Saving Her Billionaire Vigilante

Two: Ransom Tanager

Two

Ransom Tanager

            She was home.

            It had been four years since I’d seen her. Four years since the night I’d f****d everything up. Her eighteenth birthday, which seemed like yesterday. Piper Powell had come into my life permanately when she was eleven years old. She’d been small, with red hair, freckles, and wide, green eyes.

            The trouble was, I knew Piper. I’d seen her around Tanager Inc. when I went to visit my father. Our parents were family friends. Some days, she’d come after her school was finished and wait to be taken home by her Mom or Dad, whoever was working. Once, our parents had even gone on summer vacation together where I'd spent an entire summer ignoring her. I was two years older than she was, but I still remembered with vivid clarity the first time I’d met her.

            I’d been sitting in the receptionist hall, waiting for my father to be done with a meeting. Piper had been sitting by herself, writing in a pink notebook, singing a Taylor Swift song off key. There’d been something so happy about her, I remember thinking I wanted her for myself someday.

            I never approached her. People got weird when they found out I was Mr. Tanagers son. It was almost like money made me different. I didn’t want her to treat me different. That was why, when my father adopted her after the terrorist attack, it was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I got to be around her.

            A curse, because she’d be my sister. But I never called her that. I never let people remember that she was a Tanager. She was a Powell. She was Piper Powell, and she always would be. If she became a Tanager, it would be when she took my name. As my wife.

            Of course, that couldn’t happen.

            Not now. Because now that my father was dead, his secrets were going to come out. The truth about the Tanager “terrorist” attack would be revealed, and she would never look at me the same way again.

            Now that my father was dead, I was left responsible for the atrocities that he’d committed. The horrors that he’d brought into the world. The Evos that had been created in our labs, escaped from the lab, and destroyed the original Tanager Inc building back on December 31st, 2010.

            They were called Evos because they were the next step in human evolution. Humans that were half robot, half human. Worse, when the Tanager explosion happened, there’d been the theft of thousands upon thousands of projects we’d been working on.

            Including a virus that had been built in lab.

            I’d spent millions trying to track everyone and everything down, and so had Dad. But it hadn’t been easy.

            Piper was a living reminder of everything horrible that my family had done. Every time I looked at her, I saw tragedy. It had made me hate her as a kid. As a young man…. All I wanted to do was love her.

            But I had to fix the wrongs that my family had done to hers. To do that, I was going to have to lie to her. Once she found out what I’d been doing, she would hate me.

            There was a knock on the study door. Archibald Leech had been my family’s butler for as long as I could remember. He’d worked first for my father, and now me.

    “Did you have to be so harsh with her?” he asked as he slipped inside the office. “She’s not the enemy, Ransom. You certainly have enough of those in the world. But Piper isn’t among them, whatever you think.”

    “But she could be, if I don’t do this right,” I said. “I’ve tracked down the first of the Evo. If I’m right about where he is, I can bring him in. Recruit him to work with me tracking down the others and make right on all the damage my family has done. Crescent City has been the city of nightmares ever since the attack. Our crime rate is up. Our homeless population…and I won’t let the same city my family helped build fall.”

    “Miss Powell is a smart girl. If you were to bring her into this endeavor of yours, she might be of some assistance.”

    “No,” I grunted, “Miss Powell can’t ever know of my…. Other life. In fact, she’s far too curious for her own good. Make sure she doesn’t go exploring the grounds. I can’t have her finding something that she shouldn’t.”

    Mr. Leeches eyes sparkled with amusement. “Do you mean, The West Wing?”

    “That’s exactly what I mean,” I said, “and she can’t ever know the truth about me.”

    “With all due respect sir, now that your father is dead, Piper is the last of your family. Even if you don’t think of her that way. She grew up here, with you. It’s up to you to protect her from the dangers of the world. You can do that better if you tell her the truth.”

    I gritted my teeth. “Piper doesn’t care about me. I was an asshole to her my whole childhood. And after that kiss all those years ago, I probably f****d her up. I was supposed to be her brother, and I couldn’t act that way. I even went as far to ruin her first relationship, with my best friend.”

    “Oliver Oswin is not a good man. He was using her to get Tanager information,” Mr. Leech replied, “you know that, and I know that. The things that he’s doing----”

    “She doesn’t know that,” I reminded him, “all she knows is that I kissed her, so that Oliver could see. I ruined her chance at marrying one of the most eligible bachelors in Crescent City, who also happened to be her best friend. Oliver was something else I took from her.”

    “Because you love her,” said Mr. Leech.

    I clenched my jaw even tighter. Leech knew me too well. There was truth in his words. But it didn’t mean I had to acknowledge it. I’d struggled for years with my feelings for Piper, which were anything but brotherly, and I hated myself for it. I should have been her protector. Her friend. Her family. Instead, I’d spent six years of her life making it hell for her.

    “And I cursed her,” I said, “let’s just get through the funeral, and then everything can go back to normal.”

    “Nothing is ever normal,” he replied.

    “Touché, Mr. Leech. Why don’t you go check on our guest in the other part of the house? I can’t have anyone knowing they’re here.”

    “As you wish, young Mr. Tanager,” he said. He bowed deeply, and then he left.

    When he was gone, I walked to the window and stared out at the driveway where her awful little car was parked. I hated it. It was a death trap. Even though I never claimed her as family, she still was associated with the Tanager name. She should have had something better than the crappy little car she was driving.

    I knew she would never accept or use one of the fancy, European sports cars my father and I had collected over the years. But she needed something that at least wasn’t a safety risk. I took out my cell phone and called my dealer.

    “David,” I said, “it’s Ransom Tanager. What can you tell me about the Tesla’s?”

    It was sensible, sexy, and sleek. Like her.

    A few minutes later, I’d bought a 2020 Tesla Roadster. In red. The same color as her hair. It would be delivered the next day, and I wouldn’t have to have nightmares about the girl I loved getting crushed to death. And then I arranged to have her deathtrap of a car crushed.