The Undercover Billionaire

by Jackie Ashenden

  She couldn’t find enough air to breathe and her pulse was going insane.

  “Where’s Wolf?” she had to force out the words. “What have you done with him?”

  “Mr. Tate has been taken care of.” He reached out to take her arm. “Now, Miss de Santis, please. Boss wants to speak to you.”

  But Olivia didn’t move. “What do you mean ‘taken care of’?”

  “Miss de Santis, please. I won’t ask again.”

  Her hand was shaking, but she raised the gun and aimed it squarely at Clarence’s chest. “Tell me.”

  A small silence fell.

  Clarence glanced down at the gun, then back at her. “He’s alive, if that’s what you want to hear. Now you need to come with me. Boss told me to extract you with whatever force necessary.”

  “He’s alive…”

  The words echoed in her head over and over again, her knees feeling weak.

  She gripped the gun harder. “Take me to him.”

  “Miss de Santis, we really can’t—”

  “I said take me to him.” She couldn’t think of anything but seeing Wolf for herself, checking that he was actually breathing.

  Why would your father leave him alive?

  She ignored the thought. That could wait until she’d seen Wolf.

  Clarence was looking impatient, but she ignored that too. “I will fire this, make no mistake,” she said succinctly. “Once I’ve checked for myself that Mr. Tate is still breathing, I’ll go with you.”

  She didn’t want to go with him, but she knew her father. If he wanted her back, he’d take her back, kicking and screaming if he had to. The thought of being hauled over Clarence’s shoulder and dragged back to the de Santis mansion didn’t thrill her and it wouldn’t exactly help the situation either.

  It would be better to pretend to be the good daughter and go quietly. That way she’d be able to find out how he’d managed to find her and what he intended to do about the threat Wolf posed.

  Clarence merely shrugged. “Fine. Follow me then.” He turned and went up the stairs to the deck.

  Olivia forced herself into motion, climbing the stairs after him.

  It was still dark outside, but there was a faint light in the sky, which meant it was close to dawn. The air was frosty and she shivered in her thin dress.

  Until she saw the dark form of a massive man lying still on the deck and all thoughts of the temperature went straight out of her head.

  It was Wolf.

  She almost ran to him, only to be brought up short by Clarence’s hand on her arm. “Don’t get too close,” Clarence said flatly. “Boss doesn’t want you anywhere near him.”

  Olivia opened her mouth to argue, then closed it. Again, arguing wouldn’t get her anywhere and it wouldn’t help. Neither would continuing to threaten Clarence with that gun. She wasn’t going to pull that trigger, and he probably knew it too.

  So all she did was nod and stay where she was, looking at Wolf’s still form on the deck.

  There were three other men lying around him, all of them unconscious. A fourth was sitting on the edge of the boat, dripping wet, his hand on his jaw and moaning something about it being broken. A fifth stood nearby, his gun trained on Wolf’s head. He was cradling his hand close to his chest, as if it was injured too.

  God. Looked like Wolf had taken down nearly five men all on his own.

  Taking a shaky breath, she looked at him.

  He was lying on his front, his head turned away, the arrows and lines on his back dark against his skin. She hadn’t asked about that tattoo yet. He was breathing, she could see the slow rise and fall of his chest.

  Tears filled her eyes. She didn’t want to leave him and she was afraid. Both of what her father was going to do and what Wolf might do when he woke up.

  Swallowing back the tears, she glanced at Clarence. “What are you going to do with him?”

  Clarence’s expression was a mask. “You don’t need to concern yourself with such things.”

  Oh no, she wasn’t having that. Not now. Not here. “Don’t treat me like I’m stupid, Clarence,” she said coldly. “I know the kind of man my father is.” Yes, now you do. “Killing one of the Tate heirs would be a very short-sighted move right now.”

  If killing Wolf had been on the agenda, Clarence gave no sign, his face impassive. “Boss has other plans for Mr. Tate. He’s waiting for you, by the way. And you know how much he doesn’t like waiting.”

