Holiday Treasure (Billionaire Bachelors - Book 10) (8 page)

He was drenched by the time he located the shutoff valve, and the language he was using about this building and all its problems wouldn’t have gone over well with the cute little kiddies at the mall. This was hell, pure damnation, and suddenly the rest of his sentence in this building seemed like it would stretch an eternity.

He snatched up his phone and woke his assistant up to demand that a plumber be sent over right freaking now. This was going to cost him a fortune. Because of the judge’s orders, now that he had to repair the pipes in his own worthless apartment, it looked as if the entire building would be getting new ones too.

When he called the police to explain that he needed to change apartments, they were less than sympathetic, offering to bring him a pair of hip waders. After slamming down the phone, Tanner sloshed to his bedroom, his good mood long forgotten as he prepared himself for a “holiday” week without even a remote chance of comfort or joy.

Chapter Sixteen

A
re you freaking
kidding me?”

With the light from his phone, Tanner had finally found a flashlight, and he flipped it on. Then he went back to cursing into his cell. He was barely able to hear the voice on the other end past the rushing sound in his ears; it was born of pure fury. “What do you mean, there’s nothing you can do? If I say get down here, I mean it!”

The person at the other end of the line continued speaking but was absolutely no help whatsoever. Slamming the phone’s End button as hard as he could, Tanner dropped the device on the counter and ran his hand through his hair.

“How in the hell does anyone tolerate this damn building?” he shouted into the air. Yes, he knew he sounded like a crazy person, but if it wasn’t one problem then it was another. His pipes had burst, mice ran around rampant, and now the damn electricity was out.

The guy said it was most likely a breaker, that too many circuits were being used now that the heating was back on. They couldn’t come in until the next day. Of course they couldn’t. And it was going to be a major expense, another one, to update the wiring of the building and bring the electrical boxes up to code.

Why did he give a flying whatever? He should just let the tenants live in darkness. Then maybe they’d take a hint at long last and finally leave so he could hire that bulldozer to come in. At this point, he would sit on the ball while it smashed through the walls. The injuries to his body would be worth it — he’d be feeling the damn building crumble beneath his feet.

“Tanner?”

Stopping his pacing, he shined his light over toward his front door, where Kyla was standing, shifting on her feet and looking nervous.

“What?” he growled, and when she flinched, he felt immediately ashamed of himself. “I’m sorry, Kyla. I’m just frustrated.”

“It’s okay,” she told him as she stepped inside. “I knocked, but I don’t think you heard, so I tried the knob and it was open and…” She was fighting to control her voice. “It’s just that the dark sort of freaks me out.”

“What? It’s the same place, just a little…darker. And anyway, you have a flashlight, too.” He moved toward her now, until they were standing right there together, facing each other.

“I know that logically, Tanner, but it doesn’t help much. I don’t like not being able to see who or what is around — me except for in this stupid, narrow beam of light.”

“In this damn place, who knows what that might be?” he said without thinking, and he felt the shudder pass through her body. “Sorry,” he said again, and this time he was mumbling.

“No. It’s true. Bad things can happen in the dark,” she said, edging a couple of inches closer. She was practically pressed against him now.

His bad mood quickly deflated. How could he be angry when her warm body was next to his?

“I know the breaker box is in the basement, Tanner. I…uh…just don’t want to go down there by myself. I mean, someone else might be thinking the same thing, but then again, everyone might be thinking everyone else is going to go down there.” That rush of words was almost amusing.

“Breaker box? Do you even know what to do with one?”

“I’m not some simpering female that doesn’t even know how to flip a switch up and down,” she snapped.

Tanner had to smile. “Okay, that was an asinine question. Why don’t we go check it out and see if we can do anything about this darkness?” He held out his arm.

It took her a few moments — she was obviously still irritated with him — but her fear of the dark outweighed her irritation, and she finally gave in. They left his apartment and made their way toward the service door that led to the basement.

