In Bed With the Billionaire

by Jackie Ashenden

  But hers won’t. And neither will Violet’s.

  There were shouts from the front of the house, the sounds of breaking glass, shots being fired. The police had finally come and here he was, standing in the darkness of his garden. Still alive.

  He didn’t believe in hope. He didn’t believe love would save him. He didn’t believe there was any way for him to be redeemed. He had become his father, no two ways about that.

  But Temple believed. Violet believed. And he believed in them.

  And life was a choice as well as death.

  The shouts and gunfire were getting close, the sound of helicopters in the sky. A window smashed nearby and someone screamed.

  There would be no rest. There would be no reward. But maybe his kitten was right. Maybe this was justice after all. He should live with what he’d done. He should live to bear the guilt of every sin. It was no less than he deserved.

  Slowly he let the gun drop from his hand, and it landed on the ground with a heavy thump. Then he sank to his knees on the grass beside it. The soil was muddy and wet from recent rain, which made it easy to carve out two distinct lines in the earth with his finger.

  And once he’d finished, he didn’t look at the Eiffel Tower shining in the distance, or up at the black sky, searching for the stars somewhere beyond the city lights.

  He looked at the ground and the two lines he’d drawn. His two lines in the sand.

  And he was still there looking at them when, minutes later, the police came for him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Pillar of New York Society in Human Trafficking Scandal!

  Violet made a disgusted sound and abruptly pushed shut the laptop, shoving it across the coffee table. She’d been glued to media websites all morning, watching as the news broke of the discovery of a major human trafficking ring that spanned the globe. Already the media had revealed that her father had been a major player, news crews converging on the Upper East Side townhouse where her mother now lived.

  And it wasn’t only her father who’d been outed. The names of others were all over the papers, wealthy CEOs, a couple of generals, movie stars, and at least three senators. And that was only in the U.S. The shocking details of the rings and the men involved had severely shaken Britain and Europe as well.

  Everything Theo had promised, he’d done.

  She should have felt good about that, but she didn’t. Because in all the screaming, hysterical articles flooding the web about it, there was not one mention of him. Not one. No mention of a man named Jericho either. It was like he’d vanished into the ether.

  It made her feel sick with worry, and God knew she was already feeling sick enough as it was.

  She looked over to where Elijah stood by the windows, checking the street outside to see if the media had found out where they were yet. No one knew she’d virtually moved in with Elijah. He’d kept a very low profile himself out of necessity.

  As she stared at his tall, broad figure, another thought struck her. He’d worked for her father and now he was ostensibly filling the power vacuum her father’s death had left, his name was likely to come up. And not in a good way either.

  Shit.

  As if sensing her sudden fear, he turned, his black eyes meeting hers for a second before dropping to the laptop. “Don’t look at them anymore,” he said flatly. “It only upsets you.”

  “I know, but I just want to see if Theo’s okay.”

  “There’s been no mention of him?”

  “No. Nothing.”

  Elijah’s dark brows pulled down. “He’ll be okay, princess.”

  “No, he won’t. You saw him last month, when you came for me in Alphabet City. You saw that look on his face.”

  “What look?”

  “You know which one I mean. He was over it, Eli. He was over everything.”

  Elijah was silent a moment, frowning at her. Then he said, “We’ll get Eva to look into it. She should be able to find out what happened to him.”

  Violet shook her head, suddenly feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. “What if he’s gone? What if something happened to him?”

  Elijah crossed the distance between them, coming around the coffee table and sinking down onto his haunches in front of her where she sat on the couch. He put his hands on her knees, resting them there, the warmth of his palms a comfort she couldn’t do without. “We’ll find out, princess,” he said quietly. “We’ll find out what happened to him, I promise you.”

  She sighed. There were no empty assurances from Elijah, just the facts. But that was how life was, wasn’t it? Sometimes you got exactly what you wanted, and sometimes you didn’t.

  “Rutherford has offered the use of his island,” Elijah went on. “To escape the media attention. I suggest we take him up on it.”

  “What? You mean run away?” As nice as the thought of escaping to a Caribbean island was, she didn’t want to run and hide. She wanted to be here, where it was all happening and where she might get news of Theo.

  “No, I don’t mean run away.” Elijah’s frown became fierce. “When I emailed those records to your brother, he asked me to protect you. Not that the prick needed to. I would have done that already. But just so you know. I think he would have wanted you out of the public eye.”

  Yeah, he would have. That was very Theo. “But it’s not just me, though, Eli. Your name is going to be in those records somewhere.”

  Elijah’s expression didn’t change. “I realize that.”

  “But what about you? What about—”

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, princess. Now, my primary focus is taking care of you.”

  Damn him. When he got that look in his eye, there was no moving him. Then again, he had a point. After all, perhaps it wasn’t just Elijah and herself she had to think about anymore.

  Almost unconsciously, Violet put her hand on her stomach.

  And Elijah, always observant, saw it.

  He went very, very still. “Princess?” There was a hoarse edge to the name he called her, his black eyes focusing on her, concentrated as laser beams.

  It had been nearly six weeks since that moment in the alleyway, the moment she’d lost both her virginity and her heart to the man crouching in front of her, staring at her as if she was the sun and the moon and the stars all rolled into one.

