The Billionaire's Contract Wife

Chapter Three

~Astrid~

Astrid hadn’t fully assessed the fact that she had no clothes to wear for the day until her nightmare woke her up at four in the morning. All she had on was a black slip-on night dress she found folded in one of the drawers after her shower last night. She figured it would be crazy rude to call for someone at that time, so she walked over to the balcony and sat on the indoor hammock chair. She thought about her dream. It didn’t make things easier when she had to go back. Talk about worst timing; she had to go back. The thought of Dillon finding Papa’s urn made her feel goosebumps. She had hidden it in her room, in the safest place she could find, but she couldn’t trust Dillon because if she found it, she’d probably sniff it, thinking it would be drugs. Yeah, she had to get it back.

Once the sun rose, Astrid made her way downstairs. Simon said all she had to do was push the button, but after living her life doing everything for herself, it felt weird not doing anything. The floor was cold against her feet. Maybe she could ask for some spare slippers.

How is anyone supposed to find anything in such a huge place? Everything looks the same.

“Hello?”

All she could hear was the echo of her voice.

“Hello?” She said it in a louder voice.

“I was just wondering if there was anything I could do. Anyone?”

“And why would you do that?” Simon said from behind, and Astrid screamed and jumped in fear.

“Sh*t!” She yelled as she turned around to meet Simon’s perfectly tanned and rippled chest; his skin glistened with sweat. Astrid couldn't help but stare, her complaints of before evaporating into the air. Could black people blush crimson-red?

“What are you doing?” Astrid's eyes snapped to his.

“Talking to you.”

“No. I mean, why are you naked?” She stuttered.

“I’m not.”

“Don’t you have a shirt or something?”

“You had no problem ogling a minute ago.” Simon replied, tilting his head a bit with a smile playing on his lips.

“I was not."

“I never took you to be a liar, Miss Forbes.” He moved closer, and Astrid hurried back causing her to stumble, but Simon was quick to grab her forearm and pull her back. Now they were just inches apart. The body heat radiating from his body wrapped her like a warm hug… her brain was going a mile a second as she wondered why she felt this way, so alive. Simon bent to whisper in her ear.

“I’m starting to think this habit of yours is intentional.”

Astrid’s eyes remained trained on his chest; she couldn’t bring herself to look into his eyes. His warm breath fanned the sensitive part of her neck, and against her will, she craned her neck, giving him better access.

“Breakfast is ready, Mr. Andrews.”

“We’ll be there in a minute.” Simon replied, his voice rough as he moved away. Astrid felt like she’d finally returned to her body; she blinked rapidly as her heart rate slowed down.

What the heck was that?? I’ve never… whoa?

Astrid glared at Simon; he had an annoying smirk on his face, and all she wanted to do was wipe it off. Of course, she’d been with a couple of guys before, but none of them ever made her feel this way. What’s the word? Electrified?

“Let’s go.” Simon led the way, and she followed as she tried to convince herself that nothing happened.

_______________________________________________________________

Astrid couldn’t help but look back and forth as she walked speedily down the backroads. She needed to be quick and unseen, in and out in a jiffy. Simon was waiting for her at the spot he picked her up yesterday, so she had to be quicker. If people saw him with that car, she didn’t even know what would happen.

The back door to her house was open, the lights were off, but she could still see the bloodied shards of glass from yesterday. sheShe turned away quickly; the sooner she left the better. Entering her room, she grabbed a duffel bag and pushed her wardrobe from the wall, revealing a hole she had created for hiding stuff from Dillon. She had placed her Papa’s urn in a ziplock bag because Dillon had been withdrawing so badly that she shattered the original ceramic pot and tried to sniff papa’s ashes. She shoved it into the duffel bag along with a gun she had stolen a while back. The sound of the keys opening the front door caused her to still with fear, it was two voices she heard; Mama’s and some guy that wasn’t Dante. Astrid couldn’t move; it was too dangerous to make any abrupt movements.

“You leave alone?”

"Yeah, um, just don’t mind the mess.”

“Whoa, is that blood?”

