Rascal (Edgewater Agency Book 2)
Page 1
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Rascal
A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance
Kyanna Skye
Contents
Introduction
Personal Note
Rascal: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Ruthless Prick: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance
Filthy Escape: An Alpha Male Billionaire Romance
Confessions: A Secret Baby Football Romance
Tackle Me: A Bad Boy Football Romance
Touchdown For Love: Billionaire Bad Boy Football Romance
Uncaged: A Bad Boy MMA Fighter Romance
Wanted by the Outlaw: MC Biker Bad Boy Romance
Protected by the Soldier Bear: Military Werebear Romance
The Lion’s Secret Baby: Paranormal Romance
Mated to the Lion: Paranormal Romance
The Twin Dragon’s Mate
Rescued by Billionaire Dragons
Conquered by the Alien Dragon
The Ape’s Redemption
Copyright 2017 Kyanna Skye - All rights reserved.
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Personal Note
Hi there, I’m Kyanna Skye and as much as I love my bad boys I equally love my strong females. I believe women are capable of so much and we deserve to have all our desires fulfilled. I love writing about the spark that is ignited when an alpha male meets a strong female! To all my amazing readers, thank you for reading my book and as always indulge in your forbidden desires!
For your reading pleasure after the main book I have included extra bonus bad boy stories for your enjoyment.
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KyannaSkyeRomance
kyanna@alpharomances.com
Rascal: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance
Erika is more than just a mystery. She’s my best friends missing sister. But connections from her shady past could easily get both of us killed.
Erika: I am in the worst dilemma of my life. In order to put the past behind me, I’m required to pull one last job, one which could get me killed or locked up if anything goes wrong. Alec has reached out to me. I want him, and want to believe the things he says, but I don’t know if I can trust him.
Alec: My friend came to me to find his long lost sister, the last connection he has to his late mother. But I got more than I signed up for. Erika is a woman with a dangerous past and a tenuous present. And she’s beautiful. In order to quench my desire for her, I must find a way to keep her safe.
Chapter 1
Alec would usually be in a suit and tie to meet a new client, but this day was an exception. He headed up the coast on his motorcycle in his rider’s gear: leather pants, white t-shirt, boots. He liked the wind in his hair but wore a helmet because he knew the dangers of wiping out, especially on this stretch of road. The Pacific lay to the right, bright blue and sparkling in the sunshine. It was a perfect Southern California day in springtime.
Rick’s house was in Palisades, a two story home built back in the 1950’s when people didn’t realize they’d be in the company of millionaires if they just waited around a couple more decades. Alec and Rick had been friends for five years, back when they met during a motorcycle ride for charity. Over the years they had gone on many fishing and camping trips together, along with a few friends they had in common.
The thing about Rick was, outside of their shared love of riding and the outdoors, Alec didn’t really know much about him.
Alec kept his own past and parts of his life guarded, and he found that he gravitated to other people who did the same. After several years of working in Black Ops, it was a way of life to keep quiet, be private with both his professional and personal life. At thirty-five, Alec considered himself blessed to have retired from the business. These days he worked with three men he called his brothers, former black ops soldiers who’d worked the same unit he did. They had fought, schemed, and in several cases, nearly died together. He knew that they would always have each other’s backs. Not everyone had those kinds of bonds with friends, much less colleagues.
Rick had called him a few days before, asking him to come up, but making it clear that while he should be casual about it, he had a business proposition for him to consider.
“Hey, you’re right on time,” Rick greeted him with a smile. “How was the ride up?”
“It was great,” Alec told him. “It’s been too long since I rode up this way.”
The men settled onto the back deck. The house was on an acre or so of land, and the yard backed up to some woods. They shared a few beers and talked about riding, and some of the trips their mutual friends had been on lately. There was a lull in the conversation before things turned more serious.
“I know you must be wondering what I wanted to see you about,” Rick said. “I do want to contract your firm. I heard your people are very discreet.”
“Absolutely,” Alec replied. “What is it you need done?”
Rick turned to him. He was a big man, tall muscular and built like a quarterback, with dark curly hair and green eyes. Alec knew his friend didn’t ask for help often, and it was probably difficult for him to do it now.
“You’ve probably noticed I don’t talk about family much,” Rick began.
Alec shrugged. “I have but it’s not my favorite topic either.”
“Well here goes. I’m looking for someone.”
Rick put his beer down. He looked out into the woods as if he were imagining the past out there. Or maybe it was a way to keep from looking Alec in the eye.
