The PlayLion Billionaire: A Paranormal Billionaire Romance

by Amor, Maria

  “Where are you going to be?”

  Robert smiled slowly. “I am going to be in the security office with Katarina,” he said. “Until the police get here, I am going to be… talking to her.” He took another breath to keep his body from going into the change that rippled just within reach.

  “Just don’t do anything that will get the elders on your case,” Alexis said, reading his demeanor. “If you start to lose control, leave. Katarina can take care of it.”

  Robert nodded. “I am not going to jeopardize us over this. That’s exactly what they want—whoever they are.” Robert growled lowly, imagining shadowy figures threatening him, his mate, his Pride. “If Olivia is still unconscious when you get there, call the elders and tell them what’s going on. But do not leave her side for a second.”

  “Understood.”

  Alexis opened the door and Robert propelled himself from his chair, stalking out of the room. He made a beeline for the elevator, sensing Alexis in his wake. She would take the stairs, he knew. He knew, too, that he could trust her to keep his mate alive, to keep her safe. She would make sure someone they could trust saw Olivia. Rage boiled away in the back of Robert’s mind as he stood in the elevator, waiting impatiently for the machine to reach the subterranean floor that housed the security offices. He had to remain calm, as much as he could. But he was determined he would find out who had put Amelia up to poisoning his mate. He would drag it out of the woman even if they had to evade the law—say that Amelia had escaped and interrogate her privately.

  As the elevator descended, other thoughts fought for prominence in Robert’s mind. I have to kill whoever is behind this. In order to do that, I have to get Olivia to commit to me. I have to get her to join the Pride. That was the last thing Olivia would want to do after being not only kidnapped but also poisoned. There was no doubt in Robert’s mind whatsoever the poisoning was the work of whoever was looking to overthrow him. Robert’s thoughts wheeled. He wished he could be with Olivia right now—he wanted to chase down whoever had harmed her and kill them. He wanted to know who to kill. He wanted to know who to eliminate from the Pride. Olivia would have Alexis there at her side but Alexis was a stranger. She would not be nearly as comforting as he would be, as his mother even would be. But Robert also wouldn’t involve his mother in the situation.

  The elevator chimed and Robert stepped through the doors the moment they opened, turning obliquely left and heading through the corridor. The animal within him wanted nothing more than to leap through his skin, rend the threat to himself and his mate limb from limb. But Robert asserted control. If he couldn’t hold himself back, he was not Alpha material. He would keep his humanity but he would not even consider letting Amelia out of his sight, even in the company of police, until he got the answers he needed.

  He could hear voices raised—shouting—as he approached the door to the security office. Katarina was questioning Amelia. Amelia’s voice was cracking, creaking as she shouted answers. It was obvious to Robert that Amelia only knew so much about the situation and that Katarina was slowly working through the other girl’s defenses, driving Amelia to confess. Robert opened the door and strode through it, still able to feel the animal pulse of thoughts throbbing in his head, crackling along his bones. The change was right there—right where he could taste it. He had to keep control.

  Katarina looked up when Robert closed the door behind himself, staring at the two women alone in the tiny room. “Hey, boss,” Katarina said, her voice level and casual.

  “What have you found out?” Robert asked, not looking at Katarina but instead at Amelia. The girl’s cheeks were streaked with tears, her expression angry and guilty all at the same time. Stress pheromones were thick in the air—acrid anger, yellow fear. Robert breathed shallowly. If he let himself scent the pheromones too strongly, he might begin reacting.

  “She won’t give up who put her up to it,” Katarina said. “We were just getting around to what would happen if she didn’t tell me before the police got here.”

  “You can’t just kidnap me!” Amelia shouted. “You’re not above the law.”

  Robert smiled unpleasantly, shaking his head and taking a few steps closer to the captive employee. “You know,” Robert said slowly. “Attempted murder charges—along with conspiracy to commit murder—are pretty bad. But I think you’ll find that if we tell the police you ran off, they won’t believe anything you say about what happened before they apprehend you.”