The sudden sounds of kissing almost made Astrid puke. The man wasn’t one of Mama’s regulars, for him to be shocked by the blood on the carpet. Antsy, she crawled under the bunk bed she and Anika used to share, thankfully, she had thought twice about turning on the lights when she arrived. She just needed to wait until they got comfortable in Mama’s room.

“Come on, enough with the questions. Huh. I could have sworn I locked this.”

Sh*t!

Astrid recalled that she didn’t shut the back door properly. She quickly dropped the duffel bag outside her window. She shut her eyes tight as she prayed that Mama wouldn’t care.

“You see that room over there, hun? Just go and get comfortable. I’ll be there in a minute, okay?”

“Is there a problem?”

“Of course not, promise. Just hold on, I'll be right back.”

Astrid listened as Mama walked around a bit, just when she thought everything was okay she heard her footsteps getting louder, she was coming and she knew Astrid was there. Dillon walked into the room.

Knock, knock, knock.

Her tummy turned, and she was sure Dillon knew she was here—the knock was a giveaway.

“You should have given him the money, sweetie.” Dillon sighed. Astrid’s hands flew to her mouth to stop herself from making any noises. Dillon walked further into the room, her heels clacking against the woodboard floor.

“If you were going to fight, you should have killed him. Not stopping at making him partially blind, you fool. He’s been searching for you. He’s come here every night since then.” Dillon scolded in a hushed voice.

Astrid wasn’t all that shocked. It was Dillon; she would have killed Dante if she were in Astrid’s shoes, and it wouldn’t have been her first rodeo.

“I can’t save you now; you really have some horrible luck, just like your father. It just had to be the biggest drug lord in the area.”

You just had to spread your legs for him.

Dillon shut the windows and used a padlock on it.

“Be quiet; I’ll be back for you.” Then she walked out, locking Astrid in the room as well.

Astrid crawled out almost immediately. There was no point in hiding now, and there was no way she was waiting for Dillon to come back. It only meant one thing. She was going to get beaten to a stupor by one of Dillon’s men, and her body could not take it. She still had cuts and bruises from yesterday, and there was a high possibility she had a broken rib.

Thirty minutes passed, and Astrid had gone through so many trains of thought. Being here with Mama would put her in danger with Dante. Dillon said he’d come here every day since the incident. If he met her here, he’d kill her for sure, and Dillon wouldn’t bat an eye. A newfound determination filled her. She took the baseball bat she always kept at the end of her bed and swung it at the window a couple of times. Thank goodness they’d never done any renovations. The wood was so full of termite infestations that it shattered on the fourth hit. Astrid considered leaving the bat, but she decided against it; she may need it. She gently jumped out of the window, grabbed her duffel bag, and ran. Just as she passed the back door, it swung open, revealing Mama, angry and high, with a gun. Astrid ran faster, her heart pounding with fear, and Mama ran after her.

“You useless piece of sh*t, you better come back here!”

Just a couple of laps before she gets to the back road. If no one knew Astrid was back, they knew now, with Mama yelling at the top of her lungs.

“FIND HER!” Dante commanded; she couldn’t keep running. She barely had any energy as it was, and they’d catch up to her in no time.

“THERE SHE IS!”

She picked her pace; she couldn’t die. Not like this. No way. Not when she was so close to freedom. As she took a sharp turn to the left, the sound of a gunshot filled the air causing her to run faster, the roads should be coming into view soon. The footsteps behind her sounded louder, they were gaining in on her. Her head felt woozy, and her eyesight blurred for some reason. She spotted Simon’s car, she forced herself to run faster even though she felt a sudden weakness take over. Simon got out of the car the moment she was close enough.

“Are you okay?” His eyes scanned her body; they widened in shock and confusion.

“We need to leave.” Astrid whispered, staggering as she wondered why her left arm was throbbing with pain. Did she hit it somewhere while running?

“Huh? What did you say? Who are those people?” He asked as he spotted Dante and Dillon in the distance.

“Let’s f*cking go.!”

He came closer, holding her hand and the sight of blood running down her arm caused his eyes to grow wider.

“Sh*t, you’ve been shot!’

Another gunshot rang through the air, and Astrid went rigid, her hands flying to her ears as she screamed in terror. Everything went black.