The Billionaire Affair

by Parker, Ali

  Unfortunately, I didn’t think they would. Which meant my chances of someone coming to check on us had just fallen drastically.

  One more option remained, and I already knew I wasn’t going to like the answer. “What are you planning on doing with me, Jannie? You can’t keep me tied up in a locked hotel room forever.”

  Anger surged through me. Who the fuck did she think she was? She couldn’t do this. I wasn’t some kind of nobody who would lie down and take it. If she thought keeping me in the room where we fucked was going to change my mind about us, she was sorely mistaken.

  “No.” Jannie shrugged again, meeting my eyes dead on. This time, they didn’t look as wild or as uncontrolled. She looked calm, completely comfortable with whatever she was about to say. “But if I can’t have you, my dear Jeremiah, then no one can.”

  Chapter 51

  STEPHANIE

  “We’ll look into this Jannie woman, Ms. Donavan. Thank you for your cooperation.” Officer Harrison closed his notebook and gave me a swift nod. “Whoever she is, we’ll have to do some digging and see what comes up.”

  Without another word, he walked away from me. I stared after him, considering jumping on his back and shaking his shoulders until he started moving faster. Doing something.

  At first, I thought he was one of the good ones. After speaking to Jance though, his demeanor had changed entirely. If I thought this morning he looked like he didn’t fully trust me, it was a hundred times worse now.

  He might as well have been carrying a sack of salt around with him since every single thing I said to him, he seemed to take with a grain of it. Especially after he asked me some follow-up questions about Jannie, and I couldn’t even give him her last name.

  I told him to ask Jance or even Neil, but he just looked at me. I caught him drawing a question mark behind her name when he thought I couldn’t see what he was writing down. I tried asking Neil for it on the spot, but Jance ordered him not to feed into my delusions and led Officer Harrison away from me again.

  Just a couple of hours ago, the police cars and news vans were filling up my block. Having done what they came there to do, one by one they started driving off. I stood on the sidewalk watching them leave, shaking in complete shock and disbelief.

  That couldn’t be it, but it sure looked like it was. The rookie who went to fetch Jance’s coffee earlier waited while another officer cleared the cones and tape and waited for a tow truck to arrive. When it did, they chatted briefly to the driver, and then Jeremiah’s car was loaded and taken away.

  What felt like minutes later, they were all gone. Only a few pieces of glass on the sidewalk remained as evidence of whatever horrible thing had happened to Jeremiah right here.

  Even Tiana came downstairs a little while ago and told me she had to get to work. She offered to call in sick, but I wouldn’t let her. There was no point in both of us twiddling our thumbs doing nothing.

  I thought I was alone until I heard Neil speak up beside me. “I guess there’s nothing for us to do now but wait.”

  He sounded about as thrilled about that option as I was, which wasn’t at all too thrilled. “We can’t just do nothing. This is insane. They just up and left.”

  Neil sighed, the corners of his mouth turning down. “I spoke to one of the officers before they left. He assured me there was no evidence left for them to gather here. Apparently, the investigation starts now down at their station.”

  “It feels so wrong not to be able to help.” There had to be something I could do. I was going to tear all my hair out if I just had to sit by the phone waiting for information. If they even called me with any, which I doubted given Jance’s hostility toward me.

  Neil voiced his agreement, then glanced down at his watch. “I hate to leave you alone, but I have to get back to the office. With the news breaking earlier, there’s a shit storm on its way with all the investors on any project Jeremiah’s even touched.”

  “Can I come help you at the office?” It wasn’t what I wanted to be doing, but at least it was something productive. Helping Jeremiah with the work he couldn’t be doing was not only my job but would make me feel useful instead of helpless.

  Neil shook his head sympathetically. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. The reports mentioned he was on his way to come get you when he disappeared.”

