Page 33 of Her Brother's Billionaire Best Friend

With a heavy heart, I took the letter downtown to post. That morning, the atmosphere was different. As I stepped onto Main Street, people were talking with each other. There were plenty of people there, and there was excitement in the air. But I felt even more like I was a ghost, and the feeling intensified once I posted the letter.

I felt bad for resigning, but I had my reasons.

But I stopped in the square when I saw the crowd that was gathering opposite the town hall. Outside the library, a bunch of people had gathered round the table where Lyla would normally be sitting.

I’d never seen anything like it. Normally, people couldn’t help but stay away from Lyla, but they were jostling and shoving, squirming and shouting.

“Hey Lyla! Show it to us, won’tcha?” shouted a young guy.

“Yeah! Come on?” screamed another.

The donations bucket was half-full already, and as I came up closer, I could see Lyla, handing out the bucket and more than a few words of warning.

“Fat chance I’m showing it to any of you!” she exclaimed, almost falling over with the weight of the bucket. I giggled at the old lady’s gumption. Then I saw Jemma, running out with a replacement bucket while she hauled the old one away.

“Jemma!” I shouted. “Didn’t you get my text? What’s going on?”

“What’s going on?” Jemma turned around while the bucket swang limply between her knees, stuffed full of quarters and dollar-bills. “You mean, you don’t know? It came through today.”

“Know what?” I frowned. “What came—”

But before I could finish my question, the bucket had fallen to the floor, and landed with an almighty crash. Coins and pennies were tumbling over the floor, and Jemma had jumped forward and thrown her arms around me.

“Thank you,” she grabbed my arms tightly. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“What are you thanking me for?” I said.

“I don’t know how you got him to do it,” said Jemma, “and we can’t find his phone number anywhere. Lyla’s going up to knock on the gate later.”

“Whose gate?” I frowned, taking her by the shoulders. “What’s going on? Why’s everyone crazy?”

Jemma cocked her head. “You mean he didn’t tell you?”

“No? WHO, Jemma?”

Jemma looked at me and laughed. “Laura, it’s your boss. The guy who lives up by the falls, Lucius…something?”

“Lucien Barnes,” my voice trembled like something had gone terribly wrong.

“He handed in a donation this morning,” said Jemma, bending down to pick up the coins. “Not personally. Some guy came and delivered it by secure post. He was here first thing when Lyla opened up this morning.”

“A donation?” I said, feeling sick in my stomach. Weak at the knees.

“A donation,” said Jemma, her eyes widening, “for two million dollars.”

Chapter 12

Conor (Lucien)

Laura pressed her hands to my chest and kissed me. “I want you, Lucien,” she moaned.

“I want you too,” I placed a gentle kiss on her palm and lifted up her chin to lock eyes with me. We kissed some more—I could feel her hands tugging at my buttons. She was about to take me, to enjoy me once again, and I could feel myself getting hard at the thought of it, the hairs standing up on the back of my neck.

“Where’s Conor?” said Laura, her head rising up to fix me with a terrible stare.

“I…I’m Conor.”

“What did you do to him?”