Taming The Boss (Billionaires In The City Book 7) (16 page)

Rourke set Cali’s bag on the bed as she looked on, the same forlorn look she’d been wearing since they’d spoken to Colin firmly in place.

“Don’t worry,” he said for the tenth time. “Colin is looking all over for Harper and he won’t have any idea where we are.” He’d brought enough cash with him to last a few days, and Colin had given them a few empty phones for them to use.

He really didn’t like relying on the type of man who had untraceable phones just lying around, but Colin Carter was proving to be damn convenient when he wasn’t being a pain in his ass.

Cali wrapped her arms around herself as though it was cold, but Rourke knew the room was a few degrees too warm already. “Colin said he’d have all the surveillance of my place over in fifteen minutes. I’ll feel better after I see it.”

Rourke had to bite his tongue. She’d insisted on seeing what Colin was talking about, but Rourke knew it wouldn’t make her feel any better. If anything, seeing the concrete proof of someone she hated so much invading her space would make her even more paranoid. Nothing was worse than justifiable paranoia.

“Tomorrow we can head back to Maine.” He checked his new phone to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. “And you can stay with me until we figure all this out.”

She frowned and Rourke cursed under his breath. That was the wrong thing to say. “Or you can stay as long as you want. Whatever works.”

“You want me to come back to Maine with you?”

Well, now that she said it out loud, it seemed a bit more strange. He’d wanted to get her out of the city so he could protect her, but he didn’t mind her coming to stay with him for as long as she wanted. Maybe a lot longer. “I have plenty of room for you.”

She let out a bitter laugh. “The first time anyone’s ever asked me to move in with them. Strange. I thought it would be more romantic than this.”

“Would you rather stay in a hotel until this is all over?” he bit out.

“I’d rather not have to deal with any of this at all,” she snapped. “I break up with Easson and leave; he finds someone to shoot out my tires. I find out that he was only doing that to throw the FBI off his trail, start to calm down, and apparently he’s been in my apartment at some point. Every time I start feeling the slightest bit secure, suddenly I’m right back to being screwed.”

“Then come back with me. We can put this behind us, and Colin, Luke, and everyone else can deal with this. We’ll go on living our lives just how we want to.”

Cali shook her head as she paced across the room. “I can’t just go and hide away with you. I need to be doing something. I need to fight this. You have guns, right? I need a gun.”

Rourke struggled to keep the disbelief from his face. “A gun?”

“Yes. A metal contraption that has a small explosion that propels a piece of metal into the face of whoever is trying to kill you.”

“Have you ever fired a gun in your life?”

“I’m sure I can figure it out. You just pull the trigger, right?”

“I think you should leave the shooting to me.”

“I tried to leave it to other people! That’s not working though, is it? I need to figure this out.”

Rourke approached carefully, trying to think of the right thing to say. But everything he wanted to tell her didn’t work. He wanted to promise that she’d never need a gun. He wanted to promise that he’d always be there.

But the words wouldn’t come. Even if he promised her forever, she was already halfway to running from him. From everything. She had the money and means to go anywhere at this point. He’d be more than happy to go with her, but he was more than aware of how quickly things had moved between them.

He’d resisted Cali at first. Too surprised by their connection on that first night to think it was anything special. But he’d tried to push her out of his mind countless times, and still he kept coming back to her.

If she hopped on a plane tomorrow and didn’t tell him she was leaving, he didn’t think he’d ever stop looking for her. At this point, he didn’t even care where she went. As long as he was with her and knew she was safe.

“I’m going to keep you safe,” insisted Rourke as he moved closer, standing in front of Cali so her pacing would stop.

“You’re going to keep me safe?” she asked incredulously. “Against some military-trained guy who’s evaded the FBI and whatever the hell Colin Carter is?”

“Cali, look at me.” When she started to roll her eyes, he caught her face in his hands and gazed into her eyes. “If anyone,
anyone
, tries to hurt you, they’ll have to go through me. Do you understand?”

“No.”

He was taken aback for a moment. “No?”

“I’m not letting you put yourself at risk for me. Especially not after everything you’ve done for me already.”

The corner of his mouth twisted up. “You protecting me now?”

“I’m doing what I have to do.”

He nodded as he closed in on her. “I don’t think you understand how this is going to go.”

A flash of unease came over her features. “What do you mean?”

He continued his approach until the back of the bed collided with her thighs. “I mean that I’m going to stay with you no matter what. When I said you were under my protection, I was serious. Now you can fight me or accept it. What’s it going to be?”

“Fi...Fight it?” stuttered out Cali.

Rourke set a hand on her waist and leaned in until his lips just about touched hers. “Or accept it.” His hand roamed from her hip to the small of her back, pressing her against the bulge of his erection. “Let me take care of you.”

Cali’s eyes drifted shut and he knew he almost had her. “There’s been so much going on...” She trailed off as his other hand reached around to cup her face.

“There’s nothing going on now,” he insisted. “Just you and me behind a locked, bolted door. Let me distract you.”

He leaned in, pressing a soft kiss against the side of her neck. There was a lot he couldn’t do at the moment, but he could give her this. He could make her forget for just a few moments and give her the release he knew she craved.

A knock on the door and Cali bolted from Rourke’s arms and ran for the door. “It’s Colin,” she said as she pulled it open.

Rourke stayed quiet as he tried to hold himself back from throwing Carter out and continuing his...
conversation
with Cali.

“You wanted to see the photos?” Carter held up a large manila envelope.

Cali glanced hesitantly over to Rourke. “Let’s take a look at these in the hall.”

