Never Trust a Bad Boy (5 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Josh

I don’t know what to do without her. I’m terrified that something has happened to her, and I’m furious too. Maybe she left because I told her I loved her. How could I have been so stupid? I knew that the moment I opened myself up to a woman, she’d destroy me. That’s why I’ve always fucked them and then left them alone. There is no way to get a broken heart when you refuse to let them get too close to you. I never believed that Zoe would break me, but here I am losing my mind without her.

The good news is that Clare is a great assistant. She’s keeping me together and making sure I still look good for the partners. While it’s true that I own this law firm, they could still vote me out if I appear incompetent. Then, they’d either have the option to buy me out or make me a silent partner. It’s part of the deal we made when I was still in law school and they weren’t one hundred percent sure that I could handle running the firm.

Clare comes into my office looking as solemn as I feel. She tells me that we need to discuss something and asks if I have a few minutes.

“I’ve found some discrepancies in some of the ledgers. I took a look your budget like you asked, and there are several major issues. Look up the entries from every Tuesday for the last few months.” She says quietly.

“Jesus Christ. Where is all of this money going? The partners are going to lose their minds.” I say and run my hand nervously through my hair. I’ve got to keep it together in front of Clare, but this is bad.

“I don’t know, Mr. Allen. I’ve been looking for it, but so far it seems to have fallen into a black hole. The account the ledger shows the money going into isn’t real, and after that there is no trail.”

“Thanks Clare. Can you keep looking? I mean, in addition to everything else I’ve dumped on you. I know it’s a lot, but I assure you that I’ll pay you well for your time. Out of my own pocket.”

“Yes, Mr. Allen. I’ll get back on it now.”

“Thank you, Clare. And, let me know if you hear anything from Zoe.” She nods and heads back out to her desk.

When I’m pulling into my driveway, I see a young woman sitting on my front steps. As I take off my helmet, I realize it’s just Cadence.

“Why are you sitting outside?” I ask her and try to walk past her into the house.

“Stop Josh. I want to talk to you outside. If we wait until we get inside you’ll just blow me off.” She says and puts her hand on my chest to stop me from walking past her.

“The answer is no. Whatever it is. Just no.”

“That’s not fair. I have new friends, and I want to go out with them tonight.” She says and stamps her foot.

“That’s definitely a no. How do you know it’s not a trap dad is setting?”

“Oh my God, Josh. It’s not a trap. And, I’m an adult. You can’t stop me.”

“Oh, yes. I can. Just try to go.”

“You’re an insufferable ass.” She says and glares at me.

“I get that a lot”

I hate having to do this to her. I just want her to be safe, but it kills me that she can’t have a normal life. There has to be a way, besides murder, to get our father out of our lives for good. I’ll apologize at dinner, and maybe we can work something out.

Except, by dinner Cadence has slipped out of the house and gone off to do whatever it was she wanted to do. Unfortunately for her, I have a body guard following her. I take out my phone and give him a call.

“Why didn’t you tell me she left?”

“It was either call you or follow her. She’s a slippery little thing.” The voice on the other end says.

“Do you have eyes on her now?”

“Yep boss. I’ll text you the address.”

“Thanks.”

Chapter Fifteen

Zoe

Candy meets Stacey and me at the club, and once again, she looks nervous as hell. We get a drink and start dancing, but Candy is looking over her shoulder more than usual. We throw back a shot of tequila, and she relaxes just a little bit.

After an hour, we’re one shot of tequila and one rum and coke in, and Stacey is acting really out of it. She’s way drunker than we are, but she insists she’s just fine. We keep dancing, and I have to tell several men to get lost. They’re hot, but I just want to have a good time with my girlfriends tonight. Men are too much trouble.

Another hour and another drink later an angry man storms onto the dance floor and grabs Candy by the arm. I’m about to lay into him when I realize who it is. Josh is trying to drag Candy off the dance floor and out of the club.