  Olivia’s jaw felt so tight it ached. Still, it didn’t look like any retribution was going to rain down on Wolf’s head right now, which was a relief. Of course, now she wanted to know what those “other plans” of her father’s were, and maybe he’d tell her. If she was biddable enough.

  Straightening her shoulders, she reversed the weapon she was holding and handed it to Clarence. Then she turned and moved around the deck to the gangplank, walking across to the dock. She didn’t look back as she made her way out of the boat basin, Clarence following along behind her, but her heartbeat hadn’t slowed. And she didn’t know whether it was raw fear or deep fury that went through her as she spotted her father’s limo waiting for her at the curb.

  Perhaps it was both.

  She gave a nod to Angus, her father’s driver who was holding the door open for her, and climbed inside the car.

  It was warm and the leather of the seat was soft as she sat back against it, but as Angus shut the door, she couldn’t shake the feeling that it sounded like the door to a tomb closing.

  Her father was sitting opposite her, his expression as impassive as Clarence’s. But his blue eyes glittered coldly as he surveyed her.

  Olivia met his gaze without flinching.

  Fury. It was fury she felt, not fear.

  “You went with him,” Cesare said, his voice heavy with accusation. “You went with him willingly.”

  “And you lied to me.” She made her voice as cold as his, because after all, she was his daughter. “You lied to me about everything.”

  His expression flickered then and she caught the slight widening of his eyes, as if he was surprised. “And what exactly did I lie to you about?”

  “Daniel May. You were going to give me to him.”

  “Yes,” he replied without hesitation. “But I thought you knew that. I told you what the advantages were and you seemed to be in agreement.”

  “‘No’ wasn’t going to be an option, though, was it, Dad? You were going to give me to him whether I wanted him or not.”

  Her father said nothing for a moment. Then he leaned forward and pressed the button on the intercom. “Take us home, Angus.”

  The car pulled away from the curb and she had to resist the urge to look back, to find the Lady in the darkness of the boat basin. To see if she could get one last glimpse of Wolf.

  But she didn’t. She stared at her father, the man she thought had loved her. The man who’d simply been using her all these years.

  “Explain to me, Dad,” she said when he didn’t break the silence. “Explain to me how you were going to make sure ‘no’ wasn’t an option. Would you have forced me up the aisle with a shotgun held to my back? Or would you have simply manipulated me the way you’ve been doing for the past ten years? Made it seem like it was a good business decision? That I’d be doing it for your sake, to make you happy?”

  He tilted his head, his cold gaze moving over her, staring at her as if she were something new, a stranger he’d never met and yet found intriguing. “What kind of lies has he been telling you?”

  “Who? Wolf? No lies at all. He told me the truth. And I found the evidence of it in some emails you sent to May.” She held his stare, finding a strength inside her she didn’t know she had. A fury that burned white hot. “You must have been thrilled with me all these years. How perfectly I fitted the role of the good daughter. Who never questioned you, who only wanted to please you. I was the perfect tool for you, the perfect cover.” She didn’t let the fury show in her voice. Kept it completely cold. She wou
ld fight fire with fire. “How long were you going to use me like that, Dad? Tell me, I’d really like to know.”

  Her father’s expression didn’t change. “You said he was coming for me. Care to elaborate?”

  Ah, so he wasn’t going to talk to her about any of that. He was going to pretend it didn’t exist. But that was okay, he knew that she knew. Perhaps it would have been better to keep playing the perfect daughter, but the fury inside her wouldn’t let her. She’d been playing that role for the last ten years, hiding from the truth. Afraid of it. Needing the lies to protect herself, to make herself feel like she wasn’t alone. That she was loved.

  Well, that time was past. She knew the truth and she wasn’t afraid anymore. And she wasn’t alone either.

  Wolf Tate might not love her, but he did care. He was still her friend after everything that had happened between them, and that mattered.

  “First of all, tell me how you found me,” she said. “I didn’t tell you where I was.”

