A Billionaire for Christmas

by Leslie North

  Nope. He wasn’t going there. Yes, he’d crossed boundaries with Aileen. Yes, they’d slept together. Yes, they had an undeniable connection that under different times, different circumstances, he might have willingly explored further. But this was his best bud’s little sister. His best bud, who still didn’t know that Aileen was alive and well.

  Ugh.

  He got up to start clearing the table and a knock sounded on the front door. Last night, he’d been expecting it. Today? Not so much.

  Aileen pushed to her feet as well and began gathering dirty dishes. “More surprises?”

  “Seems so,” Heath said, scowling. The knot of tension in his gut pulled tighter. It was Christmas. Who the hell made unexpected house calls on the holidays? Part of him wanted to grab his gun from the bedroom before answering, just in case. But the other part of him said he was overacting and to just answer the damned door already. With a sigh, he headed down the hall to the front of the brownstone and opened the door without checking, distracted by the sound of Aileen humming Christmas carols in the kitchen.

  Before he knew what was happening, two huge thugs had him pinned to the wall, one of them with a choking hand around Heath’s neck. Being a SEAL, he was no slouch in the self-defense department, but these guys were good and obviously well-trained. While one guy kept Heath where he was, the other headed for the kitchen where Aileen was working.

  Heath wanted to yell, to warn her, but the pressure against his windpipe prevented any noise from escaping. His vision tunneled as his brain was deprived of oxygen and Heath struggled to remain conscious. Aileen needed him. The woman he loved was in danger and he’d be damned if he went down without a fight.

  “Hey! What the fuck?” Aileen’s yells echoed down the hallway. “Get your goddamned hands off me.”

  Apparently she’d been taken by surprise too, otherwise she could’ve flattened both these guys given the way she’d taken Heath down the other night in his gym. The thug hauled Aileen out into the living room, kicking and screaming the whole way. She froze when she saw Heath against the wall. “Oh, God! Baby, what’s going on?”

  All Heath could do was shake his head.

  “Senator Lawrence wants a word with both of you,” the thug restraining Aileen said. “We’re here to take you to him. We can do that the easy way or the hard way. Your choice.”

  “Just let him go and I’ll come with you,” she said, her eyes locked on Heath.

  The thug released Heath’s neck and he slumped down the wall, gasping. His words emerged raspy. “Thanks.”

  “Are you okay?” Aileen said, rushing to his side as soon as her captor released her.

  “I’m fine.” He rubbed his sore throat and held up his hand, coughing. “We should go with them. Hear what the senator has to say.”

  Aileen held his gaze for a moment longer. Heath did his best to convey through his look how much he cared for her and how he’d protect her with his life, if needed. In her amber eyes, he thought he saw an answering affection, but he couldn’t be sure.

  Then Aileen turned to the thugs and straightened, her shoulders squared. “Fine. Journalism is about being fair. Let’s hear his side of the story and see if he can talk his way out of this one.”

  * * *

  Turned out the senator was staying at the Ritz-Carlton. Aileen followed the thugs into the dark-wood paneled lobby and past the towering Christmas trees lining the walls and over to a set of sleek silver elevators. Heath stayed close by her side, a muscular wall of don’t-fuck-with-me, his glowering stares at their escorts putting Aileen even more on edge.

  The morning had started out so blissful too, with him making her breakfast and visions of the sweet, tender lovemaking they’d shared in the early morning hours still dancing in her head. Then this. Yes, work was a priority. Work was why she was here. But right now, work had taken a backseat to what she felt for a certain billionaire who’d swept her off her feet.

  They rode up to the top floor in silence and proceeded into the Presidential Suite without comment. Her research on Milford Lawrence had left her with little doubt the guy had his sights set on the White House. This just confirmed her suspicions.

