The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max)

Lark was approaching the hotel and couldn't help but smile at the way her sisters and Mori were giggling together over something Sawyer who was approaching from the opposite direction called out to them and Mori was shaking her head.

She gave him a wave and then laughed as she realized why the girls were making fun. He was wearing a pair of bright red running shoes with his three-piece suit. They were glaringly bright.

"I was in court today, but I stepped in dog s**t outside the courthouse. These were all I had in my car." His voice carried in the alcove near the hotel entrance.

"Dad," Gracie giggled at his antics.

"I knew it!"

The sound of an angry man's voice cut into the happy vibe and Lark looked over her shoulder to see Doug standing there. "Doug?"

"You f*****g played me," his chest was heaving as he looked at Sawyer. "You asked your friend to put me in contact with you so you could f**k me over. Your friends with the Hoffmans and it was why you got me to settle so low. I could have won f*****g millions! Admit it!" he screamed the last part.

Lark grabbed her grandmother who was closest to him and pulled her behind her. "Doug, you need to leave now. You are violating the conditions of the agreement we signed. You're supposed to stay away from me."

"He shouldn't be near you!" Doug was still yelling. "I was watching the news in my mother's shitty ******g apartment and there was a story about the Villeneuves still being in town and how some woman tried to extort him, and it shot to a photo of you and Ollie and her," Doug pointed at Gracie. "I saw her at least five times in his offices. I recognized her. She was having drinks with you in the lounge which means you all ******g conspired against me to f**k me over. How long did you plot to make me a laughingstock?" he turned his attention back to Sawyer.

"Doug, you f****d yourself over," Lark was nervous at the way he was behaving erratically. He was dishevelled, his hair appearing to have not been washed in days, his shirt buttoned incorrectly, and an unzipped coat seemed to have mustard staining the front of it. Enjoy this chapter for free and stay updated with the latest version on Jo b n ib.com. Don't miss out, visit it now. Spittle foaming at his mouth, he was hopping from foot to foot as if unable to control himself. If she didn't know better, she would almost suspect he was drunk or high. "Doug, were you drinking?"

"Drinking? No. I'm not f*****g drinking. I haven't slept in days. Ever since I saw you and that smug prick Max Villeneuve in his," he flung his hand at Sawyer and his tone caused them all to look worriedly at Sawyer, "office someone has been following me. There's always someone watching me, and I swear to god they are listening to my calls and in my house. My mother even said she thought she saw a car on our street watching the apartment complex."

"Doug, we're not watching you." She wasn't entirely sure it was true. She knew Ollie gave Santiago grief for not really putting the fear they were supposed to in the man and perhaps he was making things right. "You need to leave."

"No." he jerkily pulled a gun from under his coat and the group gasped. Lark stepped closer trying to get between her mother, sisters and grandmother and Doug. Sawyer also stepped closer as if he wanted to get in between all of them. Someone owes me what I'm due. I'm taking what is mine."

"Name your price. We'll get the money transferred to you today." Sawyer spoke softly.

"No. Lark you're coming with me."

"No, she's not," Sawyer pushed in front of her.

"Put your phone away!" he frantically waved his gun in Fallon and Mori's direction where the two girls clung together.

It was a quiet evening in front of the hotel, but a small group of people were starting to gather.

“Doug, I don't want to go with you." Lark shook her head, feeling true fear as the gun waved around them pointing between her, Sawyer and then Fallon.

"You're coming with me. We're leaving and when your rich friend sends me the original amount of fifty million, he was supposed to give me, I'll let you go."

"Doug, I don't want to." She stammered nervously. "Please. I'll text him right now and ask him to send you the money."

"He sent me a million already and it disappeared as soon as he sent it. The bank said they are

investigating it. I want my f*****g money!" he was belligerent and red faced as he growled angrily. "Now get over here! Right now."

"Nana," Fallon's voice broke into the conversation as the rustling of movement behind them made them all look to the older woman.

Nana Prue was clutching her chest as she fell against Everly's arms.

"Oh god," Lark started to reach for her as her mother gently lowered her to the ground.

"I don't feel good," Nana Prue whispered as her eyes fluttered shut.

Doug screamed louder, "She's faking! Lark, get over here. She's trying to distract me but it's not working. Get your ass over here now!"

Lark fell to her knees beside her grandmother on the ground, ignoring Doug's shrieks of rage. Her nana was a pale grey color and she started crying and looked over her shoulder at Doug. "Nana! Doug, it's my nana. Please stop. She needs help. We need to get her help."

"She's lying."

"Doug, I get you are upset," Sawyer tried to speak softly, "but let's table this and we can have a real conversation, but Prue is unwell. Let us help her. I'm sure the family will pay you what you want if you simply let them get help for her."

