by Lexi Blake
Lily had taught her how to dress for her figure.
Riley seemed to have that part down. Every single outfit looked like it would flatter her curves. And the man had a serious shoe fetish. There had to be twenty boxes of shoes waiting for her. Jimmy Choo, Christian Louboutin, Prada.
He did kind of owe her. When she left this place, she would take what she needed and not feel guilty about it.
“If you don’t like the clothes, I can have more sent. Although that looks beautiful on you.”
She looked up and Riley was standing behind her. He was already dressed for the day in slacks, a white dress shirt, and a tie that brought out his eyes. He was simply the most beautiful man she’d ever met, and it killed her that he hadn’t been real.
She’d had her head in the clouds.
“I brought you coffee.” He set a mug on the counter. “A little cream, one sugar.”
He’d gotten to know her quite well, but then that had been the point of their relationship.
She wanted to throw the coffee in his face and walk out, but she’d decided it was time to stop reacting and start thinking.
She needed a place to stay, needed money, needed so many things she couldn’t count them. Lily was her only friend in the world right now. If Riley Lawless felt guilty about what he’d done, she needed to use that to her advantage.
“Thank you.” She took a sip of the coffee. Naturally it was delicious. Her stomach growled. Yes, she needed food, too.
“If you’re hungry, I can get you some breakfast. Mia’s probably cooking right now. Her husband eats a lot. Apparently two hundred twenty pounds of muscle requires a lot of calories.”
“I’m fine for now.” She was starving, but he didn’t have to know that. “I would rather talk. I think we should have a discussion, don’t you?”
She was pleased with the even tone of her voice.
He moved in behind her. “Yes, we need to talk. I want to explain it all to you. Ellie, I know it seems bad right now, but I’m going to get you out of this. I’m going to make sure you don’t go to jail.”
“We’ll see about that.” Somehow she felt better, calmer after sleep and a shower. She turned, facing him fully for the first time since she’d cried in his arms the night before. It had taken every ounce of will she had to not hold on to him. “So you’re really Riley Lawless.”
“That’s my birth name. I go by Lang professionally. I changed it so I wouldn’t be connected to Drew. We do need to talk, baby. There are things I have to tell you. I don’t know how much you understand about the way our families are connected.”
It was obvious now that her big secret wasn’t such a secret. She’d been the only one in the dark. “My father had your parents killed.”
His eyes widened. “You knew?”
There was zero reason to keep her secrets now. “I’ve known since the night my father died. He told me. I think he was confessing his sins. He killed your father because Benedict wouldn’t sell him the code he needed to make the fiber optics work. Your father wanted to offer it for free because he thought the information was too important to keep to himself. He was a dreamer and my father murdered him for it.”
That was as baldly as she could put it.
“You knew and you didn’t come forward?”
Good, she liked the accusation in his voice. It meant he wouldn’t be playing nice. She didn’t want to play nice. “I had employees to think of. Had I blown up StratCast they would have been out of jobs, had their pensions caught up in a legal battle. I intended to go to your brother after I bought out Steven. I was going to do what I could to see your father’s vision through.”
She waited for him to scoff at the idea.
He softened instead. “Yes, I can see you doing that. You very likely didn’t tell me because you didn’t want to put me in the middle. You didn’t want me to have to make the same decision you did. Ellie, I’m so sorry.”
She walked past him. “Really, I would think you would be far more suspicious, Riley.”
“Not about you.” There was a longing in his voice she didn’t want to think about.
“So my very clever plan after yesterday’s debacle was to find Drew Lawless and ask him for help. I was going to trade my knowledge of what my father did for his help in getting StratCast back, but surprise. You were already there. Is he the one who’s been buying up stock?” She was done being a fool. She’d thought about it in the shower. It made sense. She’d been a pawn in a war she hadn’t known was being fought. “How did you convince my sister to sell?”
Riley frowned. “We gave her several opportunities to spend a whole lot of money and get into debt with the wrong people. She had to sell. She would have found her way there anyway.”
“Sure. Tell yourself that. Anything you need to do to sleep at night.”
“I don’t, baby. I don’t sleep at all anymore. And I don’t feel bad about what I did to your sister. She deserved it. You, on the other hand, did not, and that’s why we’re going to do whatever it takes to get StratCast back in your hands.”
He was likely right about Shari. Ellie was afraid her sister was in a slow slide to drug addiction. She knew Shari spent her evenings in nightclubs and liked to relax with a few recreational drugs. No amount of talking to her about it changed anything. For a while, being with Colin had pulled her back from it, but it seemed now that Colin was along for the ride. Still, Riley didn’t have to help them along. It didn’t matter because the deed was done and they had other considerations.
“You have to keep me out of jail first. And I’m not sure getting StratCast back is possible. Steven’s going to force me to sell in the next week or so. He’ll find a way to do it quickly since he’ll want to take advantage of how low our stock has sunk.”
