Page 1 of Misdeeds of a Billionaire

Prologue

Byron

My father and Nicki greeted me the moment I stepped out of my office.

There’d been a pressure in my chest for months. Ever since I walked away from her. Or maybe it was she who walked away from me.

“Byron, your father and I—” I stopped listening. Nicki’s voice grated on my nerves. I didn’t have it in me to deal with her nor my father right now. I was just about to return to my office when the scent caught my attention.

Fresh apples.

It was like a jab straight to the groin. Even worse, my heart.

Ignoring my father and Nicki, I rushed past them to where my executive assistant sat. I paused by her desk, my fingers clutching the edge of the dark mahogany.

“Mrs. George, has someone been here to see me?” My heart thundered wildly, each beat echoing her name.

No. No. No.

It couldn’t beher. She made it clear she wanted nothing to do with me.

“Yes, Mr. Ashford, a young lady came up.” She glanced behind me to where my father stood and trepidation entered her expression. But that wasn’t unusual. Most people felt uncomfortable around him, apprehension and fear surrounding them. “She wanted to see you but she didn’t have an appointment. She left the same time your father arrived.” Nobody ever came to see me. “She just took the elevator down.”

I had no idea how long it took me to get downstairs. I followed the scent of apples like a damn bloodhound. I had just stepped out of my building when the humidity of the July air and the commotion of the city slammed into me—honking, smog, chatter, laughter… and screams.

An accident must have just happened, two cars smashed against each other. A fire hydrant soaking the street. Something pulled me toward it, like a magnet. A dark foreboding filled every cell of my body. Morbid and so fucking wrong.

My lungs burned as I turned the corner. I couldn’t breathe. Each step felt like an eternity. Until I saw it—the worst possible scenario I could have ever imagined.

A long red mane of hair sprawled across the dirty pavement, golden and strawberry highlights glowing too bright amidst the blood and debris.

Blood. Too much. I hoped not enough to make this more awful than it already was.

I ran, cursing and pushing everyone out of the way until I fell to the ground beside her. A drunk bastard sobbed, babbling a slurred apology, while roaming his hands over her, jerking her limp body. Fear, unlike any I’d experienced before, shot through me and I pushed him away.

“Get the fuck away from her,” I growled, clenching my fists and fighting the urge to beat him to a bloody pulp.

I cradled her head and tried to will those hazel eyes to open for me. Pushing her hair out of the way, I placed two fingers against her pulse. Seconds felt like days, centuries, as I tried to find proof that she was still alive.

My heart twisted, jerking out of my chest and throbbing painfully. I ignored it, praying for a pulse.Just give me a pulse.

A faint thump under my fingers brought a wave of relief. It slammed into me like a tsunami, washing me away.

Shouting like a lunatic, I demanded doctors, nurses, and ambulances. “Get someone here now!”

My hands shook so badly, it took me several tries to brush the wet strands off her face.

“Don’t you dare die.” My voice was hoarse, pent-up emotions of the last few months swirling inside me. “Please, do this last thing for me. Don’t go, baby.”

Something glinted in her hand, bunched in her bloodied palm.

A sonogram picture.

It almost broke me. Three decades of this fucked-up life, and nothing had ever broken me. But this cracked my heart and shattered it into a thousand pieces.

“Ambulance!” I roared, feeling like my heart was failing. “Someone call an ambulance!”

Chapter1