Billionaire Benefactor Daddy
Natalia Banks
Contents
Copyright
Billionaire Benefactor Daddy
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
PART 2
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
PART 3
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
17. Epilogue
Bonus Content: Knight Brothers Series
Part I
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Epilogue
Bonus Content: Knight Brothers Series Part 2
PART 2
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
Bonus Content: Knight Brothers Series Part 3
PART 3
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Billionaire Bash
Copyright
SOLD: Auctioned to the Billionaire
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
UNREELED
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
PROTECTED
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
About the Author
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by Natalia Banks
All rights reserved.
* * *
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
* * *
NOTE: This is a work of fiction, names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real life is coincidental. All characters in the story are 18 years of age or older. Intended reading audience 18+
A room without books is like a body without a soul.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Billionaire Benefactor Daddy
Prologue
Bam! Bam, bam, bam! The gun shots rang out, sending the massive crowd running in every direction. They heaved in a tide away from the library, but that sheet of terrified humanity tore itself to shreds running for some shelter—any escape.
Bam, bam!
Lorraine Devonshire looked up at Griffin Phoenix; their eyes locked. Both knew that their worst fears had come to life. Some of those bullets had found their mark, digging deep into tender flesh, ripping through organs, pushing the very living breath out of their victim.
Little Ashe Phoenix’s eyes widened with shock, his mouth falling open, the terror of the moment beyond his ability to comprehend. But the three were frozen where they stood, none leaving the other’s side. Sweat broke out over Lorraine’s face, cold even, as a wave of heat passed through her.
Police poured over the area, the innocent and the guilty scattering for their lives. For Lorraine, Griffin, and even for Ashe, it was too late to run; th
ere was nowhere to hide. Lorraine and Griffin looked at one another, silently knowing that the only thing left to say was goodbye.
Chapter 1
ONE WEEK EARLIER
“Shut down the library?” It wasn’t until she said it that Lorraine Devonshire knew how terrible and how serious the problem really was. “Mister Jenkins, you can’t do that!”
Albert Jenkins waddled down the aisle, his big belly nearly glancing against the books on both sides. When he turned to glare at Lorraine, with Carmen Mendez following behind him, Lorraine knew it going to be a long week, and it wasn’t even Monday noon.
“Not my choice,” Albert said, inspiring Carmen to imitate his glare, short-tempered and inflexible. “There’s just not room in the budget.”
Carmen nodded, her own chunky physique much smaller than the moving mountain in front of them. “We’re already down to three days a week, Mr. Jenkins.”
“Then you’re only losing three days, aren’t you?”
Albert walked on, Lorraine and Carmen trailing behind him. Lorraine caught sight of herself and the others in a mirror as they passed; with Albert’s big, dark, round, presence, Carmen’s smaller, mocha self, and Lorraine’s small, pale frame and short red hair, she felt like the scoop of cherry ice cream on the top some strange, moving triple-cone of bureaucracy.
“If I may, Mr. Jenkins,” Lorraine said, Carmen’s glare telling her that she shouldn’t, but both knew it was too late. Lorraine went on, “This is a public library; it’s vital to the community. Children come here to be read to; we provide internet for people who can’t afford it. It’s a meeting place, a center of social interaction—”
Albert looked her over. “Miss Devonshire, I appreciate your position. You went to school, chose this as your profession, now it’s being threatened. Believe me, you have my every sympathy. I won’t have a job much longer either.”
“It’s not just about that,” Lorraine said. “Don’t you remember when you were a kid? You’d come and get these free books, and then read them with such appreciation and gratitude? It made you feel, I dunno, cared for, like the city cared enough about you to—”
“Enough,” Albert barked out, attracting the odd glances of various patrons around the otherwise quiet library. “You think I enjoy this? You think I want to shut the library down? You think I don’t care about the community, the kids? But the reality of the new budgets take the choice out of my hands, Miss Devonshire. There simply isn’t enough money to keep the doors open! Can I be more clear?”
“No, sir,” Carmen said, shooting little looks at Lorraine to shut her up. “We understand, of course.”