  “Of course they will!” Amelia said, frowning in uncertainty. “I’ll—I’ll have marks from whatever you did to me.”

  Robert shrugged.

  “But if everyone involved keeps to the same story, there won’t be anyone to back you,” Katarina pointed out. “No evidence that it was anything other than something you pulled in a desperate attempt to keep from being brought to justice. Besides, do you really think they’re going to take the word of a poisoner versus the CEO of a major company?”

  Amelia’s fear-scent intensified.

  “You already got her to confess that she wasn’t just working on her own?” Robert asked, barely glancing at Katarina.

  Katarina shrugged. “She had no motive to do it on her own free will,” Katarina pointed out. “She barely even knew Olivia.”

  “But she told you,” Robert insisted.

  “I’m not telling you who put me up to it,” Amelia said. “I’m not stupid.”

  Robert laughed, the sound coming out almost like a growl. “You are stupid if you think it’s a great idea to go down on your own for someone else’s idea.”

  Amelia smiled but her expression was as uncertain as ever. “I’m not going to go down,” she said quickly, licking her lips nervously. “The—the person who put me up to it—they said that they’d get me the best attorney in the country.”

  “You believed them?” Robert laughed. “How much were they paying you to do this?”

  Amelia looked away. “I’m not telling you anything,” she said. “And anyway, the cops are going to be here any minute.”

  Robert glanced at Katarina. Amelia was right, the police would only be a matter of time. Olivia was probably already at the hospital.

  “Well then we’ll need to make a decision quickly. You’re either going to tell us now, or you can take your time in a more private location...but you are going to tell us, one way or another,” Robert told Amelia firmly. He could still feel the prickly heat of his lion form just beneath his skin.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The first thing Olivia was aware of was a deep, raw, burning pain in her throat. Her ears seemed to come alive next and she heard the hiss of a respirator—and realized that she could feel the subtle pressure of an oxygen tube pressed up inside of her nose. She felt weirdly empty, wrung out like a dishcloth. Irritating electrical tremors danced up and down along her nerves, like a tiny explosion of lightning throughout her body. For a long moment, Olivia didn’t want to open her eyes. She knew without having to open them that, once more, she was in a hospital. She swallowed and cringed at the feeling of pain in her throat.

  All at once, the reason why she should be in a hospital came back to her. Olivia remembered Amelia, remembered the coffee—the strange taste, the numbness spreading from her mouth, her vision blurring and going black, her heart racing. I was poisoned. Somehow. Someone poisoned me. Amelia poisoned me. Did she know? Her eyes still closed, Olivia debated it. Why would Amelia poison her? She shivered, suddenly cold. Her whole body felt oddly heavy and while her heart was beating steadily in her chest, there was something strangely shivery about the sensation, unstable, wobbling.

  Olivia heard, over the heart monitor’s steady beeping and the sounds of the oxygen, someone clearing their throat. A flicker of fear spiked through her and then she realized that if someone was in the hospital with her, in the room with her, it was unlikely to be the person who had poisoned her. Olivia opened her eyes.

  Sitting a few feet away was a woman that she had seen a few times. Olivia’s fog
gy, confused mind suggested an A-name. “I’m glad to see you’re awake,” the woman said, smiling slightly. Olivia took her in, wondering—in another brief flicker of fear—if she could even manage to move. Her arms, her legs felt so heavy, her body not quite real. The woman sitting by her bedside had tawny golden brown hair, a sharp-looking face, bright eyes and a slim build.

  “Who are you?” Olivia asked, frowning. The words made the pain in her throat even worse, and her voice left her lips in a croak.

  “I’m Alexis, and I’m a—a very close friend of Robert Lowe. A member of his… organization.” Alexis raised an eyebrow. Olivia tried to understand what the woman was trying to intimate. She wanted more than anything to sit up, to drink water until the throbbing, aching pain in her throat finally subsided. Hunger gnawed at her stomach but the idea of eating anything felt impossible. “His private organization, you might even call it a club?” Alexis leaned in closer. “Or a secret order?”