“So my parents had a complicated relationship. I guess you could say they were on and off with each other. When I was about six, the two of them were trying to figure out whether or not they wanted to get a divorce. They broke up for a while. My mother was pregnant at the time, which only made things worse. I only remember bits and parts of things that happened between them back then, I was just a kid. Anyway. She left me with my Dad and went to stay someplace else. My guess is she was with my grandparents, trying to figure things out, I can’t say for sure. But when she came back she w
asn’t pregnant anymore. When my father asked her what happened, she said she lost the baby.”
“Okay,” Alec said quietly.
“She was with us for maybe another year. And then she left again, this time for good. I stayed with my Dad. I would hear from her every so often—birthday cards, gifts here and there, you know the drill. I got postcards from her all over the world. She never mailed me anything from the same place twice. I had the feeling she was running from my Dad. When I was a kid I used to blame everything on my mother. I hated her for not being with me or wanting to take me with her. It wasn’t until I got older I started to see how truly obsessive my Dad could be in a relationship. I started to realize maybe she had a reason for not wanting to be with him. I think she left me with him because he wouldn’t agree to share---and if she had taken me with her, he’d have scoured the earth until he found me. He’s a rich man. Trust me, he’s got the resources and he’s the kind who would do it. He wasn’t ashamed to tell me that was true when I finally got up the nerve to ask him.”
Alec nodded, urging him to go on. Rick crossed his arms over his chest.
“Well, I had an unexpected surprise a couple of weeks ago. I was notified by an attorney that my mother died last month.”
“I’m sorry, man.”
Rick nodded. “Yeah. Apparently, I own a bunch of property from her in all kinds of places: a flat in London, a house stateside in Virginia, a home in Argentina. And those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head,” he sighed. “The interesting thing is all her estate is divided evenly between me and one other person—my sister.”
“Wait. So the child survived?”
“Yes,” Rick said. “The lawyer told me that he doesn’t know where she is, and he was actually hoping that I could tell him where she is so he can inform her about her inheritance. It was a shock but I’ve had a little time to sit with it. She’s twenty-nine and I know nothing about her. And it just haunts me that until now I haven’t known she even existed, much less what happened to her. Maybe she had a difficult relationship with our mother too and hasn’t been in contact with her for a few years, but I don’t know.”
“You’ve already tried all the regular routes for finding her?”
“I have,” Rick said. “It’s looking more and more like she was never given up for adoption, or if she was, it was under a different name than the one in the legal documents. She’s listed as Erika Hill. I haven’t found anything. You’d think with all the websites out there to help find missing relatives, and social media, I would have come up with something. Nada.”
“It has to be frustrating. My team has certain resources,” Alec said. “Finding people can take a little time but we haven’t ever come up against someone we couldn’t locate. It sounds like wherever she is, she’d not trying to be found. Not to dwell on the negative but I want you to consider the possibility that she won’t want to speak with you.”
“Well she might not but money is usually a pretty good motivator,” Rick replied. “Really, I have thought about it. At this point, I’d be happy to see her, know who she is for sure and that she’s okay. I’m not getting my hopes up, after all, it’s possible our mom never told her about me and Dad. Which, by the way, I would like to keep him out of this if at all possible. If she wants to meet him herself, it should be her decision. To be frank, I don’t get along with the old man myself much these days, I wouldn’t push him off on somebody else.”
“Other than a name, do you have anything else?” Alec asked.
“Oh, yes. I have this.” Rick reached into his pocket and pulled out a photograph. It had been folded and was frayed around the edges, but it wasn’t old, just well worn. There was a digital time stamp on the bottom, which showed the date as January of the previous year.
“I was given some boxes of my mother’s personal effects, and this was wedged inside one of her favorite books. She always had a thing for Bronte, so I knew this was special to her when I found it. See that girl to the left? She’s a spitting image of my mother. I believe that’s Erika.”
He handed me the photograph and took a good look. The girl looked like she was Rick’s kin. There was a resemblance in the dark hair and shape of her brown eyes. She wore a black leather jacket and a dark dress beneath it and high heels. She seemed unaware of the camera and stood with her head tilted towards the speaker, a man standing a few feet away from a statue. There were other people crowding about her in the photo, also listening, but none seemed as intent as Erika. From the looks of things, this was the start of a standard museum tour. Alec’s training clued him in on the fact that the photo was taken with an expensive lens and at a distance. Whoever was behind the camera, Erika was the subject of their attention.
