Secret: A Stone Billionaire Series Novel (The Stone Billionaire Series Book 5)

by Kaya Woodward

  “Aidan, if you kill her now, this was all for nothing. You know Geoffrey Whittaker, and Olivia Winthrop is behind all of this! Even your daughter’s death! Maybe you got too close to figuring out the truth, maybe it was just unfortunate, but Elizabeth is not to blame, not until we know what really happened,” Levi tries to distract me.

  “Please!” Elizabeth screams.

  Her hands are pressed against her head, and I see the shaking in her body as she writhes in pain.

  She crumples into the water screaming at the top of her lungs, trying to fight whatever is happening to her.

  Elizabeth really is ill.

  “Please stop! Make it stop!” Elizabeth screams.

  I have to drop the gun pointed at her head.

  “Come on, we have to get her out of here,” Levi tells me.

  He picks Elizabeth up in his arms, and she wails against his chest as we make for the stairs as fast as we can.

  I hear footsteps above us.

  “The other way!” I scream.

  Levi puts Elizabeth on the ground and wraps her arm around his neck so we can go faster.

  Her screams fill the hallways, and I know that’s a sound I will never forget: the hauntingly agonized screams of a woman fighting her own body.

  I turn to Elizabeth and take her hands in my face.

  “Elizabeth, we’re here. Levi and I are here, we’re real, and if you don’t stop screaming, we’re all going to die down here,” I tell her in a firm voice.

  “Aunt Lizzie, please,” Levi pleads with her.

  “It won’t stop! The headaches won’t stop!” Elizabeth whimpers.

  “We’re going to get you help, Aunt Lizzie, but to do that, we need you to be quiet,” Levi pleads.

  Elizabeth nods.

  “Do you promise? They promised to help me before, but they wouldn’t,” Elizabeth says to Levi.

  “I promise Aunt Lizzie. You have my word. I promise,” Levi replies.

  Elizabeth’s screams turn to whimpers, just as a few more hired guns appear in the hallway and we scramble away from the spray of bullets.

  I realize I’ve lost my gun!

  I must’ve dropped it when I threatened to kill her, but that doesn’t matter now.

  We break into a run down one hallway, and then another, in the mess of a maze this place is.

  Levi pushes Elizabeth towards me, and I help her as he turns to return fire.

  “Levi, I need a gun!” I tell him.

  He only nods and continues to shoot, walking backward, like Elizabeth, and I duck behind a corner.

  There’s a series of windows in front of us and a pack of crumbled guards.

  Blood is sprayed everywhere, and I manage to wrench a gun out of a dead guard’s hand.

  “Can you shoot?” I ask Elizabeth.

  She shakes her head at first, then nods and manages to pry another gun from a guard.

  “I can,” Elizabeth says shakily.

  “Oh, God,” I mutter.

  Levi appears sprayed with blood, but otherwise, okay.

  “I found Evan and Merc, had a little help,” Levi quips.

  The look on his face is far from okay.

  One glance at Merc, who’s leaning against the wall and dripping with his own blood tells me he’s going to die.

  The color has drained from his face.

  “I told him to leave me behind, but he wouldn’t,” Merc grunts.

  Evan, however, has stopped dead cold at the sight of Elizabeth holding a gun.

  “Mom?” he says in a twisted voice.

  Elizabeth nods.

  “Is it really you Evan?” she asks.

  Evan doesn’t say a word.

  “Okay, family reunion over, let’s go,” I say, cutting into their little moment.

  “Before this one here dies on us,” I say.

  Merc laughs and then his laugh turns into a cry of pain.

  We reach the final hallway, and then I feel the ground begin to shake.

  “Earthquake!” Levi screams.

  He dives, and pushes Elizabeth and himself out of the way as a chunk of concrete smashes to the floor.

  Levi is pushing Elizabeth up the slippery ladder, as rain continues to shower down through the open hatch.

  “Come on Merc,” I tell him.

  The facility is beginning to shake apart all around us..

  Merc crumples to the ground.

  43

  Evan

  April 22, 2018

  “Merc!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

  Merc moans in pain, covered in his own blood.

  I will not let him die here!

  “Come on!” I say.

  Aidan and I pull him up off the floor and push him towards the ladder.

  “Merc, you have to do this, okay? I’m not going back to Leigha and telling her that I let you die! She’ll never forgive you, or me, and neither will I!” I scream.

  Merc nods at the mention of Leigha.

  He climbs the first few rungs of the ladder, but it’s clear he can’t make it without help.

  So, I climb up the ladder a bit and begin to push him upwards.

  Merc takes the next few rungs and then cries in pain.

  “Keep going, Torelli!” I scream.

  Levi’s head pops up at the top, and he reaches down.

  Between Levi pulling him up, and me pushing Merc from behind, we manage to get Merc out of the facility as the ground continues to rumble.

  “The beach!” Aidan cries.

  We need to get the chopper, now.

  There are first aid supplies in the chopper!

  Aidan and I hoist Merc up between us and make for the beach, where the chopper sits rocking on the ground.

  Mercifully, before the chopper is destroyed, the earthquake stops.

