The Billionaire Bum (12 page)

hence the tomato soup and the sudden abundance of marinara sauce on everything. I had no idea what to do with the tilapia because I hadn’t actually bought enough of it to serve it for a meal. It was a mess. I was never letting Jackson come on a shopping trip again. He was just too damn distracting.

The worst part was that I couldn’t even mange to be angry. He swept into my life and turned everything upside-down in a matter of days, and all I wanted to do was finish the dinner service so that I could be with him. I was hopeless. I didn’t care who he was, how much money he had, or why he was dressing like a hobo. I just wanted to be with him. The rest would sort itself out somehow.

Dinner dragged on even longer than usual, and it was already 9:30 when I marched my tired ass up the stairs. I took a shower and pulled my hair up. Forget the power clothes, I was going to be comfortable for this discussion. I was damn well going to take advantage of the bar scene too; I needed a drink.

Lexy offered to go with me, but I couldn’t deal with her right now. Truthfully, I didn’t even want to talk. All I wanted to do was sit and drink and listen to what I was hoping was going to be a very logical explanation for why my whole life had turned upsidedown over the course of two days.

I took a cab to the bar and tried to steel my nerves. What was the worst that could happen? We could decide that we couldn’t get over this, and then we would never see each other again. I would go back to my normal pre-Jackson life. I didn’t like that idea; in fact, thinking about it gave me an acute pain in my ribs, but that really was as bad as it could get. I would watch his career from afar, and he would forget about me.

A small part of me was hoping, though, that maybe he wasn’t just slumming with me.

Maybe he really had come back because he wanted to get to know me better. Maybe my breakfasts would be enough to keep him around for a while. I smiled at that. I wouldn’t mind waking up with him at all.

I paced back in forth in front of the bar for a few minutes. It wasn’t particularly crowded for a Friday night, which was good for conversation. It was now or never.

I walked into the bar and spotted him immediately. He was reaching up to put glasses away above the bar, and his shirt rode up enough that I could just barely see a sliver of skin above his low rise jeans. Hipbones didn’t come any sexier than that.

Focus, Alissa!
You are not here to fantasize about his pelvic area.

I sat down at the end of the bar and waited for him to acknowledge me. It didn’t take long. He was a pretty attentive bartender. He gave me the most beautiful smile when he recognized me. Relief crossed his face. Did he really think that I wouldn’t come? I was later than I had said I would be, but I knew he would be here all night. I hadn’t meant to worry him.

“What can I get for you, beautiful?” he said.

You. Just you.

“Um, what’s your beer on tap?” I asked.

I settled on a light beer, and he went to the other side of the bar to get it. I really needed to focus. I was supposed to be hurt and angry, but I just wanted to watch him walk back and forth all night. He caught me checking out his ass, and I blushed all the way to my roots. Damn him!

He delivered my beer and gave refills to a group at the end of the bar. When everyone was situated he returned his attention to me. “Alissa,” he started, “I can’t tell you how sorry I am.

I never meant for you to be involved in this complicated, confusing mess. It’s a long story, but if you’ll let me, I’d like to just start at the beginning and work my way through.”

“I think that sounds like a great idea.” I could tell that this wouldn’t be easy for him, and I did my best to reassure him that I would hear the story the whole way through before passing any kind of judgment.

He started with how he’d tripped over the homeless man in the street that day. He described himself as pious and self-absorbed. How could he have come so far in just four days? I couldn’t imagine him being so cold to anyone.

He told me about the bet with his brother, and I had to fight to contain my laughter. It really was ridiculous. Who made that kind of a bet? Jason sounded like a character.

He broke from the story to get me another beer and to check on his other patrons. When he came back, he told me about sleeping in the airport, looking for work, his struggle to get a social security card, and his first night in the shelter.

He really had gone through a lot in the first two days, and I was a little surprised that he hadn’t given up. He told me about the thief and the split lip. Finally, an explanation for the fight and the smelly clothes! He could have gotten hurt, though; he had really taken this bet to the extreme.

