The Billionaire X-MAS Wonder: A Billionaire Christmal Novel

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “Do you think we should confront him in front of her?”

  My brow furrowed, mulling it over. I would have loved to see him find everything out in front of her. “No.” But I knew it would be best to tell him when they were away from each other, that way he wouldn’t jump right to defending her and have her see it. He could have time to process everything, and then we could confront her together. Or he would take her side and fire both Melina and me.

  I swallowed dryly.

  “Should I call him?” Melina asked, reaching for her phone.

  “No. Actually, you should leave before he comes here.” Melina stared at me with wide eyes. “There’s no point in both of us getting fired.” I gave her a weak smile. “Anyways, it might be better if it is just the two of us doing it … maybe. But if everything goes bad, I want you around keeping an eye on him. And as far as he’ll be concerned, you had nothing to do with it.”

  Not that it would actually matter. If things didn’t go well, we’d be over, and I’d be fired—but that didn’t mean I didn’t want Melina keeping an eye on him. I still didn’t want him to get hurt or have Nichole take advantage of him. Chewing my lip, I pulled my phone out from my pocket and dialed his number.

  Melina and Katie stared at me without saying a word. My heart raced as it rang once, and by the time it rang again my heart was pounding in my chest so hard I was surprised he couldn’t hear it when he answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey … um, I need to talk to you about something. Is there any way you can come over?”

  “Now?” He let out a sigh of frustration. “Nichole and I are working.”

  I felt hurt tug at my chest and tried to ignore it, but when I spoke, it was obvious how hurt I was. “Okay.” I felt tears prick my eye again. “I um, I guess … just come see me when you can please. I don’t want to talk about it at work …” I swallowed dryly. “I’ll talk to you later?” It came out as a question because I honestly wasn’t sure if we were going to talk later.

  “Wait—”

  “No. I’ll let you get back to work. I don’t want you to get distracted or anything … I don’t want to be a burden on you. I’ll just, talk to you later. Bye.”

  I hung up without telling him that I loved him because I honestly couldn’t bring myself to tell him knowing that I was probably so damn close to losing him. I swallowed dryly and tucked my phone away as a tear ran down my cheek.

  58. Chapter Eight

  Dammit, now I felt like a complete asshole. I blew out a deep breath.

  “I’m sorry.” Nichole reached out and touched my hand.” Here you are doing all this late night work when I told you it would free up time, and now your girlfriend is mad at you.”

  “No. It’s not your fault; I get that it’s going to take time for us to get everything sorted out so that I will have more time.” Apparently, Becca wasn’t going to realize that. A snide smile spread across my lips. As soon as my phone rang, Nichole wondered if it was going to be Becca checking in on us or trying to pull me away from work—turns out she was right.

  My brow furrowed as I felt guilt tug at my stomach. I knew that was the wrong way to think, and that Becca wasn’t used to this kind of lifestyle. She didn’t know what it was like to have to date someone who doesn’t just come see her at the drop of a hat. And I didn’t help with that. I’d taken her off to Italy at the drop of a hat just because she was going through some shit. I stared blankly down at the computer I was supposed to be working at, not having actually gotten any work done since the conversation with Becca.

  “Damnit,” I muttered, knowing what I was going to go do.

  “What’s wrong?” Nichole stared at me with wide eyes and jumped to her feet as soon as I stood. “You’re not actually going to see her, are you?” I stared at her for a second. Why did she sound so mad? Nichole blew out a deep breath. “Look, I know you really like this girl, so I didn’t want to say anything but … it’s just … she seems kinda manipulative.”

  My heart dropped in the pit of my stomach. No. Rebecca couldn’t be manipulating me. She wouldn’t. She didn’t like the fact that I tried to pay for everything.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s just … she ... like ... expects you to come to her at the drop of a hat and then makes you feel guilty? That’s just wrong. You don’t deserve that.”

  I bit my lip. She made a point … but … I swallowed dryly.

  “I’ve still got to go sort things out with her. If she thinks she can just call me whenever she wants and I’ll show up, she needs to know that’s not how it works, and if she called me because something is actually wrong, I need to be there.” I’d been so upset when she hadn’t called me about her father; I couldn’t let that happen again.

  So I grabbed my coat and my work bag. Nichole shook her head, but she grabbed her stuff, and we hurried towards the front door.

  “I really hope it works out. And if … if you need someone to talk to, or drink with, just give me a call—alright?”

  “Thanks.”

  *

  “You need to leave.” I stared down at the text from Dean.

  “What?”

  “Like, now.” I tucked my phone away and jumped for the file. “He’s in the parking lot.”

  “What?” Katie and Melina snapped, jumping to their feet.” Suddenly so glad it was dark out, I bit my lip.

  “Come on,” Katie grabbed Melina’s arm. “You can come to my place.”

  “Text me!” Melina called as they rushed for the door. Katie skidded to a stop and opened it carefully. She looked around and then bolted for the hallway and down to her door. I stared at them, my heart racing. How long did it take him to get from the car to my apartment? And how much time had we lost while the text was being sent?

