Tank (Blue-Collar Billionaires #1)

by M. Malone

  Tank grabs my hands. “Here’s the thing. I know how I feel about you. Ever since the beginning, being around you has been one of the only times I feel calm. Happy. You center me, Emma. But I’ll always wonder which memories between us are tainted. Were you only with me for the money while cooking dinner for my family? Or were you thinking about the money that night when you cleaned the cut on my arm and I held you all night? Which memories are real and which are manufactured?”

  I shake my head. “None of them. From the very beginning, I couldn’t do what I was supposed to do. I couldn’t see you as a job. You wouldn’t let me. You kept surprising me with how smart and funny and sweet you are.”

  “Sweet, huh?”

  Even in the midst of a serious conversation, he can manage to be arrogant. I laugh. “Yeah, I’ll admit it this once. You’re incredibly sweet. And when I was with you, all the bad stuff went away for a while. I’ve never been happier than when I was with you.”

  “That’s exactly how I feel. So, I don’t care about what my father did or didn’t do anymore. I’m in love with you, Emma. And I don’t want you going anywhere.” His head descends slowly, his eyes on mine the whole time. Then he kisses me and all thoughts, all worries, and all fear dissolves.

  It’s just his lips on mine and the knowledge that he loves me.

  A door opens on one of the floors above us and there’s the rhythmic stomp, stomp, stomp, of feet on the stairs.

  “I guess we should go back. We’re not supposed to be in here.” I look up at the open staircase above us.

  Tank grins. “I don’t care. Break the rules with me, Emma.”

  I glance back at the open air above us, and then launch myself into his arms. He catches me and I wrap my legs around his waist. As we kiss, someone passes by us going up the staircase and I don’t even care to look.

  Tank is the only thing I want to see.

  “So you had an interesting strategy for getting my attention. I asked you out for weeks in a row and you refused every time. I’ve never seen that used as a way to get a date but I suppose it worked.”

  “I wasn’t playing hard to get. As hard as this may be on your ego, I said no because I didn’t want to go out with the bad boy in leather who looked like nothing but trouble. Besides, that was way before your dad even made the offer.”

  “It was? Well, when did he make the offer?”

  “Um, it was actually the day you showed up at the club. Which was a totally crazy coincidence now that I look back on it.”

  Tank pulls away, a strange look on his face. “Wait, that can’t be right. It must have been before that.”

  “No, it was that day. I remember so clearly because it was the strangest day ever. I got offered a million dollars in the afternoon, then my crappy car wouldn’t start and then I got fired from my strip club waitressing job. Strangest day ever.”

  Tank chuckles and then it turns into a full belly laugh. He picks me up and spins us around.

  “What? What is going on?”

  “There was no ‘job’. My father was matchmaking, Emma. I remember that day clearly, too. I was just leaving my brother’s place when my boss called asking me for a favor. I’d just been telling Finn that I’d signed the papers accepting my father’s terms.”

  “Wait, what? That doesn’t make sense. So that day when Mr. Marshall offered me the money—“

  “I had already signed,” Tank finished. “There was no need for you to convince me to do anything because my father had already gotten what he wanted. Except apparently that wasn’t the only thing he wanted. He wanted to give you the money because he likes you. This was the only way he could figure out how to do it. And it was his way of pushing us together.”

  Joyous laughter bubbles up inside me. “I knew it. He’s just a big ole’ softie.”

  Tank leans against the wall, pulling me into the cradle of his thighs. “I don’t know what the future will bring but I need to know that you’ll be a part of it. I need to know that you’ll be with me as I face it.”

  I cup his face and pull him down so he can see the truth in my eyes. “That’s exactly what I want, too. I was so scared that you wouldn’t want to see me anymore.”

  His lips brush across my forehead. “My brother pointed out something that I couldn’t ignore this morning. You turned down a million dollars for me. If that doesn’t prove that you’re really in this for me, then I don’t know what ever could.” He kisses me again and we collapse back against the wall, entwined in each other’s arms.

  “I guess since that million dollars isn’t dirty money, maybe I shouldn’t have given it back to you then, huh?”

  Tank grins at me and then pulls something from his back pocket. It’s the envelope I gave him but it’s all crumpled and creased.

  “You’ve been carrying that around this whole time?”

  He shrugs and his arms tighten around my middle. “It was my last connection to you. But you can have it back. I honestly don’t care.”

  I shake my head. “I’ve already got exactly what I want right here. And it has nothing to do with money.”

  Everything is still up in the air. I’m not sure where I’m going to live, where I’m going to go to school or how I’m going to pay for any of it. I know that I don’t want Tank paying for it but beyond that I haven’t got a clue. But I know that I can figure it out.

  And that Tank will be with me through it all.

  EPILOGUE

  TANK

  One month later …

  I enter Finn’s penthouse balancing two large pizzas under one arm and carrying a six-pack of beer in the other. I look over my shoulder at Eli, who stands uncertainly behind me.

  “Come on in. Have a beer. Take a load off.”

  He waves at Finn, Gabe and Zack who are sitting on the couch. There’s already a basketball game playing on the big screen.

