The Billionaire’s Bargain Bride

The Downfall

CENRIC

“You know this is not a good idea, Wollf.”

“You know I don’t care. I need to do it, and I’m gonna do it without your permission because I don’t need your consent.”

“You know I’m your handler, and you do as I say.”

“Yes, you are, but I still won’t do as you say. Whether you’re with me or not, I already convinced Jasper to give up their operations with my money and not yours.

“What am I doing here?” Jasper sounded horrified. Beck and a few private military contractors he hired had managed to extract Jasper from his father’s men unharmed and left without dropping dead bodies.

“The right question is why are you still alive.” He wasn’t even tied up to a chair in front of me, but if he made a wrong move, he was dead.

“Why am I alive then?” He was still a fucking arrogant but should be interested in my offer, or he thought that I would still kill him after this.

“I’m so sick of you harassing my wife and threatening my companies. So, I’m offering you a way out with a new name, new identity, cash, a new house in a new place to start over away from here and away from your father.”

“You’re a sick son of a bitch!” he spat.

Beck alerted and groaned, ready to punch Jasper. I raised my hand to stop.

“This sick son of a bitch can save your life if you listen to my offer.”

“My father is right after all. You are a traitor.” His wide grin mocked me.

I crossed my legs. Let us see if he could still mock me after this. “I’m no traitor because I’m not even loyal to your father or anyone. I’m only loyal to my family, friends, and my wife. Honestly, I always wondered why Sadie is so kind and compassionate, then I figured out something, but you’re not here to get bored to death with my substory. I have a proposition. You give up the location of your operations here in the States, and you’ll be free from any charges. The FBI is probably listening to us right now, and they won’t lock you away. I can count in my fingers of what to charge you with, but—” I pointed out. “You’re getting away with all of it.”

“You’re kidding. You’re maybe fucking rich and have connections, but you don’t and can’t buy the FBI.”He snorted.

“I don’t, and they’re not in my payroll. But very well then.” I signaled Beck. “Send him with a bow tie.”

Beck and the other guy marched forward.

“Wait!” Jasper raised his hand. “How can I guarantee that you won’t double-cross me?”

“I get it you don’t trust me, but I value my wife’s trust. She would hate me for the rest of my life if I told her I killed her brother. She may hate your guts, but she doesn’t want you in a body bag.”

“You care about her?” He seemed to calm down.

“Yes,” I answered immediately.

He nodded, somehow believing in my words. “I always felt jealous about Sadie. She seemed to doesn’t care about the world around her. While working my ass off, my father didn’t appreciate my effort. Then I heard he found someone to be his successor.”

“And it wasn’t you?”

He shook his head. Disappointment appeared on his face. “Since you turned down his offer, he chose my cousin Trevor. He said he’s older than me and thinks just like him.”

“You felt betrayed.”

“That’s the way to put it out, yes. Trevor might as well going to kill you once he sat down.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Don’t you want this information?” He looked at me and to the men behind me.

“I want more than that.”

“Then I want you to put in writings that the FBI won’t capture me once I’m out of here. I will tell you everything, and I want five million dollars in my Cayman’s account after this.”

“Done.”

“That’s it?” He stared at me in disbelief.

“Yeah. I’m sure you have no reasons to lie to my face to save your ass.”I turned to Beck. “Bring the papers.”

“You hate my father’s guts. Why?”

“I have a long list of reasons, Jasper.”Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

“Yet you gave him twenty-five million dollars and married my sister.”

“It’s a payoff to give me your sister because she’s innocent. That’s the truth. Your father will pay my money back if she escapes from my care within one year of our marriage. It’s all stated in the contract. And Sadie has nothing to do with all your filthy businesses. I married your sister to protect her. And I will still protect her with my wife even if this is over. If you ever plan on contacting your father after this, you better dig your grave early to your choosing.”

Beck gave him the papers. When Jasper checked the documents, he stared at me in shock. “This is real.”