  I swallowed dryly as Katie pushed her door open and stepped inside; Melina followed behind her, and the door slammed shut.

  Relief washed over me for a fraction of a second before I heard footsteps on the stairs. That’s got to be him.

  “Hey,” I said as soon as I saw him.

  “Hey.”

  “Thanks for coming.” This all felt so stupid. I wasn’t even sure if this had been the right thing to do or not. Maybe it would have just been better to let him realize it all on his own or deliver it to the casino anonymously. No, he’d know I was involved.

  “You made it sound like it was important.”

  “It is … it’s really important, and you’re not going to like it,” I said as he made his way into the apartment. “I … I have something you need to see, and you need to listen to me while I tell you about it. I need this.”

  “Okay, what’s going on?”

  I strode to the table where the file sat, and Dean followed me. “So,” I bit my lip taking a deep breath. “I know things have been really tense and … and you know I haven’t been feeling that great about Nichole.”

  Dean groaned. “Really? Really Becca? You took me away from work to talk about her?”

  I felt my cheeks flush as I looked down. “Look, I’ve had a bad feeling, so I decided to do something about it.”

  “What? he snapped.

  I lifted my head and stared at him, my eyes locking on his. “I did something about it, and you know what? It’s a damn good thing I did.” My eyes narrowed. I’d done this for him, even though I knew he was going to be mad, even though I knew I was risking him breaking up with me.

  “I can’t fucking believe this. Can you just leave her alone? Are you fucking jealous of her or something? You actually went and stalked her? Do you know how wrong that is?”

  I stared at him with wide eyes. Anger blazed inside me. I was beyond mad and wanted just to let him go. I wanted to tell him I was quitting, and that he could have fun when he had to file for bankruptcy.

  Dean turned on his heel and headed towards the door.

  “Did you fuck her when you went out to dinner?” I needed to know. I knew it was stupid.

  Dean froze. “Y
ou’re joking, right? You don’t actually think I would do that?”

  “No, I don’t. But I know that Nichole likes to apply for jobs, get the job and then start spending late hours working with her rich boss before they go out to dinner where she sleeps with them.” Dean rolled his eyes and turned on his heel. I knew in a couple of seconds I’d have lost him, but I wasn’t going to run after him, that would just make everything worse. “And then she’ll ask for their credit card because she forgot her wallet, normally for something small like a coffee.”

  Dean froze and then turned to me. “What did you just say?” His face was pale as he stared at me. I smirked. She’d borrowed his card already.

  “And then she’s going to date you. You’re going to buy her a new car, or maybe some diamond earrings, maybe take her to Paris or Holland, and she’s going to take you for everything you own—just like she did the five other men she’s been with in the past three years.” I took a couple seconds to let that sink in. “But you know what, I’m crazy, right?” I held my hands up in submission. “Don’t worry about what I have to say; you go back to work with her and see how long it takes for her to try and sleep with you, again.”

  Okay, so maybe I didn’t know that she’d tried to sleep with him yet, but it was a guess I was willing to take. If TV had taught me anything, it was that people like this didn’t change their routines after so many victims. I closed the distance between us.

  “But before you go, you might want to take this. It’s everything the man I hired dug up on her; it might have a couple interesting tidbits in it.” I forced myself to give him a smile as his fingers brushed against mine and felt a tear prick the corner of my eye. I pulled away before I could actually cry and coughed. “So, I’m guessing you want my two weeks’ notice?”

  “No.”

  He didn’t say anything as he made his way into the living room and sat down on the couch. I stood there staring at him.

  What the hell did he mean?

  *

  “So you hired someone to look into her? Let’s see what he found. I’m sure none of it is that bad.”

  I needed to know that none of it was that bad. I needed to find a way to explain away everything she was telling me.

  The Billionaire’s Casino

  Betting on Love

  59. An Alpha Billionaire Romance

  Sarah J. Brooks

  Copyright © 2015 by Sarah J. Brooks

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Facebook: Sarah J. Brooks

  60. Chapter One

  I stood there as he crossed to the couch and dropped down, picking up the folder. My jaw dropped as I followed and sat beside him.

  “You … you’re not going to fire me?” I was still processing the fact that he didn’t want my two weeks’ notice.

  “Of course I’m not going to fire you. If I find out all of this is made up, I’ll fire you and Melina.” I opened my mouth to tell him that she had nothing to do with it, but he cut me off. “Oh, don’t even—I know you weren’t doing this on your own, and a private investigator is just the type of thing Melina would do.”

  I swallowed dryly, unable to tell him that it wasn’t true. So I just gave him a soft smile. “Well, if it’s wrong, then you can fire us both.”

  “Oh, I plan to.” He blew out a deep breath. “How could you go and do this behind my back?”

  “What did you expect?” I snapped. “You weren’t listening to us, and we both had a bad feeling.” I pointed to the papers. “Our bad feeling was right.”

  If anything, I at least knew she’d tried to sleep with him. I knew that for sure because of how he’d reacted when I brought it up.

