Page 12 of Let It Burn (The Barrington Billionaires 4)
Stiles nodded and opened the front door. He closed it once he and Andrew were through it. He walked over to look down the street from the balcony. “It’s obvious that you’ve taken an interest in my niece.”
Oh, shit. He’s not as oblivious as I thought. “She’s a beautiful woman.”
Leaning forward on the railing of the balcony, Stiles said, “She is. Not just on the surface, but right through to her core. You don’t meet many people like that. People usually have something they’re hiding, a demon they’d do anything to escape but can’t. Do you know what I’m saying?”
“I think so,” Andrew said although he wasn’t sure he did.
“Either you know or you don’t. We’re all defined by our worst day, aren’t we? It doesn’t matter how much good we do before or after, we never rise above our lowest moment.”
“Say whatever it is you’re dancing around,” Andrew ordered between clenched teeth. If this is a threat to expose me because he somehow knows about what happened in Iraq, bring the threat on. I’m not the one desperate to keep the truth hidden.
Stiles turned and met his eyes. “I need you to take Helene back to her parents. I should have never let her come here.”
Andrew stepped closer and growled. “Take her back? Why? Is she in danger?”
Stiles paled. “I love my niece. She shouldn’t be involved in any of this. I would send her away myself, but I don’t know who I can trust. It may already be too late for all of us.”
Grabbing Stiles’s arm, Andrew gave him a shake. “What are you talking about?”
“Whose journal were you referring to earlier?”
Eyes narrowed, Andrew said, “Patrice Stanfield’s.”
“How did you get it?”
Andrew shrugged impatiently. “It came to our family when she died.”
Stiles’s arm shook beneath his hold. “How did she die?”
“Heart failure?” Andrew wasn’t sure. He’d heard about her passing, but since he’d never had a relationship with her he hadn’t paid much attention to the details. “What does any of this have to do with Helene being in danger?”
Stiles tried to pull away, but Andrew held him easily. “Get a private plane. Leave Aruba and take Helene with you. Right now. Don’t take your eyes off her for a moment until she’s back in Florida. If you care for her at all, do this. And don’t tell her anything. The more she knows the more danger she’ll be in.”
Tightening his hand on the older man’s arm, Andrew said, “I’m not doing anything until you explain what this is all about.”
The man’s eyes filled with tears. “Nothing I could say would change the past. It wouldn’t bring your brother back.”
My brother? How is this about him? How could what happened back then be dangerous now? “What the hell are you talking about? What are you not telling me?”
“Your brother’s death wasn’t an accident.”
And whoosh, just like that, Andrew was in fighter mode. He gripped both of the man’s arms and lifted him off his feet, shaking him violently. “What do you mean it wasn’t an accident?”
Stiles slumped in Andrew’s hold. “I’m so sorry. God, it feels good to finally say it. It’s my fault you lost your brother. I hate the choices I made, and that I kept the truth to myself. If this were just about me, I would tell you everything, but I don’t matter anymore. She does. You need to get her out of here.” The agony in Stiles’s eyes mirrored Andrew’s own torment, and he began to lower Stiles to his feet.
“Put him down,” Helene screamed from the doorway as soon as the initial shock of the scene before her passed. Even though she’d only frozen for a second, it had felt longer as she watched the man she’d brought into her uncle’s home maul him like some kind of wild animal. Without hesitation she attacked, pulling at the closest arm to her that was holding her uncle while kicking at his legs. “Let go of him.” Andrew released her uncle, but Helene kept kicking and hitting him. “I trusted you and this is what you do?”
Andrew fended her off easily simply by placing a hand on her shoulder and keeping her slightly off balance. She tried to push his hand away but all those muscles she’d found attractive earlier were now her enemies. She yanked herself free from his hold and went to stand protectively in front of her uncle while frantically digging through her bra for the phone she’d stashed there. Her hands were shaking as she swiped the phone. “I’m done. I’m calling the police. Don’t come back here, Andrew. Ever. If you do, I’ll make sure they arrest you. I’m sorry, but you’re not stable. You need help.”
Her uncle took the phone out of her hands. “You can’t make that call, Helene.”