“Would you mind if I took this? I would like to have it analyzed,” Alec said.
“Sure. I guess we should discuss fees…”
“Let’s not,” Alec cut him off. “I know you can afford it but you’re a friend. Let me see what we can come up with first. If you like our results, then we can discuss how much you’re going to pay me. We are expensive, but we’re also the best.”
“I appreciate this, Alec. You don’t know, I have been losing sleep over wondering what happened to her.”
“We’ll find out,” he promised.
Alec lived and worked within a compound, behind high white walls and ten-foot gates. And this was by choice.
When Alec and his friends: Kiefer, David, and Jesse arrived back home to the States, the first order of business was figuring out where they should live. Returning to civilian life after years of being in black ops had its own challenges, none of which they could reveal to other people outside of a therapist or a clergy member. Instead of splitting up and not seeing each other again, they decided to buy four adjoining properties. The fifth was a house in the center of their enclave, which they turned into their office space. There was high tech security around the perimeter of their homes and workspace; they didn’t have to worry about enemies turning up or curious onlookers coming through. Everything they owned was for their own design and comfort.
Alec opened the door to his office. Metallica was pumping through the air. He went up to the second floor and found David alone at his desk.
David was the technical genius of their group. He could hack into almost anything given the time to do it in. He’d been recruited into black ops for his skills, but Kiefer trained him and he became as much a soldier as the rest of the group. A natural redhead with a thin beard, David kept his head shaved. Because he worked out a couple hours a day, he allowed himself whatever junk he wanted to eat. It wasn’t unusual for him to live off of chips and soda when he was busy working on a complex problem. Both his arms were covered in full sleeves of tattoos, and he’d recently gotten a stud through his left eyebrow.
“Hey, Man,” Alec said, dropping into the chair across from his friend’s desk. “Where’s everybody else?”
David nodded. He slurped ramen from a foam container with a pair of chopsticks. “Well, let’s see. Jesse is on his way to Los Feliz to close with that client from last week. And Kiefer is out with Shari. It’s her birthday, so those the lovebirds probably won’t be around until tomorrow.”
Alec chuckled. “I’m surprised she took a day off, workaholic that she is. Kiefer was complaining last week about having to pull her away from her laptop, even when she’s at his place. She has three different cellphones.”
“Well, you know how it is, I’m sure he worked out some way to convince her. Watch, he’ll be bragging about where he took her and what they did. I heard something about wine country and a bed and breakfast.”
Alec smiled. He was happy to see his friend with a woman he really cared about, but he would be lying to himself if he didn’t admit it made him feel odd.
Alec hadn’t really tried to be in a relationship for a few years. He had friendships with women that turned physical. The last woman he was seeing hadn’t even been free to be in a relationship, and things ende
d after a few hot and heavy weeks of hookups. He wasn’t lonely. He was used to not having people in his life who were permanent. Every now and again, when he saw how happy Kiefer was with Shari, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was missing out on something. His rationalization was that he wasn’t cut out to be with anyone for the long term, especially with all the emotional baggage he brought to the table. Kiefer bore the same battle scars he did. And if that man could have a fairly normal relationship with a woman like Shari, who was a catch in every aspect… it made his justification for not even giving it a shot with a woman of his own seems pretty thin.
“I’ve got, maybe a new case for us,” Alec said. He needed to shake off this train of thought so he could concentrate. He got up, poured himself a cup of steaming coffee, and gave David a recap of everything Rick told him.
“Well, that gives us a lot to go on. Not,” David said cheerfully. He sat up and typed a code into his computer. “Never freaking stopped us before, though. What do you think about this whole story? I know he’s your friend, but isn’t there something fishy?”
“Could be,” Alec admitted. “Really makes me want to know more about what was going on with his parents and exactly why he’s not talking to his Dad. Might not have anything to do with his sister, but maybe it does. I find it odd her mother didn’t seem to know where her daughter was when she died, or if she did, she didn’t tell her lawyer.”
“Details,” David said. “I gotcha. Couldn’t hurt to look into it. This girl,” David paused. “Kinda hot, don’t you think?”
Alec wondered how Rick had dealt with the news about his family; his mother’s death and the existence of a sister he never knew about. Here he was, basically a stranger investigating the case, and Alec found himself haunted by it. The night after his meeting with Rick, Alec found himself haunted by uneasy dreams. Early the next morning, he went back into the office.