“Where in the hell is security? Shouldn’t they be the ones doing this?” Tanner asked as they opened the door and faced a set of stairs that he didn’t trust to hold their weight.

“I don’t think this is in their job description. Besides, one of the guards, the one that works mostly nights, kind of gives me the creeps.”

Tanner stopped moving and turned toward her. Their flashlights were shining downward, though, and he couldn’t see her face. Talk about frustrating.

But he tried to sound calm. “How so?” he asked.

“I don’t know. He just seems…oh, I’m being stupid. I’m sure there’s nothing at all wrong with him. I just get the creeps around him. No reason,” she said quietly, obviously focused on the staircase in front of her.

“Let me know if anything weird happens.” Was it all in her head? That wasn’t unlikely, but still, people usually got a feeling, whether good or bad, for a reason.

“I’m sure it’s nothing. Are we both stalling on going down these steps, or is it my imagination?” she asked with a nervous laugh.

“Fine. You caught me. I think I would just about rather do anything other than go down these stairs. Isn’t this how all good horror movies start or end, and aren’t the people watching the flicks the ones shouting at the television, telling the characters to turn around and run like hell?”

Kyla’s body shook, and he was worried for a moment before she erupted in a big laugh. “I cannot believe you just said that, Tanner. You sound just like a frightened little girl right now,” she managed to gasp out between bursts of laughter.

“Hey. I’m a damn superhero. I’m going into the basement, aren’t I?” he said a bit indignantly.

“Yes, you’re my rock, big boy,” she told him, and then she moved forward, leaving him no choice but to accompany her down the stairs.

Tanner was terrified that if so much as a bug rushed across him, he would end up screaming just like that little girl she’d just mentioned. If he did that, he’d never be able to face this woman again. And dammit, he wanted sex and he wanted it soon, so the bugs had better stay far away from him.

Of course the stairs creaked as the two made their way down them, and he heard scratching from some unknown place down in the dark basement — of course. But there was no way he was frightened. He was just worried about her. After all, she was pressed beside him and he couldn’t help but feel the tremors racking her body. He didn’t think the shaking now had anything to do with mirth. The creepiness of the basement was freaking her out.

“If you want to wait up top, I can deal with this.” He enjoyed having her cling to his side, but he had to make the suggestion.

“No way am I waiting up there all by myself. I know how this works. It’s always the girl who gets killed first.”

Her serious tone broke the last of Tanner’s tension. How could he be nervous when she was so dead set on imagining the two of them in a horror movie. Yeah, he’d been the one to mention it first, but she was the one acting it out now. He began to chuckle and then he outright laughed, the sound echoing off the walls of the dingy basement.

“This is so not funny, Tanner, and I think you’re being very rude right now,” she said, though they both knew it
was
sort of funny.

“I know it isn’t exactly funny, Kyla, but look at us. We’re slowly descending into a basement, nothing worse, and both of us are being ridiculous about it. No monsters are going to jump out and get us.”

“Maybe not all monsters are imaginary.”

“Believe me, Kyla, I know that,” he said. All of earlier humor was now gone.

They did live in a world where the real monsters weren’t green or purple, ghouls, mutants, aliens, or the dead or undead — these monsters had dark souls lived among the people unnoticed. They didn’t care about humanity and they didn’t care about hurting others. They were the monsters everyone really had to fear.

He pulled Kyla just a little bit closer. When they arrived at the basement floor, Tanner shined the light around until he found the large breaker box in a dusty corner, surrounded by gigantic cardboard boxes that had who knew what in them.

What with the cobwebs hanging off those boxes and off rusty metal furniture, and the shadows cast by their flashlights, it seemed a perfect setting for something terrifying to happen. Even the creaking of the old floorboards down here added to the spooky atmosphere. Tanner was determined to trudge ahead though. They made their way toward the circuit breakers, and it took them a while to pull the rusty door open, but when they did, what was before them wasn’t helpful at all.