Then he told me how he felt the first time that he saw me. “My whole life,” he stated,

“people have judged me because of my family, my money, and what they think they know about me. For once, I just wanted to know that I could make it on my own. I wanted to know that people could accept me for who I was and not what I had. When you looked at me, I felt like you saw me, and not the man that everyone else sees.”

I could feel the tears running down my cheeks.

I do see you, Jackson, and I want every part of you.

I tried not to interrupt. He needed to get this out, and I needed to hear it.

He told me about Jason and Ben.... and Nick. He also told me about the photo that he had of Nick and me, and I have to admit, I was a little freaked out by it. I was also relieved, in a way, to discover that I hadn’t really been alone. Nick Carver was seriously creepy.

Jackson told it all the way through until the present moment and then left me to my thoughts while he cleaned up the bar area and poured a couple of shots for the group on the other side of the room. I was grateful for our current location. He had given me a ton of information to process, and I wasn’t sure that I was ready to respond just yet. The bar was keeping him busy enough that we couldn’t really get into a heated discussion. Lexy was right about me; I overreacted to everything, but this was too important to me. I couldn’t let a rash decision on my part screw this up.

I sat and drank until the bar was ready to close. Jackson and I had agreed to go have pizza when his shift was over to finish the discussion.

Now that I’d gotten the time that I needed to process my thoughts, I had a lot to say. I wanted to tell him that he was an idiot for endangering himself with a stupid bet. If he ever put himself in harm’s way like that again, he was going to get more than a split lip from me.

I wanted him to know that I was proud of him for his accomplishments in his real life and in his life this week. I was sure that his brother was proud of him, too. It appeared as if he’d learned to see the world in a new way over the last few days. I didn’t know him prior to this week, but the man that I knew was incredible.

I wanted to tell him that I didn’t care if he was a billionaire or a bum. I wanted him either way. I wanted the man who sat barefoot in my kitchen with damp hair and a lopsided smile, humming around my French toast and asking me a ceaseless slew of questions. I wanted the man who stayed up all night working and then wanted to go to the market with me, just so we could spend a little more time together.

I watched him for another minute, but when they were ready to lock up, I decided to wait outside. The bar owner didn’t seem too thrilled about having me there while Jackson finished his cleanup. He said that there was a park across the street, so I walked out into the cool night air, clearing my head.

I jumped when a strong hand, covered in a leather glove, smashed into my face, covering my mouth and nose, cutting off my scream.

He stood behind me, pulling me flush against his body and wrapping his other arm around my neck.

“I knew you’d lead me to him,” he said, in my ear, just before my air supply cut off.

Jackson

I felt drained. Physically and emotionally, this one was one of the most strenuous weeks of my life. Explaining my journey to Alissa had really brought it all home for me. In a few short days, I had gone from a corporate tycoon, to a homeless bum, to a regular guy working in a bar who was trying desperately to impress an amazing woman. It had been a lot to experience.

She had been incredibly quiet the whole night. No one could listen like Alissa, and it made me want to pour my heart and soul out to her. I was cleaning as fast as I could. I was excited to finally hear her thoughts on the whole thing. She hadn’t walked out on me yet, and I took that to mean that she wasn’t angry. She would probably tell me I was an idiot, but I could live with that. I would do it a thousand times over if it brought me to her door again.

I had it bad for this woman.

I had decided to let Buddy, the bar owner, know that I would not be continuing this job.

All good things must come to an end. It really was pointless now that Alissa knew the truth, and I needed to return to my real life to deal with the Nick Carver situation.

Fucking Nick. I hadn’t been sure how to explain that whole thing to Alissa. She knew pretty much nothing about my business, and I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to go into detail, but she had already had one run in with him, and I wanted her to be wary. I didn’t trust him or Kayla, and I wanted Alissa to know that. I didn’t want her to be anywhere near them ever again.

