Billionaire Hunter: Billionaire Black Brothers, #5

By Josie Snow

Hunter lived his life six months at a time, moving around being a corporate headhunter. He's called home to help a friend and ends up married. When the ruse spirals into a real relationship, things will get sticky. And then even more so when a lost man comes back, upending all the things hunter thought he'd finally get to have.

 

Blake is missing her brother, he's presumed dead but she doesn't believe that. When her old friend Hunter shows back up and offers help, she takes him up on it but not in a normal way. She marries him so she can keep her company but ends up falling in love. When it turns out that the truth about her brother is discovered, will she retreat or allow herself the happiness Hunter offers.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: DM
• Release date: May 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393582984

Book preview

BILLIONAIRE HUNTER

By Josie Snow

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2020 Josie Snow

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Chapter 1

Hunter

Just make sure you get the transfer taken care of as soon as possible, I said. I’m going to be back in the States for a while – I’m not even sure how long – and I don’t want to miss anything.

Of course, Sir, my assistant gave me a slight bow before leaving, closing the door behind him as he did. I sighed, spinning my chair to look out the large, floor-to-ceiling windows in my office. I had to admit, I wasn’t ready to go home. I didn’t want to head back to the States just yet, although I did miss my family.

It had been a few months since I had seen any of them, and more than six months had passed since I was actually living back home. I popped back every now and then for the big events that were taking place in my brother’s lives – from engagements to moving in parties to grand openings – but I was a traveler.

There was so much the world had to offer, I didn’t find living in LA to be fulfilling. Sure, with the money the family had we could travel any time we wanted, wherever we wanted, but that wasn’t the point. I didn’t want to just travel for a few days, or a week, I wanted to live in other places and experience their culture.

I wanted to immerse myself in the lives of other people, and find out how they lived and what they did. I wanted to spread the family name even further than it already had been, though most people in the world were already familiar with the Black name.

The fact of the matter was that I had nine brothers. Our parents were incredibly wealthy – at least, our father had been, and our mother married into that wealth. He was a smart businessman and knew what he was doing, and before his death he had managed to bring in not just millions, but billions of dollars to our household.

Our mother decided on dispersing our inheritances soon after his death, telling us that she wanted to be able to see us do something with the money and enjoy ourselves, rather than her keeping it all and being the only wealthy one until her own passing.

But, despite the fact that none of us really needed to work,  we all wanted to make our own way in the world, and though we had more money than we could ever hope to spend, each of the ten Black sons worked hard in their own way.

One of my brothers bought, modified, and flipped cars for his hobby. Another owned the most night clubs of anyone in the United States, and he had recently started branching out and buying clubs in other countries.

Another one of my brothers was the owner of an  incredibly successful escort business, and though he had recently gone through some legal issues, had come out clean on the other side, just as we all knew he would. I wished I had been able to be in the States to support him while he was going through all that, but from what he said when we chatted on the phone, it seemed like he had it all under control.

Then there was my brother who had recently started playing music again. He had gone through some tough times and ended up in rehab, but thanks to his hard work and determination, along with the support and gentle pushing from certain people in his life, he had finally pulled another band together and was starting to tour again.

Standing on the fame he once had, I knew it was just a matter of time before their name became known abroad, and he, too, would be traveling all over the world to do what he loved to do.

And that wasn’t even half my siblings. There was more talent spread among the rest of us, from those who worked as agents in Hollywood, to DJs... and everything in between. They were all an inspiration to me, and I wanted to keep up with them.

As I thought of the passion that all of us have for what we do, I was determined to hold my own amongst the ranks. I was proud of the family name, and I didn’t want to be the son who just took advantage of the fact that our parents made it big and passed on their wealth to us.

So, I threw my life into the world I loved. I had an eye for business myself. But, even more than that, I had an eye for talent, and I learned how to combine the two. As a corporate headhunter, I traveled the world, hired by some of the top paying agencies to find the best of the best to fill positions.

These weren’t just standard resumes I was going over to fill standard positions. There were times I was finding the right person for classified jobs. There were other times when I was choosing among some of the most well-known entrepreneurs in the world. There were times when it was on me to select the best individual for the job and some of those times I really had to split hairs to arrive at a decision.

But, I certainly wasn’t shy about my decision making skills, and I didn’t mind being the one all the responsibility fell upon for most of the positions I filled. I was confident, I knew how to analyze someone by their skills and remain unbiased when it came to how much I personally liked them, and I left customer after customer happy with the results.

I had been living in Hong Kong for the past six months, working with many different large corporations that were trying to establish better relationships with foreign governments. It helped that I was from the United States, as we were a key government for trade and other interactions within the country.

But, I found it to be a bit of a challenge when it came to working with other foreign establishments, but I enjoyed the pressure. Slowly but surely we were making the progress we hoped to make, and I could see it all coming together beautifully.

Then, I got the call.

Bruno Johansen, a good friend of mine since childhood, had disappeared. His plane had gone down and he was presumed to be dead, but from what I understood, that was unconfirmed... and his sister wasn’t so sure it ever would be. She was adamant that he was still alive, only missing.

