What He Fights (What He Wants, Book Ten) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (5 page)

“Josh.”
 

She said it matter-of-factly, though, not
with any trace of being upset or worried.
 
Was it possible that Josh was into tying her up the same way Noah did to
me?
 
Or was Josh actually hurting
her?

“Julia,” I started.
 
“Is Josh –”

“Hello?”
 
The sound of the front door opening echoed through the
apartment, followed by Josh’s voice calling to us from down the hall.

Julia pulled her arm away from me as if
she’d been burned.
 
She quickly
tossed the pregnancy test into the garbage.

“We’re in here,” she said.

“Who’s we?” he called, and then he turned
the corner and his eyes fell on me.
 
“Oh.
 
Hey.”

“Hi.”
 
I made sure to keep my voice light, controlled.
 
The last thing I wanted to do was show
weakness.
 
I was going to be stuck
in this apartment at least until I could find another place to live.
 
And I wanted to let Josh know he was to
stay far, far away from me.

But to my surprise, Josh sighed, then
looked down at the floor.
 
“Listen,
Charlotte, I’m really sorry,” he said.
 
“I didn’t mean to blow up your spot about Noah.”

My heart raced at the mention of Noah’s
name.
 
“What?”

“The police interviewed me about what
happened in the park that day, you know, when Noah came after me?
 
And I told them it was obvious you guys
were seeing each other.
 
I didn’t
know they were going to call you to testify until I talked to Professor
Worthington this morning.”

“You’re going to be testifying at a
trial?” Julia asked, her eyes widening.
 
“What happened?”

“Charlotte’s boyfriend got arrested for
murder,” Josh said to Julia.
 
“That’s the case I’ve been working on, baby.”

“Oh my God,” Julia said.
 
Her eyes went down to my wrists, and I
pulled my sweater down, hoping Josh hadn’t noticed.
 

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I mumbled.

The hallway descended into an
uncomfortable silence.
 
Part of me
wanted to yell at Josh for telling the police I was seeing Noah, to tell him
he’d wrecked everything for me, but I couldn’t.
 
I was too tired.
 
And it wouldn’t have mattered.
 
What was done was done.

“Anyway,” Julia said finally, breaking
the silence.
 
She turned to Josh.
“Are you ready to go to brunch?”

“Yeah.”
 
Josh glanced at me, a look of concern clouding his
face.
 
But I wasn’t buying it.
 
“Are you okay, Charlotte?
 
Do you want to go to brunch with us?”

“No.”
 
I shook my head and put my hand on my open door, so they’d
get the message that I was about to shut it.
 
“I have a lot of reading to do.”

They disappeared down the hall toward
Julia’s room, and I heard them talking in there for a while, probably while she
got dressed.
 
A few moments later,
the front door opened and closed, and a silent stillness dropped over the
apartment.
 

As soon as I was sure they were gone, I
shucked my jeans, crawled into bed, and fell asleep.

**

When I woke up, my bedroom was dark.
 
When I’d fallen asleep, it had been
light outside -- even with the drizzly weather, the sky had been light enough
to shine some brightness into my room.

Now, the sun had dipped below the
horizon.

It was eight o’clock.

I’d slept for almost ten hours.

There was a crook in my neck, and I tried
to work it out as I got out of bed and padded toward the bathroom.

I ran a brush through my hair, cleaned my
teeth and washed my face, then changed into a fresh pair of jeans and a light
grey sweater.
 
I wandered into the
kitchen and opened the refrigerator, but of course there was nothing in there.

Julia didn’t eat.

I wasn’t hungry anyway.

I was restless.

I stood in the middle of the kitchen for
a while, just staring off into space, my mind blank.

Then grabbed my keys and purse off the
front table.
 

I was going for a walk.

When I got out onto the sidewalk, the
city was alive with people, and I let myself get swallowed up into the crowd.

I walked.

And walked.

And walked.

The rain had stopped, but there were
puddles on the street, and I sideswiped them as I walked.

The air had a fresh smell to it, like
things were about to change.

I told myself I had to keep looking
forward, that everything was going to be okay.

And yet somehow, I found myself in front
of Noah’s office building.

I stood outside, looking up at the
building, imagining him inside, working on a deal, sitting at his desk.
 
I knew it was silly.
 
He was probably at home by now.He hadn’t
tried to call me or text me since I’d left him.

I stood there for a long moment, rooted
in place.
 
The wind kicked up, and
I was just about to leave when the door to the building opened and Clementine
came hurrying out.

She didn’t see me.
 

She was going the other way, pulling out
her phone, distracted by something on the screen.

Why had she been in Noah’s office?
 
The wind gusted again, and my anger
swelled.
 

I was sick of not getting answers.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was
pushing through the shiny glass doors of his building, marching up to the
security desk.
 
When I gave them my
name, they let me in right away – Noah must have put me on some kind of
list.

His floor was quiet when I got there, the
reception desk empty.

