Relentless (18 page)

“It’s funny, my brother was just asking me the same thing.” Michaela glanced over at Trixie to try to determine what she thought about that last comment. Trevor seemed to be testing her or prodding her for information, she couldn’t figure out which one. She found Trevor charming, a characteristic that apparently ran in the family, but he was prying a bit too much for comfort. She had an idiot brother of her own to contend with, she really didn’t need to add Jordan’s brother to her list. The sound of the front door opening startled her out of her thoughts.

“Hi honey, I’m home.” Jordan’s voice boomed through the house as he entered the front door.

Before Michaela could respond Trevor answered, “How was your day dear?”

Jordan entered the den taking in his brother’s and Trixie’s presence in addition to Michaela. “Hi Trixie,” he said.

Trixie gave him a big grin. “I hear you’ve been keeping a secret.”

Jordan returned her grin and said unapologetically, “Just withholding a couple of minor facts.”

Trixie arched her brows dubiously. “Oh, weren’t you hiding billions of facts?”

“Hey, I thought you were on my side,” Jordan complained.

“Oh don’t worry, I’m totally on your side, but you better watch out for Michaela’s brother,” Trixie warned him.

“Believe me, I’m well aware of that issue,” he said and then turning to his brother he asked, “Trevor, what are you doing here?”

“Nice greeting, Jor,” Trevor said sarcastically, not looking the least bit offended.

“Didn’t I just see you about an hour ago at the office?” Jordan answered as if that explained his rude greeting.

“Yeah, but I had to come check out your girl,” Trevor offered.

Jordan crossed his arms over his chest. “So what do you think?”

Trevor glanced at Michaela and then looked back at Jordan. “She’s sexy, cute just like Ian said, and apparently she is aware of your control issues. I guess she’ll do.”

Jordan nodded his head slowly as if absorbing wise words. “I think so too.”

“Uhmmm, guys, I’m right here. You’re supposed to talk about me behind my back. God, this is just like the other morning with my mom.”

Jordan walked over to her and bent down to give her a slow kiss. After he lifted his head she said, “Stop doing that!”

“What?” he asked innocently. “Giving you a kiss hello?”

“Talking about me like I’m not there!” she reminded him.

He leaned slightly closer tugging on her a lock of her hair and said in a low soothing tone, “Curly top, don’t be mad, Trevor and I are just joking around.”

Trixie cleared her throat. “Okay, you two are getting kind of diabetically sweet so this is my cue to leave. I just wanted to make sure you were okay Michaela after the fire, but I can see you’re doing fine. I’ll see you tomorrow at the office.” She turned to Trevor and said, “Nice meeting you Trevor.”

Trevor inclined his head. “Nice meeting you too,” he told her as she left the room. Michaela followed her out and gave her friend a quick good-bye hug before returning to the den.

Trevor looked at Michaela and said, “Your friend’s really hot.”

Michaela was just about to respond to Trevor’s comment when Jordan interrupted.

Jordan gave Michaela a questioning look. “What does she mean she’ll see you at the office tomorrow?” he asked with a slight edge, his disapproval apparent. “Isn’t it a little too soon for you to return to work?”

It seemed that between her brother and boyfriend she was going to need a great deal of patience today. Michaela took a deep breath before explaining, “Jordan, I have deadlines to meet and besides there’s nothing wrong with me. I wasn’t in the fire, remember?”

“I told you he was controlling,” Trevor interjected.

“Little brother, shut up,” Jordan told him in a companionable voice as he pulled Michaela closer. “I think you really need to take another day off.”

She grinned at him. “And I think you need to mind your own business,” she said as she turned her head toward Trevor. “Are you staying for dinner? Samantha made lasagna.”

Anticipation glowed in Trevor’s eyes. “Oh, yeah, I’m staying. I love Samantha’s lasagna.” Trevor got up and headed for the kitchen, obviously he knew his way around.

Jordan shook his head in disgust. “You shouldn’t have invited him, now there won’t be any leftovers. He’s a bottomless pit.”

“How could I not invite him for dinner?” Michaela asked as she tugged his hand following closely behind Trevor.

“It’s easy, you just ask him to leave. That’s what I would’ve done,” he grumbled.

