Ruthless Billionaire: A Dark Billionaire Romance

by Anya Palvin

  Poor Danny knows nothing about Choker's actual life, only that he sells weapons to armies etc. So he's just as confused now as he was when she started talking. "I don't get it" he scratched the top of his head, and she walks slowly back to her room. "I'm not going." she says dryly. "I get that things are moving pretty fast but you've been obsessing over this guy since the first day you saw him. You came home just two hours ago and told me how amazing the sex was, and that it didn't feel like just sex. I don't get why you're pulling away now. Usually the guy's the one that does that, and girls hate it. Why are you doing that to him?" Danny doesn't understand where Ciara's stands, but she's in no position to explain it to him.

  Days later

  ICELAND

  PRINCE WAREHOUSE

  Choker checks in on Keys in Iceland at the BMC warehouse. New recruited trainees learn everything they need to know as far as defusing and arming a bomb, and safely getting each one through security at all the airports.

  "Hey mate" Keys greets his best friend when he walks in. "Where's the girlfriend?" Keys asks after noticing Ciara's not with him. "She's not my girlfriend." he announced dryly in an irritated tone, but he seems hurt too.1

  Keys knows when his friend is unhappy even if he doesn't say a word, that's why they're so close. "I don't want to talk about it ok, let's just get back to work." Choker cuts him off before he even says anything. He walks into the destruction room and steps into a safety suit, leaving Keys standing in the monitor room, with a million questions unspoken and unanswered.

  ...

  The day went by relatively quick. They got so much done, and Choker hardly seems tired. He seems like an automated robot or high-tech something.

  It's snowing in Iceland, and the distributors are wrapped in warm coats as they roll the suitcases out to the metal truck waiting out back.

  "Let's get out of here" Keys starts the car and drives away from the warehouse parking lot. "The men in charge know what to do, and it's safe to say all the merchandise are in good hands." He adds, and Choker offers him a weak smile.

  ***

  KEYS LOFT

  Keys has a loft in Iceland close to the airport and the warehouse. His maid Victoria keeps everything in perfect and cooks his meals while he's there. She has her own apartment downtown and her own car, and Keys pays all her expenses.

  "Vicky! Hot chocolate!" He yells as soon as he opens the door.1

  His Loft is really cool. It's on the 17th floor of the Grenlo building; large windows in the living room and the kitchen, you can basically look out and see the snow dancing all over the city. His furniture has neon green and black theme, it's almost as if one of the Power Ranger's live here.

  Choke sits back on the leather sofa, and used the remote to turn on the television. HBO's showing Pride and Prejudice. "Here you go?" Keys hands him a cup of hot chocolate and they sip slowly. "What happened with Miss Right?" Keys asks hoping this time Choker will open up.

  "I don't know, she’s wavering." he finally says it out loud. "Changed her mind about coming or about the relationship?" Keys asks a dual question. "I don't know, something tells me the answer is probably both." he continues in a low sad voice. "But I thought she was ok with everything. I thought that's why you took her to the warehouse." Keys is just as confused as Choker. "It’s confirmed, women are psychotic, and not in a good way. Everything was perfect, and then it wasn't, and I have no idea why." Choke released a heavy breath. "Is it always like this? Ugh, look whom I'm asking, I don’t even have someone whom I can talk about proper relationships with." Keys smiles when his best friend took at jab at his personal life. "Exactly, and you'll never see me in that types of depressing situations. Don't get me wrong, I like Ciara and I think she could be a good influence on you. But she also makes you vulnerable, and we both know vulnerability doesn’t have a place in our world." Keys offers solace and advice. "I feel like someone kicked me in my chest like a thousand times." Choker sadly admits. "I need you to snap out of this shit, and get your head back in the game, because if you're not focused, everything you've worked for will soon be turned to dust. You know how many people we've pissed off in the past and you know how many people want to see us fail if not dead. Working at Mc Donald's or rotting in a jail cell was never part of my plan for the future, and I know it isn't apart from yours. Shake it off, Choke. Do you know why I've always wanted you to be with Mya back then?" He paused to make sure his friend was listening.