"You're a f*****g lying sack of s**t!" Doug yelled at Sawyer. "Scumbag!"

A shot rang out and Lark looked in horror as Sawyer staggered backwards falling towards where Gracie raced to catch him. Blood stained through his white shirt behind.

"No! Dad, dad, no. Daddy!" Gracie was on her knees, and she was crying as she pushed her hands onto the wound. "Oh god. Help!" She was screaming in the direction of the hotel begging for someone to get help to them.

Sawyer's breath reminded Lark of the sound of a clogged vacuum, and she was torn between checking on him and checking on her grandmother. Both were down and she in stunned shock at everything which was transpiring. She looked in confusion at Doug who was still yelling at her to get up and go with him. It was all happening so fast. Not thirty seconds from the time her grandmother hit the ground, then Sawyer falling, and she didn't know what she was supposed to do next. Should she go with Doug before he hurt someone else.

"Lark, come now!"

Everly was screaming for someone to call for emergency services.

Gracie screamed at Doug, "what the f**k is wrong with you? He didn't hurt you! He did nothing to you."

"He set me up!" Doug screamed his hand still pointing the gun at the man laying on the ground. "He made a laughingstock of me."

"You did that!" Gracie screamed. "You did it by being a horrible human being."

"Lark!" Doug yelled at her. "Come now."

"No. She is not going with you." Gracie yelled not even looking at Doug now as she continued to press against her father's chest. "You are not taking my sister with you!"

"Sister?" Doug's mouth was agape as he gasped for air at the revelation.

As Doug fired a second shot off, several people jumped him, knocking him to the ground, kicking his gun away. Screaming and hollering as the Villeneuve security team tackled the man filled the air around them. Lark was focused on Nana Prue who was not responding at all as Riggs pushed them away and started to do

compressions on her. She shot a look over to Sawyer to check to see what was happening with him and her heart caught in her throat at the sight beside her.

Henri and two other of their security team were working to stem the flow of blood, but it wasn't Sawyer they were working on. Gracie was gurgling on blood. The second shot which Doug managed to get off hit her in the chest. Her eyes were wide as her fingers flexed in Sawyer's direction.

"My Dad," she sputtered her breaths shallow. "Lark," Gracie met her eyes, "my dad."

She crawled over to Sawyer but then was pushed out of the way right as she reached for him when more security took over taking care of the three people laying on the ground. The wailing of sirens in the distance caught her ear but she sat frozen feeling superfluous.

Fallon wrapped her arms around her sobbing, "what the f**k is happening, Lark? What did Doug do?"

"I don't know." She whimpered as she clutched her sister.

"They're going to be okay, right Lark?" Fallon asked tearfully.

"I think so," it sounded more a question than anything and she wasn't confident at all. Her grandmother didn't appear to be responding to Riggs and she couldn't even see Fallon or Sawyer with the number of people working on them.

Officers and paramedics in uniforms were pushing her, Fallon and Everly out of the way as they started to secure the scene and her mother kneeled between them and wrapped her arms around them. "Why?" Lark asked in confusion. "Why would Doug do all this?"

"I don't know, honey," Everly whispered tears streaming down her face.

"Everly!" Grady's voice screaming for his wife as he pushed past the crowd to grab his wife and two daughters, "where is Gracie and Mom?"

Everly shook her head at him, and he looked to where the professionals were blocking their view.

"Daddy," Fallon gripped him. "Doug came out of nowhere. Nana collapsed and then he shot Sawyer, Gracie and he wouldn't let us get them help."

Grady's legs buckled as Riggs approached them shaking his head.

"I'm sorry Grady, your mom," tears filled his eyes.

"No." Grady whimpered as the other man grabbed him and pulled him into a hug.

"Gracie and Sawyer are both breathing but it's not good. It's not good Grady. We need to get to the hospital."

"But Mom."

"She's gone, Grady." Riggs' voice filtered to the family clutching at each other. "There was nothing we could do. She went too fast."

"We're losing her!" a paramedic yelled as he and his partner lifted Gracie onto a board. "We need to go now!"

The sound of someone calling Lark's name had her head whipping around and she found herself wrapped

in Max's arms and he was pulling her backwards as she tried to chase the man who was bellowing for

her.

"Lark! You owe me. I want what is mine. Lark!" Doug was screaming as the police shoved him into the back of a cruiser. She was kicking and screaming desperate to get to him. "I'm going to kill that motherfucker!"

"Chère, no. Let them go. Let them take him away." Max whispered in her ear. "We need to go. We need to get to the hospital. Come on, my love."

As her family was bundled into vehicles to follow the ambulances to the hospital, Lark wondered how her day had gone so horribly wrong.