  “I need to sit down,” Merc protests as we make for the chopper.

  “Keep going!” I order Aidan.

  Aidan only nods until we finally reach the bird and pull Merc into the back of it.

  “My father! Lucius!” I scream.

  “Get it started, they’ll come!” Levi insists.

  I start the chopper, and ignoring the checklists, making sure everyone is inside, and then lift off the ground, just as a wave crashes underneath us.

  They’re getting more substantial, and larger.

  I move the chopper closer to the house and land again.

  “What are you doing! Stay in the air!” Aidan screams.

  “My father! I’m not going anywhere without him!” I respond angrily.

  We have all eyes on the house.

  I turn back to look at my mother, who’s bent over Merc with medical supplies scattered all around him.

  Levi works tirelessly to staunch the bleeding as Merc screams in pain.

  My mother, my real mother, holds Merc down and mutters things to him as Levi attempts to save his life.

  I’m afraid it will be of no use.

  Aidan’s right, I need to get the bird in the air.

  But, I delay, and I start reviewing my regular checks, because if anything goes wrong in the air, we’re all fucked anyway.

  It’s a crapshoot.

  This thing may not even lift off in such high winds, as the island is getting battered by what must be a hurricane.

  I know pilots who would never attempt to fly right now.

  I used to be one of them.

  But, we can’t stay here.

  “Aidan!” I scream.

  I point to the jungle, where various thugs are beginning to aim at us.

  Aidan sees them, and pulls out his gun.

  “Got it!” Aidan screams against the rotor wash and winds.

  He fires, showering them with bullets.

  Only one goes down, but I get the idea.

  It’s a distraction.

  Levi pauses his work on Merc.

  “Hold this,” he tells Elizabeth.

  She nods, but I can see her wince in pain.

  Levi and Aidan face off wit
h the guards.

  I need to lift off, I need to fly.

  If I lift off the chopper now, we can get closer to the house, rescue my father, and then get out of here.

  What if they’re already out here and we miss them?

  Then, they’ll be stuck.

  One glance at the ocean surrounding the island and I notice the waves are getting higher and higher.

  I need to get in the air.

  But, before I can start the chopper, there’s an explosion that rocks the ground so hard I wonder if it’s another earthquake.

  But, it’s not a quake.

  My father’s house has exploded.

  I worry that he could still be inside.

  44

  Noah

  April 22, 2018

  The island begins to shake around us, and for a moment I wonder if Olivia’s pushed the detonator.

  However, the detonator falls out of her hands.

  “Earthquake!” Lucius yells.

  There’s a look of pure fear in Olivia’s eyes.

  The house was made with hurricane proof glass and a foundation and walls built to withstand up to a 5.5 on the Richter scale.

  That’s what I chose for this home.

  There’s just one little problem with that: the natural gas line was in the process of being repaired before everything happened.

  One can only hope that someone shut it off.

  Then, I smell it.

  The gas.

  “Get out!” I scream.

  Lucius grabs Olivia, and we run for the door as the world shakes around us.

  Olivia’s hands encircle my neck and with a jolt we both crash to the ground, chaos all around us.

  I struggle against her, unwilling to hit her, for if I do, I may not be able to lift my hands after the first punch.

  She squeezes harder around my neck, and even as the shaking stops, desperate to kill me.

  “Olivia!” I cough out.

  She’s stronger than I assumed, I must admit.

  Lucius, however, is stronger.

  He wrenches Olivia off me and pulls her away kicking, and screaming obscenities, as the smell of gas continues to fill the house.

  The shaking stops.

  I can hear the hiss of the gas line.

  “The gas!” I scream.

  Lucius nods, and we make for the door.

  As soon as I open it, I can see a helicopter fighting high winds in the distance.

  Rain pelts our faces as we run for the chopper.

  Then, it happens.

  I’m thrown to the ground by the sheer force of the explosion, the wind knocked right out of me, as debris flies through the air.

  A large piece of cement narrowly misses me and lands a couple of feet away as I scramble to my feet and collapse, coughing from the smoke and ash.

  One glance around tells me Olivia is no longer in any shape to fight me.

  It would be so easy to kill her now, but in the long run, I need to see her pay for what she’s done to my family.

  I need answers.

  “Come on!” I rage at Olivia.

  Lucius fights the fire on the leg of his pants as I pull Olivia off the ground roughly.

  I pause.

  “Lucius, are you okay?” I ask.

  Lucius finally manages to put the fire out, but it’s clear his leg is severely burned.

  “I’m fine, Noah,” Lucius says, wincing at me.

  He gets up and tests the leg, walking gingerly, but he howls in pain.

  “The chopper!” I scream over the wailing wind.

  Then, I do the right thing, what I know to be the right thing.

  Instead of putting a bullet through Olivia’s head, I drag her towards the chopper as Lucius sets off one of the flares behind us.

  Slowly, Evan brings the chopper up, up in the air where it battles against the harsh winds of the storm.

  We have mere minutes until utter devastation.

  Olivia stops struggling against me, probably sensing the danger we are in.

  There’s no protection on the island.