A lot of the switches were broken, and nothing was labeled. Yes, there was a main breaker, but it was so rusted, Tanner was afraid that if he so much as touched it, the thing would snap off and electrocute them both.

He shined his flashlight on the breaker box for a good few minutes, and then sighed heavily. “I think this was a wasted trip. There’s absolutely nothing we’re going to be able to do with this.”

“That’s what I was thinking too,” Kyla had to say, “but I hate to leave all of these people without power. It’s so cold out, and now people won’t even be able to shower.”

“I know. This really does suck, but it looks like we’ll have to wait until the maintenance guys come in.”

“If they ever do. I don’t know who owns this building, but the corporation doesn’t have a conscience at all. Look how long it took to get the heat back on, and we only recently started getting our pipes fixed. If it isn’t one thing here, then it’s another.”

Her grousing made him feel about two inches tall.

“I’m sorry, Kyla.”

“Why are you sorry? It’s not your fault, Tanner, and you know it. You should be just as irritated as I am, even if you aren’t staying here very long. We have basic rights as humans, you know? Like a safe and warm place to sleep, especially if we’re paying rent.”

Tanner wanted to tell her again that he was sorry, wanted to tell her he would make sure everything was fixed, but he wasn’t planning to do that. No. He was planning to see that she and the rest of the remaining tenants evacuated this old building, and then rip the old place down.

And he wasn’t going to lie to himself. The new apartments would go for five times the rent that these ones did. None of the tenants here would be able to afford to live in the new complex. Did he feel a twinge of guilt for the first time? Maybe.

But wasn’t it money that made the world go round? It did to him and to a lot of people. The saying about love was so much garbage. Yes, his set of fancy condos would cost a lot more money for its new residents, but why should that bother him? He was also going to boost the economy here. Think about the construction jobs, a lot of them, and business opportunities, too — there would be a mini-mall inside the complex, dammit. That made him less of a monster, didn’t it?

When they turned to leave, they heard a loud shuffling from behind the staircase. Tanner automatically pushed Kyla behind him as he shined the light in that direction.

“What was that?” she asked, her voice trembling. “It sounds a heck of a lot bigger than a rat scurrying across the floor.”

Before he could say anything, there was a scratching sound like someone moving, and Tanner was now absolutely certain that they weren’t alone. Maybe their horror flick scenario had just come true.

Tanner refused to let Kyla come up beside him as he moved toward the sound. What he should do was try to rush up the stairs and bolt the door closed. But, hell, if they were in a horror flick, they might as well be the stupid fools who walked straight to their deaths. No use ruining a standard plot. Besides, what if someone else had come down the stairs to try to fix the problem and had fallen and was just now waking up?

Just as he and Kyla reached the edge of the stairs, their flashlights pointed at the dark area beneath, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the air.

Chapter Seventeen

K
yla was on
Tanner’s back with her legs wrapped around him before she knew what she was doing. When he said something and his voice came out indistinct, she vaguely realized that her hands were around his throat, most likely cutting off his lower airway. The problem was that she couldn’t make her muscles unclench. She told herself to let go, but it just wasn’t going to happen. She was a helpless mass of terror.

“Can’t breathe, Kyla,” Tanner choked out.

“Wh…wh…what was that?” That was all she finally managed to get through her chattering teeth.

“Let go and I’ll find out. I don’t want to hurt you by prying your hands away,” he wheezed.

Somehow she managed to loosen her grip around his neck, but nothing she tried was allowing her legs to give up their hold on his waist. She wasn’t going to move from his back.

“Okay, you have to climb down, Kyla, so I can figure this out,” he said, his voice still a bit hoarse, but sounding better than it had when she was nearly throttling him.

“Nope. Not letting go,” she told him.