  “Guys, this is my boss, Elliott Alexander. Eli, my brothers. Finn is in the armchair, the one who looks like my clone is Gabe and the one with the Mohawk is Zack.”

  Eli waves amidst the chorus of hellos. “You guys look like you’re set. I won’t stay. I just wanted to bring you that information you asked for, Tank.”

  I set the beer down on the floor and hand the pizzas off to Gabe. I take the envelope he’s holding out. He seems uncomfortable and I can’t get why. We’ve never really hung out before but I wanted him to meet my brothers. Yet, he’s acting like he can’t wait to get out of here.

  “Okay, if you can’t stay I understand. I just figured you might want to escape for a while.”

  He drops his head. “Yeah. I just bought the house and it’s been taken over by a bunch of women I haven’t seen since I was in Sunday school as a kid.”

  “Eli just got engaged,” I mention to the others. “His fiancée is in the middle of planning the wedding.”

  Zack gets up and walks to the kitchen. When he comes back, he hands a beer to Eli. “You probably need this.”

  Eli laughs but stops when he sees me ripping open the envelope. “Hey, I’m going to give you guys some privacy for a minute.” He doesn’t look at me before walking into the kitchen.

  Zack looks at me and shrugs. “What’s going on with him?”

  “I have no idea—“ I stop in mid-sentence when I pull out the stack of files in the envelope. I asked Eli to assist with a background check that was proving more challenging than I’d expected. He’s got a magic touch with finding things that other people want to keep hidden.

  My brother Lucas obviously didn’t want to be found.

  Zack follows me as I walk over to the couch still scrutinizing the pictures. Gabe and Finn look up as I step in front of the television.

  “I think my boss is trying to distance himself just in case any of you turn out to be closet racists.” They all look over at Eli, who is currently bent over trying to pretend he’s fascinated by the contents of Finn’s refrigerator.

  I look too, trying to see him through their eyes. He’s a heavily muscled,
dark-skinned guy with a shaved head. I’ve never thought too much about what he looks like before, mainly because it doesn’t matter. He’s an exceptional boss and an even better friend. That’s all I care about. And without even asking, I know my brothers are the same way.

  I raise my voice. “Eli, you can come over here now. It’s cool.”

  He looks up at the sound of my voice. “You sure?” He glances over at the others, uncertainly. At their nods of agreement, he walks over and perches on the arm of the couch.

  I turn to the others. “I needed Eli’s special touch to find someone. He came through, as usual.”

  I hold up one of the pictures. A tall, thin young man with light brown skin and curly hair is shown crossing the street. He’s wearing sunglasses but there’s no denying that he looks like us.

  “That’s him?” Gabe reaches out to take the picture. When he’s done looking at it, he passes it to Zack.

  “Yeah. Lucas Brown Marshall. Age 22. Also known as Luke,” I say, reading from the typed summary sheet that Eli included. “He’s some kind of child prodigy. He graduated high school at 16 and college at 19. He owns a software development company. It says here that when he was on summer vacation one year, he created the program that the majority of the state’s hospitals use to keep patient’s digital records secure.”

  “I guess he was bored that summer,” Gabe comments.

  Finn claps him on the back and snorts out a laugh. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  I continue reading. “His mother, Anita Brown Marshall, owns a bakery called Anita’s Place.”

  Gabe sits forward. “I’ve been there a bunch of times. Best damn cheesecake I’ve ever had. So, what’s the plan? Should we go there and wait for him to show up?”

  I look at some of the other pictures. Eli retreated because he was worried that my brothers’ initial reactions would be less than positive. But what if Luke’s reaction isn’t positive? It makes sense that he was so hard to find now that I know he’s some kind of cyber genius. He’s probably been taking steps to erase his digital footprint since he started using a computer. And if he’s taking that many precautions, he might not take too kindly to being found.

  For any reason.

  “I’m not so sure about that. A gang of white guys rolls up and says ‘Surprise, we’re your brothers’ ?”

  Zack makes a face. “Right. Because I can’t see anything going wrong with that plan.”

  There’s a beat of silence and then we all laugh. Finn has the picture now. He hands it back to me and I slide it back in the envelope.

  “Look, I want to say something.” They all quiet down and I try to get my thoughts together. “The past few months have been insane. My mom was diagnosed with cancer again and the father I haven’t seen in years is suddenly not only in my life but making some pretty crazy demands.”

  The others nod at that.

  “We still don’t know what old Max is up to or what any of this ultimately means but we have a choice going forward. We can let him call all the shots or we can stick together and figure this thing out. I’m counting on us being stronger as a group than apart. And no matter what else happens, I’m happy I got some more brothers out of the deal.”

  Finn raises his beer in agreement. The others follow suit. “To brothers.”

  Eli raises his beer, too. “Now, you know that’s something I can drink to. To brothers.”

  Finn stands and then knocks me out of the way of the television. “Now that the speeches are over, get the hell out of the way so I can see who’s winning!”

  I punch him in the arm and then lean on the edge of his chair, observing him and the others as they scream at the screen.