“I did that. I’m not going to lie to you or try to get around it. I tanked the reports and the reporter was hired by my brother. I had no idea the reporter would talk about you that way or I wouldn’t have allowed it.”
“Do you allow or disallow things, Riley?” She needed to understand how the siblings worked. “Or is it all about Drew?”
Drew Lawless was an enigma in the business world. In an age where tech CEOs tended to be treated like rock stars, Drew was reclusive. He allowed the head of his publicity to handle all media relations and very rarely allowed himself to be photographed.
The rumor was he was a shut-in, an agoraphobic. Ellie now had her own thoughts on the matter. He didn’t allow himself to be seen so he could play out his revenge.
“Drew doesn’t control me.” Riley’s jaw tightened. “I wouldn’t have allowed it and now that Drew fully understands your place here, he won’t do it again.”
“I don’t have a place here, but I would like to understand why you thought tanking StratCast stock would do anything but cost us all money.”
He started to pace, the large room allowing him plenty of space. “Castalano likes to play deep. He’s got a gambling problem. I think that’s where the ten million actually went. Recently he went in deep to a man with a certain reputation for not accepting IOUs, if you know what I mean.”
“You wanted a mobster to take care of the situation for you?”
“We wanted to apply pressure and see where it led.”
She held her hands out. “It led us right here. Now Steven has all the money he could want, and I’m sure he’ll use it to pay off your incidental hit man.”
Riley frowned, deep lines marking his face. He did look like he hadn’t slept in a while. “Yes, I’m certain he’s already done it.”
“Was that all you were supposed to do?” She wanted to know the whole of his perfidy.
“I was supposed to see if I could find anything that might implicate your father and Castalano in our parents’ deaths. We believe they paid someone to do it. Along with Patricia Cain.”
“My fathe
r wouldn’t say anything when I asked him if Steven was involved. He said Steven’s sins were his own.” She remembered how tortured her father had seemed in those last few days. The drugs had made him incoherent much of the time.
Riley crossed his arms over his chest, his face turning hard. “He was involved, Ellie. I know it. So was Patricia Cain. We’re going to take them all down.”
“So I’m merely collateral damage, huh?”
“You’re more than that and you know it.”
“I don’t know anything, Riley.” She braced herself but she had to ask. She had to know the truth. She needed to hear it from his lips. “Did you have to seduce me? I was willing to be your friend, your coworker. I gave you access to anything you needed. You didn’t have to get into bed with me.”
His arms came down and he crossed to the bed, sitting where he could still see her. “No, I didn’t. I did that because I wanted you.”
“So the plan wasn’t to seduce me.”
His hesitation told her what she needed to know. “Ellie, what I feel for you is real. It doesn’t matter how it started. It’s real now. I’m in love with you.”
She laughed at the thought. “What is this act supposed to buy you? I don’t have anything left for you to steal.”
“I told you. I want you. I’m going to make this right for both of us.”
“I’m going to make a deal with you.” She had to bite the bullet and compromise, though what she really wanted was to rake him over the coals. “In exchange for paying for my lawyer, I won’t go to the bar association and demand your license.”
The sympathy in his eyes nearly made her scream. “You won’t do that anyway, Ellie.”
“You think I’m not capable of rage?” Maybe he didn’t know her as well as she thought he did. Yesterday, she’d thought of any number of ways she could hurt him back.
“I know you are, but you love me, too,” he said quietly. “Underneath all that ache, you still love me. You aren’t capable of hurting someone you love.”
“I don’t love you.” She was going to do anything she needed to in order to make those words true. “You killed any love I had for you when you betrayed me.”
“I don’t think so,” he replied in an all too even tone. “I think it’s still there and it’s going to be there forever. All I have to do is hold on and you’ll reach the proper conclusions. You know we’re good together.”
She really wanted to shake him up. His calm was annoying her and she couldn’t believe a word the man said. What was his angle now? “I know I’ve been the idiot who slept with her enemy.”
“You are not my enemy.” He didn’t take his eyes off her. “You’re the woman I love and I’m going to make it all up to you.”
Yep, he was getting on her very last nerve. “By buying me things? You think I care about designer labels? You think I can be bought off so cheaply?”
“No, those are all for show. If you’re going to the press, you’re going to have to look the part. I know you don’t care that I can buy anything you want. You don’t measure someone’s worth by their wealth. It’s one of the things I love about you.”
“Then how are you going to magically make things between us better?”
“Not magically.” He stood and moved toward her. “I’m going to work my ass off to make sure you’re safe, and I’m going to be the man who stands behind you after all this is over. I’m going to do everything in my power to make your dreams come true because I finally figured out what I was born to do, what I want to be when I grow up. It’s stupid, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.”
“Don’t say it.” It was easier when she thought he was going to fight her. “Don’t you dare say it.”
“All right, but we both know what I mean.” He grimaced. “Is it because it’s really corny?”
“It’s because it’s all another lie.”