“I’m not an idiot, Jasper. I always keep my words. And I don’t have time to play games with you. Now sign it before I change my mind.”

“Pen?”

I gave him my pen. He signed willingly as if he was about to claim his jackpot prize. “Done. Now your turn to keep the end of the bargain.”

“Location, Jasper?”

“454 East Junction, Jefferson Road. At the Cayhill Warehouse. That’s the largest operation. You need to do it now, or you miss your only chance.”

“How many men can we expect?”

“Fifteen or twenty heavily armed. The cheese trucks have guns inside and Fentanyl.”

“If you are lying to me—”

“I’ll stay here until you get them.”

“Good.”

“How’s she?”

“Don’t ever ask.”

***

I walked into the trap. Who in the right mind did that? No one. Only me. While they were raiding the warehouse, I was here walking into the lion’s den. I entered his office when his guard opened the door for me.

“Cenric, have a seat.” Hanslo was on his chair, gesturing to me.

I took a seat across from him. “The last time I was here, I was asking your daughter’s hand. She was barely nineteen. You showed me her picture, and it was like love at first sight if it was even a thing.”

“How’s she?”

“She’s fine, running her our new company. Well, literary, it’s in her name now, but she doesn’t know yet.”

“I thought you won’t allow her to work.”

“Even a princess works, Hanslo. And that’s what she wants. She was born a leader, and I can’t take that privilege away from her.” I crossed my legs.

“If you didn’t come early, you won’t find me here. I have a flight to catch.”

“I’m right on time then. Annual meeting?” Jasper told me before I left that his father would meet some critical people in his organization. The FBI divided and conquered while I was sitting here with this son of a bitch, still wired as agreed.

“Yes.”

“It won’t take long. I’m here for two things.” I looked at him. He was like the monster in my nightmare—it would haunt you but couldn’t hurt you. “I know Sadie is not your daughter.”

He stiffened and blanched. His eyes widened. “She’s my daughter, Cenric.”

“Did you treat her like your own, though? How did you find out she’s not yours, Hanslo?”

He clenched his jaw before he let go of a noisy breath. “When my wife found out about my other ventures.”

“Which is?”

“She didn’t know I ran a gun smuggler in the US. I also started a cocaine operation with the Mexican cartel.”

I got you, you sick son of a bitch.

“When she found out, she left. She just started working as a doctor, and she loved that job. I let her go for months. I thought because she loved me, she would come back. We’ve been separated, but we were not divorced. I ignored the paper she sent to me. Then I found out she was with someone already. I took that man’s life to prove to her that she couldn’t run away from me.”

“How did she die?”

He eyed me suspiciously.

“Hanslo, my wife doesn’t even know how her mother exactly died. She deserved to know.”

“I found out she was pregnant. I kept her and her child. Eventually, Sadie turned eight, and my wife wanted to practice again. I took Sadie and let my wife go. I knew she sometimes came to visit her at school. I kept tabs on her. Before she died, she volunteered in one hostile village. A drug lord poisoned the water. Yelena called me before she died in a crossfire, asking for my help. She might have known all along I sold guns to those revels. That was the last thing I heard from her.”

“Do you know I was there?” My words stopped him as though I had just pulled the pin on a grenade and was about to go off.

Do you know how they looked when a man knew he was going to die? That was how Hanslo looked right before me.

“You don’t know. There was no record of me being there. It was our recon turned mission to rescue doctors. She was with me when bullets were flying everywhere.” I imagined the look of Yelena lifeless in my arms. “She made me a promise to give the only thing she had for her daughter. It was her old photo with Sadie. She said she called you, but you said it to her that she deserved to die alone.”

“How could you?” He glared at me. His hands formed into fists.

“How could I what? How could I fucking what? Tell you? That you deserved the truth.” I shook my head violently.

I heard a thud from outside the door, and he did it too. I knew they were coming. They already got what they wanted.

“I guess this is what you deserve as well, Hanslo.” I lifted my hands and locked them behind my head before the FBI slammed the door open.