Roman-2(Lane Brothers, Book 5)(203)
Sasha was trying to remain calm, but the craziness of the last few days made anything seem possible. If she could go from unpaid intern scraping together an existence in Chicago to millionaire actor’s girlfriend, what was to say that Bill the security guard couldn’t become Bill the hit man?
“My mom is sleeping. I’d have to hoist her into her wheelchair. I can’t just run.”
“For God’s sake!” Thomas barked. “Then arm yourself at the least. You’re American, I’m sure you have baseball bat around somewhere.”
“Baseball? Thomas, do you even know me at all?!”
Just then, the fire alarm started blaring.
“Shit!” Thomas cried. “What’s happening now?”
From the room next door, Julia’s panicked voice sounded out. “Sasha? Sasha, what’s happening?”
The smell of smoke reached Sasha’s nostrils. “Shit. I think he’s…oh God, I think he’s started a fire.”
“That’s it,” Thomas said. “I’m coming to get you.”
The phone went dead.
Sasha ran to her mom’s room. She was in bed looking panicked. Sasha raced into her arms.
“It’s okay, mom. Let’s see if we can get you up.”
She started heaving her mom up, ignoring all the safety instructions she’d been taught as a teen to make sure she protected her back. All she could think about was getting out the house as fast as possible.
Then she froze. There were heavy footsteps thundering up the steps and coming across the hallway towards them. Bill.
Oh God, Sasha thought.
The door creaked opened. Sasha gasped and swirled on the spot. Bill’s huge silhouette filled the doorway. He was holding something in his hands, something that was smoking.
“Please don’t hurt us,” Sasha cried.
“Huh?”
Bill stepped from the shadows of the hallway into Julia’s room, revealing that he was holding a burned pizza in his hands.
“Your dinner’s burned,” he said.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Sasha and Bill sat opposite one another with the charred pizza between them. Julia watched on, a deep frown line etched across her forehead.
“So Pippa didn’t send you to beat me up in an attempt to get back at me for having her fired?” Sasha said.
“Nope,” Bill replied.
“Then why are you here?”
Bill just shrugged. “I don’t ask questions.”
Sasha didn’t doubt that for a second. But she still demanded he tell her. “You must know why Pippa sent you here?”
Bill wasn’t giving away any of his secrets. The whole time he sat at their kitchen table, Julia seemed progressively more anxious, as though she was expecting him to attack at any moment.
“Look,” Sasha said. “You’re upsetting my mother. This isn’t a game. It’s serious. I mean, she must have tapped my phone, right, in order to send you over in the first place. So she’s treading some pretty illegal ground here. Why don’t you just fess up? Tell me what’s going on and I won’t get the cops involved.”
Bill peered out at her through his dark, beady eyes. “What makes you think Pippa sent me?”
“Because you were on Thomas’s old security team, the one he fired. Who else would have sent you?”
“Maybe I came on my own accord.”
Something was unsettling Sasha. “I don’t get it.”
“Maybe…,” Bill said, “I don’t think you’re good enough for Thomas.”
Sasha flew to her feet so fast her chair screeched across the linoleum. “You’re ‘Mrs. Lloyd,’ aren’t you?”
Julia looked terrified, as Bill heaved his huge frame from his chair. He towered over Sasha. She couldn’t help but shrink back, as images of rusty chainsaws flashed through her mind.
“Get out of my house!” Sasha cried. “Don’t make me call the cops!”
Just then a noise came from the hall. Sasha and Julia flinched. Bill turned his head to the source. The door to the kitchen flew open, and a man dressed in black rushed in. He grabbed Bill, pulling his arms behind his back in a fast, fluid motion and pinning him to the table.
Julia flinched, as Bill hit the tabletop hard and the other man pressed his face to the side.
“Who are you?” Sasha cried.
“Gerald,” the man replied. “I work for Thomas Lloyd.”
Mouth open, Sasha watched the chaos unfold, as Gerald subdued Bill and heaved him back up to his feet.
“Let’s leave these nice ladies to their evening, shall we?” Gerald said sternly.
Bill grunted, as Gerald shoved him in the back, then began stomping down the hall. “You’re a whore, Sasha!” he cried as he went. “Thomas deserves better than a cheating slut like you!”