  “No, but we were able to track down the IP of the laptop you used,” her father answered casually. “Easy enough to do if you have the right person with the right skills.”

  Ah, so that’s how he’d done it.

  Your fault.

  Yes, well. She’d have to deal with that when the time came.

  “He’s coming to kill you, Dad,” she said flatly. “He’s been a double agent for Noah Tate all this time. His mission was to insinuate himself into our family, pass information back to Noah, and then, when the time was right, kill you.”

  Her father leaned back against the seat and let out a breath. “Yes, I know.”

  Olivia refused to let her shock show. “You know?”

  “Of course.” He lifted his shoulder. “An obvious and foolish ploy on Noah’s behalf, but it was useful for me. I gave Wolf information to take back to Noah to make it look like he had secrets of mine and in return I got secrets from Wolf. It was all bullshit, but even bullshit information is still information.” Her father’s mouth curved in a cold smile. “He had Chloe and so I thought I’d try and get Wolf.”

  Chloe, Wolf’s adoptive sister.

  She frowned. “What’s Chloe Tate got to do with Wolf?”

  “Chloe Tate is my daughter, Olivia. I have two, you see.”

  More shock pulsed down her spine, her fingertips going numb. Chloe Tate was … her half sister. She couldn’t even start to process that one.

  “Noah took her as a baby after her mother died,” her father went on. “I thought it prudent to leave her with the Tates. My very own inside man, so to speak. Then Wolf appeared at my door one day with some obviously made up story about Noah knocking him around. And I thought why not take him too?”

  She fought to keep still, staring at the man opposite her, fury beating inside her like a prisoner trapped in a room and screaming to get out. “Why Dad?” she heard herself ask, even though she hadn’t meant to. “Why are you doing this? You and Noah Tate, hurting each other and not caring who you use to do it.”

  Cesare’s eyes glittered in the streetlights outside, sudden fury passing over his face. “You know why. He stole from me, Olivia. He stole everything from me.”

  “No. He stole your oil. That’s all.” Her voice wasn’t cold now, it was full heat, full of the fury she couldn’t keep inside her any longer. “You had a wife. You had children. You had a family who loved you and you used them all, alienated all of them, and for what? Thirty years of pointless plotting and manipulation, and all because your friend stole some oil off you.”

  Her father’s expression twisted. “You don’t understand—”

  “No,” she cut across him, not waiting for him to speak. “I don’t understand and I never will. You had everything. A huge company you created out of nothing, money to burn. A wife who loved you, children who adored you. And yet it wasn’t enough. You couldn’t let go what Noah did, could you? So you sacrificed everything you had, your company, your wife and your children, and for what? For money? For your hurt feelings?”

  The brief flare of rage had disappeared from her father’s face as if it had never been there. “You don’t understand,” he said, continuing as if she’d never spoken. “Noah never admitted fault. He never admitted he’d done wrong. He stole from me, stole my future. He betrayed me, Olivia. And I will never forgive him for that.”

  No, she could see that.

  He will never change his mind.

  All the fury suddenly bled out of her, leaving her feeling hollow and sick. There was no point arguing with him. No point talking. Nothing she said was going to make any difference to him.

  Like Wolf, he had a mission and he would not deviate from it.

  You know what you have to do then, don’t you?

  This feud would never end until her father was dead, she knew that now. But she couldn’t kill him, neither would she let Wolf do it. He had to be stopped some other way, put in prison for a very long time where he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone ever again. Where he had time to reflect on what he’d done and maybe find some peace with it. Or maybe he’d never find peace. Maybe all there would ever be was fury.

  That was fine. At least he wouldn’t be around to take that fury out on anyone else.

  Her mind made up, Olivia sat back against the seat and folded her icy hands in her lap. “What are you going to do with Wolf?”

  “Why?” Her father’s gaze was sharp. “You care about him, don’t you?”

  “Yes. He’s my friend.”

  “And more, judging from your appearance right now.”

