he goes. Before we take care of him though,
we need to finish things with Steve and Stacy."

Bella looked in awe at her man.

Why the hell had she ever doubted him?

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

"Pizza delivery."

"We didn't order any pizza. Now fuck off."
Stacy shouted through the front. Steve was frantically gathering
their getaway items together in preparation to run for it via the
fire escape. They hadn't been expecting any company so they knew
the knock on the door spelled trouble and they weren't going to
take any chances.

Marsha hadn't expected them to answer the
door to anyone other than Frank so she had counted on the acting
skills of one of her men to fake the old ex-cop's gravelly voice.
If they opened the door just long enough for him to get a boot
inside then it would save them having to use more forceful means.
It looked as though they weren't buying it though. She gestured for
her guy to hold up the pizza box to the peephole with the lid open
and the contents visible.

"You sure you didn't order this pizza?" He
shouted.

Stacy glanced out the door to see if any cops
had revealed themselves in the hallway but when she saw what was in
the box she reconsidered her plan.

"Steve, get over here."

"Forget it Stacy, we have to get out of here
right now. This is too screwed up, I mean who else knows were here
except for that asshole Frank?"

"Just take a look."

He rolled his eyes and then strode quickly to
the door. Peering through the spy-hole he then stood back and
looked over at his wife.

The pizza guy continued hammering loudly on
the door.

"Don’t let it get cold Stacy." He said. "This
is a million dollar pizza right here."

"What are we gonna do?" she whispered to
Steve who looked uncharacteristically confused. Ever since Frank
had shown up his style had been severely cramped. Crooked ex-cops
were always trouble. They were worse than ex-cons; ruthless,
greedy, clever, deceitful and always one step ahead. He had been
waiting for the double cross ever since that first stinking pizza
had arrived.

"They've probably got us surrounded by now
anyway." He said. "There's only one way out of here besides the
front door and that's the fire escape. There's a couple a guys down
there shooting the shit for no good reason. This could be cops,
could be Frank's guys, maybe even that asshole Demovic."

"We can shoot our way out."

"No. No way. That'll only make things worse.
There's a million bucks in that box out there. If the police aren't
breaking down the door that means they probably aren’t involved.
Frank already got what he wanted. This has to be Demovic. He's
worried about his information."

"But he made the switch already with Frank,
why the hell would he come here?"

"Maybe something went wrong." he said, "Or
maybe he doesn't believe Frank gave him the only copy."

"What are we gonna do?"

"This can work Stace, this can work. If they
had anything on us the cops would be here already."

They stared at each other. A million bucks.
This could be it after all; the final big scam that would set them
free.

"I'm opening the door." Steve said.

"Stop." Stacy looked terrified. "What if they
kill us?"

"Last chance for piping hot pizza people. You
don't want it, somebody else will."

Steve nodded to Stacey and she moved closer
to the door, hesitated and then finally undid the lock but left the
chains on. She opened it just a crack. The pizza guy looked about
thirty-five years of age and had a wire going from his collar to
his ear.

He smiled.

"Smart move Stacey." He said. "Let me in and
you can begin enjoying your pizza right away."

She undid the chains and let him in. The
short, burly man walked to the middle of the room and dropped the
pizza box on the floor.

"One million in cash." He said. "You can
count it if you want to but I ain't got all day."

Stacy and Steve stared at it with their
greedy mouths hanging open. It was more money than either of them
had ever seen in their lives.

"What's the deal?" Stacy said.

"Yeah, and who the fuck are you?" Steve
added.

"Who are we?" The voice behind them made
Stacy and Steve spin back around to the door. "Why don’t you take a
good look?"

The couple were dumbfounded, silent with
shock.

Bella continued.

"The deal is that you let us do a full
security sweep of this apartment. After that you give us every copy
of those stolen files that you have in your possession. When that's
done, you then inform us about every other copy in existence and
how we can find them. Any questions?"

Bella looked imperious standing in the
doorway of the ratty little apartment.

"What if that information just became more
expensive?" Steve sneered at her, regaining his composure, but
Bella was far beyond his attempts at intimidation. She stepped
inside, closed the door behind her, locked it and then did up the
chains.

"One million is the price." She said. "For
every then seconds you wait I'll take away ten thousand dollars."
She raised her hand to look at her wrist watch and then began
counting.

"Screw you. The price is two million, unless
your boyfriend wants his dirty laundry all over the airwaves by
tonight. We can release it all at once or just one little piece at
a time."

Bella reached down and picked up a neat stack
of bills.

"That's ten thousand." She said, and began
counting again.

"Come on Steve, let's just take it while we
can." Stacy couldn't take her eyes off the money.

"No way. I want my money, two million or you
can forget about it. Mr. Squeaky clean better get used to having
everyone know who the fuck he really is. Hell, my price just went
up. I want three million for my merchandise. How about that you
little bitch?"

Bella nodded to her security back up to keep
counting and keep subtracting while she spoke.

"The information on that stick is going to
get old fast Steve; Harrison will make an announcement tonight
already. The whole world will know all about his past, so pretty
soon this whole question will become an irrelevance."

"No way. I don’t believe it. It would fucking
ruin him."

"Ruin him? He's personally worth over twelve
billion dollars. How can this or anything else you and your
pathetic little sidekick do, ever possibly ruin him? This is your
last chance you stupid bitch." She emphasized the expletive he had
so often applied to her. "Harrison wants his property back and he's
willing to pay generously. Turn this offer down now and you'll be
back to square one; looking for someone else to blackmail so you
can scrape by, worrying all the time about the next knock on the
door and who it's going to be."

