Rock Star Billionaire: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story)

by Claire Adams

  "What the fuck is wrong with you, Vangel?" I growled as I moved closer. "You're just a disgusting little troll who can't do anything right so you have to tear everyone else down to make yourself feel tall? Is that it? No girl in her right mind would ever agree to go out with a loser like you.”

  "Fuck you, Connor," he said throwing the rag to the ground and stepping closer. "You're an arrogant prick who thinks his shit doesn't stink. I'm sick of watching you walk around here like you're holier than the rest of us. You're act like some kind of saint."

  "What the hell are you talking about?" I laughed. "I've never acted like I'm better than anyone. Jesus, Vangel, who put that bug up your ass?"

  "I've been watching you, Connor," he said menacingly. "You think you're above it all. You're not, you know. You're just like the rest of us. And one of these days, you're going to find that out the hard way."

  "You're delusional, Vangel," I said shaking my head as I walked back toward the common room. "We might have to work together, but I'm going to recommend you stay as far away from me as you can. We'll both be better for it."

  "You're going to pay for your arrogance, Connor," Victor hissed as I walked away. "One of these days, you'll get what's coming to you. Just wait and see."

  I shook my head and walked away, even though what I really wanted to do was pound some sense into that thick skull of his. Instead, I headed to the kitchen and began helping Danny get dinner started.

  Half way through the preparations, my phone rang; it was Alex, but I was elbow deep in ground beef and couldn't answer it. I made a mental note to call her back as soon as we'd put the lasagna in the oven. We'd been apart less than twenty-four hours and I already missed her. I shook my head as I realized that if I wasn't careful, I was going to get soft.

  And then I smiled at the thought.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Alex

  Around seven the next morning, we were sitting around the nurse's station talking about the last patient who had come to the ER seeking treatment for a self-inflicted branding injury. He'd decided that it would be a good idea to brand his phone number on the inside of his forearm in case he was incapacitated for some reason. The heat and the metal had caused a bad burn and he'd let it go for days without treating it. The burn had developed into a nasty infection that threatened to turn into gangrene if left untreated.

  The resident had nearly vomited into the trashcan when he'd seen the severity of the burn, but we'd kept him on track and treated the man. None of us had the heart to tell the patient that it would have probably been wiser to tattoo the number of someone other than himself on his arm in case of emergency.

  I'd been checking out my phone waiting for a message from Cam, but when none came, I figured he was busy and didn't have time to be texting. I wanted to talk to him. We had unfinished business, and I wanted to discuss it with him. And then there was the constant ache I felt as I remembered what it had felt like to be curled up in his arms on the huge sofa in his living room. I'd wanted so much more, but I also knew that if I wasn't prepared to accept the fact that he had more money than I'd ever imagined, I couldn't go there with him anymore. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. The money scared me, but Cam seemed so level headed about it and didn't use it to get what he wanted or to pressure me. Maybe there was hope for us.

  The phone at the nurse's station rang several times before Leslie picked it up. She spoke briefly and then said, "Alex, phone for you," as she held out the receiver.

  "This is Alex Pierce," I said in as professional a tone as I could.

  "Ms. Pierce, is Ms. Baker down there with you?" Mrs. Rikka asked.

  "No, ma'am, she is not," I said looking at Leslie wide-eyed and worried.

  "I see," Mrs. Rikka said hesitating for a moment before adding, "If you see her, please tell her to come to my office. This does not bode well for her internship."

  "Yes, ma'am, I will," I replied as my mind started racing. I hung up and looked at Leslie as I said, "Liz is missing. I have to find her."

  "Get changed and go," Leslie said as she shooed me out of the station.

  "But I'm not off shift for another hour," I said. "I can't leave or Mrs. Rikka will have a fit!"

  "I'll cover for you," Leslie said. "Go! Go find Liz!"

  I made a run for the locker room where I quickly stripped out of my borrowed scrubs and tossed them in the laundry. I had just pulled my pants on when Violet, Jessica and Lydia rounded the corner of the lockers and saw me.