  He must’ve noticed the outrage on my features, because he quickly added, “Not that I think you had anything to do with it or that anybody else will think that. I just know the people we work with. They’ll question your capability to be on the job when you’ve been through something traumatic this recently. They’ll be waiting for you to make a mistake. If you do, they could use it as leverage to withdraw, saying none of us have our heads in business at the moment.”

  “You really think they would do that? Use this to push us for advantages or to withdraw completely?” It would be such a vile thing to do. I could hardly imagine anyone trying it.

  Neil grimaced. “People use tragedy to their advantage all the time. If we refuse unreasonable demands, they’ll try to blame it on our emotional states even if it means they’ll breach a contract. Then they’ll hide behind the tragedy and blame us for their breach.”

  I gave him a sidelong look, noticing how his jaw was clenched and his cheeks were pale. “Are you speaking from experience?”

  “Unfortunately.” He dusted off his pants and smoothed his tie. “We’ve been through worse. We just have to guard against giving them any more ammunition than they might already be digging for.”

  “Which means I have to stay at home?” People were seriously messed up. I believed Neil though. If my being at the office could cause more trouble, I would stay away for now.

  “You’ve been through enough today,” he said. “I know it’s a tall order, but go back to your apartment. Try to relax. I’ll keep you updated if I hear anything.”

  He wasn’t saying it, but I heard him loud and clear. He didn’t expect the police or Jance would be giving me any information either.

  The thought of going back up to apartment as he suggested made my skin crawl. There was no way I would be able to relax and kick back with a book or a movie. I needed to help. I needed to keep moving. I couldn’t bear to sit around waiting.

  “I don’t think that’s going to happen.” My tone didn’t leave any room for him to argue. If the police didn’t need my help, and Neil thought I wouldn’t be useful at the office, I needed to think of something else.

  Someone had to know something about Jeremiah and Jannie’s… relationship. He never gave me any details, not that I ever asked or wanted to know. But there might be a clue hidden in those details I didn’t have. Something that could help us find him.

  “Do you have Jeremiah’s friends’ numbers?” I asked Neil as he was starting to say goodbye.

  He paused, lifting a questioning brow. “You mean Tanner and those guys?”

  I nodded. A plan was starting to take shape in my head. “I don’t know much about Jeremiah and Jannie, but they should. They might know something that could point us in the right direction.”

  Neil rocked his head from side to side, then nodded slowly. Approvingly. “I’ll text them to you. You might be on to something with that. If anyone knows anything about those two that might help, it’ll be them. Just be careful, okay?”

  “I will,” I said. I was only planning on making a few phone calls. Nothing even remotely dangerous or that might get in the way of the police investigation.

  Neil pulled out his phone, tapped the screen a few times and pocketed it just as I heard my message alert tone ring out. “Done. Just promise me you’ll call the police if they think of something.”

  “Immediately.” I knew I wasn’t a cop. I just wanted to help, to find him before she could do anything horrible to him. “Good luck at the office.”

  “And to you.” He smiled, then hurried to his car.

  Back in my apartment with a steaming mug of coffee in front of me, I started cal
ling his friends.

  A guy called Bart Watkins was up first. I recognized his name. He was one of the friends who kept calling to ask me to add things onto Jeremiah’s calendar. Surprisingly, he knew who I was when I called.

  “Stephanie? Are you okay? Have you heard anything from Jeremiah?”

  I was momentarily stunned that he knew who was calling, then I realized Jeremiah must’ve given them all my number so they could reach him or coordinate with me. “No, not yet.”

  “Fuck,” the guy mumbled. He sounded worried, stressed. As horrible of a person as it might make me, I was relieved to finally hear someone else worried about Jeremiah. “What happened? The news is saying he’s been kidnapped.”

  I quickly filled him in on the little details I had. When I was done, I cut to the chase. “I think Jannie might be behind this.”