“Aren’t you two close?” she asked feeling slightly confused.

He looked surprised at her question. “Of course we are. Doesn’t mean I want him eating all my left overs.”

“Okay that
sooo
doesn’t make sense to me, so why don’t we go eat. There’s caesar salad too.”

“Hmmm, sounds good, but don’t think you’ve distracted me about the going back to work thing. We’re going to talk about that some more,” he said as he leaned down and nuzzled her neck.

A shiver ran down her spine at his touch. “Well, I’m hoping you try to seduce me into staying home tomorrow.” She was beginning to enjoy his attempts to use sex to change her mind. After all, she could just lie back and enjoy the seduction, so to speak, and still do what she wanted.

“Do you think that will work?” he asked.

“No,” she told him, “but I think the sex will be great.”

Michaela sat at her desk the next morning smiling at the memory of Jordan trying to convince her to stay home the previous evening. He’d paced the bedroom and ranted about how she had too much stress in her life and that she needed to stay home. She had sat back on the bed enjoying the show while he itemized his reasons. When he was finished she’d calmly told him that she was a professional and she had to return to work to meet her deadlines. He then resorted to using sex to get his way as she’d predicted he would. He’d kept her up half the night until both their bodies were exhausted. It had been completely glorious. Had she ever used the word glorious before? She didn’t think so, but that was the only word she could think of to describe last night. She was tired and sore, but in an
oh so good way
.

This morning Jordan’s alarm had gone off making a very loud, obscene, beeping noise. He’d apologized, telling her he’d sleep right through it otherwise. He’d been a little grouchy as they got ready to go to their respective offices. It appeared he was a sore loser or maybe he was as tired as she was. She suspected that it was probably losing that really bothered him.

Getting ready for work had been a simple matter since she only had a couple of outfits to choose from. She slipped on her white blouse and a black pencil skirt and grabbed her new black boots.

Before coming home the previous night Jordan had sent Paul to retrieve her car, which had been parked in her spot close to her now burned down home. She’d been able to drive herself to work and she felt like she was slowly, but surely, putting her life back together.

She was going through her morning email and noticed Trixie had sent her an email with the Subject: Business Section. She laughed as she opened it and saw that it contained an attachment of news articles from the business section. She began reading the articles about Jordan, and she couldn’t help but be impressed at how he and his brothers had built their e-commerce business. Apparently, the jean clad Bengals fan was an absolutely brilliant programmer who had developed the most secure payment system in the world. No other company could boast their level of success. Jordan and Ian, who led the business and financial aspects of the company, were given credit for keeping the company one step ahead of their competitors. ECOM Works was always on to the next project, never faltering from their course. Their business model had expanded and now offered cloud data storage and mobile banking apps. The company had a reputation, thanks to Jordan, for earning their clients’ trust, a tough thing to do in an industry plagued with identity theft issues. Many of the news articles attributed their success to their flexibility; ECOM listened to the client’s needs and constantly upgraded their products accordingly.

The company had remained private, much to the surprise of the business community and adding to the mystique of the “billionaire brothers.” When there are no shareholders to answer to, company secrets are much easier to keep.

Jordan had been right about one thing, despite these articles, there was very little personal information about him in the news
, and there
were no pictures of him in any of the articles. The news reports discussed Jordan’s desire for privacy and remarked on what the news reporters considered a modest lifestyle for his income level. Her mother had been right; he had been dubbed the “eccentric billionaire.” His refusal to discuss anything but business frustrated the media to no end. However, Jordan’s public reticence was the only negative remarks she could find concerning him.

She sat back and grinned, she had stumbled over one special guy, hadn’t she? Would her life have turned out differently if she had studiously read the business section every day? She had to admit it, she was glad she had gotten to know him without the money in the way. They both knew with absolute certainly that she loved him for being him and nothing else. She would never admit it to him, but she was grateful for his little white lie.

Michaela spent the rest of the afternoon working on client files, trying to finish preparations for year-end. December was always crunch time in accounting. Burying herself in her work was difficult, but she forced herself to stick with it. Over the holidays she was really going to sit down and rethink where she wanted to go with her career instead of continuing to whine about how much she hated her job.