But the light was on in his office, a
strip of light sliding under the door.
 
Now that I was here, my nerve was fading.
 
What was I going to do?
 
March in there and demand to know what was going on?
 

For a moment, it sounded ludicrous.

And then, a second later, it made perfect
sense.

Why
shouldn’t
I march in there and demand some
answers?

I walked briskly to his office and
knocked on the door.

Silence.

“Noah?” I yelled.
 
“It’s me.
 
Open the door.”

A second later, he appeared.
 
If our fight on the street earlier had
had any effect on him, it didn’t show He looked flawless, his suit still
immaculate, his hair falling perfectly over his forehead.
 

He looked slightly surprised to see me,
but I didn’t give him a chance to tell me I couldn’t come in.

Instead, I pushed by him and into his
office.

“Why did you act like you didn’t know
Clementine this morning?” I demanded.
 
I crossed my arms over my chest and tapped my foot against the carpet
angrily.

“Nice to see you too,” he replied dryly,
shutting his office door behind me.

“Answer me.”

He paused for moment before he answered.
 
“Because the way I know her is not for
public consumption.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

He looked at me, his expression carefully
controlled.
 
“I’m going to have a
drink.
 
Do you want a drink?”

“No, I don’t want a drink!”
 

He crossed the room to the bar in the
corner and poured himself a drink, something amber-colored and
expensive-looking.
 
He took a long
drag and looked at me thoughtfully.
 

“Noah,” I said, and my voice
cracked.
 
“Please, just… can you
just tell me how you know her?”
 
It
was a stupid.
 
It was a stupid
thing to even be asking.
 
Of all
the things I could be asking him to explain – the DNA under Katie’s
fingernails, the arguing, his fingerprints all over her apartment – this
was the least important.
 
But I wanted
him to tell me something,
anything.

“She was following Audi.”

“What?”

“She was following Audi for me, making
sure he wasn’t getting into any trouble.
 
She’s been doing it for years, ever since I got him off for Rhonda
Callahan’s murder.”

“She’s a private investigator?”

“And a lawyer.
 
Among other things.”
 

“Why did you act like you didn’t know
her?”

“Because Colin Worthington doesn’t need
to know my personal business.”
 
He
drained his drink and looked at me.
 
“Why are you here, Charlotte?”

“What?”

“Why are you here?
 
You made it perfectly clear that you
didn’t want to speak to me again.”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I’m here because I want answers.”

“Answers?”

“Yes, answers.
 
I want you to tell me you didn’t kill Katie.”

“I didn’t kill Katie, Charlotte,” he
said.
 
“I’ve told you that several
times.”
 
His voice was raising, and
I noticed his hand tightening around his glass.
 
The door to his office was closed, the entire floor
empty.
 
The blinds were shut
tight.
 
I became aware of just how
alone we were, and my heart thumped in my chest.

“Do you know how hard this is for me?” I
demanded.
 
“How hard it is for me
to keep hearing you say that, when every day something else comes up that makes
it look like you did it?”

Just like that, his control faded.
 
“How hard this is for you?” he
demanded.
 
“How hard this is for
you?
Do you
think this has been a walk in the park for me, Charlotte?
 
Do you think I don’t know how this
looks?”

“No, I don’t think it’s been easy for
you, Noah,” I said.
 
“But you
won’t… you won’t tell me anything, you won’t let me in!”

“I’ve told you everything!” he
raged.
 
“Yes, me and Katie
fought.
 
We fought because I
confronted her about her leaking info about my cases.
 
I told you about that when you found those pictures of her
in my apartment.
 
But you don’t
care, Charlotte, you don’t…” He trailed off, his voice cracking.
 
“There’s nothing I can say to prove
this to you.
 
You will
always
doubt
me.”

He moved over to the leather armchair in
the corner, sat down on the ottoman and drained his glass.

He looked down at the ground,
despondent.
 

I went over and sat down next to him.

“You should go, Charlotte,” he said.
 
“Please.
 
Before one of us gets hurt.”

It was the first time he’d ever admitted the
possibility that I could hurt him just as much as he could hurt me.
 
I could hear the pain in his voice, raw
and real, and in that moment, all I cared about was making his pain go away.
 
And the dull ache that was pulsing
through my body just from being close to him.

“Noah,” I breathed, reaching up and
placing my hand on his arm.
 
“Make
me trust you.
 
Please, I… I want to
trust you.
 
Make me trust you.”

He shrugged me off, shook his head and
stared at the floor.

“Please.” I hesitated for a moment, then stood
up and pulled my sweater off, shucking my pants until I was in just my bra and
panties.
 
I laid back in the chair,
taking my foot and drawing it up his back.

 
He stood up and looked down at me, his eyes taking me
in.
  
I unhooked my bra, slid
it down my shoulders, and dropped it on the floor.

I felt the switch flip inside of him,
felt the furnace of his lust ignite as my nipples hardened under his gaze.