  Of course, it didn’t take the smartest person to know that something was going on with her; I mean, come on, she just popped up out of nowhere and wanted to work late nights and spend all her time with him? I mean, come on.

  I sat silently as he looked through the papers.

  “Do you want to contact some of the men she’s already scammed?” I raised an eyebrow. “Or do you think I’m making that up or something?”

  “I don’t think that, no.” He eyed me as he lifted some of the papers. “These bank statements would be hard to forge. Anyways, I think it would cost you way too much to make this all up.”

  Oh, thank God, he thought I was too cheap to make it up. You know, it wasn’t like he actually believed me or anything.

  I sat there waiting. It was the longest fucking hour of my life, but I didn’t annoy him, I just sat there quietly. About half an hour into it, Melina texted me to let me know that she made it home and see how it was going. I told her the truth—that I had no fucking clue, but he was, at least, looking at the papers we had in the folder.

  Finally, he put the folder down and looked at me.

  My heart did a backflip. Was he about to break up with me? I swallowed dryly.

  “So …?” I asked after thirty seconds of silence.

  “So … it looks like there is a lot of evidence in here. I’d like to look it over some more before I confront her about everything in this folder.”

  “Don’t tell me you still don’t believe me?” I groaned. Anger boiled inside me, but honestly, I was too tired and felt way too defeated to get mad. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach as disappointment settled in instead of anger. I didn’t want to be disappointed—I wanted to be mad. I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, and that if he didn’t fire her, he should fire me.

  “I didn’t say that.” He reached out and touched my thigh. It took everything I had not to push him away. “I just need to process everything before I confront her about it. I don’t want to go in angry and let her get the upper hand.”

  “Oh.”

  Okay, I guess that was rational. That made sense, and I couldn’t dispute it. I stood. “Alright, so do you want to … stay here tonight?”

  “No.”

  I thought my heart couldn’t sink any lower. I was wrong.

  “Okay.” I swallowed, trying to ignore the fact that I could feel the tears coming on.

  “I—I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

  “Yup.”

  “Good; I’d like it if you were at work early so we can discuss what to do about … this situation.”

  Oh, that was a nice way of putting it. It was just a ‘situation’ now? Cute, but I didn’t say anything. I just nodded and crossed my arms over my chest as Dean stepped towards me. I stared at him and wanted to ask if he’d been tempted to sleep with her, but I didn’t dare. It wasn’t that I was being nice to him, it was a case of being too scared to know the answer for myself.

  He stepped towards me then paused, a smile spread over his face, but it looked forced. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He grabbed the folder. “Do you mind if I take this?” I shook my head.

  What was he going to do, shred it? I didn’t care what he wanted to do with it, all that mattered to me was that he knew what kind of woman he was letting into his world. I watched him as he headed for the door and left without another word. It was the first time in a week that we left each other without saying ‘I love you,’ but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. Not because I didn’t love him, but because I wanted to know if he would say it first.

  I swallowed dryly as a tear slid down my cheek. Fuck it. I could have stayed up a little longer and cleaned, or even gotten some side project work done, but what was the point?

  Right now, I couldn’t answer that, so I just headed for the bedroom and dropped into bed doing a face plant. A deep breath passed through my lips as I pulled the blanket over myself and closed my eyes. It wasn’t the most productive way to spend the night, but every now and then, a girl just had to wallow in self-pity—right?

  61. Chapter Two

  I noted Dea
n’s car as I drove into the parking lot the next morning. The sun was just beginning to come up, and I was beyond tired. I didn’t really want to get up and come over here, but I figured on owing him that much. And if it meant getting rid of Nichole, then I was all for it.

  I’d like to say it wasn’t Nichol herself that I had an issue with, but honestly, it was. When she showed up at Dean’s and called me his maid, that rubbed me the wrong way, and now she had a contract for two weeks here to see how things went, and since she’d started here she hadn’t done anything to change my feelings for her. Sure, she seemed nice, on the outside, but I knew there was something off with her and had known it all along. No one wants to work as much as she does without another reason for it. Apparently that reason is to sleep with my boyfriend and then steal all his money before forcing him into bankruptcy.

  I bit my lower lip as I entered the lobby of the casino. Melina and Dean turned to face me.

  “What’s up?” I asked, unable to look at Dean; instead, I focused on Melina.

  A grin spread over her face. “Ding dong, the witch is dead.”

  For a split second, I actually thought she meant that she went out and killed Nicole.

  “What do you mean?” I was sure she hadn’t actually killed her, but I mean, come on, Melina seemed like she had it in her to kill someone.

  “I’ve asked Nichole to arrive a little early. I told her I would be here around 8:00 to open up.” Dean cleared his throat, and I turned to look at him but didn’t dare make eye contact. “When she arrives, I will confront her about the things you found, pretending that it was I who hired the investigator, to keep both you and Melina out of it, which is only fair to you both.” I swallowed dryly. “I will tell her that I am releasing her from her contract, and that she is free to leave the business, and that I will be giving her information to a couple friends of mine and encouraging them to pass it along to their own friends.”