  Everything I’ve done for Tinsley, all the things I made out of our love, have been blasted into oblivion by this vicious woman.

  I suddenly feel more than willing to leave her here.

  I keep tight hold of Olivia, as Lucius limps along beside us.

  It feels like hours, but it’s only minutes before we reach where Evan hovers.

  I can see him in the pilot’s seat, fighting the storm above us.

  He’s a damned good pilot; he’s done me proud all these years.

  Evan needs to know that.

  I can’t see anything over the top until Evan turns on the searchlights of the helicopter, then a head pops out, and the ladder drops down in front of me.

  “Lucius, can you do it?” I ask him.

  “Boss, you have to go first,” Lucius tells me.

  “You’re injured! I can handle her! Go!” I order him.

  Lucius struggles up the ladder.

  The waves around the island continue to build, in density and strength, until they’re lapping at our feet on what used to be the beach.

  It’s the storm surge.

  I look from a horrified Olivia, up to Lucius, who’s safely made it into the helicopter.

  “You next!” I yell.

  Olivia takes one look at me and nods.

  She’s got bloody pumps on!

  Those heels are going to kill her.

  “Take off your shoes first!” I tell her.

  “Noah!” Olivia screams at me, more horrified at the prospect of losing a pair of stilettos than of losing her life.

  “Olivia!” I scream back at her.

  She sighs, so loudly I can hear it over the rush of the wind and the shoes come off.

  No sooner are they off, then they are carried away by the waves, now almost knee deep around us.

  Olivia begins up the ladder, and I scramble after her.

  She’s slow and unsteady, and it makes me nervous.

  Three rungs of the rope ladder from the top, I see it before it happens.

  Olivia’s foot can’t gain purchase on the slick ladder, and it slips.

  Both her feet dangle above me as she screams.

  I can feel justice slipping through my fingers.

  “Hold on!” I scream.

  “I’m trying!” Olivia’s desperate scream is swallowed up by the wind.

  “Noah help!” she pleads.

  “Well, I’m below you! I can’t bloody well do anything! Stop shaking the ladder!” I yell back at her.

  “Calm down!” I instruct boldly.

  She doesn’t listen.

  Instead, she falls and nearly plummets past me, but I manage to snatch hold of her wrist in the split second before she falls into the ocean.

  Only now, I’ve got one hand on the ladder, one hand on Olivia, and I’m starting to slip.

  “Grab the ladder!” I scream.

  Olivia dangles wildly for a split second, and I realize my grip on her is slipping.

  “Olivia!” I scream her name one last time.

  Mercifully for me, she manages to grab hold of the rope, then one foot touches a rung, and then she’s safely clinging to the ladder.

  I heave a sigh of relief.

  “Bring us up! She can’t do it!” I yell.

  The ladder doesn’t move.

  They can’t hear us!

  That’s when I realize which hand exactly was slipping.

  My grip on Olivia’s wrist was excellent.

  It’s my other hand, the one holding the rope, that is slipping.

  I know it’s too late.

  Images of Tinsley and Sebastian flash through my head.

  Tinsley breastfeeding Sebastian while we quietly lay in bed.

  Sebastian’s little smile, his eyes, and his hair.

  Tinsley’s laugh; the laugh she uses when we’re in bed, and I’ve said something naughty.

  The way her face looked when I prop
osed.

  All of that rushes through my mind because I know it’s far too late.

  My other hand swings around, just in time to grab the rope of the ladder, but it suddenly jolts up.

  I miss.

  Evan will tell Tinsley that I love her.

  He’ll tell Sebastian all about me.

  Ava will keep my memory alive.

  Athena will fight for the honor of our family.

  Lucius, in all he’s done, was the most fabulous friend I ever had.

  And Levi, the only good one among us all.

  He’s a sensible sort, he’ll know how to handle things when I’m gone.

  My family.

  I feel a prick on the back of my leg, just as my fall towards the abyss of the ocean begins

  Blessedly, everything goes black before it happens.

  All I think about is Tinsley.

  45

  Evan

  April 22, 2018

  “Where’s my father!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

  “Evan, we have to go!” Olivia argues with me.

  “Where is he!” I rage at her.

  No one answers me.

  “We have to look for him!” I protest as loud as I possibly can.

  “Evan, you need to pay attention, alright?” Lucius grunts as he gets into the passenger seat beside me.

  “We’re in a highly deadly situation, you’re the only one that can pull us out of this, and then everything your father did will have all been for nothing,” Lucius tells me.

  April 30, 2018

  Olivia dove.

  She dove out of the fucking chopper the second we were near land, and there was nothing we could do to stop her.

  We saw a speedboat fish her out of the water.

  The storm had settled somewhat closer to the mainland.

  Merc was dying.

  I had a choice to make: go back for my father, or save the life of the man who kept me several times over.

  He brought me to Leigha, he got me through the war, he was my best friend.

  I wasn’t going to let him die.

  I couldn’t.

  “You need to eat,” Leigha tells me.

  I look up from the newspaper I’m reading.

  “That trash isn’t any good for you, you know,” Leigha says.