This Billionaire's Protector: This Billionaire, #31

By Rachel Foster

Alana is a smart girl from a good background. Her family comes from money, but she doesn't flaunt it. She meets Josh who grew up in an orphanage. He has no family and is rough around the edges. But when they meet everything changes but can he be her protector? 

• Language: English
• Publisher: 3rd Publishing
• Release date: Mar 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215380734

Book preview

1

J

OSH

Eight years earlier...

It was a load of crap. As I sat on the front steps of the orphanage, the gray stone cool against the back of my legs, all I could think about was what a joke it all was.

Serious, serious bullshit. Parker Quinn got away with whatever the hell he wanted, and I was tired of it. The guy was a bully to the core, and he thought just because he was in good with the staff that there wouldn’t be any consequences to the shit he tried to pull.

I’d done something about it. Someone had to. But I was the one getting in trouble? I stomped my sneaker against the ground, letting my head hang back as I looked up at the clear afternoon sky. It was fall in Pine Brook, New York, and the leaves had started to turn their different colors.

Normally, I liked it. Fall was cool. By the time the temperature would start to go down, I’d be ready for it; summer was annoying with all the heat and humidity. But I wasn’t in the mood for that crap right then. I was about to get in some major trouble – and the worst part was I didn’t deserve it.

Josh Mack?

I turned where I sat. At the big double doors to the entrance of the orphanage was Mrs. Gardener, one of the receptionists from the principal’s office. She was old and skinny, looking extra small in front of the big orphanage. The building always creeped me out. I’d heard it was built in the 19th Century, one of the oldest in the area. It always reminded me of one of those mental asylums in the horror movies I liked to watch.

Yeah. What?

Her expression hardened right away, her face wrinkling up as she scowled. Is that any way to talk to an elder?

I didn’t care. Sure, she wasn’t the one I was mad at, but I’d never liked people telling me what to do, talking to me like a kid. Just because I was fifteen didn’t mean I had to do everything adults told me to do. It wasn’t fair, and I never liked to keep my mouth shut when something wasn’t fair.

I don’t know.

I think you do know. And, you also know that you were told to wait in the office until Principal Willis was ready to see you. Is there a reason you’re out here where you’re not supposed to be?

The real reason was because I wasn’t supposed to be. But as mad as I was, I knew that wouldn’t do me any favors.

Because the office was making me crazy. It’s so small and cramped in there.

Well, the next time you get in trouble with your teachers – which shouldn’t take too much time, I’m guessing – we’ll make sure you have a nicer room to sit in while you wait for your punishment.

She was being a smart-ass and it was kind of funny, I had to admit. But I kept the angry look on my face as I sat.

Anyway, she said. Come on. Principal Willis is ready to see you. If you don’t make a fuss about it, I won’t tell him that you left the office.

It was a good deal. With a heave, I got up from the steps and started towards the door.

There, she said. Smart kid.

She mussed my dark brown hair as I stepped past her, and I let out a groan as she did. We were back among the huge, spacious hallways of Shadowlane Orphanage, where I’d lived for the last five years since my parents died.

I hated the place, and I left whenever I got the chance, whether I was supposed to or not. From the first day I stepped foot into Shadowlane, all I thought about was the day I’d get to leave. At first, I’d hoped that some family might adopt me. But the older I got, the more I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Families liked to adopt kids when they were small and cute. No family wanted some teenager who’d be an adult in a few years. But I wasn’t going to let that bother me. I’d sucked it up and accepted that I was going to be there until I was a grown-up. Then, I’d finally be able to go out into the world and make a ton of money, never have to answer to anyone. It was all that I wanted.

How many times is that this month? Mrs. Gardener asked as we made our way down the hall, the clicking of our shoes echoing through the space.

How many times what?

That you’ve been sent to the office. I’m going to guess this is...number seven.

Eight.

Wow, eight’s even more impressive.

Whatever.

There was more silence before she eventually continued, Josh, you know that there’s only so much they’re going to take from you. Eventually, they’ll just kick you out.

Fine. That’s what I want, anyway.

You don’t get it. You won’t be cut loose and put on the streets. You might hate Shadowlane, but as far as places like this go, it’s not bad.

I doubt it.

Trust me. I’ve worked in other facilities, and this is one of the best. Anyway, you keep acting up and pushing your luck like you have been, and they’ll ship you to one of those homes for troubled youths. Might not sound too bad, but they’re more like little prisons than orphanages.

I didn’t say anything. Mrs. Gardener seemed to like me for some reason, and I didn’t have any reason to think she was lying. And, the last thing I wanted was to get stuck in some place where I wouldn’t be able to sneak out.