Still, she needed help. Bruno and his sister had a tech company, and she was worried that due to her brother being missing she would lose it. She wanted me to step in and help her take care of a few things, and since he had been such a good friend of mine for so long, there was no way in hell I could turn her down.

It was difficult for me to work out all the details from overseas, especially since not many people were able to reach me easily. But, I gave Gray, my brother, a call and asked if he would step in and offer support from the family, and I knew that would likely bring my mother into the mix as well.

She often followed us around in our ambitions, whether we were trying to get out of something we’d gotten ourselves into, or if we were stepping in to help a friend who was in need.

Georgia Black was already known for her work with charities around the world, and we all knew she had a heart for those who were hurting or who needed help.

I would be heading back to the States as soon as possible, but there were a couple things I had to wrap up before I was able to do that. I was working as fast as I could, but it was still going to take longer than I wanted Blake to be alone.

It was stressful thinking that Bruno was missing, and I couldn’t imagine what this was doing to her. They had already lived difficult lives, and I didn’t know how much more she could take. Their parents had passed when they were both young, and they were shuffled from relative to relative until they were old enough to live independently.

But, I always admired the fact that didn’t get either of them down. They still worked hard, as hard as any of us Blacks did, to earn what they had in life. And I had to admit, the tech company the two of them started was impressive in more ways than one.

I was sure they would find their fortune through it, but that would take time. Now, with Bruno gone, it was hard to say what was going to happen next. No wonder Blake was upset, and no wonder she called.

My phone chirped, and I was glad to see my brother, James’ name flash on the screen. I wanted to get home as soon as I could, so I reached out to him as soon as I found out I would be headed back to the States. I skimmed his text.

I’m done with the jet for the weekend, and Jax said he can postpone his trip to New York. I’ll have it cleaned and refueled then sent your way in the morning

It was a relief. I didn’t want to fly commercially, even if I could get good seats. It took too long to work with my tight schedule. To use the jet I shared with a couple of my brothers would cut the time exponentially, that was for sure.

Thanks, I’ll be ready to go as soon as it gets here

I hit send and set my phone back down on the desk in front of me. There were still a few things I had to do before getting back to the States, but they weren’t going to take long, so I wasn’t worried about having the time. I just knew I had to get back home as soon as I could, and try to help my friend as much as I could during this tough time for her.

Taking a deep breath, I finished the rest of the coffee that had grown cold in the thermos on the corner of my desk. I could have had a fresh cup brought up, but I didn’t want to wait. My mind was spinning, and I couldn’t help but feel stressed about the situation.

There were a lot of things I still had to figure out, and a living situation was one of them. Though I had more money than I could possibly know what to do with, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to buy a house, or just try to find a place to rent for a while until all of this got sorted out.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to be staying in LA, even when Bruno’s body was found. I wanted to be there for Blake, that was for sure, but that would be temporary. When she got through the initial pain of all this and we got the details of the tech company figured out, I had a sneaking suspicion I would be leaving town again.

My life was a life of constant travel. It was my passion, and I didn’t want to put down any real roots back home at this point. Then again, staying with my mother sounded pretty overbearing, too. I loved her more than anything, but she was very involved in our lives. At least, she tried to be, and the thought of being under her watchful eye practically all day every day wasn’t exactly appealing.

On the other hand, neither was the idea of dealing with the housing market in a place like LA, either. I knew it was booming right now, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to find anything temporary that would suit my needs.

But, it was just one more thing I had to deal with in this mess. I couldn’t ignore that it had happened, and I wasn’t about to turn my back on Blake in her time of need.

Bruno had been a really good friend of mine, and now there was no telling what happened to him. It killed me inside to think that he might be dead, and I knew I was going to have to come to terms with that fact eventually. But, there was a part of me that wanted to think of the situation with the same optimism his sister held.

There was no body, so there wasn’t any factual reason to believe he was gone. At the same time, his plane did go down, and he was missing. There was also the much more likely scenario that something had happened to his body and he would never be found.

I knew it was going to be difficult to get Blake to accept that, and I wasn’t sure if I would even try. But, I did know that I had to be there for her, no matter what. Bruno was my friend, and so was she.

She needed me. And that’s all that mattered.

Chapter 2

Blake

I put my elbows on the table, rubbing my temples with my fingers and closing my eyes. I shook my head, taking a deep breath and trying to sort out my thoughts. They had been rushing ever since I found out Bruno was missing, and I had yet to find a quiet moment, even when I was by myself.

There were so many things I had to get figured out, and I was so overwhelmed, I hardly did a thing. It wasn’t that I couldn’t handle the company, it was the fact that the board was sexist, and they weren’t listening to me.

My brother had made it clear when he was around that I was his proxy. I was supposed to be the one to take care of the business – the entire company, in fact – should something happen. But, with him gone, I was outnumbered by a predominantly male board who all wanted to sell the company and be done with it.

They were right, the place was worth millions, if not a full billion dollars. We had both worked our fingers to the bone – Bruno putting in the brunt of the work – for years now, and it was all finally starting to pay off. Bruno had been on a