To her amazement, a small chuckle escaped his raw throat. “Okay.” He moved forward and spoke to whatever monster was threatening them. “Who is there? I’m not going to hurt you unless I have to,” he said.

Whoa. Tanner really sounded frightening now Kyla wouldn’t want to be on this man’s bad side.

There was more shuffling behind the stairs, and she was really shaking now. This was it. They were both going to die because they were the stupid ones who had willingly — well, okay, not quite willingly — gone down into the dark and dingy basement.

“Listen up,” Tanner said. “Come out now or I start shooting.”

That stopped Kyla’s fidgeting. He didn’t have a gun — or at least she didn’t think he had a gun. She wasn’t going to question him, though, because if the intruder assumed he had a gun, then maybe he, she, or it wouldn’t try to go after them with a bloody hatchet.

They heard even more shuffling, and then Tanner backed up a few paces and turned his light once more in the direction of the sound. After a few more tense seconds, she saw dirty blond hair, and then a small body. It rose slowly and walked toward them.

“Please don’t hurt me,” the voice quavered.

Tanner froze as a child walked toward them.

Kyla barely recognized the boy, and it took her a few moments to place him with all the dirt on his face. “Billy?” she finally said.

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied. He came up to them, trembling.

“What are you doing down here?” Tanner asked. He knelt on the ground, quite a feat because Kyla was still attached to him.

That was the point she realized that she needed to let him go. She carefully untwined her limbs from his body and landed on her rear with a slight thump. She stood up slowly and staggered away from him so she could find the flashlight she’d dropped. Any movement at all was now difficult; she felt an ache all through her because she’d been wound around him so tightly. She wondered whether he had bruises where her legs had held him in a death grip.

“I’m hiding,” Billy said.

Why in the world would he be hiding? There were so many questions Kyla wanted to ask him, but she knew they needed to get out of this creepy basement first. When she discovered her flashlight, she turned back to him and Tanner, and then spoke.

“Let’s go upstairs and you can talk to us.” When she came closer again, it broke her heart to see that the boy’s cheeks were sunken, and dark circles were prominent under his five-year-old eyes.

Billy didn’t argue when she took his ice-cold hand in hers and turned him around so they could make their way up the staircase. She knew Tanner would follow. She went down the hallway and straight to her apartment. Once inside, she lit the candles she already had sitting out. They cast a dim glow on the room, and she took the time to get a really good look at Billy’s face.

It was covered in dirt and he looked exhausted and sad. What was going on?

“Billy, why were you in the basement, and why are you so dirty?” She sat him down on a chair and then went over to her kitchen sink. She didn’t have hot water, but she could at least wipe some of the grime off his face.

After trying to warm the cloth up in her hands as much as possible before touching it to his skin, she walked up to him and began wiping him down. He flinched at the contact but didn’t try to stop her.

“Look, Billy, you have to tell us why you were down there,” Kyla said when she’d finished cleaning him up. “I’m sure your grandmother is worried sick about you.”

His eyes filled with tears, and when they spilled over, Kyla felt her own eyes begin to sting. Tanner took that moment to come into her apartment, a soda and some crackers in his hands, and he joined Billy at the table, popped the tab on the soda, and slid it in front of the boy. Billy didn’t even look at it.

“I’ve been bad,” he said on a sob that tore into Kyla’s heart.

She tried to reassure him. “Oh, Billy, you couldn’t have done anything very wrong.”

“I hurt my grandma,” he choked out.

Kyla was stunned by those words, and she had no earthly idea how to respond. It certainly wasn’t what she’d been expecting the young child to say.

“How did you hurt your grandma?” Tanner asked as he pushed the soda a little closer. “Why don’t you have a drink first before talking telling us all about it? You don’t want your throat to hurt I you talk too much.”

Billy took the can obediently and swallowed a small amount before putting the soda down and looking over at Tanner. More tears were falling down the boy’s newly cleaned face.