I told Alissa about Ben and the pictures he had taken of her in the lobby of my building. I thought she might be upset that she had been followed, but she actually seemed to relax when she learned that she wasn’t alone. That was good. Clearly Nick had put some fear into her. I thought that was probably healthy for the time being.

I also explained how Ben had gotten pictures of Kayla at Nick’s apartment. I didn’t want to frighten Alissa any more than necessary, but I knew that Nick could be ruthless, and I had worked with Kayla long enough to know that she could be incredibly aggressive as well. Now that I thought about it, they were a perfect match. I wondered how I had missed the connection.

They had obviously been working together and planning this for a while. I was going to have to put an end to it very soon.

I put down the dirty dishrag and started to restock the beer fridge. It didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was Alissa. I was going to buy her a pizza and listen intently to everything she wanted to say to me, and then I was going to throw her over my shoulder caveman style and drag her home to my penthouse apartment where I would spend the rest of the night worshiping her beautiful body and listening to her sweet voice crying out my name.

Well, maybe not... I was really trying hard to be a gentleman, but the more time I spent with this girl the more I wanted her. I hadn’t had an appropriate moment to kiss her yet, but I had every intention of rectifying that oversight as soon as possible. She’d only been outside for five minutes, and I was already desperate to see her again.

When I was done with the beer, I called out to Buddy that I was leaving. He yelled back a

“see you later,” and I stepped out into the night. I crossed the street to the little park where I expected to find Alissa waiting for me, but the park was empty.

“Alissa?” I said into the night. There was no response. I scanned the street. Everything was still and quiet. “Alissa?” I called a little louder, trying not to let the panic creep into my voice. Where was she?

“Alissa is occupied at the moment.” Nick stepped out from a clump of trees. He had her in a headlock and she was clutching his arms, clearly unable to breath. Her feet kicked wildly, but she was unable to reach him. In his other hand was a sleek black pistol. The barrel of which was pressed to her lower back, right around the kidneys.

How could I let this happen?

“She’s in good hands. You cooperate with me, and she’ll be fine.”

“I will not negotiate on this. Let her go, and then we’ll talk.” I looked around. Where was Ben? Weren’t those guys following him?

“I tried to work out a reasonable business deal with your brother, but it turns out that he’s too loyal to you. So, I’ll just have to make my bargain another way.”

Alissa

Don’t pass out. Don’t pass out.

A dark sedan pulled up to the curb and Nick dragged me towards it. A fierce looking brunet woman got out of the driver’s seat and opened the back door so that Nick could force me inside.

“Get in the car, Jackson,” Nick said before slamming the door. I made an attempt to escape out the other side of the car, but he never released his hold on me, and my struggle only made my arm blossom with a fresh bolt of pain.

“It’s nice to meet you, Alissa,” the woman said, “the girl who finally got the great Jackson Hayes’ attention. I’ve worked with him for more than five years, and the self-absorbed prick has never given me the time of day.” There was jealousy and spite in her voice. “But I think he’ll pay attention this time.”

She worked with Jackson...

Kayla. This was Kayla.

Jackson got into the passenger seat while Nick continued to hold me at gunpoint.

“I know you’re not stupid, Jackson,” Nick said. “Which is how I know that you’re going to behave yourself until we arrive at our destination. Take your cell phone out of your pocket and toss it back here.”

Jackson did as he asked, and the phone fell to the floor in the backseat.

“Drive, Kayla.”

The car pulled away from the curb. I tried to control my breathing. It was better now that I could breath, but Nick still had a very firm grip on me, and I wasn’t about to risk getting shot. A few minutes later, we arrived at a warehouse in the old industrial part of town. They hadn’t bothered to blindfold us or try to disguise the location in anyway. A small part of me realized that we probably wouldn’t be leaving here alive.

Nick pulled me out of the car, never taking the gun away from me, and Jackson followed us into the building like an obedient puppy.

A chair scraped across the floor. Nick sat down and then pulled me up onto his lap. The sudden movement was too much for my stomach on top of the fear. I turned my head to the side and vomited all over the bare cement floor.