The billionaires final t.., p.1
The Billionaire's Final Treasure (Happily Ever After Mountain Book 5), page 1
The Billionaire’s Final Treasure
________________________
Happily Ever After Mountain
Cassi Hart
Published by: Cheeky Publishing LLC
First Edition
Copyright © 2023 Cassi Hart– All rights Reserved
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication / use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with or sponsored by the trademark owners. For any permission requests email cassi@cassihartromance.com
***
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Free Book for You
Be the first to know about new releases, join my list.
Dedicated to the girl that needs some inspiration. Things always change, keep your head up sweetie! Thank you for your support, enjoy!
Contents:
Free Book for You
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Epilogue
Up Next…
Other Books by Cassi
Free Book
About the Author
Chapter 1
Kori
I drag myself into the posh old building I live in, one located on the better side of the city. I keep my head held high as I pass the doorman, only relaxing once the elevator doors slide shut and I’m out of his judgmental view.
We’re not really like the other people who live here. For one thing, we’re not rich. Not anymore. It’s been so long that I barely remember not having to worry about money. My mother and I still live here, the only home both of us have ever known, because of a rent control law that was repealed some time ago. We’re the very last family to cling to our better beginnings, whereas each apartment around us has gotten refurbished after the original tenant either died or got pushed out by shame, and then resold for outrageous figures we would never be able to afford.
I’m impervious to those feelings, no matter how much I’m shunned by the apartments’ new occupants. I don’t care if they’re lawyers, presidents of corporations, or Broadway stars. I have more important things to worry about than their raised eyebrows and scowls that filth like me still clings to their building.
Instead, I worry about what kind of mood is my mother going to be in. I started cosmetology school just a few months ago and it’s been the highlight of my life. It’s a short bit of freedom to learn something that I’ve been passionate about since I was little, staying up past my bedtime to style my doll’s hair. When the scholarship I’d applied for twice finally came through, it was like new life was breathed into me. The only downside to it all was that it meant leaving home for a few hours most days. And that I had to leave my mother with a home health nurse supplied by the state.
As well trained as they are, no one can put up with her mood swings for long. I’ve had a lifetime of practice and it often drives even me to the brink. I hold my breath and open our door, stepping onto the faded parquet flooring and slipping out of my coat. My mother’s sobs reverberate down the long entrance hall. As soon as the nurse sees me, she hurries out, not even bothering to give me an update.
“She’s awful,” my mother tells me, padding out of her room in a tattered silk robe. She tells me everything the nurse did wrong that day, before finally taking the time to look at me. Then she really freaks out. Her crying turns to screams as she lunges for my hair. “What have you done? Why did you cut it?”
My mother has long been obsessed with my hair. It hangs to my knees when it’s down, but I never have it down when I go out.
“I didn’t cut it,” I assure her, unwinding the massive knot from the top of my head. To be honest, I love my long, pale tresses. I wouldn’t want to cut any of it, regardless of how upset it would make my very ill mother.
I go over her medicine log, noting she refused to take two of her most important prescriptions. No wonder she’s in such a state, imagining the nurse is trying to kill her and thinking I’ve chopped off my hair. I manage to get her to eat something and coax her into taking the pill that lets her sleep without fitful dreams. I sit at her bedside, waiting until I can escape to my room and look out at the city lights, wondering if he’ll be out there again.
“You should stay home with me during the day, Kori. Like you used to,” my mother murmurs. Her eyes drift shut, but she forces them open again, waiting for me to answer.
“I need to finish school,” I explain once again. “So we can afford to live somewhere else once I get a job as a hairstylist.”
She scowls and tries to sit up, but the medication has its hold on her. “I hate the nurse,” she mumbles, finally falling asleep.
“I know,” I say.
But I hate it here more; it’s only a matter of time before they find a way to kick us out and make their profit.
In my room, I hurry onto the fire escape that I’ve turned into a balcony, complete with a chair and a potted plant. With my room lights off, the city comes alive, sparkling like it’s made of glittering jewels. I’ve lived here my whole life but so much of it is still a mystery to me. I never have time to explore, being almost as much of a prisoner to my mother’s mental illness as she is.
My eyes scan the nearby buildings, looking for the person I seek. It seems like he won’t show up for the third night in a row, and when the air turns chilly, I turn to head back in.
Then a flash of motion catches my eye. He’s back, once again dressed all in black, scaling the building across from mine as if he’s Spiderman. I know he’s breaking into apartments and stealing, but I don’t have much sympathy for my mega-rich neighbors. They don’t care at all about me, or my mother, or anyone else.
