Page 34 of The Billionaire and His Driver
“Crimes she didn’t commit,” Ronny said before she could say a word. Brina was grateful. Sully’s fierceness and unrelenting questions were making her extremely uncomfortable.
Sully looked at his brother. “How would you know?”
“Because she told me so.”
That shocked Sully too. “Because shetoldyou? That’s all it took?”
“For my sake, yes. And for her sake, I’ve got a team of lawyers looking into it as well.”
Brina was shocked to hear that. “You do?” she asked him. Sully looked at her.
Ronny nodded his head. “Yes, Sabrina, I do.”
“Since when?”
“Since three months ago. The same day you told me of your innocence.”
Brina was floored. Nobody had ever believed her, let alone looked into it for her. “Have they found out anything?”
Sully could tell she wanted to jump out of her skin with anticipation. He wasn’t sure if her reaction was because she hoped those attorneys would confirm what she told Ronny and thereby keep her in his good graces, or she feared they would expose her for the liar she is and undermine what she said. He continued to stare at her.
“They’ve found quite a bit,” Ronny said.
“Like what?” Brina anxiously asked.
“Enough so far for each of the attorneys to conclude that there’s been a grave miscarriage of justice. They don’t have all their ducks in a row yet, and they’ve warned me that it could take months rather than weeks before they could confidently state the facts, but they have more confidence than not that you will be exonerated.”
Brina covered her mouth in shock, and to prevent herself from screaming out happily. She could not believe it! With tears in her eyes she jumped up from that chair and ran to Ronny. “Oh Ronny!” she cried out. “The whole time I was in prison I was praying somebody would believe me. I was praying somebody would listen to me. But I was nothing in their eyes. But you’re actually helping me. Thank you. Thank you so much!” She was balling now.
Ronny pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. He didn’t give a damn that Sully was in the room too. But that information confirmed to him what he knew all along: She was different. She was truly that one in a million. It also confirmed to him that he did not deserve her. But yesterday morning, whenJockey did not show up for work, he weakened and ordered Elvira to let Sabrina take Jock’s place. Then last night happened and changed everything.
Sully opened his suit coat and placed his hands on his hips as he watched his brother comfort his sobbing driver. He was absolutely dumbstruck. Warren Ronald Bradshaw comforting anybody who wasn’t one of his brothers was amazing. But the way he held her. The way his eyes were squeezed shut. The way he went so far as to hire lawyers to exonerate her and to have the venerable Reynolds McNabb, their chief of security, investigate the break-in at her house, all astounded him. Ronny was not an altruistic man. He only did what was in his best interest. But he was looking out forherinterest? Sully would not have believed it had he not seen it with his own two eyes.
When Brina stopped crying, she kept her back to Sully as Ronny handed her his handkerchief and she wiped her tears away. “I’m so sorry,” she muttered. But Ronny made clear she had nothing to be sorry about.
Then he looked at Sully. And Sully didn’t mince words. “What is she to you, brother?” His look was sincere, perplexed.
Brina’s heart nearly dropped when he asked that question. She remained turned toward Ronny. She could see the distress in his eyes. He wasn’t a man who made commitments to women or he would have been married with children by now. Or at least in a committed relationship. “I’m his driver,” she said to Sully.
“What kind of driver?” Sully asked. “The driver of his car, or his heart?”
Brina could not believe he asked that kind of question. It was like he could see right through her, and she didn’t like anybody having that close a view. “The driver of his car,” she said.
But Ronny wasn’t playing games anymore. “She’s my lady,” he said as they stared into each other’s eyes. And then to put an even finer point on it: “She’s my girlfriend,” he added.
Brina looked at Ronny as if she was seeing him for the first time. Did she just hear him say what she just heard him say? She didn’t know what to make of it!
Sully didn’t either. He seemed frozen in place. And then he spoke. “You’ve never claimed a woman as your lady in your entire life. Now you’re claiming yourdriver?” It seemed nonsensical to Sully.
But Ronny had surprised himself and gone out on that limb. He wasn’t going back. “You’re correct, I’ve never claimed any woman before. But I’m claiming Sabrina,” he said. “She’s my lady. She’s my woman. She’s my girl. Pick your choice.”
Brina could hardly believe it. She went from settling for a man like Jeremy who turned out to not even care about her, to one of the most powerful men in the world claiming her as his own. The first man to ever publicly do so. But he did so, she also realized, without saying anything about it to her first. Which was bothersome.
Ronny saw the apprehension in her eyes. He knew he had skipped a very crucial step. “If she’ll have me,” he added as he looked into her eyes.
If she’ll have you, Sully wanted to blurt out in a mocking tone. There wasn’t a woman in Oregon that didn’t want to have herself a Bradshaw man, or at least all the money and power that came with that name, and Ronny had to know that too. Why, he wondered, was he being so solicitous to this particular woman?
Brina wanted to jump at the chance tohave himthe way Sully seemed convinced she wanted to jump.Or course I’ll have you, her heart was screaming for her to respond. But Ronny seemed so anguished, as if his head wasn’t as sure as his heart seemed to be. Or vice versa. And what about that woman theymentioned who was waiting for a ring from him? What was that about? And he was so damn moody, she didn’t know if she could trust his words. Would he claim her today, then on a whim dismiss her tomorrow? Her livelihood was at stake in this conversation too. “I think we’d better take it slow,” she said, to alleviate that look of terror in his eyes, and her own fears too. This was a heavy conversation she wasn’t prepared for. For the past three months, she thought they were done for. Now this?