Then it hits me. Candy is Cadence. She wasn’t worried about a stalker ex-boyfriend finding her. She was worried about a super overprotective alpha asshole brother finding her. That’s why she looks so familiar. It’s not that I’ve seen her before, but it’s that she looks so much like Josh.

He was mad when he got here, but his face turns bright red with rage when he see’s me.

Chapter Sixteen

Josh

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing with my little sister? And, where the hell have you been?” I yell over the music.

“One, we’re just having a girls night out, and I didn’t know that she is your sister. Two, fuck off, Josh. You don’t get to know where I’ve been.” She yells back at me.

“I don’t get to know where you are? I told you that I love you and you disappear. I think I deserve an explanation.”

“You don’t deserve jack shit from me. You’re a liar. All I did was make sure I wasn’t standing between you and Annabel. I don’t share.” I hear the fury rising in her voice, and then it hits me. She was there in my office when Annabel pulled her stunt.

“You saw.” I say and hang my head.

“Yeah. I did, and I didn’t want to…” But she trails off her eyes go wide.

I turn around to see what she’s looking at, and the other woman who was with her and my sister has passed out on the floor. I take out my phone and call 911 while the bodyguard who was following Cadence comes out of the crowd and picks her up.

We go outside and wait for the ambulance. Zoe gets in the ambulance with her friend, and I take Cadence in my car to the hospital. We’re all sitting in the waiting room in a painfully awkward silence when Zoe finally says something.

“I don’t get it Josh. I mean, I know you’re an insufferable pig, but I never thought you’d stoop so low as to tell me you loved me just to fuck with my head.” She practically whispers.

“Zoe, I would never do that. She snuck into my office. I must have just found her when you saw us. I told her to get out, and I reassigned her to another positon in the basement until I can figure out a way to get rid of her. I don’t want anybody but you. I love you.”

Her demeanor completely changes in a flash. “I’m sorry I left the way I did. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. I should have talked to you.”

“Baby, I completely understand given what you saw. But, you have to know that I will never, ever do anything to hurt you.”

She gets up and sits in the chair next to me. Her fingers interlace with mine, and I feel like I’m home. Zoe’s head rests on my shoulder while we wait for news about Stacey.

A doctor finally comes out and tells us that somebody slipped a roofie into Stacey’s drink. They’re going to keep her overnight for observation, and hopefully she’ll be released in the morning.

“Can we see her?” Zoe asks hopefully.

“Not tonight, Ma’am. We’ve got to get her moved to a regular room. We’re slammed in the ER tonight. Visiting hours were over at seven. You can see her at ten tomorrow morning. We should be discharging her then, and you can take her home.”

“Thank you doctor.” Josh says and shakes his hand.

I insist that Zoe stay with me tonight and she agrees. She asks if I mind if she sleeps on the sofa. I do mind, but I don’t want her to run off again. I’ll give her space tonight if that’s what it takes to get my woman back.

Before Cadence goes to sleep, she hugs me. I tell her we’ll talk about this in the morning, and she begs me not to be mad.

“I’m not mad. I just want to talk about this some more. Okay?” I tell her after I give her a peck on the forehead.

“Okay.” She says and goes to bed.

I go to bed too and try to sleep even though I desperately want Zoe in here with me. After tossing and turning for a while, I finally drift off. When I wake up in the morning, my Zoe is snuggled up next to me. She still looks like and angel sleeping. That is, if angels snore and take up more than half the bed.

I am the luckiest man alive.

Chapter Seventeen

Zoe

I wake from a sleepy dream and my hand goes right to Josh’s cock. I’m done waiting, and I want him now. He responds by moaning loudly and getting rock hard. I guess he’s not ready to get his yet, because he grabs me and pushes my legs open wide.

His face dips down and he starts to lick and suck my clit until I’m clawing at his head and trying to grind myself against his face. He makes me cum three times before he finally lets up and I get a chance to breathe.

“Get on your back.” I command, and I’m surprised when he listens.

I straddle him and let his big cock sink deep into my wet and ready channel. I lean back and put my hands on his thighs so I can ride him and let him look at my body on full display. My hips make small circles as I enjoy the feeling of being filled by him.