  A woman sat on the couch, looking like she’d seen better days: dark circles beneath her eyes, hair mussed, dress stained and crooked. It took Aileen a moment to realize this was the senator’s wife. She looked a hell of a lot different from the last time Aileen had seen the woman at the charity ball. The air smelled of liquor and a half empty bottle of bourbon sat on the table in front of her.

  “Ah, I see my guests have arrived,” Milford Lawrence said, emerging from a door near the back of the suite. “Honey, can you give us some privacy, please?”

  The wife gave Aileen and Heath a flat stare then stumbled off through the doorway her husband had stepped through, slamming the door behind her.

  “Mind telling me why you thought it was necessary to kidnap us on Christmas morning?” Aileen demanded, stepping closer to the little man who’d taken center stage in her life for the past few months. From his unimposing appearance, most people took Milford to be the kindly old gentleman from Kentucky that he portrayed to the world. But Aileen knew better. She saw past his slight paunch, his balding head and stooped shoulders to the ruthless con artist beneath.

  “Just wait until this goes in my article. You can kiss your Senate seat goodbye.”

  In a flash, Lawrence’s eyes went from meek to malevolent. “You will not speak a word of this to anyone, young lady. You won’t print one either. Not if you want that newspaper of yours to stay in business. Be a shame to put all those people out on the streets.”

  “Like you’re doing to all the people who invested in EnKor?” She growled and took a step forward, only to be stopped by the thugs grabbing her arms.

  “What’s happening with my nephew’s energy company is unfortunate, I admit. It tears me up inside to think about all those poor constituents losing their life savings. But I assure you that the short term losses will be worth the long term gains I’ll be able to achieve as President.”

  Aileen snorted. “What a load of crap!”

  Senator Lawrence ignored her and instead focused on Heath. He tossed a folder on the coffee table between them and scowled. “My bigger concern right now is why Heathcliff Goldwin is poking into my personal affairs.” He glared at Heath. “Believe me, a man does not get to be as wealthy as your father without a few skeletons of his own. Tell him to leave me alone or I won’t hesitate to parade all his sordid little secrets through every tabloid in town.”

  “You think that will scare off a Goldwin?” Heath chuckled. “We’ve already been dragged through the muck by every paper in town.”

  “Yes.” The senator flashed an unpleasant, mirthless smile. “Too bad about your wreck of a love life. Even worse when it plays out on Page One. But there are far worse scandals in your family’s past. Your own too, isn’t there Heath? All those black ops missions in the Middle East. All those gray areas where being an operative could cross the line into espionage, even treason.”

  Aileen felt Heath stiffen beside her, the color draining from his handsome face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, come on now, boy. I can tell from your expression that isn’t true.” Senator Lawrence took a seat on the sofa where his wife had been moments earlier, and poured himself a healthy portion of bourbon into a tumbler. “Now that I have the attention of both of you, let me explain to you how this is all going to play out. Miss Coen here is going to hand over any and all research she’s gathered on myself and EnKor Energy.”

  “Like hell I am,” Aileen said.

  Continuing on as if she hadn’t spoken, Milford said, “After all, the head of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee can’t be seen to be approving grants to companies with whom he has a personal connection. Very unseemly.” His crooked grin was cold enough to freeze ice. “Once you’ve done that, then you can go back to your miserable, hum-drum life, Miss Coen.”
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  Aileen flipped him off.

  “What about me?” Heath ground out, a small muscle ticking near his tight jaw. “What’s my role in all this?”

  “Well, since you asked.” Senator Lawrence stretched his arms out along the back of the sofa as if he hadn’t a care in the world. “You are going to tell that nosy father of yours to mind his own business and stay out of mine. If he does, then you and your family won’t end up under Federal Investigation.”

  “What about all the investors? All those poor people who stand to lose everything because of your fraudulent deal with EnKor?” Aileen tried to keep the malice from her tone and failed miserably. She couldn’t turn her back on the MacLeans. Not after everything they’d done for her. She wouldn’t.

  “Once I’m President, I’ll see to it that every single one of them gets their money back. You have my word.”