  "I wanted you to be with her because she accepts you for who you are and she made you better. She encouraged you and helped you, there was no drama or judgement, other than the fact that you didn't want to be exclusive, and funny enough, she accepted that too." he paused again. "I'm not saying go back to Mya because I know you're not into her like that anymore. I'm just saying remember who she was to you, and find a girl like that, or someone even better. Or you can go back to the way you were before this girl showed up and transform everything. She may not be a spy or a rat but she's destroying you in ways even I can't fix." he paused a third time.

  "I saw Mya" Choke whispers. "What? When?" Keys asks in utter shock. "Last night. Well technically yesterday. I went to see her at her hotel after I ran into her during the day. She still...I still...we still...I don't know." Choke paused, not sure of what else to say. "What did you do?" Keys asks, getting comfortable. "Basically, nothing. It doesn't matter anyway. She's engaged to a prince and I still have feelings for Ciara." he admits feeling and looking utterly helpless, falling right back into a shitty mood.

  20.

  MORE DAYS PASSED...

  Dawn Choker's mansion

  Julia steps out of her black SUV and speed walks up to the front door. Keys answers the door before she got a chance to get her key out and she pushed pass him and walked into the foyer.

  Dozens of half-naked sleeping women welcomed her all over the floor, the pool table, the couch and there's a girl barely hanging from the kitchen island.

  Julia does a walk through, examining the effects of her son's downward spiral. "Where is he?" She asks Keys after she's had an eye full. Keys doesn't reply but he points upstairs and Julia rolls her eyes at him. "How long as it been like this?" She asks Keys and he shrugs apologetically. He wanted Choker to snap out of his depression, but he underestimated how bad things could get once his emotions were shut off.

  He hasn't notice him since that day in Iceland, and he's been ignoring everyone's phone calls and text messages. Keys got there late last night and found the mansion in a messystate, like frat boys got high and drunk and threw a kick ass party. "I'm going upstairs to talk to my son, when I get back these women better be gone. You're his best friend for Christ’s sake, Keys! You're supposed to be watching over him and preventing him from doing this chaos not that you seem to be even encouraging him." She snaps angrily as she makes her way upstairs.

  On her way to his room, she passed Chinese take-out containers, empty pizza boxes, empty wine bottles and vodka bottles too. She knocks twice on his room door, but she receives no reply from the inside, and she tries again. There's a heavy sound like someone fell off the bed, she listens closely, and the shuffling continues. A minute or two later the door opens and Mya's standing in the doorway wrapped in Choker's $2500 sheet.20

  Julia knows exactly who Mya is, and she's been supportive of their friendship back when Choker first met her, but after everything she saw downstairs, this isn't the way to make a good impression, and the disappointment is written all over Julia's face.

  Mya's glowing; flushed cheeks, and she smiling uncontrollably. "Who is it?" Choker's raspy voice came crawling around the corner, and she opened the door further so his mom could step in.

  He even looks different; shabby and untidy, dirty-looking beard, and dark boy band hair covering one eye. He's sitting up in bed puffing a cigar and Mya walks back over and slides in beside him. He holds her aggressively at the back of her neck and she smiles up at him. "I want eggs and pancakes" he whispers and she smiles sweetly.

&nbs
p; "What flavour syrup?" She asks kissing his cheek and he offers her a puff of his cigar. "Blueberry" he bites her earlobe and she makes a sexy groan deep in her throat.

  She hops out of bed again and hurries to the bathroom. Soon she comes back in one of his t shirts and he whistles in approval. Her giggle makes him smile, and she blushed even harder. "Would you like me to make you something Mrs. Prince?" She asks Julia and she shakes her head no, still eyeing her up and down with the same dismayed look on her face...fortunately, Mya's too happy to notice.

