The TROUBLE with BILLIONAIRES: Book 2 (12 page)

“I broke my arm.”

“Mikey was so frantic, pacing in the waiting room there at the hospital. I told him to settle down, that he was just going to frighten you. And you know what he said?”

Of course I did. She’d told this story a million times before. But I still asked.

“What did he say?”

“He said that you were his little girl, and when you were hurt, he was too. So he wasn’t going to settle down until he was able to hold you in his arms and make sure you were still in one piece.”

I smiled. “He never treated me like I was an unwanted burden.”

“Why in the world would you say that?” Memaw asked, twisting again so that she could see me. “You were never a burden to anyone.”

“But Uncle Mike never wanted kids. Yet, he was stuck with me.”

“He wasn’t stuck.” She sat up and took my face between both her hands. “You were only five days old the first time he met you. The first time your father laid you in his arms, your uncle was smitten with you. No one wanted what happened to your parents, but if they couldn’t care for you, he was damn well going to do it himself, and do it the best way he could.”

“But he didn’t ask to be named my guardian.”

“No, and he could have given you away. There were dozens of relatives who stood in line, wanting to take you off his hands: your Aunt Karen in Texas, your cousin, Tina, and her husband, Phil, and your Uncle Curt in California. Any of them would have gladly taken you off of Mike’s hands. But he wouldn’t hear of it.”

“You never told me that.”

“You never asked.”

Memaw lay back down and sighed again as I settled back down with my head on her shoulder. I stared at the television, but I didn’t really comprehend what was going on. I was thinking about my uncle, about all the times when I was a kid that he dated pretty young women, but always broke it off with them when it got too serious, all the times he refused to go out with his buddies because he needed to go to one of my many musical recitals or teacher-parent night at my school. All the things he missed out on because he had to deal with me. I had always thought it was my fault, that he was missing out on a good bachelor life because of me.

Maybe I was just an easy excuse. Maybe he missed out on those things because that was the way he wanted it.

That thought never occurred to me. It put my uncle’s choices in a new light.

“Memaw?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you think Uncle Mike knew what would happen when he agreed to work for Johnny?”

“Who’s Johnny, sweetheart?”

I sat up a little and glanced at my grandmother. That soft, dazed look I knew all too well was in her eyes. I touched her soft, wrinkled cheek gently.

“Never mind.”

I curled back up beside her and closed my eyes.

Would she forget me when she went to the assisted living center? Would she forget she ever had a granddaughter who liked to curl up in bed with her and watch
Law and Order
?

Maybe.

And maybe that would be for the best.

***

I padded downstairs several hours later and flipped the lock on the front door. I should have been to bed hours ago, but sleep just didn’t seem that important tonight. I sat with Memaw until she was asleep, and then I just sat in a chair and watched her sleep. I remember waking up a few times when I was kid, catching her doing the exact same thing. Funny how life comes full circle.

I put the kettle on to boil and searched through the cabinet for some green tea. An inventory had been playing in my mind for hours, all the things I would need to pack for Memaw before she went to the center and all the things I would have to tell the center administrators to make sure she had what she needed. Tea. I would have to add that to the list. Memaw liked to have her tea first thing in the morning along with her toast. No marmalade.

There was so much. I wasn’t sure I could do it all in a week.

I had pulled out a legal pad and had the top sheet nearly filled with notes by the time the kettle began to whistle. At almost the same instant, someone tapped on the kitchen window.

I jumped, my thoughts going instantly to Madison and her recent ordeal.

I grabbed a knife from the block on the counter and flipped out the lights so that whoever was out there couldn’t see me. But when I did, a ghostly face appeared in the window, causing me to shriek.

And then I felt like an idiot when I realized it was Conrad.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I demanded as I yanked open the front door and stepped out onto the porch.

He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Don’t hurt me! I promise I mean no harm.”

I realized I still had the knife in my hand. I stared at it for a second. “Well, that’s what you get, scaring the crap out of me like that.”

“Sorry. I didn’t want to ring the bell in case your grandmother’s asleep.”

“Very considerate of you.”

He slipped the knife from my hand and then wrapped his arms around me as he simultaneously guided me into the house.

“My mother did raise me to be a gentleman.”

“Did she also teach you to sneak up on girls who were recently the target of a kidnapping plot?”

“No, that one’s on me.”

I wanted to be mad, but I couldn’t. He was so handsome and he smelled so good and…we had so little time together.

I pressed my lips to his throat. His pulse jumped beneath them even as he slid his arms tighter around me for a brief moment.

“Kettle’s calling.”

“Oh, yeah.” I pulled away from him and rushed back to the kitchen, yanking the kettle from the burner as I did. “Do you want some tea?”

“Sure.”