I grab my grandma’s opera glasses and hold them up, smiling after he comes into focus. His hands easily find the windowsills and balcony edges while his powerful muscles pull him up with ease. One moment he’s clinging to a sliding door, the next, he’s in the dark apartment.
I hold my breath as I wait for him to reappear, relieved I didn’t miss my one bit of excitement.
Chapter 2
Finn
There’s no reason to keep doing this. I have far more than I need in life, and yet, something’s missing. I don’t have everything I want, and yet, infuriatingly, I can’t figure out what the missing piece is.
A year before, now I was at a party being thrown by a man I despised. This man had been embezzling from the investment firm that paid him a seven-figure salary, which had caused dozens of families to lose their retirement funds. Sick of his braying laughter, I’d wandered into the private part of his lavish home and lifted a few of his watches out of spite. It had been a high like no other.
People like to say their things are priceless, but everything has a price. I sold the watches, then left the money in his hapless victims’ mailboxes in plain brown envelopes. It was a happy ending for everyone who deserved one. After doing that, I was hooked. It felt like I’d finally found a use for all these muscles, one that was far more thrilling and rewarding than pushing paper as a business executive.
Now I’m working in an upscale apartment building for the third night in a row. The original mark was one of my company’s shareholders, a man whose wrongdoings are too many to list. Normally, I wouldn’t return to the same building twice, ever, let alone the very next day. But the previous night, I’d noticed someone watching me from a building across the way.
Slipping behind some curtains, I’d found her through my binoculars, straining to see where I’d gone. She had leaned so far over the edge of her fire escape to look for me that I’d held my breath, thinking she’d fall. Long, lustrous hair fluttered all around her in the breeze and even though it should have been impossible, she seemed to find me in the dark apartment, locking her intent gaze directly where I stood behind the curtain.
And yet, no one had called the police, so I was intrigued enough to go back the next night. Seeing her peering through old fashioned opera glasses made me laugh, but I made sure to put on a bit of a show for her. As I watched her from a new hiding place, I took in the lush curves beneath her thin nightgown, which clung to her as she leaned over the edge of the fire escape.
Why was she so entranced by a burglar? Why was I so entranced by her in return?
Sure enough, she’s there again tonight, and I’m glad to see her, almost as if she were an old friend.
Sadly, this has to be the last night. I’m already pushing my luck. I take a moment to focus on her, smiling as she sweeps her opera glasses back and forth, biting her lip in concentration as she searches for me. I want to stay there and watch her for much longer, but I can’t risk
I take a few pieces of jewelry and slip out the way I came, scaling my way down the building slowly to draw out her interest. As my feet touch solid ground, I turn to where I’ve parked my car in the shadows, but I can’t make myself get in and drive away.
Instead, I slip across the street to stand under the long series of connected ladders leading up to where she sits. I jump up and pull the first one down, making the old, rusty metal creak and clatter above me.
I need to get a closer look at this mysterious woman.
Chapter 3
Kori
I lower my opera glasses with a sigh. He’s finished for the night and has climbed down into the shadows where I can no longer see his dark form.
My chest is tight; somehow, I’m sure this is the last night he’ll visit the building across the way. I close my eyes, imagining those strong hands of his climbing up my building. I turn to go inside, though I know it isn’t the cool night air that has me shivering. It’s longing. A wish I can’t put into words to actually make.
Not that anyone’s granting my wishes.
A clanging sound below makes me stop with one leg slung over my windowsill and I whip around to see two hands wrap around the metal railing. A moment later, the very man I’ve been spying on, dreaming about, pulls himself up and onto my fire escape. I’m too stunned to move, but I still manage to open my mouth to scream.
His big hand is just as powerful as I imagined as it clamps over my mouth. My heart hammers in my chest.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” His voice is deep and low, a rumble that sends shockwaves through me. He looks down at me, towering over my frame, and smiles a slow, curling smile. “Do you want to come on an adventure with me?”
He lets go and steps back as far as the tiny space will allow, his hands raised. Somehow, I know he won’t harm me. With a wicked grin spreading across his handsome face, he points to the opera glasses on the windowsill and pulls out a pair of binoculars.
“Two can play that game,” he tells me. He knows I’ve been watching him and he’s been watching me. “Do you want to keep playing?”
A warm, heaving feeling fills me as he traps me with his intense gaze. I take a step closer to find out the color of his eyes, but they’re as dark as the night sky. Oh, I really, really do want to keep playing. Not just because he’s so handsome he takes my breath away, but because his invitation to go on an adventure feels like a dream come true. I need what he’s offering like I need the air I’m struggling to breathe in his presence.