We eventually reached the main offices, Mrs. Gardener opening the door to let me in. A few other women were seated at desks around the waiting room, all of them glancing up at me with their now-familiar faces.

Come on, Josh, said Mrs. Gardener. Don’t want to keep Principal Willis waiting for any longer than necessary.

She was right. Willis was a jerk, but he had all the power here. We went down the long hall to another set of double doors, Mrs. Gardener giving them a knock once we were in front of them.

Yes? Principal Willis’ voice was booming and deep, clear even through the thick wooden doors."

Got our little troublemaker. You want me to send him in?

Silence. Then, yes.

Mrs. Gardener opened the door and nodded for me to go inside. Be smart, Josh, she said quietly as I stepped past her. I know you can be.

I glanced up at her as I entered. Really, I didn’t know why she was so nice to me. Even I had enough self-awareness to know I could be a total jerk. And, it always seemed like the nicer people were to me, the more I wanted to push them away.

Principal Willis was seated at his big, fancy desk. His office was huge, always looking more like a library than anything else. The tall arched windows behind him looked out over the courtyard, a few handfuls of kids out there playing around.

Josh. Sit down. He gestured with a big hand to one of the high-backed chairs across from his desk.

Principal Willis was tall, built, with lots of muscles. His head was bald, and his face was mean-looking. He always liked to wear sweaters with little ties underneath them and shoes that were so shiny, I had to wonder how much they cost. I’d heard stories that he used to be in the military, maybe even that he’d killed people before. But kids liked to make stuff up, so who knew?

I sat down in the chair and kept my face angry. Principal Willis sighed as Mrs. Gardener shut the door behind her. A grandfather clock ticked, filling the silence.

You know how this always goes, right?

I don’t know.

You do know. You’ve been in my office over a dozen times since classes started this year. At this point, I could just send you an email to save us all the trouble.

Maybe you should.

He furrowed his thick eyebrows. Don’t be smartass, Josh.

I said nothing, not wanting to give myself an unnecessary trouble. Willis looked over at this computer. So, what’s the issue this time? Got into a screaming match with Parker Quinn? Mr. Shaw had to pull you two apart?

He shouldn’t have. Mr. Shaw should’ve let me punch Parker, so he’d actually learn a lesson.

And, what kind of lesson would that be?

That you can’t just take whatever you want from people. That you can’t be a shithead to other people and get away with it.

Language.

Sorry.

Well, said Principal Willis. Why don’t you tell me what happened. In your own words.

What difference does that make? I’m gonna get punished either way.

Call it curiosity. You’ve been getting into no small amount of trouble since you showed up here, Josh. And, I want to know why, rather than throw you into detention for the tenth time. Not like it does any good, anyway.

I knew there wasn’t any point. But I was eager to get what had happened off my chest. Parker was being an assole-

Language.

Sorry. Parker was being a jerk. He thinks just because he’s bigger than the other kids he can to whatever he wants. So in English, he forgot his stuff. Or that’s what he said – probably didn’t care enough to bring it. So he went over to Matt Moore before class started and took all his stuff. When Matt said something, Parker just shoved him down. And, this all happened before Mr. Shaw came in, so he didn’t see it.

Uh-huh.

Matt’s small, but so what? You can’t just pick on people who are smaller than you. So, I went over to Parker and told him to give Matt his stuff back. Parker laughed and asked what did I care, and what was I going to do about it. So, I shoved him and got right in his face. That’s when Mr. Shaw showed up.

So...you were sticking up for Matt?

Yeah. Someone has to, you know?

And, Matt would back this up if I asked?

If he knew you weren’t going to tell Parker about him talking to you, then yeah, probably.

More silence as Principal Willis thought about what I’d said. I couldn’t really tell, but it almost looked like he kind of approved. Weird, I thought.

The incidence today wasn’t the only reason I wanted to talk to you, Josh.

There something else?

There’s something else. You remember that test everyone took last week? The standardized test that covered math and English and everything else.

Yeah. It was pretty boring.

Boring? How?

I don’t know. I finished it and had to sit around while everyone else was still working.

Principal Willis thought about these words, too. The results are going to be given back to homeroom teachers tomorrow. But I wanted to talk about yours.

Why?

Well, because they’re...impressive.

Impressively bad?

Nope, quite the opposite. You scored extremely high on the math portion, but the verbal section is what I’m really interested in. You got in the ninety-ninth percentile. Do you know what that means?

That’s good, right?

It means that out of all the people who took this test, you did better than ninety-nine percent of them.

Alright. I didn’t care much for tests. Besides, school stuff had always been really easy for me. Don’t tell anyone, I said. I don’t want people talking about that stuff.

