A Billionaire's Heart (Love and Wealth #3)

Prologue

“Where is he?” I growled, barreling my way through the alley to the back of the warehouse.

“We have him in the back,” Joshua, part of my security team and cousin, answered as I pushed through the metal doors.

“Alive?” I halted mid-stride and turned to Joshua. “I said, is he still alive?”

My exact orders were that the asshole was mine. I didn’t have time for disloyal motherfuckers.

Joshua took a step back, not wanting to get too close to me. “Ye…yes, boss,” he stammered. “He was when I left.”

I blew out an exasperated breath. “I told you not to call me that. You’re fucking family.” I hated that shit. It made me sound like a gotdamn crime lord or some shit. Granted, I was, but damn.

“Okay, okay,” he conceded.

I gave a curt nod, then continued to the room in the warehouse where I did some of my best work.

Since I’d turned thirty, for the past fifteen years, I’d been on the top of Chicago’s underground.

I’d accumulated enemies over the years because of my ruthlessness and made a lot of money because of it.

I was one of the richest men in the world and made my fortune legitimately and illegally.

Making my way down the narrow hallway, I turned slightly so the breadth of my shoulders could fit.

The darkness of the warehouse provided the cover I needed.

The water dripping and our footfalls were the only sounds echoing in the warehouse.

The closer I got to my destination, I could hear the subtle groans, moans, and an occasional thud of knuckles on flesh coming from behind the door at the end of the hallway.

The warehouse had been abandoned for more than ten years and had been taken over by animals and homeless people. It smelled like piss and mildew. Yet for all of its dilapidated condition, it was worth the discretion it provided.

I pushed the door open. Several of my men encircled my target, watching Mickey, a member of my security team, rain down blow after blow upon my guest.

“That’s enough!” They all stood at attention as I sauntered to the center of the room, the door softly closing behind me. I locked eyes with each man. “Who the fuck told you to do this?”

“No one, boss,” Ryan answered.

“No one?” I repeated, not moving from my position in the room. “Then why the fuck is Taylor cuffed to this chair with his face looking like it’s been in a meat grinder?”

Silence.

Everyone in this fucking room was starting to piss me off. “I asked you a gotdamn question.” My voice echoed off the walls of the room.

“We roughed him up a little, boss,” Mickey answered.

I pulled out my gun, shooting him on the spot. He crumpled to the floor from the bullet to his chest. No one moved to help him. They knew better.

“I didn’t ask you to rough him up. Did I?” My eyes scanned the room, all of them shaking their heads no, not daring to speak.

I strolled over to Taylor. His head hung low. I lifted it so that he could see me. “Taylor. Yooo whooo…Tayylorrr…” His eyes fluttered open. He opened his mouth, and a groan escaped. “Ahhhh, there he is.”

“I’m going to die,” Mickey moaned and bitched from the floor where he dropped. “Someone help me.”

I diverted my attention from Taylor to Mickey. “If you don’t shut the fuck up, you will die.”

His trembling lips thinned.

I despised a whiner.

“Now, Taylor. You’re going to tell me who hired you because if you don’t, you’re gonna end up like Mickey there on the floor bleeding out.”

Taylor’s body jerked. It took a few seconds before I realized he was laughing. This motherfucker must’ve had a death wish or something.

“I’m not talking. Do what you want,” he whimpered.

“Oh, believe me, I will,” I whispered in his ear so only he could hear. I released his chin, letting his head fall back to his chest. The time for playing was over. “Untie him.”

“What are we doing with him, boss?” Joshua asked as he scurried past me.

“Strap him to the wall,” I demanded.

Joshua dragged Mickey to the other side of the room out of the way, while Ryan strapped Taylor to the wall, the cuffs fitting tightly around his wrists. This asshole would wish he’d never betrayed me when I got finished with him. He would beg for his life, but I’d show no mercy.

“Leave!” I yelled, keeping my attention on Taylor.

The door slammed, leaving him and me alone with a dying Mickey on the floor.

A few weeks ago, someone made an attempt on my life. The plan was ingenious. Distract me with a beautiful woman vetted by my security team. Have her fuck me, and in my sleep, her accomplice comes in to kill me. What was quieter than a knife to the heart?

One thing I learned over the years was to become a light sleeper.

You’re most vulnerable and susceptible to danger while you’re asleep.

That night, I felt a presence hovering over me.

