Billionaire's Vegas Night: A Standalone Novel (A Billionaire Boss Romance Love Story) (Billionaires - Book #4)

by Claire Adams

  “You’ll laugh, it’s okay. I’m keeping it clean and it should heal up really soon.”

  “Are there any other injuries I should know about while we are in town? I can load up on some additional first air supplies,” she said as she smiled at me. “Was that from the pig?”

  “Yes,” I said and quick looked away. Sarah broke out into laughter and I couldn’t help turning to look at her. “It really hurt and he was fast,” I defended myself.

  Her laughter was brilliant and I searched my mind for anything else I could say to keep her laughing. It dawned on me that this was what it was like to truly like a woman. Which seemed odd considering I had had plenty of girlfriends over the years, but many of them seemed to be girls that were good enough for the moment and not girls I truly wanted to be with.

  As I sat in the truck with Sarah, I realized what a huge difference it was with her compared to other women. I genuinely had put my life at risk to simply have some alone time with her. I was searching my brain for jokes that might get her to smile and laugh and that was all I wanted from her. Sure, I would have loved for her to tell me she wanted to take me to bed, but I was also all right with exactly what we had in that moment. Her pure laughter was making me happy too, and the realization was life-changing for me.

  Even if I left the ranch the next day and nothing more ever came of my relationship with Sarah, I had a life changing view of relationships that had taken me thirty years to find. The unselfishness of that moment wasn’t something I had really experienced with a woman before and it felt like a drug to me. I wanted more of Sarah, I wanted her smiles, her attention, and anything else she would give me because it gave me a happiness high like no other that I had experienced.

  “Well, congratulations; I think you are the first person to ever work on the farm and get beaten up by a pig.”

  Her smile was brilliant as she looked at me and I could tell I had succeeded in keeping her wall down for a moment. It was a trick I had learned as a CEO; when you make yourself vulnerable, people tend to make themselves vulnerable as well. But I had never been as successful outside of the office as I felt at that moment with Sarah. Her smile, her laughter, it was because of me and I couldn’t wait to make her laugh again and again.

  “You’ve never been bit by a pig?” I asked as we laughed.

  “Um, no. I’ve never been bit by any animal. I was once thrown off a wild horse when I was younger, though. I fractured my spine and had to spend months in bed.”

  “Wow, that sounds painful. Why were you on a wild horse?” I asked as our laughter started to die down.

  She paused for a moment before answering me and I could see she was thinking about whether or not she wanted to continue our conversation. It was a nice conversation, but I was vulnerable and so was she. If her parents had told her to stay away from me, the moment was right then for her to end the talking. I told myself if she really didn’t like me she would stop the conversation and we would simply go buy the saddle and head back home. But if she liked me, even just a little bit, Sarah would tell me why she had been on that wild horse.

  “We should probably get going. I’d like to try and put the saddle on Buckjoy before nightfall.”

  Disappointment rushed through me and I could have given up at that very moment, but I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. I wanted to see her laugh again. I needed Sarah to keep her defenses down and for us to at least be friends. I didn’t want to go weeks without her talking to me again.

  “You’ve got a thing for wild men,” I teased as we climbed out of the truck and started toward the store.

  It was a joke that I thought would catch her attention. Enough flirting for her to really know I was interested, but nothing too crude or vulgar. I was proud of my joke, up until I saw the wild look in her eyes as we walked toward the building.

  Suddenly she grabbed me and pushed me against the building. There was fire in her eyes and for a moment I was afraid I had said something to anger her. She was powerful for such a little thing and her strength held me against the wall as she looked up into my eyes.

  Her eyes were like darts to mine and she refused to look away as she started to talk. It was erotic how much she had taken control of me and pushed me like that. I hadn’t had a woman be so forceful around me before; it turned me on and I smiled as she looked seriously at me.

  “I like wild horses, not wild men,” she said sternly. “Now let’s go get this saddle.”

  She pulled her hand away from my chest and I couldn’t help but smile even more at the fire that was inside of her. It had been totally out of the blue, I couldn’t have pretended to be prepared. But, oh, how I loved the way she pressed me against that wall and took control of the moment. Sarah didn’t like what I had said and instead of just smiling and brushing it off, she made sure I understood. Although, I secretly suspected she also liked wild men, but wasn’t about to push her into admitting it.

  The problem was I wasn’t a wild man. Sure, I was pretending to be a drifter, but I couldn’t pretend to be a rough and wild man that I wasn’t; I just didn’t have those kinds of acting skills. I was pretending to be this aloof man who didn’t have a home and didn’t care where he was going or what he did for work, but Garrett Reynolds wasn’t who I was.

  I didn’t wear cowboy boots ever in my normal life. I certainly didn’t shovel horse shit or chase after angry pigs. In the real world, I lived a cushy life in Los Angeles and flew on my own private jets to grand vacations. I had beautiful women who threw themselves at me and I often kept them by my side for the briefest of relationships. I tried to be fair and kind to people but I was often too caught up in my business and my own life to notice anyone else outside of my close circle of friends.

  The longer I was away from my old life, the more I worried I hadn’t been that great of a guy at all. Not only had I put my employees at risk by getting into business with Frank Gordano, but I had put money ahead of everything else. Which was stupid; I had more money than I could spend reasonably in a lifetime, yet I wanted more and more.