Rourke let her retreat for the moment. He’d deal with her later. Once he had more control over his emotions and his not so subtle erection.

~~~~~

“So who are you?” Cali shoved the photos back into the envelope.

Colin frowned at the question. “Umm...Colin. Carter,” he said slowly.

For the love of... “I know who you are. But what are you to Walter? Obviously you’re not exactly a personal assistant.”

“I get things done that other people don’t want to do,” he said simply.

Obviously he didn’t want to go into detail, but Cali felt a bit ballsier than normal. “So Walter does a lot of...questionable activities?” Colin stared her down and she knew she’d started to wander into fragile territory. “That’s what this is all about, right? Easson knows something about the Farrell family and he’s holding that over Walter’s head to get a payout. His boss is in jail now and that revenue source is drying out. Maybe he’s going in for one more big bang before taking off for good.”

“I think that he’d have to have something pretty big to get Walter to open up his wallet.”

“I think that’s why Walter has you.” Cali could tell from the small, sardonic smile that twisted Colin’s mouth that she’d hit something.

“Walter has a lot of old, dirty, nasty skeletons in the closet. It’s better for everyone if those stay hidden.”

Cali thought about what she knew about the Farrell family: four sons, with one in prison for insider trading. She’d never been to any events with them together, but if Colin was brought in to clean up family messes, it was safe to assume that they weren’t all that functional.

“So, when you find Easson, what are you going to do?” she asked.

Colin pulled out his phone and checked the screen. “It’s getting late. I think I should be off.”

Well, there was her answer. She took a breath as she thought about what that meant. She wanted Easson out of her life, but Colin seemed so...cold. A shiver raced through her as she thought about Rourke just on the other side of the door. Rourke, who was protective, warm, and willing to do anything for her. At least, according to him.

It was hard to believe, but he’d already proved himself. He’d come back to the city. He’d sworn that he’d never reconcile with Luke or Michael and here he was. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why. There was nothing she’d said to convince him Luke and Michael were ready for him to come back.

Which meant he really had come back for
her
. Because he cared about her safety and, judging from the little distraction routine he’d pulled before Colin had arrived, he cared about her feelings too.

This would’ve been fantastic if it weren’t for the timing of the whole thing.

“Tell Rourke I’ll be in touch,” said Colin as they headed back down the hallway to her room.

“Um...be in touch about what?”

“He said he wanted to be included in the search. Figured it couldn’t hurt.”

She halted, shocked. “Couldn’t hurt? It could hurt him. What the hell is he supposed to do if he finds Easson?”

Colin chuckled. “Don’t underestimate him.”

Underestimate? “Hey, Rourke is one of the most intimidating men I’ve ever met. But that doesn’t mean I want him out hunting for crazies. Especially when he’s doing it because of me.”

“That sounds like a conversation you need to have with him. I’m not turning down another set of hands who knows their way around the city and a gun.”

The gun thing again! “This wouldn’t happen if I had a gun,” she muttered. “You’re terrifying. Do you have one I could borrow? You probably have extras stashed all over the city.”

“Nope. No guns stashed all over the city. And I have a feeling you should stay as far away from firearms as possible until you get a few lessons.”

Great. Nothing more fun than being dependent on a bunch of testosterone-overdosed men to take care of her. She crossed her arms over her chest. “How much is Walter paying you for all this anyway?” Considering Easson probably wouldn’t make it to a fair trial if Colin found him first, that meant Colin was planning to go pretty far for one old rich man.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to ask for someone’s salary?”

“Says the guy who broke into my apartment. I didn’t realize that the rules of normal people manners applied.”

Colin’s blue eyes bored into hers as though he was sizing her up. “Walter Farrell is offering me a future. When the old guy kicks the bucket, I get a one-fifth stake.”

Cali tried to hide her surprise. No wonder he’d been reluctant to say what he was getting. But there was no harm in telling her now. It wasn’t as if she was going to be rubbing elbows with any of the Farrells any time soon. She’d have to assume that Walter’s four sons wouldn’t be happy when they found out that someone who wasn’t in the family got the same amount as them, but that was one fight she was going to stay out of.

But it also made her wonder exactly what Colin had done to earn that big of a stake in Walter’s fortune. She’d read in some article featuring the billionaires in New York that the eldest Farrell had a net worth of over eight billion. And here she was, all happy over her two million.

“My advice? Stick with Rourke. Don’t buy a gun. Lay low for the next few weeks.”

“Weeks?”

“Hopefully days. Just lay low, okay?”

“Shouldn’t be too hard. It’s not like I have a phone to contact anyone. You’re the only one who has our phone number right now.”

“Walter and I,” corrected Colin. “He insisted on knowing how to get in touch.”

Cali really wanted to be surprised but couldn’t muster up the emotion. “He still thinks I’m working with Easson?”

“I told him I think you’re clean, for what it’s worth. But all the coincidences keep piling up against you and he’s rather paranoid.”

She was on a paranoid billionaire’s radar. This just kept getting better and better. “Fine. I guess I’ll be looking into getting a new phone then.”

“He’s eccentric, but Walter isn’t dangerous. Just use the phones we gave you for now.”

She couldn’t tell whether she was being paranoid or whether all her fear was justified. But if you knew there was a murderer hanging around your apartment, didn’t it make sense to be a bit paranoid?

The door to the hotel room opened and Rourke stuck his head out. “Are you two done yet? How long does it take to look at a few pictures?”

Cali took a step back from Colin and glanced between the two men. “We’re done here.” There was nothing else Colin could do for her here, and she should at least try to get some sleep.