  “Your word isn’t worth shit.” Aileen all but spat the words, too angry to care at that point. “If I—”

  “Wait!” Heath said, giving her some serious side-eye. “I think we should trust him.”

  “Excuse me?” Disbelief poured out of her. “You what?”

  “Yeah.” Heath pulled out his cell phone and set it on the coffee table. “The links to our cloud files are on there, passwords pre-loaded. All her research, all of mine too. You can check it to be sure.”

  “You can’t just give him that. And how the hell did you access my files…” Aileen gaped at Heath. “You played me. You hacked my computer while we were at the brownstone, didn’t you? That night before we went to the auction. My instincts told me you weren’t checking your emails like you said, but I trusted you. I thought we were a team. All this time I thought you cared, I thought we were working together, but you played me.” She remembered his friend Daveed, the one Murphy always bragged could hack into anything, anywhere, showing up at Heath’s offices. “You hacked into my computer, all my accounts. You rotten son of a bitch. I trusted you.”

  Heath swallowed hard, his gorgeous face unreadable as he met her gaze. “I know.”

  “Fine.” The senator gave a dismissive wave toward his thug guards as Aileen blinked back the unwanted sting of tears. To think she’d given her heart to this man, her body, her soul. Traitor wasn’t a strong enough word for scum like Heath Goldwin. “Get them out of my sight. And believe me, I will be checking all of this data. If I think anything’s missing, things won’t go well for either of you.”

  9

  Heath walked into his condo two days later to meet with the guys, fully prepared to face the full extent of Murphy’s wrath. Since leaving Senator Lawrence’s hotel room on Christmas afternoon, things had changed rapidly. Aileen had cleared out of the brownstone and moved back into her apartment down the hall from the MacLeans. She’d barely said two words to him as she’d left, wearing only the original Santa suit she’d arrived in and taking only her company laptop with her. He’d not spoken to her since.

  Honestly, Heath couldn’t blame her for hating him. The way he’d handled the situation with Lawrence hadn’t been ideal, but at the time he’d only been concerned about keeping her safe and getting them out of that place in one piece. It wasn’t until later that the full magnitude of what he’d done hit him like a brick upside the head. She’d trusted him and he’d betrayed that trust. Yes, he’d done it to keep her safe, but that didn’t seem to matter to his aching heart.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you, man?” Murphy snarled at first sight of Heath. He was on his feet and halfway across the living room, his fists clenched and his expression murderous, before Daveed restrained him. Struggling against the other man’s hold, he yelled at Heath, his black eyes blazing with fury. “You knew how worried I was, knew I was going nuts over Aileen’s disappearance, and you knew she was alive and well. You fucking knew and you never said a goddamned word!”

  Heath didn’t argue. What was the point? It was true. It was all true. He should’ve done better by his friend. Should’ve done better by a lot of people—most importantly, Aileen. Her top priority in all of this was protecting those she loved and cared for and he’d all but destroyed any chance she’d have now of stopping the fraudulent government grants from going to EnKor and effectively bankrupting millions of poor and disadvantaged investors who’d poured their life savings into the sham company. There was only one saving grace, one chance to turn this shitstorm around and salvage something from the wreckage…

  “Did you access the files?” Heath asked Daveed, who was currently glowering at him over Murphy’s shoulder. “Please, God. Tell me you copied them before she changed the passwords.”

  With a muttered curse, Daveed tightened his hold on Murphy. “If I let you go, you must promise not to kill him. Not yet.”

  Murphy grunted, his tanned face flushed red from anger. “Fine.”

  “Fine.” Daveed thrust him away then snarled at Heath. “Yes. I got your precious files. For what good they’ll do now.”