Albert nodded and walked on, Lorraine and Carmen following. “Nothing’s official yet, but you’d both better get your affairs in order.”
Carmen asked, “How long?”
“Three months,” Albert said, “six tops.”
Lorraine couldn’t help be struck with the resemblance their conversation had to a doctor’s terminal diagnosis and a patient’s sad acceptance. Albert Jenkins had just handed the Hadley branch of the Denver Public Library a death sentence.
Three to six months.
After Albert left, Carmen led Lorraine into her private office, closing the door behind them. “What was that, Lorraine?”
“I’m sorry, Carmen, I didn’t mean to speak out of turn, but…they’re gonna shut us down, and you’re just gonna take it?”
“What else can we do? Lorraine, this is government stuff, real political shit, baby. You go along, you get along. So they close this place up, maybe Albert’ll find us something somewhere else.”
Lorraine shook her head, short red hair clinging to her scalp. “He said he’ll be fired too, Carmen; he won’t be any use to anybody. Anyway, that’s no way to live—ass kissing.”
“So you say.”
“And it won’t save the library!” Lorraine exclaimed.
“You got me there,” Carmen said, shaking her head. “Still, you can’t fight City Hall.”
“No, I… Wait a minute, why can’t you?” Carmen tilted her head, looking at Lorraine from under her brow. Lorraine went on, “We can stage a protest or something, right? Save our library, something like that?”
“Not unless you have some other career in your back pocket.”
“This is my career, Carmen, and yours! And why? We didn’t get into this in order to get rich or famous!”
“Lo’, I got into this so I could work in a nice, quiet place. With my family, library was the only place you couldn’t shout at the top of your lungs!”
“Exactly, but today’s kids need that as much as we did, as much as any generation!” Lorraine couldn’t ignore the fatalistic expression on Carmen’s face. “What if we had a fundraiser, raised enough money to keep the library going?”
“You know how much that would take? You’re talking about a hundred grand just for this branch and just for one year! Then there’s the overall pattern, Lo’. It’s not just this branch. Pretty soon the whole concept of the public library will be a memory. Like phone booths, you remember those? Or those photo development places—little shacks in parking lots where people would drive up and get their pictures? Times change, Lo’—y’just gotta deal with it.”
“But that’s just the problem, Car. Those government fat cats are always cutting all the social service agencies, from welfare to planned parenthood. Those rich bastards are slicing up our country and eating it like a Christmas turkey, and we’re left to starve! It’s not fair and it’s not right! We have to draw the line somewhere, right?”
“Not across my neck, we don’t. You wanna draw a line, Lo’, do it someplace else.”
“But this is where it matters, Car, this is where it counts!”
“No, Lorraine, no, this is just a library. This is where homeless people come to get out of the sun. This is where old people come to read magazines—another dying institution. This is just a job nobody wants to pay for, just a building filled with books nobody wants to read.”
Lorraine couldn’t disguise her sorrow, and Carmen couldn’t ignore it. “It’s okay, Lo’, you’ll find something else. We both will.”
“Go along to get along,” Lorraine repeated. But she didn’t mean it, and she wasn’t ready to accept it.
The problem wriggled in the back of her mind all the way back to her apartment. The one-bedroom apartment wasn’t much, but it represented promise; it was Lorraine’s independence, her future as an adult. It had been the first place she’d ever had on her own after childhood with the Devonshires and then college years rooming with Jeremy Bush. This was supposed to be the beginning of the rest of my life, Lorraine said to herself, a voice in the back of her brain. Is that it? Is it over already?
No, she told herself, I’m not just going to let go of it, or of the library. What are they going to cut next? No more public schools? No more emergency rooms? People dying in the streets? No. The libraries may not save any lives, but they inspire educations and they employ a lot of good people.
There must be something I can do!
Lorraine’s smartphone rang, the familiar name on the screen bringing her no particular solace, much less joy. “Donal, hi.”
Billionaire Benefactor Daddy: A Single Dad & Virgin Romance Boxset Page 1
