The Billionaire's Seduction (Billionaire Bodyguards Book 5)

by Avalon,Kristi

  “Big Brother really is watching everything we do—and recording it,” she muttered, referring to George Orwell’s novel 1984, that she’d read in her junior lit class.

  Logan chuckled. “More than most people realize. Also, I happen to have a technology department damned good at finding information others can’t.”

  “That’s scary.”

  “Better my people, who adhere to a strict code of privacy, than Big Brother.” A trace of amusement reflected in his tone.

  “Fair point,” she said with a strained sigh. “So my report won’t show up on Wikileaks tomorrow?”

  That made him laugh. “You’re safe from global exposure. Promise.”

  “Okay.” She appreciated their conversational exchange. The infusion of humor helped. If anyone had to conduct this in-depth inquiry, she was glad it was Logan. Plus, she knew Liam wasn’t far away. “I’m counting on your word. All my top secret information is in your hands.”

  “Very top secret. This is high-level stuff.” He nodded with great seriousness, while his eyes twinkled. “During my Ranger missions, I saw classified documents less vital than what you’re giving me now.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I figured.”

  An ease settling between them, Logan resumed his questions. Nothing left her uncomfortable or doubtful—until he started asking about the theft Mr. Atlas had accused her of committing.

  Anxiety bubbled up in her chest, giving her heartburn. She should’ve eaten something this morning, but couldn’t force her roiling stomach to digest anything.

  Then he stated a question she hadn’t known she’d been dreading until he asked. “Is there anyone in your personal life, close friends or acquaintances, who could’ve committed the casino theft?”

  “No, I…” Her thoughts circled back to Todd. “I don’t think so.” She started to panic. “I don’t know.” If Todd had come back to town yesterday, scrubbed her place clean, and drained her bank account…could he be capable of stealing massive amounts from her boss? If so, why would he also siphon money from her, when she had so little to take in comparison? It just didn’t make sense.

  “Sophia.” Logan cleared her throat. “Yes or no. I’ll ask again.” He repeated the question.

  Fear gripped her. Could she have given her heart to someone capable of something so diabolical?

  “I don’t know, okay? And that scares the hell out of me.” Tears clogged her throat. “It’s too much…too much to think Todd would— I can’t do this.”

  Shaking all over, she shot off the chair. She scraped the nodes off face and neck, and bolted for the door.

  *

  From his position behind the two-way mirror, Liam couldn’t hear what question Logan had asked, or what Sophia said in response. But he read the terror on her face, saw the tears in her eyes, watched her trembling as she fled.

  He didn’t waste a second. He went for the door.

  The door opened before he reached it. He came to a halt, expecting Sophia.

  Instead, Trey stood in front of him. His cousin stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

  “Move,” Liam said.

  “I’m here to stop you from doing something stupid.”

  A curse exploded from Liam. “How is protecting Sophia stupid?”

  “You can’t save them all.”

  “Like hell I can’t. Move.”

  Trey shook his head. “Can’t do that.”

  “What is your problem?” Liam raged.

  “You need to let her work this out. This is her life, her future, on the line.”

  “That’s why I need to be out there.” Exasperated, Liam raked both hands through his hair. “She needs to know she’s not alone.”

  “In this scenario, she needs to make her own decision. She’ll return to the interrogation, or she’ll leave. Either way, it’s not up to you.”

  He glared at Trey. “You don’t know what she’s been through. I do.”

  “Which is exactly why you need to stay out of it. No interference, little brother.”

  The words diffused Liam’s impulsive determination. “You’ve never called me that before.”

  “You’re the youngest. My blood. Family. I’ve taken on the role of your older brother since you were six. I’ve always looked out for you. I’m doing it right now.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Alex Atlas has you under surveillance, as much as Sophia. He knows you believe she’s innocent, possibly with personal motives for thinking that. If he suspects you interfered with any part of this test, he’ll accuse you of favoritism. We can’t have that.”

  We.