  Taking a seat in a chair across from where the guys were standing in front of the sofa, Heath pulled out his replacement phone and set it on the coffee table. For once, he wasn’t sure how to begin this meeting. He’d been leader of their special ops group since back when they’d been stationed in the Middle East, had remained in charge after they’d all gotten out and decided to run their own investigation into Aileen’s disappearance. He was tough, smart, detail-oriented to a fault. But never, once, had he ever imagined this awkward as ass situation. Until now, he’d always put the team and his buddies and his family above everything else when it came to protection. Now, even after the way things had ended, he found Aileen foremost in his thoughts, his heart, his everything.

  “Dammit.” Frustrated, he raked a hand through his shaggy blond hair and focused on the coffee table in front of him because meeting the ragged hurt in Murphy’s eyes right then was too painful. “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about your sister, okay? It was never my intention to keep it a secret for so long. It was just one thing led to another and things got out of hand with the story she was working on and it all went to shit. I’m sorry, dude. More than I can say.”

  “Jesus, man! I trusted you. I reported to you right away on our missions, never held anything back.” Murphy stepped closer and Heath fully expected a hard punch to the jaw, but for some reason his friend stopped. “Fuck!”

  Murphy stalked away, over to the open kitchen. He pulled a beer from the fridge, started to open it then set it aside, grumbling. Considering it was not yet six in the morning, it was probably a wise idea. Heath watched his friend from beneath his lashes as he paced the room. Finally, Murphy slumped back down on the couch and scrubbed his hands over his face before meeting Heath’s gaze again. “This is not okay. I’m not sure it will ever be okay. But I want Aileen safe. Now that we know where she is and what she’s working on, we can deal with the senator situation and end this shit once and for all, yeah?”

  Heath exhaled and glanced at Daveed. “Yeah?”

  After a moment of silence, Daveed took a seat on the opposite end of the sofa from Murphy. “Yeah.”

  “Right. So how are we going to take down this son of a bitch Lawrence?” Heath sat back and scowled. “I’ve got to tread lightly. Not only because of Aileen, but the senator said he had dirt on my father as well. Whatever it is, I can’t risk it coming out.”

  Daveed sat forward and rested his forearms on his knees. Tall, dark, and muscular, he carried himself with a regal air that bespoke his royal heritage, even though he’d turned down the throne of his homeland, Al Dar Nasrani. “I’m guessing Senator Lawrence plans to trot out the old rumors about your father paying off congressmen to get favorable bills passed.”

  “Trouble is, he did that. It’s true.” Heath shook his head. “I never claimed my family was spotless and I won’t go there now. Right before I joined the Navy, I remember overhearing a meeting between my father and Senator Lawrence in his office. My dad wanted to secure the natural gas drilling rights for a company he�
�d bought stock in and he was trying to grease the wheels by bribing Lawrence.”

  “Did the senator accept?” Murphy asked, still frowning darkly.

  “Hell, yeah. He couldn’t get his hands on that cash fast enough. Said he would put it toward his legacy fund or some such shit.” Heath gave a derisive snort. “God, I even used that hidden meeting as leverage to get my dad to sign off on my enlistment in the Navy. What a mess.”

  “Is your dad still tight with the Federal Prosecutor?” Daveed asked.

  “As far as I know.”

  “Good. I’d advise you to tell your father to talk with him and explain this situation with Lawrence. That will head off any more threats on that front.” Daveed squinted down at his own phone screen. “On the other front, I’ve received word from my father as well. That’s what I came to tell you at the BrightStart offices a few days ago, but you were otherwise occupied.”

  “Shit. You took Aileen to your work too?” Murphy all but spat the words out. “Why didn’t you rent a frigging parade float and drive her down Park Avenue?”

  “When I need your advice on how to live my life, I’ll be sure and ask,” Heath snapped, unable to stop himself. God, he’d been such an idiot where Aileen was concerned and he wished he could go back and change it all now, but it was too late. Knowing that was a hopeless cause, he refocused on Daveed. “And?”

  “My father has spoken with the Minister of Energy for Al Dar Nasrani and they’ve agreed to a deal. They’re going to make the offer to buy out EnKor Energy today.”