The Billionaire's Reward

Valerie

"It's either you sign the contract or your brother dies." Nathan Croft spoke with his deep voice. Right now I hated the asshole.

"Can I think about it? I can't make this kind of big decision on short notice." I spoke agitated wondering how Dave could put me in this kind of situation. I was sure that this was the reason he tried to talk to me in the alley today and the little advice to be careful.

"What will your answer be?" He stood up from my couch which he was sitting comfortably on. I looked at him from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head and made the journey vice versa again. Nathan was damn tall, I felt like climbing the man like a tree. I shook my head. What was I thinking? The man was like my enemy right now. He smiled at my reaction, the asshole knew that I was attracted to him.

He walked up to me, standing in front of me, he seemed to take a deep breath before he spoke.

"What will your response be?" He asked again as he caressed my face with the tip of one of his fingers. I swallowed, there was nothing compared to the feeling of his finger caressing my face. 

"So be it, maybe this will change your mind." He signaled to one of his thugs with his left hand without even looking back. Who the heck was this man? I could guess that he was someone very important for him to command this kind of attention.

The thug returned with a MacBook. There was a video playing on it. A man was screaming horridly in pain and speaking gibberish. At first my mind could not comprehend what I was seeing. It was Dave tied to a chair with blood and some bruises on his face. Nathan chuckled at the stunned expression on my face. 

"So tell me, Miss Norwells, what do you think? Like the surprise?" No I didn't like it one bit, that was my brother tied up to a chair. But I didn't allow any word to slip from my mouth, this Nathan was deranged if he thought he could use my brother against me.

"Still speechless? Won't say a word? Sammie punched him." My eyes widened as I found out that it was a video call, and not recorded footage. Shit! What was I to do? I couldn't possibly consider taking his offer. I jerked in shock at the sound of Sammie's fist colliding with my brother's face. Dave released a whiny sound as he screamed like his pants were on fire.

"What a wimp." I heard one of Nathan's men mutter.

Nathan brought his face closer to mine, inspecting my reaction to my brother's assault.

"Should Sammie continue?" I turned my face to the side to escape his cold blue- eyed scrutiny but he held my chin captive with his right hand.

I closed my eyes tightly hearing the thuds of flesh striking against flesh and my brother's screams accompanying them.

"Please stop… I'll sign the contract." I whispered over the sound happening on the other side of the screen. There was a silence as I opened my eyes to see Nathan with a smug smirk tugging at the side of his lips. I have just signed a deal with the devil.

Present Day

Valerie

Entering my building complex, I noticed that something was amiss. My thoughts were later confirmed when I saw a crowd of people standing at the front of my apartment. 

My door was slightly askew from the frame attached to the wall. My heart banged hard against my ribcage as I thought of all the terrible scenarios running through my mind. Is my apartment on fire or what? I panicked, fidgeting, fighting the compulsion to bite my nails.

People started murmuring as they saw me,

"That's her, she's the owner of the apartment." One of my neighbors pointed at me. I think her name was Shelly, a middle-aged woman who lived on the top floor. The crowd cleared for me as I forced my way to see one of the greatest shocks of my life.

My living room was a total mess, my couch was tattered and the foam was everywhere. I entered the living room with tiny steps still in the state of shock, I didn't even understand what was going on. My mind was still trying to comprehend what my eyes were presently seeing. My house had been broken into.

I felt some of the crowd entering the room standing behind me like they had been waiting for me. I walked carefully around the carnage on the floor and moved to my bedroom. It was no different from the living room, my clothes were scattered all over the bed and the floor. 

My wardrobe door was wildly open and I remembered closing the door before leaving for work in the morning. They must have taken some of my valuables if not all but I felt something tugging at my mind. Shit! The flower vase where… I turned to where I usually kept it, on top of the table beside my bed. I left the bedroom and ran to the living room startling my audience. The flower vase can't be gone, I refused to believe it. I frantically searched the floor with my eyes for any shards of the vase on the floor. I went over to kitchenette to check further and saw that the flower vase shards lying on the floor of the kitchenette.

The flower vase was an ugly little thing and where I stashed my little savings. Damn! There was no need to check because I knew that the money was long gone. I didn't want to believe it, money that I had been saving for the past three years was gone just like that. I felt tears stinging the back of my eyes, as I dropped on the floor like a lifeless person. I could hear the crowd murmuring and mumbling behind me. What were they still doing here? How did this happen? Nobody but I knew where the money was, and I purposely kept it in the ugly vase where no one would suspect. Except ..... someone was watching me or what? Gosh! I couldn't even think what I was going to do. I sobbed my eyes and heart out, at least I think I did.

"Valerie think. You need to think." I palmed my forehead as I chanted to myself.

"Is she going crazy?" Another person whispered. Seriously, what were these people doing here if they were not going to help?

"Get out now! All of you now!" I yelled out at them. If I was going to break down, I was going to do it in private. They were all startled by my voice but respected my decision and left, not before I heard someone saying

"She must really be losing it right now." A nameless voice said, and I didn't even care that know.

 I stood up and started striding from one end to another to think better. There was no way this could be a planned job. The person must be an amateur because he/she broke my door. Unless..

"No, no it can't be." I repeated to myself. It can't be Dave, I haven't heard from him in several months now. But he knew where I lived .... It was him, I gasped in shock. He was one of the few people that kind of understand how my mind works. 

I remember vividly the number of times when we played hide and seek together as children. And that was before he became a changed person and lost his innocence. He never caught me until he understood my style of thinking and caught. He said I had a unique way of hiding things in plain sight and nicknamed me Chameleon.

And I didn't have to guess that he used that same psychology to work out where I kept my money. A regular robber wouldn't have left my apartment spick and span, he would have turned it upsidedown.

"I am going to kill him." My sadness quickly converted to anger as I thought of all the ways I was going to torture him. I knew that it was all good to be so true when he approached me, telling and convincing me he had stopped taking drugs.

He had planned all this from the start, probing his way slowly into my circle of trust, just to steal my money. Being the trusting and forgiving idiot I was, I gave him another chance to redeem himself. I couldn't even remember the number of chances I had given him, since they were too plenty to count. 

But this was the last time, the straw that broke the camel's back. By the time I was done with him, he would regret ever being a junkie. Now, I just had to go to get to work, my secret night job, after charging my phone. That's if

I could work after all.