I got another mug and another tea bag before pouring the hot water. When I turned to hand him his, he was studying the brochures I’d absentmindedly set on the counter when I got home from work.

“For your grandmother?”

“Yeah. Richard checked them out, said they were the best of the best.”

“This one has a good reputation,” he said, waving the one with that same smiling mocker on the front of it. “I have a client who sent his father there last year.”

“Yeah?”

“He seems pleased with it.”

“I’m supposed to go check them out tomorrow.”

Conrad set down the brochures and took the tea from my hands. “Do you want company?”

“You’d do that for me?”

“Well,” he said, cocking his head, “I’d have to rearrange my schedule and tell my other girlfriend that I can’t go to her gyno appointment, but—”

I slapped his arm. “Don’t be a jerk.”

“Of course I’d do that for you. I don’t want you to have to deal with all of this alone.”

“Thanks.”

I picked up my mug and wrapped my hands around it, warming them with the heat of the tea. “Everything go okay with your crisis?”

“We got it handled. I think the client will be pleased.”

“That’s good.”

He shrugged. “Depends on your perception.”

I blew on my tea, wondering what the crisis was, but aware that he would have told me if he had wanted me to know.

“I searched through Aurora’s desk at work.”

Conrad’s eyebrows rose. “You did?”

“I wanted to see if there was anything that might suggest she was involved in the kidnapping.”

“Mellissa—”

“I didn’t find anything. I thought you’d want to know.”

The relief in Conrad’s eyes was unmistakable. I hadn’t been sure until now that my theory might have feet to stand on, but now I could see that it did. He didn’t want to believe it, but he knew it was possible.

“I don’t think she would do something like that intentionally,” I said quietly.

His eyes dropped to his tea mug, his expression hidden by shadows and his impossibly long eyelashes. Why is it men always have longer eyelashes than women?

“Aurora is a brilliant woman. It was her intensity that got my attention from the very beginning, the way she would take something she deeply believed in and she would argue for it until her last breath—even if someone was able to prove her wrong a million times over. The idea that that…that that part of her is dying because of some stupid disease…”

He shook his head, anger oozing out of his every pore.

“I’m sorry.”

“Just, stop,” he said, glancing at me again. “Don’t search her things again. Don’t try to find something that isn’t there. Aurora would never do anything to hurt Cepheus. And if you start spreading rumors, someone’s bound to find out about her problem—”

“I’m not spreading rumors. I wouldn’t do that.”

“Yeah, well, if someone saw you looking through her things, it wouldn’t take long for gossip to spread.”

Like Russell and the new assistant.

I wasn’t about to tell him I had, in fact, been caught.

“No one will find out about her from me. But maybe they should from you.”

“Excuse me?”

“She has a pretty high level position with the company. Don’t you think someone should know about her condition?”

Conrad set down his tea and turned away. “I think I should go.”

“I just think—”

“I know what you think. But this is none of your business.”

“She’s my boss, Conrad. If she makes a major mistake, and I knew about this and didn’t say anything, doesn’t that make me as responsible as her? As you?”

“Then it’s a good thing you’re leaving really soon, isn’t it?”

That hit me deep. I turned to the sink and watched as I poured the still hot tea from my mug. My hand shook, but I wasn’t going to let myself cry.

“I shouldn’t have said that.”

“But you did.”

He came up behind me; I could see his reflection in the darkness of the window. But he didn’t touch me. He just stood there for a long minute, watching me the same way I was watching him.

“I should go.”

“You should,” I agreed.

He did touch me then, laying his hand on my shoulder for a long second, like he was patting a friend with a gesture of support. And then he walked away.

Was it possible I had been wrong? Was it possible he didn’t feel the same way I did?

If so, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that I was leaving.

“Ms. Goldstein’s office.”

“Hey, Mellissa,” Rawn’s voice said warmly in my ear. “Is Aurora around?”

“She’s in a meeting, Mr. Jackman. Can I take a message?”

He must have heard the coldness in my voice because he cleared his throat in a nervous way I had never heard from him before.

“Listen, Mellissa, I know this whole thing with Conrad looks bad. But we have to check out every little piece of evidence—to make sure we’re doing everything we can to find the people who took Madison, the people who thought they were kidnapping you.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“Chances are good that this thing with Conrad won’t go anywhere.”

“And there’s a chance that he’ll be charged with kidnapping. Is that something you can live with?”

There was a long silence on the other end of the line.

“I guess he told you about Dallas.”

He hadn’t. Another thing I didn’t know about Conrad. But I wasn’t about to let Rawn know that.

“Some.”

“Well,” Rawn drawled, doing a good impression of Conrad, “I can imagine what he told you. But the truth is, if he hadn’t given me the opportunity to help him with his gambling addiction, I might not have faced some truths about my own character and I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in now. He saved my life as much as I saved his.”

