Her Forbidden Millionaire

They finished their lunch and took off to the address Phoebe saved in her phone. The building they arrived at was condemned. The door was boarded up and the windows were broken out. The neighborhood was dirty and it finally dawned on Phoebe that maybe she should have listened to Pam.

“Girl, are you sure this is the address?” Pam said, looking around.

“Yeah,” Phoebe said, staring down at her phone. “I don’t think it’s a legit business, or a charity like Bobby thought. This place can’t sell anything but broken dreams.”

Pam appreciated Phoebe trying to lighten the mood but all she wanted to do was get back around proper civilization. “Please let’s go,” Pam begged her friend, tugging on her arm.

Another dead end, as the women turned around heading for Phoebe’s car.

“Now where are you two lovelies going on such a beautiful day like this?” a deep voice called from behind them. There was a knot in the pit of Phoebe’s stomach as she glanced over her shoulder to see a young man with a bandanna tied around his head and pants sagging below his waistline.

“Just ignore him,” Pam said, pulling Phoebe away from the man, but two others came seemingly out of nowhere to block their path.

“Now that’s just rude,” one of the men said. He flashed a grin full of gold teeth. Phoebe and Pam both knew this wasn’t going to end well. “So where are you two headed? You really should answer the man. It’s impolite not to answer someone when they’re speaking to you.”

Phoebe tried everything in her power to keep her voice from trembling. “We’re just heading back to the office. My boss is actually expecting us and we’re running late.”

“Aww, you really should keep better track of time,” the third man snickered as he lifted his shirt showing off the gun in his waist.

“Please, we don’t want any trouble.” Pam began to cry hoping that the men wouldn’t do anything to harm them.

“Lucky for you,” the one behind them had crept up close enough to whisper in their ears making the girls jump. “Take it easy now. We just want your goodies. Cell phone, wallet, jewelry, money, and those lovely car keys.”

Phoebe and Pam didn’t hesitate to give up their belongings hoping that’s all the men would take.

“Well, that was much easier than we thought,” one man said. “Now I’m going to tell you ladies to lie down on the pavement. Kiss the ground before I make you kiss something else.”

Phoebe and Pam tried to keep their sobbing to a minimum as they planted their bodies against the dirty sidewalk. They heard one of the men stand over them. “It’s a damn shame we can’t have a little bit more fun with y’all, but we gotta go. I suggest you don’t come around these parts no more. Thanks. Now count to a thousand and then you can go.”

“One, two, three,” Phoebe and Pam counted out loud. They couldn’t believe what had just happened. They stopped around 300 wondering if the men were really gone. Pam was shaking as she pulled herself off the ground.

“I knew we shouldn’t have come here!” Pam screamed to the sky.

“I’m sorry,” Phoebe cried. “I shouldn’t have made you come along.”

“No!” Pam looked to her friend. “I mean, yes, we should have checked this place out with more people, but you coming here alone would have been a definite problem. We were lucky! Who knows what they would have done or where they would have taken you. Let’s just get out of here. There’s a police station about a mile up that way. Don’t worry about it. I’m glad we were here together.”

The two women walked close together for block after block, constantly looking over their shoulders to make sure they weren’t being followed. The likelihood of them being robbed twice was slim, but they still didn’t want to chance someone trying and them not having anything left to take.

The police officers at the station were more than helpful and even apologetic for the women getting robbed. They took down their information promising to put an APB out on Phoebe’s car. After they both made phone calls, they sat there patiently waiting for someone to come get them. Bobby showed up first in a flurry of rage and fear.

“What the hell happened?! Who did this to you? Where are they? Where did this happen?” he shouted at the police. The office simply told him to ask Phoebe and Pam who were sitting next to an officer’s desk.

Pam’s station manager, Tory, came in asking the same questions. Again, the officer pointed him in the direction of the women.

Phoebe spoke up, “We were just following the address trying to find out what was going on there when three guys came out of nowhere and robbed us. They only took my cell phone, which I already locked and shut off from the computer here, and my car, which I’ve reported stolen. My wallet is in my desk at work.”

“And my wallet is in the news truck back at the station,” Pam added. “Everything they took can be replaced and we weren’t hurt. So let’s just get out of here.”

The women hugged each other tight before heading their separate ways back to work. Phoebe could sense Bobby’s frustration and anger with her as they drove in silence back to the office. He took a deep breath. “I just don’t understand what you were doing in that neighborhood.”

“You remember the charity that was eating up a hundred fifty thousand from Lincoln’s budget?”

“Yeah,” Bobby answered reluctantly.

“Well, the address was there in that neighborhood. The building was abandoned and we were out of place. Pam told me it was a rough area before we left to go. I should have listened to her,” Phoebe mumbled, trying to stop herself from crying again. She could feel the sharpness of the concrete still scraping against her skin as she laid down on the ground. It made her shudder. “I’m sorry, Bobby. I hated having you come all the way out here just to get me. What could have possibly been there?”

“I should punch that Lincoln Gold guy in the face!” Bobby slammed his hand on the steering wheel.

“That’s unnecessary. This isn’t his fault. It’s not like I called him to ask about the place. I should have done that anyway. He’s supposed to be my client, but he was acting so funny when he saw the file on my desk I thought he was trying to hide something. I still think he is, but I should have asked him anyway.”

“You were only doing what you thought was right. Honestly, curiosity would have sent me there too. I just wished that it didn’t happen this way. You two shouldn’t have been robbed. I hate the kind of world we live in. Maybe you should try giving his accountant or lawyer a call. They might have some insight as to what’s going on if you feel like Mr. Gold won’t be honest with you.”

Phoebe decided to do just that. She promised that she would smooth things over with Ms. Pinkett anyway. It was only right that she try to get some information from her.

Sheryll was deeply troubled when she heard Phoebe’s account of what happened when she went to check out the address from Lincoln’s file.

“I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that tracking down Jimmy. And I’m sorry for my behavior that morning of the brunch. I should have never let my mouth speak ahead of my brain,” Sheryll apologized. “If it makes you feel any better, we really think you did a spectacular job on your proposal and hope that you can get things back on track soon.”

“Thank you for that, and I want to apologize to you as well. I should have kept my cool and spoke to you privately once the meeting was finished. I tend to do first and ask questions later… as you can tell from my exploits earlier. I really need to find the source of this Jimmy B. Vault thing. It’s going to bankrupt Lincoln faster than anything else. I just don’t know how honest he’s going to be with me about it. He made such a big deal about getting me the right file earlier that I thought he was hiding this,” Phoebe admitted.

She heard Sheryll sigh over the phone. “It’s possible, but Lincoln told me that he was done with Jimmy B. a long time ago.”

“Sheryll,” Phoebe paused. “Who’s Jimmy B.?”