Page 50 of The Billionaire and His Driver
Drez was still wincing as if he was still in tremendous pain, but he saw Sully lurking nearby and kept on talking. “If a truck carrying a haul worth a hundred thousand dollars, Boss would sell them to those store owners for fifty thousand. The store owners are happy, and the boss gets to pocket, after the little cut he gave to Cannigan, nearly all that fifty thousand. And we aren’t talking about fifty thousand every now and then. These trucks were making deliveries every few weeks sometimes. It adds up.”
“No shit,” said Sully.
“But when a smart auditor were auditing their books and she called some of those places that supposedly received these large shipments, none of them had received a thing. The Feds got involved and Cannigan got arrested.”
Brina was glued to every word Drez was saying. She had no idea what was going on. She had no idea!
“So when Cannigan got convicted,” Drez continued, “he was in prison making all kinds of noise about having continued those shipments to those warehouses during the months while he was awaiting trial since he was innocent until proven guilty and he was still in charge of that charity. But he was doing it behind my boss’s back. He was taking all the cut for himself. And he claimed he stashed away hundreds of thousands of dollars during that time. But Cannigan wouldn’t say where the money was. Only that he had a gal on the outside that’s keeping it for him. Claimed he didn’t even know where she hid it. So naturally, we wanted that bitch’s name. But he wouldn’t tell for years. Not even after threats. But then, recently, he admitted who she was. He named her.”
Then Drez’s blue eyes looked dead into Brina’s bright eyes. “He said Sabrina Hawkins is her name.”
Brina couldn’t believe it. She just sat there numb. Ronny placed his arm around her, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t concerned about what he’d just heard. “Go on,” he said to Drez.
“Boss wanted that money. He had paid off the cartels long ago, but he was still dipping into their profits. They just didn’t know it yet. So he wanted that money. He ordered us to find her. And we did. Here in Oregon. So I came here to take her back to Detroit so she could lead the boss to the stash.”
“There is no stash,” said Brina. “None of that is true. I wasn’t even implicated in all that missing money in Detroit.”
“Funny how that same scheme started up at that Eugene charity too,” said Drez. “Only you didn’t get away with it that time.”
Ronny and Sully couldn’t help but find it all strikingly coincidental too. Ronny dared not look at Brina. He didn’t want her to see his concern. But Sully was staring at her.
“Who’s your boss?” Ronny asked Drez. “You know too much of the backstory to not know his name. Who is he?”
“I told you I don’t--” When Drez saw Sully coming toward him again, he flinched. “Okay. Just stay away from me!”
“Who is he?” Ronny asked again.
Drez removed the towel from his face to see if his wound was still weeping. It was. He knew he was losing too much blood. Somebody had to help him. “Mosley,” Drez said. “Joe Mosley. Now that I told y’all all I know, please get me some help. I need this thing stitched up.”
“Get help for the man that tried to kill my brother’s driver?” asked Sully. “You’d better sew that shit your own damn self.”
But Ronny noticed a decided change in Brina after Drez had said that name. She looked at Drez. “Describe him,” she said.
Ronny and Sully glanced at each other.
Drez had to think about that. “Tall. Thin. About your complexion. Big forehead. Talked like he was talking out of the side of his mouth because he said he had a stroke when he was a kid. I didn’t even know kids had strokes.”
Brina suddenly stood up.
Everybody was staring at her. “You know him?” Ronny asked her.
“I need to . . . I need. . . Can I leave?” Her voice was distressed. Her face looked devastated.
Ronny stood up too. The change in her demeanor perplexed him. “Yes, we can leave,” he said as he placed his hand on her back. He did it mainly because she looked as if she could barely walk on her own. He glanced back at Sully as they made their way toward the exit.
Sully looked at Reynolds. “I’ll let you know where we go from him. Keep him under guard.”
“Will do,” said Reynolds, who was confused too, as Sully made his way out of the office too.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Sully was driving and Tex was on the front passenger seat as they left the construction site, but all was not well inside the car. Brina was seated beside Ronny, and he was holding her hand, but not a word had been spoken. Sully kept taking peeps at the couple through the rearview mirror as he drove. His patience was wearing thin because he wanted answers, but his normally impatient brother wasn’t pressing her for any.
Ronny wanted answers, too, but he could see how distressed Brina was. He knew she would tell him, in her own time, and he was giving her however much time she needed. But Sully, being a man of little patience, decided that questions needed to be answered so he decided to ask them himself. “Is it true?” he asked her.
It was the wrong move because Ronny exploded. “Don’t you dare ask her that!” he yelled out. “No, it’s not true! None of that bullshit is true! None of it!”
Sully and Tex both had never seen Ronny defend anybody so forcefully. Sully nearly ran off the road as he stared through the rearview mirror at his brother. Tex almost turned around to make sure they didn’t have an imposter on their hands. Ronny Bradshaw defended a woman? It was unheard of.