“And yet, you’re the reason he’s facing jail time.”

“The truth will come out, Mellissa. It always does.”

“I hope so,” I said quietly.

My mind spun with what he’d said, even hours after I hung up. Conrad had a gambling problem. I should have known that from some of the things he’d said the night we played poker. And his relationship with my uncle…why else would he visit a bookie?

It made me wonder what else I didn’t know about Conrad.

***

Madison

The day before Thanksgiving and the house already smelled like nutmeg and fresh bread and turkey. My mother always spent the week up until the holiday baking, and then she made a meal with a needy family in the area who would have gone without otherwise. It was nice, having something to keep my hands and mind busy.

“We’re out of sage,” my mother suddenly groaned, as she searched through her extensive collection of herbs and spices.

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure.”

“I can go get some,” Annie volunteered from where she was sitting at the table, peeling carrots for my mother’s famous carrot cake.

“No, I’ll go.”

I hadn’t been out of the house alone since the day of the kidnapping. It would do me good to give it a try. Besides, what could happen? I was over a hundred and fifty miles from Portland.

I grabbed my mom’s car keys and headed out, telling her, “Text me if you think of anything else you need.”

I wasn’t even out of the driveway before my notifications lit up with two text messages. Both from my mother.

The store was crowded, and it took me quite a while to find everything she asked for. Who knew that condensed milk was in the baking aisle and not the dairy case? By the time I found everything, my mom had texted me nearly a dozen times.

I was walking to the car, three plastic bags dangling from my fingertips, when a man suddenly brushed up against me.

“Madison?”

My heart stopped beating in my chest, stuttering to a standstill as I began to scream in my mind. On the outside, I was just a girl, standing in the middle of a crowded grocery store parking lot. But inside, I was dead. I was the girl who was so frightened she died with half a Thanksgiving feast dangling from her fingers.

***

Mellissa

I was exhausted when I headed out at the end of the day, and I still had to make a trip to the grocery store to try to find a precooked Thanksgiving dinner for Memaw and I to share tomorrow, and then the scheduled tours with the three assisted living centers. All this and what I really wanted was to crawl under the covers on my bed and hide from the world for the next five days.

“Night, Charlie,” I called to the security guard, as I headed for the front doors.

“Happy holiday, Mellissa.”

“Everyone seems to know who you are,” a warm voice said close to my ear.

I turned on the marble steps and Conrad was there. Just there.

“What are you doing here?”

“We had an appointment to check out some assisted living centers.”

“I didn’t think…” I stumbled back a step or two. “I didn’t think you still wanted to do that.”

“Why? Because we both said a few unfortunate things last night?”

“Is that what it was? I was thinking it was more like a tiff.”

“Tiff?” He smiled, laughter dancing in his eyes. “I haven’t heard that term in ages.”

“Ah, of course.”

I turned and continued down the steps, trying to remember if the next city bus came in ten or fifteen minutes. It only took Conrad a second to realize I had no intention of climbing into his fancy sports car with him. He chased after me, catching my arm just as I reached the last step.

“We have one tiff and that’s it?”

“It’s for the best, don’t you think?”

“No.” He forced me to turn, his hand immediately sinking into the hair at the back of my head. “No, I don’t think anything that keeps us apart is for the best.”

“I’m leaving in five days,” I said, even as I relaxed and let him pull me into his arms. “We won’t ever be able to see each other again.”

“Then, we better spend those five days enjoying each other as completely as we can.”

And then he kissed me in a way that made it impossible for me to deny him.

***

“We have a pool that is only three feet deep. The seniors find it easier on their joints to take their aerobic classes there. There are four instructors on staff here and two personal trainers who come once a week to work with those who want it. Exercise, as I’m sure you know, is good for older patients.”

I nodded, trying to pretend I was following everything the woman—the administrator of Summer Oaks Assisted Living—was saying. But I was a little busy watching the group of seniors working on a skit they planned to put on for the monthly talent show. I could so easily imagine my grandmother in the middle of all that creativity, bossing everyone around and insisting that things be done her way.

It sure beat her current situation, lying in bed watching her shows all day long.

“What about medical staff?” Conrad asked.

“We have three doctors on call twenty-four-seven. And we have a nurse practitioner, seven nurses, and a contract with the local hospital that allows us to transfer a patient at any time for any reason.”

“Her medications will be administered to her?”

“We have two programs. She can either have a nurse bring her medications each day, or, if she prefers a little more independence, she can keep the medications in her room and a nurse will simply stop by and make sure she took them on time.”

“If she had a medical setback? How will that be handled?”

The woman stopped walking, clearly understanding that these questions were important to us.