It was late in the afternoon when Trixie popped by to see her. “Hey you, got a minute?” she asked.

“For you? Always. What’s up? Or did you just stop by for a chat?” Michaela asked as she started to clean up her desk. She stretched, feeling a slight pain in her lower back from sitting at her desk all day.

Trixie darted her head around and the discreetly closed Michaela’s door. “I need to talk to you about something.” She sat down in the chair facing Michaela’s desk looking slightly agitated.

Michaela wondered what was on Trixie’s mind. “Okay, let’s hear it.”

“I’m leaving the firm and setting up a private investigation business,” she told her.

“Wow, that’s a great idea. Are you nervous about going out on your own?” Michaela asked, a little envious of Trixie’s career change.

Trixie took a deep breath and then said, “Well, that depends on you.”

Michaela’s eyes widened in surprise. “On me?”

“I want you to come with me,” she told Michaela. “I’m an expert at investigations and I know that many of my clients will choose to follow me but I know nothing about the financial aspects of running a business. I could use your expertise.”

Michaela thought about the idea of being involved in the day-to-day operations of running a professional firm, watching it grow, and building a clientele. She gave Trixie a broad grin before saying, “I have to tell you, I like the idea a lot.”

Trixie returned her smile. “So does this mean you’re in?”

Michaela thought for a minute before answering, “Trixie this is the most spontaneous thing I’ve ever done in my life, but yeah, I’m in!”

“Are you sure you don’t need to think about it? I know it’s a huge decision.” Trixie asked.

Michaela looked around her office thinking about how trapped she had felt in his job. She felt no hesitation as she answered, “Are you sure you want me as a partner?”.

“Absolutely! I know you majored in accounting, but your minor was marketing wasn’t it?

“Yes, but I haven’t done much practical work in marketing.”

Trixie made a scoffing sound. “Don’t worry about it, you’ll be great. So you’re in for sure?”

“Yes, I’m in. I don’t even feel nervous about it. I just feel excited about running a business with you. You know, this weekend we should sit down and write a business plan. We have a lot of decisions to make. All those business school classes are finally going to pay off.” Michaela’s mind started spinning with possibilities.

“That’s a great idea and after we’re done we can decide when to give notice!” Trixie’s excitement was evident in her voice. “Just curious, do you think we should do a home office or should we rent office space?”

Michaela could feel her enthusiasm building as she considered the question, “Before we make a decision about office space, we’re going to have to decide about the scope of the business. Although in today’s electronic environment, it’s fairly easy to create a virtual office utilizing websites, email and telephone services.”

“You’re right. I think we should start small and work with subcontractors. You know, if we need to hire a forensic accountant or a computer expert for a specific investigation. Later on we might want to consider expanding and actually hiring staff to fill those roles. I’m getting ahead of myself. I guess we can both do some brainstorming before the weekend and then we can work on our business plan and go from there. Does that sound good to you?” Trixie asked.

“That sounds perfect! What a week… new billionaire boyfriend, my house burns down and starting my own business. And it’s only Tuesday!”

“You’re on quite the roll!” she said before adding, “Score on the billionaire boyfriend thing, by-the-way.”

Michaela shook her head in slight bemusement. “It takes some getting used to and to tell you the truth it still doesn’t seem real.”

“It’ll be tough for you, but somehow I think you’ll manage,” Trixie replied, her voice light with amusement.

Leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest, she gave Trixie an arch look. “Thanks for the news articles, by the way. I’m all caught up on Jordan’s work history now.” She paused before adding in a dry voice, “I guess I should start reading the business section from now on.”

Trixie rolled her eyes as she said, “God, I hope so, if you’re going to be running our business.”

“Hey, I used to read it every day when I was in University, but when I started working there were only so many hours in the day!” Michaela defended her much maligned reading habits. Or was it lack of reading habits?

Trixie shook her head in mock disgust. “Excuses, excuses. You know you really have no defense, but what the hell, it seems to have worked out brilliantly for you.”

Michaela’s face held a secret smile as she agreed. “It has hasn’t it?”