  Choker outs his cigar in the ashtray on his bedside table. "Mum I love you, but I don't need that long and judgyface right now." He says something before she got a chance to. "What are you doing?" She asks in a quiet and gentle voice but like he said judgy tone. "I was smoking Cuba's finest, and uh, now I'm talking to you." He smirks in a sexy no worries way. "I'm not being judgy but..." she starts talking but he cuts her off immediately.

  "I could smell the judgement on you from all the way downstairs. I can also bet, you either called Keys to meet you here and let him send the girls home or you did it yourself." he guessed right and she folds her arms. "You're my son, my only son at that. I have a right to concern myself especially when you've gone off the rails and losing your mind! Have you gotten any work done at all? Why can't you see that this girl is pushing you to your destruction?" Julia complains, raising her voice. "First of all, I haven't fallen off anything. Secondly, Mya helped me build a nuclear bomb on Tuesday that can take out an entire city in one minute. I have 4 buyers in a bidding war over it. We're up to 2.3 billion right now. She always made me better Mum, not worse. She helped me recreate dad's old company in college and now she made me 2.3 billion dollars richer. Ok, so we had a party celebrating last night so what? You came in here and you saw both of us alone, not my usual 3 or 4 companions." he defends Mya to the fullest extent of his will. "...and what about your girlfriend? I thought you wanted to be different, do things differently. At least that's the story your dad told me, but here you are living in with someone else." Woah.

  Julia jumps to like 10 conclusions in 10 seconds.

  Talk about zero to 100 real quick.

  His smirk fades, and so does his smile.

  He gets up from his bed real quick, his muscles look oh so delicious, and he takes his sweet time putting his joggers on...one leg at a time. "Mum, I know you like dessert in the morning, there's your favourite ice cream in the fridge, go grab a bowl. I'll be downstairs in a few." He walks to the bathroom and she leaves when she hears the water running.

  He didn't acknowledge her comment about Ciara. He completely jumped to a new subject all together. Still a touchy topic huh Choke?

  ...

  "Something smells amazing" Keys walks into the kitchen and takes a seat next to Julia at the kitchen island. Mya dishes three mouth-watering banana and cinnamon pancakes on a plate with an egg omelette and pushed it in front of Keys. "All your favourites, and there's coffee if you want some." she smiles sweetly and he digs in, moaning and groaning in appreciation.

  "Hey!" Choker comes in with his hair still wet fresh from the shower. He's wearing Calvin Klein boxers only and the sight is unbelievably addicting if not distracting. "Who said you could make breakfast for this fool?" Choker jokes but Keys' mouth is too occupied to respond with a witty comeback right now. "Is this mine?" He asks pointing to the chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs and a bottle of blueberry syrup on the counter behind her. "Yes" she giggles, happily, kissing him on the cheek and hands it to him with a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice.

  "I'm gonna take a shower and head down to the stables, I've been dying to ride black thunder again." she announces, rushing upstairs to shower and change leaving Choker, Keys and Julia alone in the kitchen.

  The party girls are now all gone, and the security cameras show several cabs coming and going after picking them up.

  ______________________________________

  "When did this starts to happen?" Julia asks Keys. "A few days ago" is all Keys replied and stuffed his face with a huge bite of pancake so she couldn't possibly expect him to answer anything else. "Prince?" She asks, wanting Choker to explain further what Keys started up. "Yes mum" he replies with an innocent boyish grin, licking blueberry syrup from his fingers. "What happened with Ciara? Please don't tell me she's dead." Julia frets and he takes a sip of his orange juice, trying too hard to supress all his emotions inside. It's physically painful to watch him try so hard to be unaffected by someone.

  She impatiently awaits an explanation....

  ...and waits...

  "No mum she's not dead. She's perfectly fine. She's getting exactly what she wants---her safety is well intact." He finally says something about her. Julia frowns then her eyesnarrowed in confusion. "What exactly happened?" She asks a follow-up question. "That's a good question mum, but I'm not the one you should be asking that coz I fuckingly have no idea either." he chuckles at the end of his statement.... it almost seems like he's trying to hide he’s actually hurt but it's hard to be sure. "What does that mean?" She asks folding her arms and giving him a Don't-Mess-With-Me look at both of them.