"Come on Steve." Stacy was getting desperate.
"Put that back." She tried to wrestle a stack of ten thousand away
from the burly security guard but he was too strong. Steve looked
at the pile getting smaller, darted a look to the front door, then
to the fire escape.

"They've got it covered Steve, but no-one
will stop you running. Unless you try to take this money with you,
in which case it will be stealing and even you won’t be able to
explain where you got this stack of cash from."

"Okay, god damn it. Put that money back
down." He joined in the struggle with his wife to have the ten
thousand dollars returned to the pile.

"That's better." Bella said. "I knew you too
greedy bitches wouldn't be able to turn down an offer like that.
Now where's Harrison's property?"

"I want all that money boxed up and I want
him," Steve nodded to the security detail, "I want him out of
here."

Bella stepped in close to Steve, nose to nose
and reached up to grip his shirt collar in her hands. The
aggressive action was totally unexpected from the sweet girl he had
spent weeks threatening and manipulating.

"Hand it over. Tell us where the other copies
are. Then take your filthy money and disappear from our lives
forever. That's the deal."

He had always been sure the double cross was
coming, but from Bella? She was too much of a sucker. He grinned
and then reached into his trouser pocket.

"Here it is." He said with a smile. "Now, can
I please have my fucking money?"

"Not so fast. We get to make a sweep of the
apartment. Any technology comes with us. You make a list of who
else has copies. Then you get your fucking money."

"Whatever. Sweep and then take whatever the
hell you want. I'll start counting."

She gripped his collar again.

"The other copies. Who has them?"

"That's easy Bella, your God damn old man is
the only person we gave a copy to. Your daddy is one evil piece of
shit and I've met a few. Tell him I said so next time you're having
Sunday lunch at your folks."

Bella couldn't hold herself back. She spat
into Steve's face and then released him.

"I'll tell him you said 'hi'." She added.

Steve wiped his face clean and then set to
counting his money without another word.

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

When Bella returned to the van Harrison
wasn't there.

"You're travelling with the boss." Marsha
said and pointed over to the red Lamborghini that had arrived at
Harrison's request. The door rose up on the side and she saw her
lover sitting inside.

"Get in." He said. "We'll arrive quicker this
way."

She got into the car and held up the memory
stick.

"Here it is." She said. Harrison put his
hands around hers in one deft movement and then drew her in.

"You were amazing in there." He growled into
her neck before pressing his lips to her thrilling flesh. "I am so
fucking turned on right now."

"Harrison, the whole security team is just
outside."

He drew back, smiled and then hit a button on
the cars control panel. The windows frosted over like magic.
Another button and the doors clunked shut, locked tight.

"They'll find it hard to get into this
baby."

He pressed another button and her seat
lowered slowly back down towards the floor.

"Show off." Bella grinned. It was all so
silly but endearingly cool at the same time. "Do you really think
this stupid car will impress me?"

He ignored her question and began to devour
her slowly from the neck down. Her body squirmed with delight and
the memory stick dropped from her hand to floor. When he reached
her abdomen she pushed his head away.

"Harrison, we have to go, we don't have time
for this."

He checked his watch.

"We have plenty of time. Your father is out
on the highway, we'll cut him off in the chopper when our business
here is done."

"What business is that?"

"What business do you think? Do you seriously
expect me to watch you go in there and kick ass with attitude like
that and then not expect me to jump your hot bones right
afterwards?" He sank his head in between her thighs and her body
shook in response. He pushed her thighs gently but inexorably
further apart.

"Stop it Harrison. Of course I want you to
jump my hot bones." She paused while he continued working. "I can’t
believe the things you're making me say."

"Jump my hot bones." He repeated. "No problem
Bella, I heard you loud and clear and I'm there." He began undoing
her pants. "I'm jumping."

Bella had never been in a Lamborghini before,
let alone made love in one and certainly not to a hot and virile
young billionaire with whom she was insanely in love. To say it was
with extreme difficulty that she pushed her man away yet again was
something of an understatement. She could feel the first licks of
orgasm already coming to life even as she forced the words through
her lips, but she desperately needed an answer to her question.

"Harrison, what's on that memory stick that's
so important that we just had to pay a million dollars for it?"

"Don't worry about that now, this is much
more important."

He tried to push his head lower but Bella
clamped her legs shut and pushed him back with every ounce of
strength she had, bumping his head against the dash.

"Ow! Bella. Come on, save that for Frank when
we catch up with him."

She pushed herself upright and began
straightening her clothes.

"Frank said you had a secret. Something you
didn't want the world to know about."

Harrison sighed in resignation.

"Everyone has secrets Bella. I'm not alone in
that."

"Of course not Harrison, and know that better
than anyone, but you're the one who told me to let go of my
secrets. You're the one who preaches about second chances to
ex-cons provided they can accept their past and put it behind
them."

"Most ex-convicts don't have board members,
share holders and thousands of employees depending upon their good
name." Harrison hadn't moved but he gave the impression of
retreating into himself, shrinking further away from Bella as she
sought to draw him out.

"Harrison…" she put her hand on his and felt
the thrill of their contact again. Nothing seemed to diminish the
fire and electricity between them, even now when reputations and
business empires were at stake. She looked into his eyes and knew
that he was becoming aroused too. She was learning to read him;
those dark eyes that had hidden so much at first were now beginning
to open up to her and knew she was close to making him fall.