“A lot of our patients have extensive medical needs. It is our priority to make sure each is taken care of in the manner they might require. When your grandmother is brought in, we will have you fill out paperwork that will outline exactly what should be done under specific conditions. That way, should she have a medical setback and if you are not available, we can still follow your—and her—wishes.”

I wrapped my arms around myself, trying not to think too much about my grandmother living under this roof without me there to guide her care. I was slowly accepting the fact that this type of facility might be ideal for her current condition. But the idea that she would be alone once she checked in—that was one stipulation I could not wrap my mind around.

Conrad slid his hand down my back before wrapping his arm around my waist.

“I think we need a moment.”

The woman smiled. “Of course. Take as long as you wish.”

As soon as she was gone, I turned and buried my face against Conrad’s chest. “Can’t we just disappear?” I asked. “Can’t we just get on a plane, fly into the sunset, and not have to deal with this stuff?”

“Just say the word.”

I sighed. “I wish it were that easy.”

He ran his hands up and down my back, rubbing lightly with his fingertips. “I think this is the best of the three we saw. Your grandmother will be very well taken care of here.”

“I know.”

“Do you want to sign the papers, or do you want to wait until Friday?”

“I don’t want to sign them at all.” I sighed again, then I slowly pulled back. “But I guess it has to be now.”

Conrad held my hand, as we walked back to the main offices and stood behind my chair while the administrator explained everything and showed me where to sign.

“We will have her room ready on Monday. You can bring her by any time between nine and one,” she said when we were finished.

I nodded. That worked perfectly with Richard’s plan to pick me up at four for my relocation.

It was all set in motion. All I could do now was go along for the ride.

***

Madison

“Madison? It’s me, Billy Gardner?”

The voice was familiar. And suddenly I remembered little Billy Gardner, the boy who lived two blocks over that I once babysat for every Thursday night so his mother could go to her book club.

My heart slowly began to beat again.

“Hey, Billy,” I said, my voice a little weaker than I would have liked.

“I didn’t realize you were back in town.”

“Just for the holiday.” I gestured with the bags I still, somehow, held. “Mom ran out of a few necessities, so I came to get them for her.”

“Cool.” He rolled back on his heels. “My mom says you work for Cepheus Scientific now.”

I nodded. “I do.”

“That 3D telescope they have is something. I think I’m going to get one for my cousin for Christmas.”

“It is very cool. You should do that.”

He smiled as he jammed his glasses into place. As he did, a flash of memory burned through my mind.

Shadows. A man’s whispered voice. And that…that gesture.

The mystery man wore glasses.

***

Mellissa

“Did you call the nurse?”

Conrad was leaning against the side of his car, watching as I walked toward him. It was stupid; for a second I wanted to look behind me to see who this hot guy was talking to.

“Yeah. She said she can stay all weekend if I want her to.”

“Good.”

Conrad held out his hand and helped me into the car, stealing a kiss as I folded myself into the soft leather seat.

He said he had a surprise. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it might be.

We drove through the city at the same break neck speed that Conrad seemed to continuously feel was necessary. I switched on the radio, and after a minute we were both humming along with an old George Strait song. And then he began to sing at the top of his lungs, completely unable to carry a tune, but quite capable of putting much too much enthusiasm into his pathetic performance.

When he swung the car through the gate of a private airport, I straightened in my seat.

“What are we doing here?”

“We’re getting out of town for the weekend.”

“No,” I said, looking behind me at the receding city street. “Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving. I was going to make Memaw a nice dinner. And you were supposed to spend the night with Aurora.”

“Aurora’s parents came home early from the Bahamas. And I arranged for a nice dinner to be sent to your house from a local restaurant. Your grandmother and her nurse will dine very well.”

“But, what about—”

“Mellissa,” Conrad threw the car into park and grabbed my face, holding it much the same way my grandmother had the night before, “baby, if we only have five more days together, I want to spend them away from all this bullshit, the kidnapping stuff, the legal maneuvering, and the WITSEC crap. I want it to be just you and me and nothing else.”

Tears filled my eyes. They’d been doing that a lot lately.

“Okay.”

“Okay,” he said, his expression softening.

He ran his thumb gently over the curve of my jaw before putting the car back into gear and maneuvering into a warehouse-like structure at the back of the property. Inside was a small jet, one of those that look like the military jets they use in the movies sometimes. I could almost imagine Tom Cruise sitting in the cockpit.

“What is this?”

“Didn’t I tell you?” Conrad asked. “I’m a pilot. This is my plane.”

“You’re joking.”

He smiled as he climbed out of the car. A man I hadn’t seen when we first drove into the building stepped out from behind the nose of the plane and greeted Conrad with one of those bro hugs—a handshake that turns into an enthusiastic slap on the back. I could hear the laughter in their voices even before I opened the car door.