  The moment when they’d had unprotected sex.

  After everything that had happened afterward, she’d kind of forgotten about it. Her life had changed so much, and there had been so many emotional upheavals. Too many to worry about the implications of one instance of unprotected sex.

  Except maybe not worrying about it had been premature.

  Jesus, she had no idea what to say to him. “I … I’m late.”

  “How late?” Clearly he’d come to exactly the same conclusion she had.

  “Um, two weeks I think. And … Eli, I’m never late.”

  He said nothing. His grip on her knees was almost painful, the look on his scarred face fierce with emotion, black flames in his eyes. Then suddenly he rose to his feet, pulling his phone from his pocket and pressing a button.

  “Eli?”

  He didn’t answer, only stared down at her. “Rutherford,” he said into the phone. “We’ll be taking you up on that offer. How soon can we leave? Yes … I can have us ready by tonight. Oh and one other thing…” He turned and walked quickly through the hall doorway, closing the door behind him, the sounds of his conversation cutting off.

  Violet let out a breath, feeling shaky and raw. She didn’t have the energy to fight with him about leaving, and if she was right in her suspicions, then perhaps it was better they left anyway. Being hounded by the media while newly pregnant wasn’t high on her to-do list.

  Five minutes later, Elijah came back out of the hallway, pocketing his phone, heading straight for the apartment’s front door.

  Violet pushed herself up off the couch. “Where are you going now?”

  He didn’t pause. “A drugstor
e. We need a pregnancy test kit.”

  Oh fuck. She clasped her hands together hard. “Eli.”

  He put his hand on the door, ready to head out.

  “Eli, stop.”

  He stopped. “What?”

  “Look at me.”

  Slowly, as if he was very reluctant, he turned around, his dark gaze meeting hers. He was a difficult man to read at the best of times, and even though she knew him better than anyone, she had no idea at all what he was thinking now.

  “I’m scared,” she said simply. “If I’m pregnant … I don’t know what to do.”

  For a moment he was silent, staring at her. Then he walked over to where she stood and slid his fingers into her hair, pulling her head back. And he kissed her, hard and possessive and full of all the passion he kept locked away inside him.

  When he lifted his head, the look in his eyes was blazing. “You don’t have to do anything,” he said fiercely. “We are going to do this together, okay?”

  She leaned against him, the hungry part of her soaking up the strength of his body and the certainty in his eyes. “I mean … Do you want this, Eli? We don’t have to—”

  “I want this.” He cupped her face between his hands, staring at her with so much intensity she felt like she was going to catch fire. “I fucking want this, princess.”

  The tight, sick feeling inside her lessened just a little bit. “Oh … good. Because I think that I want this too, I just … All this stuff with Theo is making everything so difficult.”

  “I know.” He continued to stare fiercely at her. “We’re going to Rutherford’s island, and we’re going tonight, okay? No arguments. Even if you weren’t potentially pregnant, I think I’d insist.”

  “Yes, okay.” She allowed herself to relax a little bit more, turning her face against his palm, relishing the warmth of it. “But I don’t want to be out of touch. I want to know what’s going on, and I want to find out what happened to Theo.” She glanced up at him. “What did you ask Zac? And don’t deny it. You left the room so I wouldn’t hear what you said.”

  Elijah traced her lower lip with his thumb, a gentle touch. “I asked him point blank about the contract he’d taken out on Jericho and whether it still stood.”

  Violet went very still. “And?”

  “And he said he’d thought about it and decided to cancel it. He’s trying to get in contact with Temple right now.”

  She swallowed. “And did you ask—”

  “Yes, I did. Once he’s spoken to Temple, he’ll let us know if there’s any new information on Jericho. He just can’t get hold of her at the moment.”

  Anxiety twisted inside her again, making her stomach feel unsettled. “Oh.”

  “Don’t worry, princess,” Elijah said with unaccustomed gentleness, his touch soothing. “Rutherford can find anyone, and he’ll find Temple. It won’t be an issue.”

  She nodded, letting out a shaky breath. “Yeah, you’re right.” But her stomach churned again as if in protest. “Oh God…”

  Elijah frowned. “Are you okay? You’ve gone very white.”

  “Uh no. I don’t think I am.” She pulled away from him, nausea roiling inside her. “Why don’t you go get that kit? While I … get to the bathroom.”

  * * *

  Temple’s phone rang, making her breath catch and nearly causing her to swerve off the highway. Cursing, she found a place to pull over and turned off the engine, reaching for the phone, her heart thudding hard inside her chest.

  Please let it be him.

  But when she looked down at the screen to see who was calling, it wasn’t. It was Zac Rutherford.

  Bitter disappointment gathered in her gut, her throat tight, her eyes scratchy and hot.

  She had no idea what had happened to Theo. None. After Dmitri had smashed her over the back of her head, she’d woken up on the jet already heading down the runway.

  That flight to New York had been the longest, most agonizing, most frustrating seven hours of her life. She’d demanded answers from the staff on the jet, but they either wouldn’t, or couldn’t, give her any information.