  He finishes his pancakes and turns himself on the bar stool to face her. Keys gets up with his plate and walks into another room, to give them privacy.

  "What's going on?" She asks in an inquisitive whisper. "I just told you, I gave her what she wants." he answers harshly and an irritated sigh follows.

  His cellphone vibrates on the kitchen counter but he doesn't get up to look who it is.

  Julia hops off the stool and makes her way to the counter.

  49 MISSED CALLS flash on and off his screen.

  "She's been calling you. Why aren't you answering?" She questions, swiping the screen and text messages start popping up, all from her:

  Javier!

  -------

  Hello!

  ------

  I'm sorry

  --------

  Please call me back!

  ------

  Are you ok?

  ------

  Just please let me know that you're ok

  ------

  I want to see you

  ------

  I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings.

  -----

  Can we talk?

  -----

  Please!

  ------

  I MISS YOU...PLEASE CALL ME

  ------

  I like you, I really do. I was just afraid of what could happen if I'm in your world for too long. But I realized that I'm more afraid of not being in your world at all. I don't want space...I want you.

  His mom scrolled down the line, opening every message and reading each one out loud.

  "I don't care" he whispers and she looks up just in time to see his eyes water for a few seconds before they darken and turned back into complete coldness.

  21.

  "Using this girl to get yourself get over with is absolutely not the right thing to do." Julia followed Choker outside. He's sitting on the railing watching Mya ridesat the back of Black Thunder and went down the trail in the backyard. "Who said I'm using her?" He asks icily. "You think you can fool me? I haven't heard you talk about this girl in years. Ciara gets cold feet once and suddenly Mya freaking Santiago pops up again." Julia rants angrily, and he shakes his head. "Mum her name isn't Santiago and it's not like that." He keeps his eyes fixed on Mya and his horse, as if trying to block his mom and everything else out.

  "I don't care what that girl’s bloody name is. Why are you running away from Ciara instead of fixing things with her?" She continues her ranting questionnaire. "....because I'm not the one who got us to this point. I don't know why you're upset. You even told me before to distance myself from her and you saidshe’s not a good fit into our world. You told me I would only hurt her. But she's not the one with the truck sized hole in her chest right now...I am." he finally admits he's hurt.

  "I know what I said, but I also remember what you said to me. You said sh
e was different, and she is. Honey, relationships are hard work and sometimes extremely complicated. Women are even more complicated, and half the time we have no idea what we're doing." Julia hugs him from behind and several beeps go off from his phone in her hand. She swipes the screen and there are 4 NEW text messages and one new voicemail from Ciara. "Talk to her, and don't lead Mya on when you surely know where your heart and your mind sets. It's unfair on her part." She hands him the phone and kissed the back of his head, leaving him to ramble through his thoughts and make a gut wrenching decision

  He sucks sweet Italian air into his lungs and let's out an maddening sigh. He swipes the screen and the first message pops up.

  Please talk to me.

  He scrolled to the next message

  How many times do you want me to say I'm sorry? I'll say it all week and all weekend, and every single day after that if you'll forgive me.

  Goosebumps take charge of his skin and there's a sharp pain in his chest for a split second. He scrolls to the third message.

  I'm not strong like you. I'm not used to any of this. I'm a clumsy, goofy, sheltered girl. I'm not nervous around you because I'm afraid of you, I'm nervous around you because of the way you make me feel. I honestly don't know what you see in me. I'm sure there are hundreds of girls that won't get scared or question their safety or worry about yours. That night at the warehouse, I wanted to stay with you and I wanted to make sure you were safe. I save lives for a living but for the past few days I've been feeling so helpless because I can't even secure myself from the pain I've been feeling. I'm so sorry for how I acted, and I understand if you don't like me anymore and if you tell me to leave you alone I will respect your decision.