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Chapter 17
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THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 18
We walk down a wood-paneled hall in the penthouse. Grant stops halfway down the corridor and presses three spots on the wall.Just like the passageway in the hotel, a door swings open where there hadn’t been anything before. The separations in the wood paneling form the outline of the door, which swings inward.“You really like these secret passage things, don’t you?” I ask.“You have no idea.”We walk through, into a dimly lit corridor. There don’t seem to be any other doors – but by now I know better. Ten steps in, he stops and presses another three spots.A panel slides open, revealing a keypad. He types in a 10-digit number, and a final door opens up in front of him, magically appearing in the wall.“What the hell?” I say.“Some people have panic rooms. Me… I have secret rooms.”“Why?”“Take a look.”He gestures, and I walk into one of the strangest rooms I have ever seen in my life.It’s an art gallery, sort of. A dozen or so pictures hang on the white walls of the 30x30 room.Th
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 19
“I’ve been doing this for years. Remember when I said that my obsession with secret passageways and architecture began when I was five, and I visited that Victorian house? Well, I saw Entrapment when I was a teenager, and I was like, I want to do THAT, too. Sean Connery, man. I wanted to be a thief because of him. And because I figured I could get chicks like Catherine Zeta-Jones, I guess. So I started studying in my off-time. Rock climbing… lock picking… rappelling… tight-rope walking… parkour…”“Parkour?”“Jumping and scaling obstacles. Jumping from building to building. French guys created it in Paris just for fun, to do crazy shit in the urban jungle. It’s saved my life more than a couple of times.”Damn. No wonder his body is in such good shape.“My family had money – which you already know – so I could afford to hire the best teachers there were. And the best teachers were criminals. In college, I would actually pay former Interpol guys to hunt down the greatest thieves in the u
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR 19.1
“Carol started sobbing. ‘No, no, I’m not going anywhere without you.’“‘You’re safe now – he’s not coming back until 1 or 2 in the morning – ’“‘I don’t care! I’m not going anywhere without you!’“It wasn’t my first choice to go with them, but I couldn’t very well leave them alone to fend for themselves, not in that state. So I made them promise not to tell anyone how I’d found them. Once they did that, I agreed to get them to the nearest neighbor’s house, and then I was taking off.“They couldn’t go out the way I came in. I climbed up the outside of the house, three stories up, to an entry panel in the attic. They were far too weak, even going down the rope. If they let go, they would break their legs, maybe even their backs. So we’d have to go out the front door.“I deactivated the alarm system from the wiring in the attic, then got them out to the second floor. We made it down the stairs to the front foyer when I saw headlights driving up the property’s long, isolated driveway.“He
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 20
I stand there looking at Grant in awe. Ten minutes ago, I thought he was a thief with some sort of entitled, fucked-up Robin Hood complex – ‘steal from the rich to give to me.’Now I know he saved two women’s lives at the risk of his own, and faced down a serial killer.I’m astounded.And kind of turned on.I don’t think he can read that in my face, though. He’s probably just seeing blank shock, which he totally misinterprets.“I’m sorry I got you into this,” he says, his face grave. “I should have never gotten you involved in all this. I made you a target, and – ”What? Whoa, whoa, WHOA – “Stop right there,” I say, my palm outstretched in the air. “What?”“Why did you hire me?” I ask, a pissed-off tone in my voice.He gives me a puzzled frown. “Because they said you were among the very best, and I needed someone from the outside. In case Epicurus has infiltrated my organization and bribed somebody.” He adds, sheepishly, “That, and your background… I thought you might be a little mo
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 21
I’m standing in the almost-dark safe room with Grant, surrounded by works of art no one has seen for years.I consider that the last thing I might see alive is a masterpiece by Rembrandt.It’s not much consolation.“You were foolish to think you could best me, Carlson,” Epicurus’s voice booms from somewhere in the penthouse. “You were unlucky enough to stumble onto my activities, but you should have walked away. No one takes what is mine away from me. NO ONE.”Suddenly there’s the sound of gunshots, dim and far away.“Oh my God!” I shriek.“You’re going to pay for your lack of judgment,” the voice drones. “As is Ms. Saunders.”“Time to go,” Grant says, a little too calmly considering the situation. He grabs my hand and pulls me out of the art gallery and into the corridor that houses the safe rooms.“Where are we going?!” I ask, terrified. The gunshots have turned into the chatter of automatic weapon fire – submachine guns or Uzis or something. They’re moving closer.“We’re getting o
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 22
There is a horrifying moment when we are free-falling, and I think, So this is what it feels like when your parachute doesn’t open.Then, a second later, our descent slows and we change direction. Suddenly I hear CLANG, feel a jolt through my entire body, and we’re zooming out again at high speed.I open my eyes, which I probably shouldn’t have.The street below us is so small that the cars look like TicTac mints of all different colors. The people on the sidewalks don’t even look like ants; they look like dots.“AAAAAAH!” I scream, and grab onto Grant tighter.“We’re fine,” he yells above the wind whipping around us.I realize that we’re changing direction because he’s rappelling off the building. Every time we swing in, his feet hit the glass of some apartment building, and we kick off into nothingness and descend another 20 feet.I catch a glimpse of a wide-eyed cleaning lady as Grant kicks off the glass right in front of her face.“OH GOD!” I howl, and bury my face in his chest.“
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 23
We drive until dark, when Grant suddenly says, “Here – let us out here.”He pays with a fistful of hundreds, which makes the driver’s day.“You never saw us, understand?” Grant says, holding out an extra $500.The cabbie eyes the money greedily. “Never saw who, boss?”Grant pays, the taxi drives off, and we walk through the shadowy streets of a residential neighborhood full of brownstone apartment buildings.“What are we doing?” I ask him.“Going to ground for the night.”He looks at the buildings carefully as we pass, then selects one. I know immediately why he chose it: the three newspapers piled at the doorway. A pretty good indication that no one is home.“Let me see the backpack,” he says. I hand it to him, and he pulls out a small box full of metal picks. Within seconds he is using them on the three different locks on the door, one by one. All three unlock.He opens the door and pauses for a second, listening.“What are you waiting for?” I ask, glancing around nervously at the s
THE BILLIONAIRE'S AFFAIR Chapter 24
There’s nothing to do – we can’t watch television, we can’t even read without turning on a light – so we decide to go to bed.The master bedroom is on the second floor of the building. I start to take off my blouse when I notice him getting under the covers fully dressed – even with his shoes still on.“What are you doing?” I ask.“In case we have to make a run for it, we should be ready to go.”“Oh,” I say, and button my blouse back up. “You could be a little undressed,” he suggests.“Not if we have to make a run for it.”“Damn it, I shouldn’t have said anything,” he jokes.We lie in bed, him holding me tight against his body.“Have you ever been in a situation like this before?” I ask.“On the run, you mean?”“Yes.”“There were a couple of times where I narrowly avoided being caught. Security came after me, there were Dobermans chasing me… but nothing like this. Nothing where I felt like the other side knew the next move I was going to make. Nothing where I felt… hunted.”I shiver.
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