My eyes opened in time to roll away from the knife aimed at my chest by the woman in my bed.

She scrambled off the bed out of the way, trying to hide behind the newcomer in my room.

“What the fuck is this!” I stalked toward my would-be assassins.

The newcomer didn’t speak, and his face was fully covered. He didn’t seem afraid of me, which threw me. Men and women cowered around me. My name carried weight and fear on the streets and in the business world, from Chicago to other major cities.

The man drew another knife from his back and held it like it was a natural extension of his hand.

Which said he’d done this before. He lunged at me, and I stepped back, the blade just missing my torso.

I was a big man but agile. He didn’t give me time to recover before he was on me again.

I grabbed his arm, trying to squeeze it hard enough, so he’d drop the knife.

I prided myself on being in shape, working out at least three times a week.

I was a strong son of a bitch, but this guy was just as strong, although he wasn’t as big in frame as me.

I twisted his arm around his back, applying pressure with my thumb where his wrist and hand met. He dropped the knife, and I wailed as I dropped blows to the side of his head while continuing to hold his arm around his back. I then took my free arm and hooked it around his neck and squeezed.

The intruder jerked, kicked, and tried to headbutt me with the back of his head.

I held onto him until he went limp in my arms. Before his lifeless body dropped onto my Nain Persian rug, a burning sensation ran down my face.

I hadn’t thought of her as a threat any longer until she slashed at me with a knife.

When I got my bearings and the blood out of my eyes, I snatched her toward me, causing her to drop the knife.

“Who the fuck sent you?” I grunted, the pain radiating up my face when I spoke.

Shit, that hurt.

“Fuck you!”

“I already did.” I laughed, still holding tight. “And I have to say, it’s a shame I’ll have to kill you. Your pussy was wet.”

She stopped squirming, and that lovely mouth of hers sang like a canary. It was good for something other than sucking my dick.

“I don’t know who hired us,” she sobbed. “I was supposed to fuck you and let him in the room.”

“How did you get vetted? There’s no fucking way you could’ve gotten this close to me without help,” I growled, still squeezing the shit out of her.

Regardless of the answer she gave me, whether or not she cooperated, she wouldn’t be leaving my house.

There’d be two dead bodies lying on my seven-thousand-dollar rug tonight.

“All I was told was don’t worry about it. Someone would let me in. Please let me go,” she pleaded.

I had hosted a huge charity event at my place that night.

High-profile people in business and politics were in attendance.

These things were a dime a dozen in my circle, and I had to do them to keep face.

No doubt some of my guests just came to see if anything would happen to lead to my downfall, others wanted to be attached to my name.

But the scrutiny was always worth it because, in the end, I always got what I needed—a squeaky-clean reputation from the people of my home city.

Everyone was vetted. Invite only. These two didn’t belong.

And that night, somewhere, the fucking security had broken down, and it had almost cost me my life.

“You come into my home, uninvited. Take part in a plan to murder me in my sleep, and then you do this?” I pointed at the gash down my face. “Fuck if I’m going to let you go.”

Realization of the consequences hit her, and she screamed for me to let her go. She squirmed, trying to get out of my grip, and cried even harder. I hated to see a woman cry, especially those ugly tears, with the snot running out of their nose.

“Fuck it.”

I pulled her closer to me and twisted her neck. Her crying and screaming stopped immediately. I let her slump to the floor and called my security team.

“Yeah, boss?” Joshua answered.

“Get the fuck to my room and have someone call Doc Winters. Tell him to get his ass here now.”

“But it’s three in the morning, boss.”

I blew out a breath of frustration. “Some assholes just tried to kill me, Josh. I don’t give a fuck about the time. Just do what the hell I say.”

I hung up. A few minutes later my security team was filing into my bedroom, and I was still butt-ass naked, holding a gotdamn wet towel to my face to staunch the blood flow. I perused the room, making sure everyone was accounted for.

“Where’s Taylor?”

The men glanced around the room. “He was called like everyone else,” Joshua assured me.

“No matter.” I folded the towel and applied more pressure.

I sat in a chair in the corner of the spacious room when the pain and exhaustion kicked in.

“I want to know who the fuck gave her clearance?” My team looked at one another.

One thing that irritated the hell out of me was when my questions went unanswered.

Mickey stepped forward, but before he spoke, Taylor pushed his way into the room, observing the carnage on the floor.