THE BILLIONAIRE I BURIED

The Garage

The shot fired on the concrete. Maya's body hit the ground before he mind had even registered the pop against the stone.

Adrian grabbed her around the waist and pulled her behind a pillar. “Stay down.”

Another shot rung above their heads. The concrete crumbled in thick chunks to the ground dusting her hair.

"What you protecting me from?" she snapped. "That was the stupidest thing you've ever done."

"You want to talk about it right now?"

"I need to know where we're going."

"Out."

Three men, guns held, filled the garage. One of them called, "Cross! Get the girl!"

Adrian stood, gun already raised.

"Here, make like a gentleman, come take her."

"I'm enjoying this."

"You want to kill my friends?"

He pulled the trigger. The closest man fell behind a car's wheel, and Adrian grabbed her hand. "Run."

They darted from car to truck, another round ripping off a sedan seat on either side of her. When a slug brushed the passenger window Maya jerkted involuntarily sideways, hitting the fender of an oncoming car.

"Can you drive?" he asked, shoving her behind another vehicle

"Yes."

"There's a silver sedon in the parking lot. Keys inside."

"You want me to steal a car."

"Want to live, now drive!" A man came running at them from around the end of the row. She grabbed an iron bar laying on a garbage pile and swung, knocking the gun from his hand. Adrian kicked the weapon behind the car. "Remind me never to annoy you," she said.

"You already do." He ran his eyes over her. "I'll tell you what, never make me like this."

For a moment something almost like amusement pulled his lips up

A loud shot cracked and he winced. "Adrain?"

He turned his head, blood already soaking through his shirt.

"You've been shot!"

"Minor graze," he muttered.

"You're bleeding through your shirt.

He nodded. "You see that? Smart move,"

He pushed her toward the sedon. "Drive!"

"Okay!" Behind her the men had dispersed, all heading for cars. "Where?"

"Left."

She turned on the wheel.

"Right."

"This a terrible time for you to be a lousy driver," she hissed

"I'm keeping you alive."

"Barely."

The wheel squealed as she pulled the sedan out into the street. They weaved past cars, buses, and trucks.

"Where is it safe to stop?"

"My apartment,"

"No,"

"You don't trust me apartment?"

"I don't trust you with any one connected to you right now."

"Good. I married a woman who signed a contract twenty minutes earlier than she had the good sense not to get shot at."

"You didn't marry me."

"Legally married. Didn't you know?"

She hated that he could sound so nonchalant about it

Why were those men waiting for us? she asked, desperate to end the uneasy silence before it could swallow up something else.

"They knew where Ethan's car would be."

"Ah,"

Only three people knew about our being in that garage,

he was saying.

"You, me and Ethan."

Her hands tightened on the steering wheel.

"He disappeared right before they turned up on us."

"Yes."

"You think he set us up?"

I think we find out what everyone is playing at before the game is over.

She slowed for a red light. Adrian's hand shot out and grabbed the wheel.

"Dont stop."

"What? I"

"Drive!"

The second she hit the gas a black SUV turned the corner and drew alongside of them

"They're gaining," she said, eyeing the rear view mirror

Adrian grabbed his cell phone.

"Nothing but static."

"Great."

"It isn't nothing but static."

The SUV was right on their tail. She turned the wheel sharply, swerving around an oncomming bus, and Adrian braced against the dash. Traffic was thick enough she couldn't break out. Another horn blared, someone leaned out ths window and yelled something

She never slowed down to hear what. They took a tight turn on two wheels and the sedan shot into a narrow service road, too tight for the follow car to turn. After watching the SUV peel back into the street, she let out a breath.

"Lets see if we lost them."

"Maybe." A pause.

"What does that mean?"

His mouth tightened. For several minutes they wound down the road before pulling into an underground garage below a glass structure. Adrian stopped, leaned forward and hissed one word. "Open!" The garafe door rose, allowing the car in, and the man at the gate never asked for his card. She killed the engine on the far side of the parking lot. Blood had soaked through the cloth of his shirt before he opened his door.

"You need a doctor,"

"No hospital, too many people there who know what I look like."

"You're unbelievable."

"You're pig headed."

She took his arm as he stood. The elevator doors opened to reveal a small, uncluttered appartement. The walls stood bare except for the floor coverings and a few small objets d'art. Maya felt oddly disappointed standing in the room that overlooked the city.

"Disappointed?" he asked taking the elevator back up

"I had higher expectations."

"Of what?"

A human being, she wanted to say. Instead she followed him in and he locked the door.

"Who has access to this appartment?"

"Security chief, my lawyer and me," he said

"Just the three of you?

"Just the three of you."

She turned her inspection around the room, noting the absence of furnishings, the empty walls. Where were his photos? Where was everything that might remind him of who he'd been? The elevator doors opened and someone shifted on the other side, pressing their hand against the metal, holding the door open.

"You look surprised," Adrian said.

"I expected something more elaborate."

"More what?"

"Proof that I was human."

He looked away and into the sideboard, pulling the cabinet door open. Maya gasped.

Photographs. Stacks and stacks of photos lined the cabinets shelves. Maya, the day she turned twenty-three, walked out of the university, her graduation day, her first day at her father's office, her side profile, the other day when she'd had dinner, the last photo, Maya standing with Ethan, both of them laughing at something off camera.

Her stomach turned over. "How long have you been watching me?"

"I didn't know what would come of it."

"Why did

"You're in danger."

She took one picture down.

Maya, asleep, tubes taped to her arms.

"When was this taken?"

"The day you almost died,"

"The explosion?"

He nodded once.

"You were in that hospital

"Yes,"

"You never told me."

"I wanted to protect you,"

"You followed me."

Adrian's face hardened. "If I hadn't watched you, you'd already be dead. What difference does it make?" He closed his eyes and exhaled.

"You don't get to decide what happens to me."

"You're right," he said. "But someone did."

"Who?

His cell phone rang. He answered, glanced at the number, his security chief, and held down the mouthpiece. "What news?"

The voices were muffled. "Sir, we got the security cameras from the garage."

"Send them right over."

"You know those people?"

Maya asked as the images filled the screen, showed Ethan walking from the entrance of the large building, looking back over his shoulder. A man emerged from a side enbankment, handed him a black folder

"That's him,"

Adrian frowned. "

You know him."

"He stood by you,"

The audio quality was murky, but Adrian turned up the volume. From the speaker, the man's voice said, "She must marry Cross before April fourteenth

Maya stopped breathing.

"April fourteenth," Adrian repeated quietly.

The day Ethan had supposedly died, the day she'd supposedly died, the day she had both been warned of when they started on this road of theirs.

Ethan turned toward the screen and smiled, not surprised, not afraid.

"He knew," Maya murmured. "He's known all along

Adrian's cell phone rang again. Unknown number.

He took the call, and for a moment did not reply. "Congratulations on your marriage, Adrian," the voice on the other said. "You've changed part of the future. Now we'll change the other."

The line went dead.

"What does that mean?"

His gaze had gone past her shoulder

A moment later someone knocked on the door. The knob began to turn.