  Damn, he had become so wrapped up in proving her innocence, he’d forgotten the bigger picture. He backed off and went to the two-way mirror. He flattened his hands above his head and pressed his forehead to the cool glass.

  This wasn’t just about her, or him. Liam represented his entire company, including Trey, Cade and Adam. Technically, Alex Atlas had hired the firm, not Liam specifically, although he’d been requested based on Isaac Atlas’s recommendation.

  Tipping his head back, he peered accusingly at Trey over his right shoulder. “How long have you been standing outside the door?”

  “Since you walked in,” Trey said calmly.

  “Did Logan tell you to do that?”

  “He didn’t have to. I understand what drives you, Liam. Always have. Better than anyone else in our family. I know how invested you get in protecting the innocent. This time, you need to let the test prove the truth. No matter what you think you know.”

  “That’s a stupid rule,” he muttered.

  The corner of Trey’s mouth kicked up. “It’s for your own protection. And ours. And hers. It’s the way it has to be, for now.”

  Straightening, Liam stared at Trey with a pained expression. “When can I see her?”

  “When it’s over. If she decides to return and finish the test. If she doesn’t, you’ll never see her again. She’ll face the consequences on her own. You need to be okay with that. It’s a job—remember?”

  “Yeah, except she’s not just a job.”

  Trey sighed. “I’d figured that. You’ve acted differently toward her. A difference that caught my attention over the past twelve hours. You invited her stay at your house. I thought you’d never let another woman step foot in your domain, after Jules screwed you over.”

  “Neither did I,” Liam admitted. “Thing is, Sophia gets it. She gets me like…like you do. She’s been screwed over, too. Way worse than me.”

  Trey crossed his arms. “What else? What makes her different.”

  Sliding his palms from the glass, Liam paced the small anteroom. “There was this moment. You know? She noticed my boots.” He smiled at the memory. “She saw them and saw the real me. Then she talked about the first pair of designer shoes she’d saved up to buy, from her first paycheck. She still has them, still wears them sometimes. Because they’re her favorite. It reminds her of where she came from. The reason I still wear my cowboy boots.” He heard himself, and realized that might sound stupid. “Does that make any sense?”

  “Hey.” Trey came up beside him, rested a hand on his shoulder, forcing Liam to pause in his pacing. “I remember the exact moment I fell in love with Devon. We went to a concert in a park. We shared a love of live music. From the beginning, her red lips drew me in, beyond reason. I was hooked.”

  Edging back, Liam extricated himself from Trey’s hand and tightened his arms. “Hey, I’m not in love, man. I’m just saying…she’s different.”

  Trey eyed him with a perceptive smile. “Okay. You’re not in love. Still, she’s different. That’s enough to put her future in jeopardy. You can’t interfere.”

  “I get it,” Liam admitted, reluctantly. A heavy sigh left his lungs. “It’s just, I can’t stand here and do nothing.”

  “That’s exactly what you’re going to do.”

  Tilting his head with a curious bent, Liam asked, “You really think you still
need to look out for me? I’m thirty-two years old.”

  “I know enough to step in when I need to. Because you’re a good man who sometimes needs someone to remind you of your priorities. You’re still new at this ruling over the world thing.” Trey winked.

  “You know, it would’ve been helpful if you’d consulted me ahead of time. Warned me, and all, that I needed to stay out of this interrogation.”

  “That would’ve meant stopping you from doing what you do best. You’re the only one who could’ve accepted this job and done it well. You have the skills, Liam. Someday, not too far in the future, you’ll have the discipline.”

  Liam closed his eyes, then opened them to stare at Trey with affectionate regard. “You’re the only person who could say that to me. And I’d listen, instead of knocking you out cold.”

  Dipping his chin in a single nod, Trey mirrored his grin.

  Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye.

  “All be damned. She came back,” Liam said, a trace of wonder mixed with pride in his tone. Sophia had fought through her fears, and let reason win out over emotion. That’s my girl.

  He watched her resume her seat. Whatever Logan had said to her—before the elevator opened to take her to a distant floor, away from Liam forever—she’d made the choice he’d hoped she would.