  Realization hit Olivia in a jolt and she nodded. “I understand,” she said slowly, keeping her voice low. It hurt less to keep to a near-whisper. Olivia looked around the room. She seemed to be in almost exactly the same room she had awakened in when she had been kidnapped. The similarity depressed her. “What happened?” Olivia knew the basics: she knew that she had been poisoned. She hoped Alexis would be able to understand that she wanted details. The thought of having to explain in more than two words at a time was daunting.

  “You were given a very strong dose of belladonna,” Alexis said quietly. “They had to pump your stomach, wash you out with activated charcoal, so at least you know that your sore throat will go away eventually.” Alexis gave her an awkward, commiserating smile. “They also put you on some kind of sedative; it’s supposed to counteract the rapid heartbeat and other stuff.” Alexis shrugged. “Your breathing seems to be leveling off, so they’ll probably be able to take you off of the oxygen soon.”

  Olivia nodded. Christ. Kidnapped and poisoned, all for dating some guy. Why the hell was I even considering staying with him? Why had Amelia been the person to poison her? What had she done?

  “Robert?” Olivia looked around again and saw a pitcher on a tray set next to her bed, accompanied by a sterile, wrapped cup. She swallowed against the raw, dry feeling in her throat and reached out feebly to try and serve herself. Alexis stood, leaving her chair and coming around to the other side of the bed at Olivia’s movement. The other woman stripped the plastic wrapping off of the cup and poured the water into it, raising an eyebrow to confirm that Olivia was strong enough to hold the cup before handing it to her.

  “He should be here soon,” Alexis said, smiling. Olivia brought the cup to her lips with shaky hands, steadying as best as she could as she took a long sip. It even hurt to swallow the liquid, and she thought mournfully that it would be days before she could manage to get any food—real food—down. “He’s been…helping in the investigation as to who’s responsible for this,” Alexis said, smiling again—this time more wryly.

  Olivia cringed. “You’re like him,” she said, taking another sip of water; she made the words not quite a question.

  Alexis nodded. “We would have met each other soon enough either way,” Alexis said, moving the tray around to the other side of the bed as she resumed her seat, making it easy for her to pour more water if it was needed. “I’m sort of Robert’s second in command.” Olivia nodded.

  “Why…not you?” she asked, trying to think of a way to ask the question she wanted to know with the fewest words possible. What she really wanted to ask the other woman was: why wasn’t Alexis Robert’s mate? It would make so much more sense.

  “Oh, we’re not suited to each other that way at all,” Alexis said after staring at her for a long moment, confusion in her eyes. “I’m loyal to him but as the leader. Not as a partner.” She shrugged.

  “Who did this?” Olivia thought wryly that communicating in two- and three-word bursts was going to get very frustrating in short order. She drank some more water and wished that her throat would just get back to normal already.

  “I don’t know if they’ve figure that out yet. Amelia…” Alexis shrugged again. “She’s not part of the group, so obviously someone in our—our club…” Alexis looked around with distrust in her eyes. “Someone in our club put her up to it.”

  “To…depose Robert, somehow.” Olivia cringed. The extra word had hurt more than the three before it.

  Alexis nodded. “There’s something I’m going to tell you,” Alexis said quietly. “I don’t know if Robert’s explained things to you, at least not in full. And I’m not even sure he’d be okay with me telling you this if he hasn’t already.”

  Olivia stared at the woman with confusion. She nodded, encouraging Alexis to say whatever it was that she wanted to say. Olivia extended her nearly empty cup; it didn’t seem like Alexis had a small thing to say to her. Alexis picked up the pitcher and poured more water into Olivia’s cup, and Olivia settled herself against the pillows, sipping and nodding again for Alexis to say what she needed to say.

  “I know it’s really difficult for you to understand,” Alexis said slowly. “How—how Robert can know. How any of us can know.” She paused to give Olivia a significant glance, to make sure that Olivia was following what she was saying. Olivia raised her cup feebly to acknowledge the point. “If you think at all that you—that you love him, you need to agree to be his mate.”

  Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Why?” she asked, following the question with another sip of water. Her stomach continued to gnaw at itself, twisted and empty.

  Alexis took a deep breath. “Even if Rob figures out who it was, everyone involved in your poisoning, today, he can’t do anything about it.” Olivia frowned, raising an eyebrow to silently question why that was the case. “The elders—did he tell you about the elders?” Olivia shook her head and shrugged; she couldn’t remember if he had or not. “That’s…it’s complicated, but suffice it to say that even though Robert is the leader of our—our group, when the elders say something, he has to follow it.” Olivia nodded her acceptance of the assertion. “The elders said that he can’t bring the people responsible to trial until he has a mate. You have to be part of our group for him to put them on trial and to ask for their punishment.” Alexis gave her a significant look.

  Olivia interpreted it immediately. Robert was going to ask for the right to execute the people responsible for her kidnapping, for her poisoning. As ambivalent as Olivia had been about the whole idea of Robert killing anyone on her behalf, her most recent experiences had made it much easier to be okay with the notion. Olivia still felt a chill at the fact that someone was actually going to be put to death but then, she thought, they had tried to put her to death. They were getting more and more serious: first kidnapping, and then poison. She had to think that if much more time went by, the people looking to overthrow Robert would make an even bolder move. Maybe they would go whole-hog and kill her and Robert both.

  “So,” Alexis continued, as Olivia absorbed the import of her previous words, “in order for Robert to be able to put an end to this, you have to agree to become his mate.”

  Olivia took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. “Well,” she said slowly, taking a long drink of water, “I guess that…puts things…in perspective.” She cringed and decided that she wasn’t going to attempt any further sentences longer than a few words until her throat stopped feeling like low-grade hamburger. Olivia stared at her half-empty cup, swallowing.

  She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, worrying at it. If she didn’t decide to become Robert’s mate, then the attempts would just continue; she couldn’t quite trick herself into thinking that if she decided against becoming Robert’s mate, the interest in her would stop. The game—and Olivia hated that her life had become a game to others—was to get Robert overthrown. If she understood anything at all about were-lions and their mates, Robert wouldn’t just decide to leave her to her own devices and move on. He would continue to protect her.
The traitors in his Pride would continue to come after her, hoping to get at Robert. The poisoning, Olivia realized, had been an attempt to force Robert to take action that would bring the wrath of the elders—whoever they were—onto him.

  “I know it’s a lot to take in,” Alexis said, smiling weakly. “And if it were up to Robert—or even me—if it were any other situation, anyone in their right mind would want you to take your time. Especially since you weren’t born into this.” Olivia nodded. “But for your sake, as well as Robert’s, you…” Alexis shrugged. “If you think you love him, make it official. I can promise you that he’ll do everything and anything it takes to keep you happy.”

  Olivia chuckled. The movement in her abdomen sent a jolt of pain through her that made her regret the impulse. “That’s something,” she said.

  She took a deep breath and sighed, bringing the cup of cold water to her lips again. The entire time she had known about Robert’s choice of her as a mate, she had been trying to avoid being pulled into a decision against her will; it seemed like she was going to have to make one—whether or not she was ready. It was difficult not to resent everyone involved in the situation, but Olivia knew that she couldn’t be angry with Robert, or even with Alexis. For the first time since she had heard of the fate awaiting the traitors, Olivia was less than ambivalent about the fact that they would die. It seemed—for the moment at least—to be completely fair. She was giving up the ability to choose; she had nearly been killed by their machinations. If he killed them in front of me right now I wouldn’t care, she thought.

  THE FINAL CHAPTER

  Robert took a deep breath as he waited in the prime clearing of the Pride’s lands, holding back his anger. The trial would be starting soon. He had to appear to be even more in control of himself than he was. The elders would be there, to make sure that the trial was fair, that the decision to execute the traitor who had tried to overthrow him—who had tried to kill his mate—was properly recorded, and done with the recognition of everyone in the Pride. After this night, he and Olivia would both be safe.