  He cursed again. Loudly and repeatedly. Finally, he calmed down enough to say, “I don’t know how a little thing like her could’ve overpowered him, but I think you’re right. People are capable of anything if they’re motivated enough, and that girl was fucking motivated to get to him.”

  Relief made me feel a little dizzy. I knew I couldn’t have been the only one who thought it was possible. Neil said he believed me too, but he also hadn’t said anything to support me when Jance screamed about there was no way a woman could’ve kidnapped his fully grown son.

  “Do you have an idea where she might have taken him if it was her?” I asked, feeling vindicated in my quest to help.

  “Honestly? I don’t know. I would’ve loved to be able to say I had any idea, but I only know the basics. It’s not like they were in a relationship or anything. I’ll give you a call if I think of something?”

  I deflated at his answer, but I wasn’t giving up just yet. “Please do. Thanks anyway.”

  Tanner was next on my list. He was as worried as Bart, if not more so. Unfortunately, he also couldn’t think of anywhere Jannie might’ve taken Jeremiah. It didn’t sound like he talked about her much, and they didn’t seem to know anything more about her than I did.

  She was his ex-secretary. They hooked up once at a company retreat, and she never let it go. After Jance fired her, she’d started showing up in random places and leaving Jeremiah creepy messages. He told Tanner he thought she was stalking him but said he could deal with it. Typical.

  To be fair, no one could’ve possibly known she would take things this far. Tanner did tell me, apologetically almost, that he remembered a few of the places Jeremiah would take girls at the time. He said he’d text me the place names and asked me to keep him updated.

  “I’ll do that, thanks for your help,” I said and ended our call.

  Looking over a list of places Jeremiah used to frequent with other women wasn’t going to be fun, but if it meant having a shot at finding him, I would grit my teeth and bear it. Before I did that though, I had one more call to make.

  Shawn was calm, but there was a whole lot of emotion I could tell he was keeping at bay. Understandable since one of his best friends had been kidnapped hours before. Like Bart and Tanner, he couldn’t remember any specifics about Jeremiah and Jannie beyond what I already knew, but then he stopped halfway through his sentence.

  “Wait. The company retreat that year was at Crystal Springs.” He said it like the name should mean something to me, but it didn’t. “That’s really close to the Julian.”

  “The Julian? Who’s that?” I didn’t remember a friend of Jeremiah’s called Julian. If Shawn thought he might know anything though, Julian was going on my list.

  Shawn chuckled in response. Briefly, but it was still there. “The Julian’s a place, not a person. It’s a hotel used for overflow guests when Crystal Springs gets too full. Don’t bet money on it, but I’m pretty sure that’s where they ended up that night.”

  Cold dread settled in the pit of my stomach. I really didn’t want to think about Jeremiah and Jannie in a hotel together, even if I knew they had… urg. I was going to have to wash my brain out with acid to get rid of the mental image.

  Still, if it meant finding Jeremiah, I would face the acid. “Did it have special meaning to them?”

  Shawn paused, then sighed. “You’re not going to want to hear this, but you did ask for it.”

  “I know. I just want to help find him, Shawn. Nothing else matters.”

  “True.” He took in a deep breath. “It didn’t mean anything to Jeremiah. If memory serves, that was the night he discovered the Julian because one of them was booked in there for the retreat. After that though, he kept going there for a while. The grounds are big and fenced off, and it’s far enough away from the city that there were no photographers around. Even if they followed him, they wouldn’t have been able to get close enough to get a good shot of… anything.”

  “Do you think it meant something to Jannie?”

  He considered my question before answering. “It’s possible. They hooked up once. If anywhere would be ‘special’ to her, it would probably be the place where it happened.”

  A mix of emotions turned in my gut, but the dominant one was hope. The most dangerous of them all. My heart started beating faster. I might have found him.

  “Thanks for your help. I’ll call the cops and give them the information right away. It may be the best chance we have at finding him.”

  “Keep me in the loop,” he said before hanging up the phone.