  She almost put her hand to her hair to smooth it, then didn’t bother. It would be obvious. Which also made lying to him pointless. “Yes, you must know that.”

  Cesare only nodded. “If you want him, I can arrange some things. It could be useful for you to be allied with a Tate.”

  “He wants you dead, Dad.”

  “So you told me. But there are always ways around these things. Always ways to change people’s minds.”

  She held his gaze. “I won’t let you kill him.”

  Cesare gave a short, harsh laugh. “What makes you think I want to kill him? What would the point be? He’s useful. And if he wants you, then he’s more useful still.”

  Ah, so that was what he intended. He was going to use her to get to Wolf.

  It should have worried her or at the very least called back her fury, but she felt neither. Only … oddly reassured. Because this was expected behavior from her father. Of course he’d use whatever was between her and Wolf to his advantage, but at least he wouldn’t hurt him. And that also meant that perhaps she could use his own predictability against him.

  She wasn’t sure how yet, but she was sure she could come up with something. Two could play at that game.

  She was nothing if not her father’s daughter.

  * * *

  Wolf came to with a cracking headache and feeling like he’d been dumped in a deep freeze for a couple of hours. Which given that he’d been lying half naked on the deck of his boat in the middle of winter for at least that long, was pretty much literally what had happened.

  He was also deeply and completely enraged.

  The last thing he remembered was laying two assholes out cold on the deck, while he’d punched a third in the face then picked him up and flung him into the river. He was just starting onto the fourth, when someone had hit him very hard over the back of the head. Dazed, he’d spun around and wrenched the truncheon he’d been hit with from the prick’s hand, hopefully breaking that motherfucker’s fingers in the process, but someone else had then hit him again. And this time he’d gone out like a light.

  Normally he could take five guys on and beat the pants off them. But these guys had been military trained, the one who’d hit him the first time likely special ops, which meant they were a grade above the usual security asshole.

  He might be a SEAL, but he wasn’t superhuman, and as galling as it was to admit he’d been beaten, they’d certainly managed
to knock him out.

  The really weird thing though was that they’d left him alive. He couldn’t think why that would be. Because he’d known from the second the inexplicable rocking of the boat had woken him up, that de Santis had somehow found them, and had come for him.

  Still, killing a Tate and leaving him dead on his boat in the middle of Manhattan wasn’t exactly an intelligent move. There were more subtle ways to kill a man and ones that wouldn’t leave a trail.

  Which had to mean that de Santis wanted him alive for some reason.

  Aren’t you forgetting one other thing?

  Under the boiling heat of his fury, something icy gripped him.

  Olivia.

  Ignoring the cold, the pain in his head, and his blurred vision, Wolf stumbled from the deck and down the stairs, tearing aside the door to the stateroom.

  But it was empty.

  Olivia wasn’t there.

  He leaned back against the doorframe as his stomach dropped away.

  She was gone. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth as an aching emptiness swept through him. Ridiculous. It wasn’t as if she’d vanished off the face of the planet. It wasn’t likely she’d be in any danger, either, because it was clear her father had taken her and he wouldn’t hurt his daughter, that much Wolf did know.

  How did they find you?

  Good. Fucking. Point.

  De Santis had found him and made a preemptive strike, taking Olivia away, leaving Wolf with nothing with which to lure him out again.

  Holy shit, how many more times was he going to fuck this up? All he had to do was kill the bastard. How hard could that be?

  Yeah, yeah, quit whining and figure out what you’re going to do now.

  Growling, he shoved himself away from the doorframe and walked over to the dresser, opening the drawers and pulling on some clothes to get warm. A thermal, leather jacket, boots. Then he fiddled with the loose bottom on the drawer and pulled out the Sig Sauer 9mm he had secreted in the base of it, sliding the gun into the waistband of his jeans at the small of his back.

  There was no question about what he was going to do now. The mission objectives hadn’t changed. Yes, it was now going to be harder, but he’d had that problem when Olivia had escaped the first time and had overcome it.