By the Billionaire Series

Ajax had only caught a glimpse of white and black when he pushed himself to his elbow and stared at the door. He blinked a few times to clear the blurry vision, but the more he tried to focus, the hammering in his head worsened. How much had he drunk last night? He couldn’t remember shit. Every muscle in his body hurt as if he had run a marathon all night.

Just when he flung his legs to the side of the bed and landed his feet on the floor, grimacing at how ice-cold the tiles had gotten overnight, someone barged into the room and screamed at the top of their lungs.

“What the fuck did you do?” Vincent yelled harshly, sounding angry as hell. “I just saw Noémie rushing out of the mansion. What the hell happened?”

Instead of addressing his brother for his rudeness, Ajax strained the hard muscles of his face and sunk his head into his hands. “Calm down, God dammit!” he growled, his shoulders jerking awake, the horrible hangover making him feel as if his head would explode if he didn’t do something about it sooner. “Hand me some ibuprofen. Right now.”

Despite wanting nothing more than the answers to his questions, Vincent exhaled defeatedly and looked around the room. The room was a mess, it smelled of sweat and something else that made him even more nauseous. The way he had spotted Noemi dashing out of the mansion, it was obvious what had happened. Disgust filled his chest while he bristled with pure anger. Storming into the bathroom, he haphazardly pulled out the drawers. When he found what he was looking for, he returned with a tablet and tossed it on the bed next to where his brother sat.

Ajax snapped an arm to shield his eyes when Vincent pulled the curtains aside and the piercing rays of the sun hit him in the face. “What the fuck is your problem?”

Vincent ignored him. “Take the meds and come to the study. We need to talk.”

After his brother stormed out of the room, Ajax ran both his hands through his hair. Clenching the strands, he tugged on them. He was trying to retrieve the events of the previous night. But all he could remember was a fuzzy face and a silky voice urging him for more.

And he did give her more, even more than he had ever given anyone.

Two months had passed since that night and Ajax hadn’t been able to rest a wink. Not only because Noémie Rochester was a hard-working employee who couldn’t be replaced by just anyone, but also because something strange happened to his chest every time he thought about what occurred that night.

Five months back, he lost his wife and unborn child in a car accident. The news had broken him, more than he wanted to admit. He might not have married Linda out of love, but she had become an important part of his life. A few months after the marriage, she had conceived and was about to give birth to his child. He couldn’t have been happier. But then the unfortunate happened. On her way to the doctor’s appointment, her car crashed into a truck and neither of them survived. Ajax lost more than his wife and child that day, he lost his family. The one which was supposed to be his and his only.

After that incident with Noémie—and ruthless blow to whatever sanity he had left—, in a fit of madness and anger, Ajax fired all the servants working in his home. He couldn’t bear the sight of them, not even a single one of them. He had grown so mad, so angry, so senseless, that his family had to convince him to see a psychiatrist. They were afraid he would do something to himself and none of them would be able to do anything to save him.

After that night, Ajax had grown angrier, impatient, and somewhat dangerous to himself and the surrounding people. He had become unpredictable; his mood swings had gotten even worse than earlier. He fought with people right and left, and yelled at everyone to leave him alone. He would destroy his room once his temper rose and curse his own family for not letting him go. He wanted to run, to escape, to hide where no one could find him. He wanted to hurt everyone, so he got even ruder. He stopped going to the office and spent hours locked up in his room, painting on the walls and leaving his art in the darkness once he left the room. No one was allowed to disturb his haven. Neither in his presence nor absence.

No one knew what to do with him, not even Ajax knew what to do with himself. He had so much pent-up rage and pain piling inside him that he wanted to scream at the world and smash it into pieces.

At the recommendation of his therapist, the Halest family began the search for Noémie Rochester, who, according to the man, was the only solution and explanation for Ajax’s volatility. If there was anyone who could save him, it was the woman who was running away from him, whose life he had ruined, whose innocence he had stolen.

She was the only one who could save the heir of the Halest family, the only one who could pull him out of his depression. And everyone in the Halest family was desperate to find her.