  There’s a certain peace in surrounding yourself with people that you trust. And I’m finally at peace. I know that after we’re done kicking it, that I’ll be going home to a woman who loves me and who’ll stand by me through anything.

  And I know that no matter what Maxwell Marshall has in store for us in the future, that I’ll have my brothers behind me the whole way.

  Because that’s what brothers do.

  THE END

  You just finished reading the first book in the Blue-Collar Billionaires series. TANK is a spinoff from the USA TODAY Bestselling ALEXANDERS series so stay tuned for a special excerpt of Eli’s book, All I Need is You.

  Author’s Note

  To get my special new release pricing for each book, sign up for my Pre-Order List. You can do it right from your e-reader.

  Just click HERE.

  All I Need is You (Eli + Kay)

  is available now!

  When the man she loves leaves town after their steamy kiss, Kaylee Wilhelm is done. She has no time for pining after her former bodyguard.

  But when she's targeted by a stalker, Eli is the only one who can protect her. And he’ll do whatever it takes to protect the one woman who gets under his skin.

  Anything except fall in love…

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  EXCERPT of All I Need is You

  © February 2014 M. Malone

  KAYLEE SHOVED THE books on her night table in the drawer. Her eyes swept over the rest of the room frantically. Hopefully she hadn’t left anything embarrassing lying around. She wasn’t used to having guys at her apartment. Especially not men like Elliott.

  Big, masculine men that she fantasized about every night.

  The hair on the back of her neck stood up and she didn’t have to look to know that he was standing in the doorway. Her apartment wasn’t that big, but it suddenly seemed exponentially smaller with Eli sucking up all her oxygen.

  “Tank finished his assessment before we got here. We’re all clear.” Eli stepped in and looked around. “Where do you normally keep the figurine?”

  Kay pointed to the top of her dresser. Eli walked over and looked down at her collection. He touched one and the sight of his thick fingers stroking the delicate china shouldn’t have seemed erotic at all. But the image of this big, strong man handling tiny breakables with such care struck her as incredibly tender. Would that be how he treated a woman in bed? Like she was delicate, precious?

  Or would he push her hard, demand things she didn’t know how to give? Warmth spread to her face just thinking about it.

  Not that you’ll ever find out.

  “There’s an empty space here. He didn’t even bother to push the others closer together to conceal what he took.”

  Kay hated to even think of it. Someone had been in her apartment, touching her things. Had he been here while she was home alone? While she was with her daughter?

  While they were sleeping?

  She shivered and grabbed the duffel bag she kept underneath her bed. Her favorite nightshirt was on top of the comforter, so she shoved that in the bag. Then she pulled open the drawers in her nightstand and added a big handful of underwear and bras. She didn’t even look at how much she was taking, just grabbed blindly. Who cared, really, what she wore? All she cared about was getting out of here. Would she ever be able to relax in this room again without wondering if someone was watching?

  She crossed to the dresser where Eli stood and yanked open the last drawer. In went several pairs of jeans, then she yanked open another drawer and added a big armful of sweaters.

  “Kay, what are you doing?”

  “Packing. I just want to get out of here.”

  She struggled with the zipper on the bag, almost breaking a nail on the metal teeth. Her breath came in harsh pants until little black spots danced in front of her eyes.

  “Kay, calm down. Just hold on.”

  She struggled against his hold, but he held her securely in his grip, her back to his front. His arms wrapped around her, keeping her from moving but not holding her so tight as to cause pain. Eventually Kay stopped fighting and allowed her head to fall back against Eli’s chest.

  “Hey, hey. It’s all right. Just calm down.” He rubbed her arms gently, soothing her.

  Kay finally stopped wrestling with him and
allowed him to hold her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was a foolish moment of weakness, but for just a second, she soaked up the comfort and warmth of being in his arms.

  “We’re safe here. You’ve got a great security system. I already had Tank check it out and it hasn’t been tampered with. I don’t know how this guy got your figurine, but he didn’t break in to do it.”

  Tears welled up, but she squeezed her eyes closed, swallowing back the sudden flood of emotion. There was no time for nonsense or feeling sorry for herself.

  “Why would someone do this, Eli?”

  “I don’t know, angel.” He spoke in a hush, the words flowing over her in a soft puff of breath.

  His features tightened, and for the second time in recent memory, she allowed herself to soak up the masculine presence that was Elliott Alexander: the smooth dark skin, the high cheekbones, the long straight blade of his nose, and the sinfully full lips. It was a harsh face, not quite as elegantly hewn as his brothers’ faces, but one that she vastly preferred. It looked like safety.

  It looked like strength.

  “I’m okay now. I promise I won’t freak out on you again.” She stood reluctantly. As wonderful as it felt to be held in his arms, there was only so much she could take before she lost all sense of propriety and threw herself at him again. She already knew he wasn’t interested. When you kissed a guy and he responded by leaving town, that was plenty clear enough.

  “It’s okay to be freaked out, Kay. As long as you know that I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  Kay nodded and dropped the duffel bag on her bed. She didn’t have enough room to put him up in style, but at the very least she could rustle up some extra pillows and a blanket for him.