The Russian Billionaire: A Romantic Suspense Novel

I have some money put aside. Take it for her.”
“You have a $120,000 put aside?” I joke, but it comes out sounding miserable. My heart is filled with a great bitterness, which keeps me angry and confused inside. More and more I see the world as an unfair place where undeserving fat cats in suits are given government handouts of trillions that they then immediately use to gamble on the stock markets, while ordinary, hard working people like Mom and me are taxed so heavily we can hardly even survive.
“God,” Lois breathes. “$120,000.”
“And that’s just for the operation,” I mutter.
“There’s got to be something we can do.”
I lift my head and look at her. “There is. I’m thinking of working in a strip club.”
Her eyes bulge with shock. “What?”
“I know I’m not beautiful in the classic sense of the word, my mouth is too big, but a lot of guys tell me I have a sexy body and that’s the important thing in those dark places, isn’t it?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Lois erupts incredulously.
“Drastic situations call for drastic measures. Anyway, it’ll be just for a while. Just until we have saved up enough for Maddy’s operation and paid off our old debts.”
“No, that is a crazy idea. Do you know how dangerous those strip clubs are? That’s where serial killers pick off their prey. And there’s drugs there, and the men who—”
“Lois,” someone calls from inside the kitchen.
“Coming,” Lois shouts over her shoulder, then turns back to me. “I’ve got to go, but don’t do anything stupid. We have to talk about this. Let me see if I can get a loan from the bank or something. We’ll find a way out of this problem, okay?”
I sigh. There is no bank in the world who is going to give Lois the kind of money I need. I force a smile. “Okay, let’s talk about this another time. I should go home now, anyway. I’ve got a ton of washing and ironing to do.”
Lois’s boss pops her head around the back door where Lois and I are standing. “Lois,” she says, then stops when she sees me. “Hey, it’s Raine, right?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
She jerks her head towards the interior of the Lake club. “Go on in, Lois. I want a word with Raine.”
Lois widens her eyes at me, then scampers through the kitchen door and disappears around a shelf full of pans.
“What are you doing tonight?” her boss asks me.
I grimace. “It’s my night off, so I’m going home to get on with some housework.”
She glances at her watch, “Hmmm… You’ve done bar work before, haven’t you?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“Good. I think one of my bartenders is going to let me down. Want to work a shift for me? I’ll give you twenty dollars an hour since it's such short notice. It’ll be about five hours of work. Cash in hand.”
Cash in hand. What’s there to even think about? I nod quickly. “Yeah, twenty an hour would be fine.”
“Come in then. Let’s see if we can find you a white shirt and vest. You can keep the skirt you have on.”
Ten minutes later, I’m standing behind the bar, in a crisp white shirt and a maroon vest, watching the great and good come pouring into the party.
“Two martinis, one dry, one dirty, please,” a man calls from one end of the bar.
“Coming up,” I say and get to work.
An hour passes quickly. Then the guests sit down to dinner and a lull settles around the bar. A woman in a black dress comes to sit at one of the barstools. She must be in her mid-forties. Her hair is colored bright red and she is wearing very fashionable white rimmed glasses. She smiles at me. She orders a frozen margarita with some slices of lemon on the side.
“Why’s a girl like you looking so sad?” she asks as I place her drink in front of her.
“I’m not sad,” I deny immediately.
“Honey, I know sadness when I see it.”
“I’m not sad,” I repeat, with a tense smile. A man comes to the bar and orders a beer. I put his beer on a paper coaster in front of him and turn back to the redhead.
“Fine, you’re not sad, but let me guess. You have money problems?”
“Who doesn’t?” I say lightly.
“I can help you earn some serious money, up to $50,000 and more if it goes well,” she drawls, as she picks up one of the thin slices of lemon and licks it like a cat.

Raine
I keep my face expressionless. “Doing what?”
“There is a gala dinner with a charity auction for the Huntington Hospital on the 25th of this month. One fun part of the auction is for the single male guests. There will be five very rich bachelors that night so there will be five girls up for auction. The men will be bidding for the privilege of buying dinner for the girl of their choice. It’s all in good fun, and both the girls and the boys are at the end of the day helping to raise a lot of money for charity.” She pauses to take a delicate sip of her drink. “You can be one of those five girls.”
I stare at her suspiciously, incredulously. “$50,000 for going on a dinner date?”
“The fifty grand is actually for showing up and taking part. However, if your highest bidder turns out to be the Russian billionaire, Konstantin Tsarnov, who is one of the five bachelor guests, then your ability to earn money grows exponentially.”
My jaw drops. Is this woman serious? She sounds like a total fantasist, but she doesn’t look like one. She looks very polished and her eyes glitter with intelligence and cunning. Tempted and curious, I decide to play along for a bit.
“Why? What happens if he picks me?”
“Konstantin Tsarnov has something that doesn’t belong to him. He stole it from his competitor, who is my client, and my client wants his property back. So, your job will be to persuade