  She didn’t know if he was alive or dead, and the last she’d seen of him was that cold, sharp look in his eyes as he’d stared at her. As she demanded his promise.

  But he hadn’t given it to her. He hadn’t. And now there was a big hole in her chest where her heart should be, the remains of it crushed beyond recognition.

  The only thing she had left to hold onto was the address he’d left her, Thalia’s address. The last thing he’d given her.

  When the jet had landed in New York at last, she’d found herself being ushered onto yet another plane, this time heading to Minneapolis, the ticket already paid for. So she’d gone because she didn’t have anywhere else to go and nothing else to do.

  And when she’d arrived, she’d half expected yet another of Theo’s minions to be there waiting for her, but this time there wasn’t anyone. By then she’d realized that of course there wouldn’t be anyone, not when the news was full of the international trafficking-ring scandal. Any employees of Jericho’s would now be long gone.

  She’d avoided the media, afraid of what she might see. Afraid that the last she’d hear about Theo was the news of his death splashed across some national paper or some website. And if that made her a coward, then so be it. Another reason why love was so shitty. It made cowards of everyone.

  Instead, she’d headed straight out of the airport for the nearest rental-car company.

  Now she was halfway into a three-hour drive north to the tiny town where Thalia supposedly lived, and Zac was calling her, and she had no idea how he’d gotten her number, especially since the phone was brand new, one she’d found stuffed into the bag full of clothes that had also been on the plane. Included in the bag had also been a wallet full of cash. She’d wanted to leave that, but since she had no time to collect her credit cards from the storage locker where she kept most of her personal stuff, common sense had made her put it in her pocket instead.

  Outside, it had started to rain, an icy downpour that had her shivering despite the hot air she had blasting from the car’s heater.

  The phone rang insistently and she didn’t want to answer it. She didn’t care about his stupid contract. Theo was in all likelihood dead already, and so was that part of her life.

  So was that part of her heart.

  She swallowed, but some part of her couldn’t leave it alone and so she reached out and picked the damn thing up, pressing the button. “How did you find me?” she asked without preamble.

  “Eva’s very good with security camera footage,” Zac said, his British accent precise as it usually was. “We were searching car-hire firms near the airport in Minneapolis, looking for you. Once we’d found out which one you visited, it was relatively easy to pick up your cell phone signal.”

  “How did you know I’d be in Minnesota?”

  “Because that’s where your sister lives.”

  “You couldn’t possibly know that.”

  “I don’t. It was a lucky guess. Though I can’t think of too many other reasons why you’d visit Minnesota.”

  Temple closed her eyes, the rain on the roof of the car almost deafening. “What do you want?”

  “You and I have a contract, Ms. Cross. I want to know what happened with it.”

  “If you’re asking whether I killed him then no, I didn’t. So you can keep your money, I don’t want it. I’ve already got what I wanted which is the location of my sister.”

  There was a silence down the other end of the phone.

  “What happened to him?” No mistaking the authority in his tone. It wasn’t a request.

  Temple found her throat tightening up again. “I don’t know.”

  Zac muttered something she didn’t catch, then he said, “Tell me what happened, Temple.”

  She swallowed past the lump in her throat. Why should she tell him? What had passed between her and Theo in that office was nothing to do with a
nyone else. Nothing at all. Still, Theo deserved credit for what he’d done, and Zac Rutherford needed a goddamn lesson in trust.

  Tears filled her eyes, but she blinked them back. Hard. “Theo sent the emails. I didn’t have to make him. And you probably know this already, but his name was in those records of his father’s. Because he’d set them all up himself years ago.”

  “Yes.” Clearly this had not come as a surprise to Zac. “I was aware of his involvement.”

  “He was brainwashed.” She wasn’t going to let Zac believe the worst of Theo. She just wasn’t. “His father basically brainwashed him from birth. That’s why he was ‘involved.’ That’s why he set up those records. He was just a kid who’d been manipulated by one of the best.”

  “You’re excusing him?”

  “No, I’m telling you the facts. If anything it’s a goddamn miracle he realized what his father was doing before it was too late.”

  There was another silence.

  “You know what Fitzgerald was like,” she went on, because she couldn’t just leave it. “You know what a manipulative bastard he was. What chance did a kid have against that?”

  “Violet seemed to have had a chance.”

  “Violet wasn’t his designated heir,” she snapped, anger and grief crowding for space in her chest. “Violet wasn’t taken to the Lucky Seven at fourteen and told she could have her pick of the whores.”

  Again, silence.

  “He means something to you, doesn’t he?” Zac asked.

  “That is none of your fucking business,” she croaked, hardly able to speak

  There was a soft exhalation of breath. “So he sent the emails. What then?”

  Then he wanted me to kill him. He wanted me to take his life.

  “Then nothing. His bodyguard hit me over the head and when I woke up, I was on a plane on my way to New York.”

  “So you have no idea what happened to him?”

  I hope he’s not dead. I hope he’s not lying on a slab somewhere in a morgue with no one to claim him. No one to bury him.

  A tear leaked out despite her best efforts, sliding slowly down her cheek. “No. I don’t. I haven’t heard from him since I arrived back in the States.”