  Pulse racing, I called and told the police what I found. Officer Harrison wasn’t nearly as grateful or excited as I thought he might’ve been. “We’ll look into it soon, Ms. Donavan. We’re following up on a few leads at the moment.”

  “Jannie took him,” I insisted, my voice slightly louder than usual. “Please send someone to the hotel. I’m a woman. If I was going to try to make someone remember something about a relationship, I know I would’ve taken them somewhere I thought was special to us.”

  “I’m sure,” he replied. “Ms. Donavan I had some more questions for you about this Jannie. It turns out there are no records for her. We’re waiting on information from Williams Inc., but so far there’s no Jannie popping in his background.”

  The feeling that he didn’t believe me started creeping up on me, making my fingers and toes feel ice cold. “She’s real. When you get her employee records from Williams Inc., you’ll see that she was his secretary for years before me.”

  “Perhaps,” he said. “But it’s more likely that he was taken for ransom. His family is well known and very wealthy. It’s slightly more credible that someone took him for the payout.”

  “Who suggested that?” I asked, though I had a pretty good idea. “Jance?”

  Officer Harrison didn’t answer me, which was all the answer I needed. Jance didn’t believe me, and now it looked like he was actively leading the police investigation in the wrong direction. I knew all the way down to my bones Jannie was responsible for this.

  “He didn’t even believe his son was kidnapped this morning,” I reminded the good officer. “He thought he was drunk and being a Class-A idiot. Thanks for believing that guy.”

  I hung up on Officer Harrison and released an angry huff as I tossed my phone down. If the police wouldn’t do something to find Jeremiah, then I would. Fuck them.

  They could sing along to Jance’s tune all they wanted. I didn’t care about Jance. I only cared about getting Jeremiah back. Less than a heartbeat later, my phone was pressed to my ear, and I was waiting for Shawn to answer again.

  When he did, I got right to it. “My car is in the shop. The police don’t believe Jannie took him. Is there any chance you could come get me and take me to the hotel?”

  If Shawn was surprised by the request, he didn’t let on. “I’m on my way.”

  And so was I. I’m coming Jeremiah, just hold on.

  Chapter 52

  JEREMIAH

  “The longer you keep me, the worse this is going to get for you,” I warned Jannie. I was fed up with telling her to let me go or to convince her to take
me to the doctor.

  She was totally ignoring me, blabbering on about how no one else could have me because I was hers. Fucking crazy woman.

  “It won’t. Because when you realize how wrong you’ve been, you won’t press charges against me. You’ll forgive me. We’ll be happy together.” Reigning fucking queen of off the deep end, she was looking at me with wide, doe eyes. “Once you see how happy we’ll be together, you’ll regret all the time we’ve wasted.”

  “That’s never going to happen,” I said, same as I’d been doing for hours. Psychopathy seemed to have damaged her hearing though. She kept ignoring me, talking over me and telling me how in love I was going to be with her by the time we left the hotel.

  If only she knew how many other women I’d been with here after her. She launched into another fantasy description of how happy we’d been together before my father fired her when I interrupted.

  “None of that is true, Jannie. None of it ever happened. We weren’t happy together. We fucked. You worked for me. All of this other stuff is in your mind. We never were happy together because we were never together, and we’re never going to be.”

  Exasperation and being pissed off elevated the level of my voice. This time, she couldn’t ignore me. Her mask of calm and certainty slipped for a minute and let me see the rage rolling around inside her at my statement.

  I was over this, over trying to play her game or build a rapport. If I was going to be able to remind her I was human, I was going to have to remind her of what a truly awful human being I could be.

  “You didn’t mean anything to me, Jannie. Don’t you get it? You keep saying we could be so happy together, but we never will be, because I don’t feel that way about you. I never have. Not even for a single second. Not while I was fucking you and not while you begged me to stay the next morning. If I wanted to be with you, don’t you think I would’ve made a move in three fucking years?”