“So we didn’t have much of a chance to talk yesterday when I stopped by. How are things going with you and Jordan?” Trixie asked giving Michaela an expectant look.

Michaela thought about confiding in Trixie about Donovan’s revelations about a possible FBI investigation that my or not involve Jordan, but she held back. Essentially, what her brother had told her was confidential information and as tempted as she was to share what she knew, she needed to keep the information to herself. She was also fairly confident that Donovan wasn’t going to find out anything negative concerning Jordan.

Where did she begin with how things were going, she thought? Michaela took a deep breath before saying, “Things are intense between us and I was still trying to get used to
that
when I found out he was this high profile billionaire instead of a successful sales executive.”

“So how did you find out? Did he tell you?” Trixie asked intent on gathering all the details as usual.

Michaela let out a bark of laughter. “My brother blew the lid off the whole thing. Donovan recognized him right away when I introduced them at my parents.”

Trixie leaned forward
,
her interest in the story apparent. “That must’ve been some family dinner. What did your parents say?”

Michaela shook her head in disgust. “This is the best part. My parents weren’t shocked, they had recognized him too and just assumed I knew exactly who he was.”
She laughed. “Apparently, I’m the only idiot.”

Trixie started laughing and couldn’t stop, tears streamed down her face as she tried to get herself under control.

Michaela tapped her fingers on her desk impatiently while she waited for Trixie to calm down. “Are you finished, yet?” Michaela asked in a dry tone.

Trixie reached over grabbing a tissue from the box sitting on Michaela’s desk and wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry, but when I picture the whole scene and it just cracks me up. Please tell me you didn’t leave anything out!”

“No, I’d say that pretty much covers it. Oh no, did I forget to mention that Donovan can’t stand Jordan because he lied to me?”

“Well, I sort of picked up on that yesterday. He did sound a little hostile.”

“A little?”

“Well maybe a lot.” Trixie shrugged in an unconcerned manner. “He’ll get over it.”

“Let’s hope so. It’s never good to have an over protective brother who carries a gun.” Michaela pointed out.

“Yeah,” Trixie nodded in commiseration, “awkward family get-togethers.”

“At least my parents seem to love him regardless of his billion dollar deception.”

“Honestly, the whole thing is a great story.” She nodded sagely before saying, “Just think you can tell your grandkids this story.”

“Oh, like I want my grandkids to know how stupid I am?”

“Don’t worry about it. It could have happened to anyone,” Trixie said in a conciliatory voice.

“Ya think?” Michaela asked hopefully.

“Nah, not really, but I think it’s all so fantastic. I mean at the end of the day you’ve gone from not dating anyone on Friday to being madly in love with your billionaire boyfriend on Tuesday.”

Michaela grinned. “When you put it that way…”

“Hah,” Trixie exclaimed in glee. “I got you to admit you’re madly in love!”

“You’re so sneaky, I can’t believe you caught me.”

“Interviewing Techniques, 101.” Trixie grinned at her own response before saying, “Enough about you and your crazy relationship. Have you heard from the fire department about your house?”

“No, I’m still waiting.”

“Well, let me know if you hear something. I should be going, I still have some work I need to finish before the end of the day,” Trixie said as she rose from her chair and left the office.

“See ya later.”

Michaela returned her focus to her work. She was just finishing up her client’s annual return when her cell phone chimed. She didn’t immediately recognize the number, but she picked up anyway. “Hello.”

“Michaela Prentice”?

“Yes, this is Michaela Prentice.”

“This is John O’Leary, the arson investigator.”

“Yes, of course. Do you know what started the fire?” she asked anxiously.

“It was definitely arson. We found evidence that several Molotov cocktails were thrown through the back windows. We’ve contacted your landlord and he’s aware of the situation, but I wanted to let you know as well. I’ll be working with the police to try to determine what type of arsonist we’re dealing with.”

“I’m sorry I don’t understand,” Michaela said confused.

“Well ma’am, it’s like this. There are two types of arsonists. There are arsonists who light things on fire for fun and there are arsonists who are professionals that are hired to burn down buildings,” O’Leary explained.

A shiver of fear ran down her spine at his words. “And you’re saying you don’t know if this was a random act or if I was targeted specifically?”