  “See?” Trey nodded at the two-way mirror. “She came around. Without you, all on her own.”

  “I get it,” Liam grudgingly admitted.

  “Do you?”

  Trey approached him on silent footsteps, like the sharp, slick viper Liam knew he could be in the face of conflict. “Can you remove yourself from this situation, enough to keep our company’s stake in this relevant?”

  Liam went rigid. He stared at his cousin, eye-to-eye. Their equal height made it impossible for either to back down. “I know my priorities. I can bend the rules, but only so far. If I do, it’s for a cause I believe in, Trey.”

  A smile slowly spread across his cousin’s face. He clapped Liam on the shoulder. “Well done, little brother.”

  Trey reached for the door.

  “You’re not staying?”

  “You’ve proven yourself, your loyalty. To me, and to the woman in that room.” Trey nodded at the glass. “You know where you stand. If you have to risk it all, I can back that. I just needed to know, for sure, where your priorities lie.”

  Stunned, Liam watched Trey’s back as he exited the room. He wasn’t sure what had just happened.

  Standing at a loss, he turned toward the wide viewing window. He watched Sophia continue the inquiry without issue. A half-hour later, she’d come through like a champ.

  But even after Logan carefully removed the nodes and led her from the room, Liam remained in the anteroom. What had Trey tried to tell him? Teach him?

  Why had his cousin willingly, speedily, left once he’d expressed his truth about Sophia?

  Shaking himself from the mental pause, he reached for the door. He let himself into the communal hallway. Trey was nowhere in sight.

  *

  “I might’ve failed,” Sophia whispered to him, gripping his arm after thanked Logan Stone and exited the elevator on the lobby floor.

  “What makes you say that?”

  Embarrassed to admit the truth to the one person who believed her, she said with angst, “I left the interrogation part-way through.”

  “Really?” He stared down at her with an impenetrable gaze. “I guess he took you back?”

  “Yes,” she said on a breath of relief. “Thank God. I don’t know what happened. I froze. For a second, I couldn’t distinguish between my truth and what I feared was the truth.”

  “What was your fear?” Liam asked, as they walked out of the building. He shielded her from a gust of wind, way stronger than anything she’d experienced in Vegas. Apparently, the breath of God wafted from the mountains down into the streets.

  She fought to catch her breath. “I doubted myself,” she revealed, letting him lead her along the sidewalk. “You told me not to…but I did. I couldn’t help it. After what I found out about Todd, after the hypnosis, I wondered, what else could he be capable of?”

  “That’s a heavy thought,” he said, pulling her into a two-story vestibule. “This is my building.”

  As his voice returned to normal volume, no longer competing with the wind, she found herself surrounded by two stories of glass. The interior doors glided open when they approached. They ushered her into an impressive entryway, complete with a kidney-shaped desk made of a glossy dark-wood composite topped with frosted glass.

  “Hello, Mr. Soren,” a receptionist called out cheerfully.

  Liam lifted a hand, acknowledging her.

  That’s all? A wave?

  Good grief, if Sophia were lucky enough, one day, to afford a secretary, she’d bow at the woman’s feet. Secretaries and receptionists were so underrated. She thought of Maribeth.

  While Liam guided her through an atrium, five or six stories high, flanked by waterfalls and dotted with tall trees that reached toward the sky, she texted a response to Maribeth.

  I’m ok. With Liam Soren, in case my body ends up in a police blotter. Lol. Not worried about that. More worried about Todd. She backtracked in her message to correct her stupid autocorrect. I think Todd is worse than I knew. If you can, look him up. You have a friend in law enforcement, right? LOL you have friends everywhere. Please, do this for me. I need a background check run on Todd Hoolihan. A disgusted sound resonated in her throat. How did I ever trust a man with the last name of a cheap chain restaurant??

  Well, if she’d found time in her nightmare to text her closest confident, she could forgive Liam for finding time to send questions to her interrogator, Logan Stone.

  Still, he needed to be called out on that. What were his questions? And answers?

  How well did Liam think he knew her?