I start to feel my control slipping, so I lean forward and let myself bounce up and down the full length of his shaft. Josh bucks his hips up and meets me thrust for thrust until we are both climaxing.

“I think that’s my favorite position.” He says while we lie next to each other and catch our breath.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yep. But why don’t you go ahead and get on your hands and knees now so I can make sure.”

Chapter Eighteen

Josh

When I’m finally able to pull myself away from Zoe, I realize I’ve got to get to work. I don’t want to leave her, but the issue with the missing money isn’t going to resolve itself. I also need to tell Clare that I’m hiring her, and she needs to find a replacement to act as Zoe’s secretary when she comes back.

Zoe and I had a long talk this morning about everything my father said to her when he went to her apartment, and it’s taking every ounce of strength I have not to go to his office and strangle him. She’s scared, though, and begs me not to do anything until we have a plan.

I sit in my office and try to figure out how things got so screwed up. Sometimes I wonder if I’m doomed to ruin everything I touch the way my father does. I take a drink of the soda on my desk and it hits me like a truck. At the club last night, all of the girls were drinking the same thing.

The roofie in Stacey’s drink was probably meant for Zoe. My father must have been there, and he was trying to get at her. He has a long history of accusations revolving drugging women, and he tried it with my sister too. I have to get rid of that monster.

“I’ll be back.” I say to Clare as I walk by her desk.

I get the address for my father’s office from Zoe’s files. I can’t believe he used his actual business address, but he’s too arrogant to feel like he has to lie or hide. His secretary tells me I have to wait for him because he’s not available. I feel bad for her, but I walk past her and straight into my father’s office.

I tell him what I suspect, and he laughs and admits it. I feel my blood run cold when I think about what could have happened if Zoe had gotten the spiked drink like he planned. He tells me there is nothing I can do to stop him, and if I’m smart, I’ll sign my inheritance over to him now.

“You’re a psychopath. I will take you down.” I say to him. He is completely calm, and I’m barely maintaining my control.

“You’ll do no such thing. In fact, if you don’t give me the money, I’ll be taking you down.”

As he says it, Annabel walks into the room and sits down in a chair across from his desk. For a moment, I’m in complete shock. But then, it all becomes crystal clear.

“You planted her in my firm. The two of you have been stealing the money from my firm and my partners.” I hiss.

“Yep. And, there’s nothing you can do. We made sure the theft leads back to you. So, give me the money your grandfather should have left to me, or lose everything.”

He laughs as I turn and leave his office. I’m going to find a way to bury this motherfucker once and for all. I go back to my office and have Clare show me the all of the entries where money went missing one more time.

The partners need to know about all of this whether I find a way to resolve the theft of not. I tell Clare to schedule a meeting with them tomorrow afternoon. Now, I need to go home and talk to Zoe. I have to figure out a way to make the mess that my father caused go away permanently.

My sister and the love of my life need my protection. I would rather die than let them down.

Chapter Nineteen

Zoe

Josh comes home and tells me everything about Annabel and Andrew’s schemes. I feel terrible for deserting him when he needed me the most, but I’ll do everything I can to help him now. We brainstorm ways to get rid of Andrew, but it’s hard to defeat someone who isn’t afraid of anything. Leaving Cadence out of any plan is essential because she’s been through enough at the hands of her father already.

“You could just give him the money. We can be happy without the fortune. We’re both attorneys, and we can make our own money.” I say.

“I know, baby. But, why should he win? Why should he get anything?” Josh says defiantly.

“I have an idea, and hear me out before you say no.”

“No.”

“You didn’t even let me tell you what I’m thinking.” I have to laugh at his insufferable pig headedness sometimes.

“Anything that starts out that way is already a no.”

“Please, baby. Just listen to me. Okay? And, if you say no after you hear me out. I promise I’ll
obey.
” I say the
obey
part in my sexiest fuck-me voice.

“When you say shit like that, you know I can’t resist you.” He looks like he’s about to jump me.

