The Billion Dollar Fiancé [#8]

Chapter 10

Half an hour passed when Camilla never returned to keep Stephen company. He began to grow suspicious, but when he did a thorough walk through of the gallery, Connor, too, came up missing.

Sighing in exhaustion, he looked up at the masterpiece of Camilla and tucked his hands into his pockets. It was a risky tactic displaying Saving Grace, but he figured with someone after it, he would draw them out by including it in his list of work to auction.

"You must have put a lot of thought into this one," Tristan said, examining every little detail of the piece. "I remember you working on this for months."

Stephen blinked at his brother. "You noticed, huh?"

"I'm not blind, Stephen. And I'm not blind to Connor's relationship with Camilla. He may be in love, but she definitely isn't. At least not with him."

Stephen had to ignore the facts. "Do you know where Camilla is?"

"Last I saw, she was heading down your magical hallway."

He raised a brow at Tristan. "Connor headed that way, too. What are they looking for?"

The two brothers shared a looked. Tristan knew the two wouldn't have abruptly left without making it known.

Tristan pulled his phone from his front pocket and searched for Connor in his contacts. "It's ringing."

Stephen took the lead and casually walked through the crowd to get to the hallway that was closed off to guests. He didn't want to alarm anyone who saw him practically running in search of his brother.

"Do you hear that?" Tristan asked, pressing his ear to the locked door. He ended the call on his phone and then called again. The ringing on the other side of the door was louder now, as if someone was bringing it closer to the door.

Stephen wasn't thinking straight enough to function. He immediately held his thumb against the fingerprint recognition screen and was immediately granted access.

The first thing in his line of vision was Camilla staring back at him with wide eyes. The second thing was the gun pointed at him.

He swallowed hard. "Cami..."

"Don't you dare hurt him," Camilla said. Her hands shook at her side, but she balled them into fists to keep her composure.

Connor could easily handle a gun being aimed at him, but the image of his brother standing in the line of fire made him sick to his stomach. He couldn't control himself when he lunged himself at Johnnie and tackled him to the ground.

A shot was fired, and Stephen immediately reached for the pistol that was knocked by his feet before pointing it in Katy's direction.

She stared at him in horror and then looked down to the gun that had just gone off. Her eyes moved to the door that Tristan was quickly shutting behind him and then her brother's unmoving body beneath Connor.

"He's out cold," Connor murmured as he rolled off of Jonnie and touched the wound on his leg. He groaned in pain, but it quickly subsided when Camilla dropped down beside him and took his hand in hers.

"You should give me the gun," Tristan said to Katy, cautiously approaching.

With shaking hands, she lifted it back up, but Tristan continued to close the distance. "Stay back."

"Do you really want to kill one of us and go to prison? You have a child who needs you. You have two of them."

She shook her head at Tristan. "You don't understand."