Read Romance: The Billionaire's Desire for Free Online Page B

before I find the target, something solid hits me on the back of the head…
     

 
    Chapter 12
     
    A Dangerous Place

 
     
     
     
    When I begin to come back to consciousness, I notice it is dark outside the window.  That means I have been knocked out for at least two hours.  I am lying on my side, my head is fuzzy and there is a high-pitched ringing in my ears.
    I go to stand but I can’t move my hands or legs.
    “You’re tied up tightly,” I hear a creaky voice behind me.
    Turning my head to look at the sound, I see the redness of blood covering my eye. 
    I can taste blood too.
    “Who are you?” I question as I try to move my hands but they are secured tightly behind my back.
    “I think you know that,” he walks into my vision.
    “You’re Robert.”
    “I am,” a mid-twenties male smiles with yellow teeth. 
    He is weathered and rough looking, but I can see that he is the grandson of Mrs. Jackson.  They have the same facial features. 
    “What are you doing?” I ask him.
    “I haven’t worked that out yet,” Robert walks around in front of me, “But I’m surprised you are awake first.  I hit you a lot harder than I hit your friend and he’s still asleep.  You must be one tough lady.”
    “Where is David?”
    “Next to you.”
    I move around enough to see David in the same situation as me – lying on the floor with legs tied together and hands tied behind our backs.
    “We’re police, Robert.  This is not a good idea,” I struggle with the rope around my hands. 
    The rope isn’t tight but it isn’t loose.  I should be able to get my hands out with a bit of struggling but I cannot let Robert see me do that.
    “You’re right.  I’ll have to dispose of the bodies before anyone else comes,” Robert states with a gun in his hand.
    I recognize the gun – it’s mine.
    “Robert, we can sort this out.  The painting…”
    “I don’t want to hear about the painting!” he snaps.
    There is anger in his yellow eyes.
    “We know you took it.”
    “Of course I took it!  I can’t believe you cops were dumb enough to go after the billionaire.”
    “You set him up?”
    Robert laughs, “Of course I did.”
    “How’d you get his DNA on the crime scene?”
    “Nathan Templeton hired me to clean his library last year.  I was doing odd jobs to earn some money after that bitch of a grandmother cut me off, and Nathan offered me a job.  I saw the Vin Gang paintings hanging in his library and I mentioned that my grandmother had one.  But he already knew that.”
    “Are you saying Nathan hired you because of your grandmother?”
    “He had done his research before he hired me.  He knew who my grandmother was and what she had.  He had been trying to buy the painting off my grandmother for years.” 
    “Nathan offered you money to steal the painting?”
    “He did,” Robert smiles, “But that was a year ago and I didn’t take his money.  I didn’t need it back then.  I told him it was my grandmother’s prized possession and I wasn’t going to take it.”
    “But you took it eventually?”
    “About a year later, I took the painting,” Robert nods.
    “So you stole the painting thinking that Nathan would buy it?”
    “I stole the painting thinking someone would buy it.  But Nathan was the right person to set-up for the blame.  I stole gloves and a beanie from the library I was cleaning, and I never used them, so it was easy to find his hair on there.  I just planted that at the scene for the DNA evidence.  It was too easy.”
    “Who bought the painting?”
    “Nobody yet.  It seems that the market for a stolen Vin Gang painting is quite small.  Drugs dealers won’t swap paintings for drugs.”
    I pause and take all the information in. 
    “We can work this out, Robert.”
    “I don’t want to work this out!” he snaps.
    He looks like a man on the edge.  He is twitching as we talk and he does not look far away from requiring another hit of drugs.
    “You don’t have to