“I can’t leave my mother,” I say. “She needs constant care.”
“Fifteen minutes,” he promises. “Give me that much.”
I try so hard not to be bitter about my lot in life, but sometimes it all wells up anyway. I really don’t have any freedom at all; I barely scrape up the time I need to go to school each day. If my mother can’t get used to the nurses and keeps acting up, I may be forced to quit even that, the one bright spot in my life.
He won’t let me look away from his intoxicating grin. “Fifteen minutes,” I answer, motioning for him to follow me through the apartment so we can take the elevator down.
He grabs my hand and pulls me close to him. “That’s no fun.” The next moment, he turns and crouches down. “Climb up and hang on tight,” he tells me.
After I wrap my arms around his neck, he stands and turns his head, our faces inches apart. His breath caresses my cheek and his low chuckle makes me tighten my body against him. He climbs down the fire escape easily, hardly winded when we land on the pavement a short time later. He hurries over to a nearby sports car, sleek and black, swinging open the passenger door with a flourish.
I sneak glances at him as we wind through the deserted streets to a pawn shop, where he sells the jewels, he has tucked away in the bag tied to his belt. I watch as the owner peers at each piece through a jeweler’s loupe, trying to hide his excitement at how much they’re worth. Once we’re back outside, getting into the car, I realize I don’t even know this my handsome burglar’s name.
“Who are you?” I ask, not sure I’m even awake. This all feels too much like a dream for it to be real.
He pulls me close and dances me back to his car. “Finn,” he tells me. “That’s all you need to know.”
I tell him my name, and he repeats it back as if he’s tasting the syllables. I can’t take my eyes off his mouth. “One more stop,” he says. Before he starts the car this time, he leans close, our noses almost touching. “Having fun?”
“Yes,” I breathe.
“Good,” he says, before racing off into the night once more.
We pull up in front of a tenement building and he reaches across me to pull plain envelopes from the glove compartment. He divides the money from the pawn shop into the envelopes, before carefully sealing them. He smiles at me, nodding toward the dilapidated porch.
“The person I stole the jewelry from owns that building,” he explains. “She never does repairs and half the tenants don’t have heat.”
I follow him inside and watch him put an envelope in each of the mailboxes. We hurry back to the car as if that’s where he committed a crime, but before he starts the engine, I put my hand on his.
“That was really kind,” I say. I’m a bit in awe of him.
“No,” he tells me. “It’s only fair.”
I lick my lips as my eyes drop to his mouth. I lean closer, a helpless moth to his flame, and kiss him without thinking. His hand rises to my cheek, his touch soft and tender, until my mouth opens to his questing tongue.
With a moan, I press closer. His fingers tangle roughly in my hair, pulling my head back to take what he wants from me. I press my knees together, straining to stay in my seat and not crawl into his lap. We’ve known each other for …
With a gasp, I pull away. “It’s been much longer than fifteen minutes. I have to get back.”
Guilt and worry tug at my heart as he drives back to my building. When we arrive, I realize I don’t have my keys or my phone. I’d rather die than wake a neighbor to let me in, since the new tenants are anything but neighborly to me. Finn sees the look of horror on my face and taps my chin.
“Did you think I’d just leave you at the door?” he says with that smoldering smirk of his.
He parks under the fire escape and once again I climb on his back, clinging to his broad shoulders and burying my face in his neck. Back on my landing, I’m so worried that I hurry through the window and race to my mother’s bedroom, forgetting to thank him or say goodbye.
I find her fast asleep, with no signs she woke up at all while I was gone. Breathing a sigh of relief, I straighten up her blankets and go back to the fire escape, much too worked up to go to bed.
“Surprised?” Finn asks when I gasp at the sight of him sitting in the chair I keep on the fire escape. “If you’re too tired, I can leave.”
I shake my head, falling onto his lap when he holds out his arms. “I’m not even close to tired.”
We end up talking until the first hint of dawn peeks through the densely clustered buildings and the darkness begins to evaporate. Because of it, I can see that his eyes aren’t the same color as the night, but a deep, rich blue. A faint hint of stubble stands out on his chiseled jaw, and his chocolate brown hair has a few silver strands at his temples.
“You have school,” he says, standing up, letting my body slide down his until my feet hit the fire escape grate.
My classes were just one of the many things we’d talked about all night, and I reluctantly agree I need to get ready. He looks down at me, taking my face in his big hands and gives me a rough kiss before swinging over the side.
“I’ll be back tonight,” he promises. “Be ready.”
I lean over the railing, watching him climb down until his feet touch the ground. I’m already counting the minutes until I get to see him again.
Chapter 4
Finn