He moved in, standing far too close for her comfort, but she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of moving away. “It’s not, but the only thing that will improve our situation is time and care. I’m not going away and I’m not giving up on us. I love you, Ellie. I’m going to say it until you understand that I mean it. This started out as a job, as a path I’ve been on since the night my parents died. But it led me to you, and though I wish my mom and dad were here with me, I have to be happy that I found you.”
Son of a bitch. She wasn’t going to buy what he was selling. Maybe he was saying it out of guilt or some misguided affection, but she couldn’t fall for this again.
“It’s not going to work.”
He brought a hand up, almost touching her. With obvious reluctance, he pulled back. “It will. Now let’s get breakfast. We have a big day ahead of us. Case and Mia are going to take a harder look at the embezzlement case against you, and we have to be at the courthouse at noon.”
He stepped back and walked to the door.
“Garrison didn’t tell me I had to be in court.” Her next hearing wasn’t for months. At least that was what the judge at the arraignment had said. The idea of having to go back in there made her stomach knot.
“Not in court. At the courthouse. I made arrangements. That blue is perfect. You look every inch the gorgeous bride. We’re getting married this afternoon, baby.”
He strode out and she was left staring after him.
—
He walked into the kitchen because he might need witnesses. Ellie might not take his head off in front of witnesses.
Cool. He needed to stay cool and collected because his almost-wife was about to lose her shit. If he thought it would make a difference, he would get down on his knees and beg, but all that would do was likely give Ellie a better target. His jaw still ached from yesterday. Luckily he hadn’t bruised because explaining that away to the press on his wedding day would have been tricky.
“Hey, you want an omelet?” Mia asked. “I bought enough eggs to feed an army. And there are bagels, too.”
“I ate the last one.” Case sat at the small bistro table beside Bran and Drew, who looked to be plowing through omelets and bowls of fruit.
Bran always ate so quickly, a remnant of years of not having enough.
“Where does he put it all?” Bran asked, pointing at their brother-in-law. “If I ate like him I would weigh five hundred pounds.”
“It’s because of his job. He runs a lot,” Mia explained.
“Dodging bullets burns calories, as my brother would say. As for you, you’re going to start hitting the gym with me. We’ll get some serious muscle on your frame.” Case patted Bran on the back.
“I’d like that.” Bran smiled suddenly. “Hey, Ellie. You look really lovely today.”
Ellie stopped and it was easy to see that her polite heart was aching to reply. The beginnings of a smile started before he watched her shove it down. “How I look is irrelevant. You must be the other brother. It’s very nice to meet you, but I am not marrying Riley.”
Bran grinned her way as though enjoying the drama. “I’m Bran. I’m the youngest of the brothers and also the most handsome. Really, you’re marrying the wrong Lawless.”
He thought seriously about smacking his brother.
Ellie flushed. “I’m not marrying any Lawless at all.”
“Oh my gosh, that blue is gorgeous on you!” Mia ignored the denial completely. “I knew it would be. You should totally wear the white Pradas. Unless you think that’s too matchy-matchy with the belt. It might be.”
“I don’t get it,” Case said. “I thought matching was good. You’re always telling me my concert T-shirts don’t match my jeans.”
Mia shook her head sadly. “Baby, your faded Luke Bryan T-shirts don’t match anything. Anything at all. It’s very sad.”
“I’m not getting married.” Ellie strode up to Riley. “Do you think Garrison didn’t already run this past m
e? I said no.”
“Ellie, it’s for the best,” he said calmly. “You’ll have the protection of the family, and marrying is the best way to quash the rumors that you’re promiscuous.”
“I thought almost never having sex was the way to not be known as promiscuous.”
He’d put her in a horrible position. “I don’t want anyone talking about you that way.”
“Then you shouldn’t have hired a reporter to rip me apart,” she snarled back.
“That was my fault,” Drew said, standing. “As far as Riley knew, the reporter was going to write a complimentary story on you and then talk about the fact that the tests on the coolant system had gone poorly.”
Ellie turned, seeming to find a new target. “Do you know how illegal that was?”
“Are you going to turn him in?” Drew asked.
“I could.” She straightened her shoulders. “I was talking to Riley about making a deal with him. In exchange for my silence about the testing, I would like you to pay my lawyer fees.”
Drew seemed to consider it for a moment. “This is Riley’s whole career we’re talking about here. You sure you don’t want to ask for more, because this lawyer thing is really all he’s got going. He’ll be scrubbing toilets if you get him disbarred.”
“Thanks a lot.” His brother’s humor came out at the oddest times.
Ellie didn’t crack a smile. “I don’t care what he does after this. If you’ll pay my legal fees, I’ll agree to not prosecute any of you.”
“Or you can marry into the family and we take care of everything, and you can’t be forced to testify against your husband,” Drew countered.
“The crimes in question happened before the marriage,” Riley pointed out. “It wouldn’t work. See, I paid attention in school. This really is all about ensuring Ellie is safe.”