  "Oh, hello, Alex," Violet said in a voice dripping with distain. "I thought you'd be up in the ER until nine."

  "I...I'm...Leslie told me to go," I stammered as I tried to avoid talking about what I was doing down in the locker room. "I'm going home."

  "I see," Violet said raising an eyebrow. "It wouldn't be because your druggie friend is missing, now would it be?"

  "Huh? What are you talking about, Violet?" I said genuinely surprised that she'd have any knowledge of Liz or what was going on with her.

  "Oh, I know all about Baker and her nasty little habit," Violet said wrinkling her nose. "She's such trash. This just proves that you can take the girl out of the gutter, but you can't take the gutter out of the girl. Right girls?"

  Jessica and Lydia giggled nervously as they nodded and flipped their perfectly coiffed ponytails. I wanted to punch them all, but I knew better than to invite that mess into my world.

  "I guess it takes one to know one, eh Violet?" I said with a wide-eyed innocence that I certainly did not feel. Violet did a double take before narrowing her eyes and getting ready to pounce.

  "I wouldn't know, Pierce," she said. "I've never had to deal with street trash before."

  "No, of course you haven't," I said feeling a little more angry by the minute. How dare she say such horrible things about Liz! "You've had someone to pick up after you and wipe your ass your whole life, haven't you?"

  "You're so tacky, Pierce," Violet sniffed, but I could tell I'd gotten to her.

  "Of course, I'm the tacky one," I said as I pulled on my top and grabbed my coat. "There you go, projecting your insecurities onto the closest target. I'm sure that when I'm not around, she uses one of you as her target, right?"

  Violet's two shadows looked at me and then at each other before the stared at Violet and waited for her to tell them what to think.

  "You look like you're doing the walk of shame, Pierce," Violet said, as she looked me up and down. "Where were you last night? Earning your tuition and rent money before you clocked in?"

  "I'm not going to dignify that with a response," I said shaking my head, as I looked the three girls up and down. "God, you all are such mindless robots. Good luck, ladies! I've got someplace I need to be!"

  I grabbed my bag and ran for the door. I didn't give a rat's ass what Violet and her posse thought of me; I had one thing on my mind and that was to find Liz and make sure she was safe.

  I pulled out my phone and texted Cam asking him to call me before putting it back in my bag and heading out the door, wondering how I was going to find Liz.

  The question was where would Liz be hanging out, and even more than that, would I find her time to save her from herself?

  Billionaire On Fire Volume 4

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Cam

  When my shift was over the next morning, I called loaded Tesla in the truck and headed out to help Alex find Liz. Leo was blowing up my phone trying to get me to commit to the press conference with Metzler.

  "Not sure how we're going to juggle all of this, girl," I said to my canine companion as we drove toward Alex's apartment. I hadn't said anything about the rent payment I'd made to her landlord, nor was I going to. I knew that on Monday morning when the student accounts office opened up, I'd drive over and pay off her tuition, but I wasn't going to say anything about that, either. It was risky going behind Alex's back, but I figured that alleviating the financial stress was the least I could do to help her out, and that when push came to shove, Alex wo
uld understand that I'd had only the best of intentions.

  I dialed Alex's number and waited for her to pick up, but her phone went straight to voicemail.

  "Alex, it's Cam, call me," I said wondering where she was and why she wasn't picking up. I looked down at Tesla and said, "No one's answering, so I think we need to go check things out."

  Tesla wagged her tail as she looked out the front window, and I wondered what had happened to Liz. The last time I'd spoken to Liz, she'd sounded like she was getting herself together, although there was something strange about the fact that she kept denying her drug addiction. Anyone who looked at her could see that she was suffering, and I couldn't really blame her for drowning her sorrows in substances that would take away the pain.

  The problem was that she said she wasn't addicted to anything. However, in my decade with the fire department, I'd seen countless addicts declare exactly the same thing when it wasn't true, so I was inclined to believe that Alex's assessment of the situation was correct. Liz had an addiction that was eating her up.