I won’t. But, I want to tell you something: you’re not just any kid, Josh. You’re smart, you’re capable, and...if what you said about today is true, you’ve got a decent sense of right and wrong.

So what, now you’re going to tell me I’m not living up to my potential or something?

That’s exactly what I’m going to tell you. Josh, I’ve been around for a while. I know at your age you’re not too keen on having adults give you advice, but I’m doing it anyway. I’ve met plenty of brilliant kids since my time here, and they go one of two ways: they straighten themselves out and do something with their lives, or they get put out at eighteen and spend the next ten years of their lives wasting their time, getting into trouble, and making mistakes until they land in jail. Or worse.

I didn’t say anything in response.

I know your parents died, and that kind of thing is powerful enough to shake your world to the core. Some people never recover from something like that. But you’re strong-willed, and you’ve got what it takes to make something of yourself that would honor their memory.

I folded my arms across my chest, breaking eye contact with him.

You need to start thinking about your future, Josh. It’s going to be here before you know it.

What’s my punishment?

Your punishment is that you’re going to write something for me.

Like what? A letter or something?

Or something. I want you to write me an essay telling me where, exactly, you see yourself in...let’s say eight years. And then, where you see yourself in eighteen years. I want you to really think about it, think about what you want and what it’ll take to get there.

Whatever.

I know you’re good at writing, and I’m willing to bet you’ve spent a hell of a lot of time thinking about what you want to do when you leave this place on your eighteenth birthday. Because trust me, if you don’t take control of your life, it’s just going to...happen to you. And, that won’t be a pretty sight.

Is that all?

The principal let out an amused snort, as if he’d expected me to say something like that.

Yeah, that’s all. Try to go the rest of the day without getting into trouble. He nodded toward the door and I didn’t waste any time getting out of my chair and leaving the office.

I needed to get out of Shadowlane, if only for an afternoon. The walls were closing in on me, and my conversation with Willis didn’t help anything.

Before too long, I was back at my dorm, a few other guys there hanging out and killing time before doing homework or whatever else they had going on that night.

But there was only one dude there I wanted to see –my best friend, Todd. I didn’t really get along with too many of the other guys there, but Todd and I were tight as hell. We’d shown up to Shadowlane around the same time and stuck with each other when no one else would.

What up? I asked, coming over to where he sat on the edge of his bed and slapping my hand down onto his shoulder.

Hey, he said weakly, looking up from one of the history books we always seemed to be reading.

Todd was skinny, almost skin and bones, really. Big glasses covered most of his face, and his blond hair was in its usual nerdy part. I hated to admit it, but he had a way of drawing the kind of attention to himself that got him into trouble with the other guys.

Good thing I was there to stick up for him. Sometimes I got the impression he didn’t like the way I always pushed back against the bullies who gave him shit, but I didn’t care. If he wasn’t going to do it, I would.

He pointed to a passage in his book. Did you know that in Wilbur, Washington, it used to be illegal for a man to ride an ugly horse?

I glanced down at the book – this one about the law. That’s funny, I said, not laughing. What’re you doing right now?

Just reading, he said. Then I’m going to do some homework and... I don’t know.

I grinned. "Sounds boring. I’m gonna tell you what you’re really going to be doing."

Oh no, he said. What?

We’re going into town, I said.

We can’t. If we get caught, we’re going to get in so much trouble.

That’s why we’re not going to get caught. Come on, we’ll sneak out for a couple of hours, grab something to eat, and come back in. No one will even know.

I... We can’t.

I grinned. Todd putting up a fight only made me want to do it even more. I grabbed his skinny arm and yanked him off the bed, his book falling to the ground.

Come on! We’re gonna have some fun.

2

J

OSH

I knew all the ways out of Shadowlane. It was a huge old building, like I said, which meant there were plenty of spots to use to sneak out.

This is such a bad idea, said Todd as we opened the door to one of the maintenance rooms. We’re going to get caught.

We won’t get caught.

What are we even going to do it town? he asked. We don’t have any money.

I stopped once we were inside the room, the door shut. Then I reached into my pocket and took out a small roll of twenties. Todd’s eyes went wide.

Holy shit! Where’d you get that?

You know the boarding school?

Of course, I do. That’s where my sister goes.

Todd had a sister named Alana. I’d never met her before, but he mentioned her all the time. She was younger, I think, and before she and Todd’s parents had died, she’d managed to get some kind of scholarship to the co-ed boarding school in town. I wasn’t sure how she’d managed to pull it off, whether she was smart or creative or what.

"I was talking with some of the guys there a few