“Okay, so I’ll go to Andrew’s office…”

“No.”

“Oh my god Josh, please.”

“Go on, but I’m thinking this is going to be a no.” He says in his
fuck you I’m the alpha
voice.

“I’ll wear a wire, and one of your security people can stay right outside the door while I talk to him. I’ll have my pepper spray in my purse. But, I’ll tell him I can’t stand you because you cheated on me. I’ll offer to help him. I’ll drop some hints that he doesn’t have to roofie me, and when we have what we need, your my body guard can drop in and extract me. We’ll have everything we need to either turn him in to the police or force him back into hiding forever.” I tell him and then hold my breath while I wait for his answer.

“Everything but the flirting with him is good. I don’t even want you pretending to hit on another man. The thought of that makes me crazy.” He growls.

“Josh. Baby. We need him to admit to drugging Stacey, or we might not have enough to..” I only get part of it out before he cuts me off again.

“No. I said no to that part, and you promised that if I said no, you’d listen.”

“Fine. Okay. But, the rest of it?” I say hopefully.

“Yes, and I’ll do the same with Annabel.” He says and starts to get up.

“Whoa, there Big Daddy. I don’t want you anywhere near that skank.” I want to strangle him for even suggesting it, but I know he’s right.

He pulls me into his arms and kisses me. “You know you’re the only woman for me, Zoe. For now and forever.”

I practically swoon at that. I wish I had time for another go at him, but we need to work fast. I want these assholes out of our lives in time for dinner tonight. So, it’s destroy Andrew’s evil plan and then more make up sex.

“Let’s do this now before I lose my nerve.” I say and grab his ass.

At Andrew’s office, he does not look pleased to see me at first. Once I tell him I want to help him, his mood seems to lighten a bit. He offers me a seat, and I take it. I don’t want to be so far away from the door, but I need to keep him from getting suspicious.

“So, Zoe, why the change of heart? Why do you want to help me now?” He asks me with a wicked grin plastered across his smug face.

“Josh cheated on me. That’s twice he broke my heart, and I want to destroy him. I would also like a cut of the money. Revenge and cash, that’s why I’ve changed my mind.” I say and return his evil smile.

“Hmmm. I like that.  And, since you’re not interested in my son anymore, maybe you’d like to give it a try with me. I assure you that I can make it worth your while. I tried to put a little
incentive
in your drink the other night, but your friend got your glass. I paid the waiter fifty bucks to make sure you got the right one, but I guess you can’t find decent help anymore.” Andre says and takes a step towards me.

“What about the money? Will I be taken care of?” I’m fighting to maintain my cool, but the closer he gets to me, the more terrified I become.

“Oh, Zoe. Between the money from the inheritance and the fortune Annabel and I have funneled from Josh’s law firm, I’ll be able to give you anything you want.” He says and takes another step towards me.

“I think that’s all I need.” I say and stand up. “Christopher, can you come in here?”

I wish Josh could have seen the look on his father’s face when he realized he’d been played. I know he thought he was too smart to be taken, but his lust and greed clouded his judgement enough for me to fool him.

A call comes in on his cellphone. I thought it was strange that he took it in the middle of this, but it occurred to me that it must be Annabel. By the crestfallen look on his face, it becomes obvious that Josh’s mission was a success. I can’t wait to get back and have Josh fill me in on the details.

“I guess you understand now that you’re done. Josh wants you to leave the country and never, ever come back.”

“You’re a dumb bitch, you know that? I’ll just bide my time and come back eventually. How much will you have to lose in ten years? Do you really think you’ll be able to keep your children safe?”

“Oh, I was hoping you’d say something stupid. See, I knew that even if you left, you’d keep hurting women. But, now you’ve given me every reason to turn you in to the police.” I say and smile triumphantly. “Christopher, please make sure that your connections in law enforcement get the recordings from my wire and Josh’s” I say to my bodyguard.

“It will be my pleasure Ma’am.” He says.

“Now who’s the dumb bitch?” I say to Andrew as Christopher and I leave.