  My phone rang but when I looked at the screen and saw it was Leo not Alex, I let it go to voicemail. I'd get back to Leo as soon as we'd found Liz.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Alex

  I'd searched every place on campus that I could think of, and by the time Cam arrived at my apartment, I was more than a little panicked about what had happened to Liz.

  "Hey, did you find her yet?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to him. I closed my eyes and rested my cheek against his chest as I wound my arms around his waist. It felt good to be in his arms again, and as worried as I was about Liz, there was something calming and reassuring about Cam. Tesla sat quietly at his feet waiting her turn for some attention, and wagged her tail when I pulled away and bent down to pat her head.

  "You're such a good girl," I smiled as I knelt down and put my arms around her neck. The next thing I knew, tears were streaming down my face onto the dog's fur. Tesla sat quietly for a moment, then pulled her head back and began licking my face.

  "Alex, what's wrong?" Cam asked. There was deep concern in his voice as he reached for my arm and pulled me back up to him. "Are you okay?"

  "I'm worried about Liz," I said wiping the tears from my eyes before I looked up at him. "I think she's in real trouble, Cam. She's in denial about her problem and she won't accept help, and now she's run off and I can't find her!"

  "Hey, hey, we'll find her," Cam said as he cupped my cheek with his strong hand. "I promise. We'll look and we'll alert everyone we can think of, and eventually we'll find her."

  "What if we don't find her in time?" I asked quietly. The reality was that if Liz was using, she was likely to overdose at some point, and if I didn't know where she was, then I couldn't bring her back. "What if I can't save my best friend?"

  Cam held me tightly resting his chin on my head as he stroked my back. I cried harder than I could ever remember having cried, but it felt good to have him to lean on as I let out all the emotions from the past week.

  "And what if we find her and they kick her out of the nursing program?" I said, and then more quietly, "And what if they kick me out, too?"

  "They're not going to kick you out, Alex," Cam said confidently.

  "If they conclude that we cheated, they will," I said shaking my head. "And if they don't make their decision soon, it won't matter. I'll be out anyway and I won't have a place to live!"

  "Yes you will, don't you worry about that at all," Cam said as he squeezed me tighter. "You won't get dropped from the program and you won't get evicted from your apartment."

  "It's nice that you're so sure about all of this," I said as I tried to focus on the task at hand. We needed to get out and look for Liz. With every hour that passes, we were losing the trail from the hospital. "We need to find her, Cam. We need to find Liz."

  "I've put in some calls to people I know in the fire department and asked them to contact their people in the police department," he said as he looked at his phone and frowned. "I need to return a call."

  I nodded as I moved to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. It was going to be a long day for us both and we were going to need to keep the caffeine flowing. I could hear the murmur of Cam's voice as he talked to whomever it was he called. He sounded irritated, and then suddenly I heard him shouting.

  "I'm not going to be that bastard's lap dog, Leo! Do you understand me?" he shouted into the phone. "I'll be there for the announcement, but I'm not going to go on parade for him every time he has an event!"

  Tesla came padding into the kitchen, looked around, and then sat nicely looking up at me. I figured she probably needed water, so I filled a bowl and put it on a nice placemat on the floor for her. She quickly lapped it up and then lay down with her chin on her paws.

  "Alright, all done," Cam said as he came into the kitchen and squatted down next to his dog.

  "Everything okay?" I asked.

  "Yeah, fine," he said looking at Tesla as he scratched behind her ears. "Just some business I needed to take care of."

  "Is this the security firm?" I asked. Cam didn't look up he just nodded. "You have to be there for the announcement tomorrow, don't you?"

  "Indeed, I do," he sighed. "I don't want to do this bullshit, but it's part of the contract, and if I don't do it, we don't sign. Metzler is a real bastard."