“Yes, I can. We have to, Uncle Clarence. He’s more dangerous than you know.” Please hold it together long enough for me to get you help.
Her uncle put a hand on her arm and said, “Calm down, Helene. You need to calm down.”
Shaking her head, Helene looked back and forth between her uncle and Andrew. I have to say it, even if it incites Andrew. “He has a gun.”
“Good,” her uncle said.
Helene’s mouth dropped open as she tried to wrap her head around her uncle’s reaction. “Good? Good? He could kill us both. We need to call the police.”
Her uncle stepped forward and took her hand in his. “I love you, Helene. Do you believe that?”
“Yes,” Helene said, feeling bile rise in her throat. Was he about to do something heroic like attack Andrew himself? Andrew would kill him.
“Then go with Andrew. Don’t ask me why. Don’t take time to pack. Get in his car and go. Now.”
“No,” Helene said, frantically trying to figure out how any of this made sense. She met Andrew’s eyes and said firmly, “I’m not going anywhere with him.”
“Yes, you are,” her uncle said, looking fragile and scared.
She shook her head vehemently. “Absolutely not.”
Her uncle opened the door and called for Paul to retrieve her purse and passport. A few minutes later, he dismissed Paul then handed Helene’s phone, passport, and purse to Andrew. “Get her out of here.”
Tears filled Helene’s eyes as she continued to scramble to understand what was going on. “Why do you want me to go with him? Why aren’t you trying to protect me from him?”
Shaking and with tears in his own eyes, her uncle said, “I’m so sorry, Helene. I wish I could explain it to you. You have to trust me, or you’ll get us both killed. This is the only way.”
Helene gripped her uncle’s forearm. “No, it’s not. This is insane. I don’t understand what’s going on, but I can guarantee you I’m not getting in a car with him.”
Her uncle shook her hand off, and when he spoke his tone sent a chill down Helene’s spine. “If you love me at all, go with him, Helene. I know you don’t understand, but it’s better if you don’t. If there were any other way, I wouldn’t do this, but I have no choice. You have no choice. Andrew, she’s all yours now.”
With that, her uncle spun on his heel and retreated through the door, closing it behind him. Shocked into momentary silence, Helene simply stared at Andrew.
He reached for her arm. “We need to go, Helene.”
She recoiled from him. “Don’t touch me. You’re a sick bastard. What did you have to threaten my uncle with to get him to do this?”
He stepped closer, with her purse still in one hand. “I didn’t threaten him.”
She retreated another step, looking around for an escape route. “Is this some kind of white slavery thing because I’m a virgin? If so, you need to know that technically I’m not. I touched Gerald Finley’s penis my junior year, and I’m pretty sure he had an orgasm in his pants from it.”
One of Andrew’s eyebrows arched and he lunged for her, grabbing one of her arms with the speed and precision of a striking snake. “You’re still a virgin, but you’re safe. No one is going to hurt you. You haven’t been sold. In fact, I’m going to help you.”
She struggled to free herself but couldn’t. “
No, you’re not.”
He started to walk. She dug in her heels, but he pulled her behind him as if she were a reluctant child being dragged off by a parent. “Trust me, this wasn’t my plan.”
She tried to grab the banister on the way down, but wasn’t strong enough to hold on. “I’ll scream and I’ll keep screaming until someone else calls the police.”
Andrew paused at that. “You heard your uncle. Are you willing to risk your life as well as his?”
“Is that what you threatened him with? That you’d kill him and me? Maybe that worked on him, but I’m not an old man. You’re not scaring me. I’ll kill you right back.”
He looked down at her. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
She growled in frustration as he unlocked the passenger side of his car. “You really think you can get me in that car?”
“Do you value your uncle’s life?”
Helene glanced back at her uncle’s door, which was still closed. Why would he do this to me? Is he only playing along to give the police time to arrive? He could be on the phone with them now. That’s it. He must have known Andrew has a gun, and he said what he had to, to buy himself time so he could save me. No other possibility made sense. “Yes, I do.”
“Then get in the car,” Andrew ordered.
If I fight him here, maybe he’ll go back in and kill my uncle before the police have a chance to arrive. No. He can’t be a killer.