  In response, he said, “I sent Logan an email, with suggested questions. It was a group email. I wasn’t the only recipient.”

  “I know. I just wish I’d known.”

  “So, what? You could pelt me with questions I wasn’t allowed to answer”

  Annoyed by his perfectly respectable reason, she huffed. “Still.”

  When she glanced up at him with a probing gaze, he winked. “You passed the test. You saw the results yourself.”

  Apparently, she was destined to meet his impressive family. His cousin, Trey, Liam later revealed, was the man she’d nearly rammed into when she’d bolted from the interrogation room, before he’d ventured into the side room where Liam had waited for her.

  Were all the Soren men obscenely tall? At five-foot-eleven-inches, she felt normal-sized in comparison to his family. A rare, welcome experience.

  She followed Liam into a lower level in his building. It housed the gym, where apparently many of the guys worked out, then showered, before officially clocking in to work.

  Why he’d brought her here, she couldn’t fathom.

  He answered a few seconds later. “I want you to meet my brother, Adam. And his partner-in-crime, Cam.”

  Pretty much, she’d walked into a wall of testosterone.

  It smelled like a men’s locker room, the tang of sweat, metal and wet socks hit the back of her throat. She coughed and swallowed.

  Questioning his purpose, she glanced at Liam, who appeared unfazed. “Guys. I want you to meet Sophia.” He grinned. “Sophia, this is my brother, Adam. And Cam, his add-on.”

  Cam walked away from the bar, where he was supposed to be spotting Adam. “His add-on? Are you kidding? He’s too preoccupied with his wedding, to focus on his real job. I’m doing all his work.”

  Oh, boy. A wall of testosterone, indeed.

  At knee height, because she was taller than average, a man reclined with indecently bulging biceps, in the process of racking three weights on either side of the bar, each the circumference of her arms, if she made a circle. He levered the bar onto the stand without his spotter�
�s help. He sat up.

  Then he stood.

  Instinctively, Sophia backed away to take in his breadth and height. Her shoulder blades collided with Liam’s chest. His hands moved to cup her shoulders. He braced one arm across her chest. “Don’t worry. My brother Adam is mostly tame.”

  His brother? Good Lord. He rivaled the WWE wrestler build of even Mr. Atlas’s most well-built henchman.

  Poised in front of them, Adam made it a point to notice the way Liam held her shoulders. He came across extremely intimidating. She was glad for Liam’s shelter.

  Adam glanced at Liam, back at the protective placement of his hands on her, then looked at her right in the eye. The imposing man was measuring her. His vivid green eyes left her breathless. This was not a guy she wanted to find on her bad side.

  Would she measure up to his assessing gaze?

  Once he finished his evaluation, Adam gave a blinding smile. She wondered if all Soren’s carried that incredible gift of a knee-weakening grin. She suspected so.

  “More than tame, baby brother. I’m getting married in three weeks. I might be almost redeemable.”

  “Yeah,” Liam said, mocking doubt in his tone. “I’ll wait to see the proof.”

  Liam let her go, so he and his brother could transfer heavy punches to each other’s shoulders, followed by an embrace with slaps on the back.

  Baffled, the exchange amused her. She’d always wished she’d grown up in a big family.

  Behind them, two men stood in sweat-stained workout gear and fingerless gloves.

  The first man introduced himself as Eric Card, wearing the sides of his head shaved, a dark Mohawk smoothed back from his face. He then announced his nickname, Wildcard. Good grief, she could only imagine. As they shook, she realized two fingers were missing from his right hand. She smiled, careful not to acknowledge the finding. Everyone had personal things they’d rather not announce in the open, regardless of the obvious.

  “Hi Sophia. I’m Cam Anders.”

  The man reached his hand out and shook hers, not too hard, not too soft, just right. Something about him put her instantly at ease, despite his impressive size and build. For some reason, he reminded her of Liam, with mentalist-like qualities. Sure, his size made him intimidating on the surface. Not like Liam’s brother, Adam. In a different way, Cam commanded respect. Like Logan Stone.