  "Like father, like daughter," I said with a wry grin as I pulled out two coffee mugs and filled them with the steaming liquid. I handed one to Cam and took the other into the dining room where I looked at the map I'd constructed of all the places I knew Liz might hang out. I'd checked both of our classrooms before I came home and found them empty except for the cleaning crew that was scrubbing the graffiti off of the desks.

  "Where do you think she might go next?" Cam asked. "Does she have a place that makes her feel safe and secure? Better yet, do you know any of the people she might be buying drugs from?"

  "Don't you think I'd have gone there first, if I did?" I asked in an irritated voice. "I want to go back to her apartment and see if she left any clues there."

  "Shouldn't we call in the police to do that?" Cam asked as he sipped his coffee. "I mean, what if it ends up being a crime scene and we disturb evidence?"

  "Seriously, dude, we need to find Liz," I said in an exasperated voice. "We don't have time to sit around and wait for the police to file a report and then send someone down to go through Liz's apartment. That could take days, and what if something happens to her in the meantime?"

  "Good point, but I still don't know if her apartment is a good place for us to be," he said.

  "Fine, then we'll go and check it out to make sure she hasn't come home, and we won't touch anything," I sighed. "Happy now?"

  "Very," he nodded solemnly.

  "You're exasperating; you know that, don't you?" I said.

  "So I've been told," he grinned as I lightly punched his shoulder and motioned for him to follow me. He grabbed my arm and pulled me around to face him. He had a very serious look on his face as he said, "Alex, wait. I know this isn't the time or the place, but after last night, I know you're trying to make a decision about me. I know you don't like the fact that I have a lot of baggage, but I promise you that if you give me a shot, I'll be good to you."

  "Where is this coming from?" I asked eyeing him suspiciously. "Do you know something that you're not telling me?"

  "What? No!" he said letting go of my arm. "I'm just saying that we were in the middle of a serious discussion last night when we were interrupted and I didn't get to say what I was feeling at the time. I just wanted to add it in the mix so that you know."

  "Duly noted," I nodded. "And for the record, I don't object to your baggage at all. We all have it. What I object to is all the money. I'm not sure I can handle the adjustments that would be required to live in your world. I just don't know."

  "What adjustments?" he shot back defensively. "There are no adjustments for you to make! You like me, I like
you and we want to try and figure out how to make this work. That seems to be the only adjustment needing to be made."

  "No, it's really not," I said shaking my head. "There are all kinds of issues associated with you and your money, and now that you're signing this contract to be one of Metzler's guys...it's just all really complicated and I need time to think it over."

  "I'm not one of Richard Metzler's goddamn lap dogs!" Cam shouted causing Tesla to come running into the dining room barking. Cam looked down at her and said, “Quiet, girl."

  "I didn't say you were a lap dog," I replied calmly. "I said that there are compromises that will have to be made in order to live the kind of life you live. I just don't know if I'm willing to make them or not, and I don't want to go too far down this road if I'm not going to make them. I'm trying to protect you, too."

  "I don't need protecting!" Cam shouted. "Stop trying to protect me! I'm fine the way I am, I've got everything under control!"

  "Obviously," I said sarcastically. "Okay, fine. You don't need protection, but I need to decide for myself what I'm willing to do."

  "You're just scared," he shot back. "Well, I've got news for you, sunshine, we're all scared."

  "Don't get snippy with me, Cam," I said narrowing my eyes and crossing my arms over my chest. "I'm just trying to make a good decision for myself. I've got a lot going on and I don't want to screw it all up by falling for a guy who...."

  "Who what?" he asked. "Who isn't going to be there when things get tough? I'm here aren't I?"

  "No, I just...." I began and then looked away.

  "What is it, Alex?" he asked as he pulled me close and tipped my chin up so I had to look at him. "What is stopping you from letting go and seeing where we wind up? What are you running from?"

  I looked into his smoldering green eyes and knew exactly what it was that I was afraid of. Cam Connor was a magnetic force and I knew that once I was pulled into his orbit, it would be impossible for me to get out of it.