“Grandma always tells me to pick up my toys, and sometimes — well, most of the time — I forget, ’cause I just do. I don’t know why. I left my car in the hallway and grandma came out of her room and she fell over it. She hit her head and then I couldn’t wake her up. I called the 911 number she told me about and then I hid. I didn’t want them to take me away ’cause I hurt my grandma.” He started to sob, and his tiny body shook.

“Oh, Billy. You didn’t do anything wrong,” Kyla said, feeling so much pain for this poor child. “Your grandma isn’t mad at you.” She just prayed that Vivian was all right. She made eye contact with Tanner, who was already lifting his phone to dial security. How had they not noticed Billy when he went down to the basement?

“How long were you down there, sweetie?” Kyla asked.

“I don’t know. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, it was really dark and I was scared, but I didn’t know what to do.”

Tanner spoke quickly to Kyla. “His grandma was transported last night to the hospital a few blocks down the road. Let me make one more call and then we can take him down there.”

He stepped from the room and made whatever call he needed to make, and then he came back in. “Okay, it’s all good. We can go,” he said.

She was thoroughly confused. It sounded as if Tanner needed to get permission to go to the hospital, but that made no sense. So maybe that wasn’t the call he’d mentioned. Of course it wasn’t.

They blew out the candles, left Kyla’s apartment, and by some miracle managed to hail a cab to take them to the hospital. Tanner had phoned for one, but he didn’t want to wait. When they reached the hospital room of Billy’s grandmother, Kyla had to fight back tears again. The poor woman had so many wires hooked up to her.

The next hour flew quickly. They weren’t able to get a lot of information, but what they learned was that she was in a coma from her fall to the floor, and that her hip had been broken. Kyla and Tanner waited in a quiet room nearby, and soon someone from Children’s Protective Services showed up.

“Billy, we’re going to need you to come with us,” the woman said after she introduced herself.

“Because I was bad,” Billy said in a rocky voice, his shoulders hunched as his small fingers clung to Kyla’s.

“No, Billy, not because you were bad, but because your grandma is sick right now and can’t take care of you,” the woman told him. “We’re going to take you to a nice, safe house, a place for you to get comfortable for a little while.”

“Why can’t he just stay with me?” Kyla asked before she even thought about stopping herself.

“We can’t just let the child go with anyone,” the woman said, her eyebrows going down in disapproval.

“I live in same apartment building he does, and he’s obviously comfortable with me,” Kyla argued. “Please let me take him; he’ll be closer to home.”

“The system doesn’t work like that, ma’am, and I would appreciate it if you didn’t upset the child any more than he already is,” the woman said, and she reached for Billy. “I am sorry. I know you’re trying to help him, but this isn’t the way to do it. If you contact our offices tomorrow, you can speak with someone about the proper procedures on what you can do to be a foster parent.”

Billy clung even more tightly to Kyla. “No, please don’t let them take me,” he pleaded.

The way he looked up at Kyla made her feel absolutely terrible.

“Billy, I’m going to talk to whoever I need to talk to, okay? I will try to get you as soon as I can, and you’ll be with me until your grandma gets better.” Kyla spoke carefully, unwilling to let him know that her heart was breaking.

The woman gave them a few more moments and then had to take the boy away by his arms when he refused again to go with her. “I’m sorry,” she said again as the two of them exited the room. Billy was sobbing uncontrollably.

“There was nothing she could have done, Kyla. The law is the law,” Tanner said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“I know, Tanner, but I just feel so bad for the little boy.” Her own tears were finally starting to fall despite all her efforts to hold them back.

“Let’s go back home, Kyla. We can’t do anything for anyone here.” He rose to his feet and helped her up from where she’d been kneeling on the floor in front of little Billy.

Kyla didn’t have the energy to speak anymore, so she just followed the man out of the room. This night had drained her, and all she wanted to do was lie down and have a good cry. But as she clung to Tanner, she realized she didn’t want to do that alone.