  Before getting sent away with the Witness Protection Program, I couldn’t remember a time in my life where I was ever content with what I had. Whether it was in business or my personal life; I always wanted something more or something different. A beautiful woman by my side had never been enough, I wanted a different one than the one I had at any specific moment. In business, when everything was going perfectly, I would make changes to add new things that would inevitably shake up the symbiosis that was going on.

  Perfection wasn’t exactly what I was searching for, but satisfaction was what I wanted. Somehow I wanted to feel like what I had was enough. The problem was, I never could get to that point no matter how much I switched girlfriends and no matter how many things I changed in the company.

  The weird thing was, I felt happy, or at least I thought I was happy. I went to work every day with a smile on my face and a bit of a jump in my step. Running a small airline was a fun bit of work, but I wasn’t satisfied and therefore didn’t ever truly feel happiness.

  The simplicity of life on the ranch had me feeling happier than I had felt in a very long time. Sure, I liked to think of Sarah and even flirt with her when I had the chance, but just being on the ranch and working hard was changing my mindset. There were days when nothing seemed out of place and I was happy to finish my jobs before nighttime and get a warm shower in. I didn’t yearn for more. I didn’t long to have a different amount of money in my pocket or a different fancy bed; I was happy with what I had.

  I was happy with three good meals a day and a safe place to sleep. They were things I had taken for granted most of my adult life, yet they were so essential to living. I vowed to myself that I would do better in my life when I returned to it. I would do better at being less self-centered. My eyes were certainly being opened by my time at the ranch and in the witness protection program.

  The drive back to the ranch was silent again, but I didn’t feel like pushing Sara
h any more. My thoughts were wrapped up in my past and what I hoped would be my future. When the Gordano trial was over, I was going to make changes in my life. I wasn’t sure what they were or how it would happen, but my old life could never be the same after my time at the Miller ranch.

  As we pulled into the driveway, Sid Miller was standing there waiting for us. The look on his face seemed full of relief when we first pulled in, but then it quickly turned to anger. I had seen a similar look on the faces of fathers over the years when I had returned their daughters home from a date later than I was supposed to.

  “Uh oh,” Sarah said under her breath. “He’s looks angry.”

  I suspected Sid was angrier with me than he was at Sarah, but I couldn’t give that information out. Instead, I went along were her notion that her father was actually upset with her. Although, I wasn’t sure why she would think he was angry with her just for driving into tow.

  Sarah climbed out of the truck and I grabbed the saddle out of the back and started to bring it into the barn. I didn’t want to make waves if Sid was angry with his daughter; I was going to stay out of it. If he was angry with me, I wanted to get out of sight as quickly as possible to avoid any sort of altercation of words when he explained how wrong I was for leaving.

  “Garrett, I need a word with you,” Sid said loudly.

  “I’ll take that,” one of the other ranch hands said as he grabbed the saddle.

  “Sure.”

  “In my office, please,” Sid said as he walked to the small building off to the side of his house.

  My eyes caught Sarah’s and she shrugged her shoulders at me. I was clearly the one in trouble and not her, and I knew it was because I had left the ranch. There was no excuse and I shouldn’t have gone. Luckily nothing had happened. We simply went into the supply store and shopped around for a little bit and then bought the saddle and left. There had only been two people in the store that I had seen and neither of them seemed even the slightest interested in what I was doing. But I knew I was wrong and that was all that mattered, I took ownership when I made mistakes and this was certainly all my fault.

  “I’m sorry, Sid,” I said quickly as I entered his office.

  Sid picked up the telephone and dialed a number. He held his hand up for me not to talk while he punched in a couple numbers on the touchpad telephone. His lips were pressed tightly together and he was angry. Before that moment, I had almost believed that Sid never got angry. But I could see it in his face and even in how he was sitting in his chair, Sid Miller was not happy with me at all.

  “Do you know what I’m doing right now?” he asked me sternly, but didn’t wait for me to reply. “I’m calling off the massive search for you that was ordered when I had to report that you and my daughter were both missing.”

  Shit. I hadn’t thought about what it would look like if I was gone with his daughter. I felt bad at the mention of people out looking for me and instantly wished I hadn’t gone with Sarah into town. There was genuine concern coming from Sid and I realized that he wasn’t angry: he was scared. Sid had been scared that the people who were after me had found me and had decided to take Sarah with as they kidnapped me.

  My gut twisted at the ideas that must have been going through Sid’s mind when he realized we were both gone. At first he probably thought we were riding horses or something else, but soon he realized we had both left the ranch and we hadn’t told anyone where we were going. The fear that started slowly had probably spread quickly the longer we were gone until he decided to report us missing.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, you’re sorry that for the last hour I thought that a dangerous killer had taken my daughter and the stranger who I had agreed to protect? You’re sorry?”

  My words seemed of little consolation, but I didn’t really know what else I could say. I was sorry. I wouldn’t do it again and I certainly appreciated all that he had risked to have me at his home and keep me safe while I waited to testify at the trial. My eyes looked down at the grown to avoid the deep gaze of Sid. I knew I had disappointed him and it felt just as bad as when I had disappointed my own father when I was younger.

  “Sid, I don’t know what else to say. Sarah invited me to go with her to get a saddle and I said yes. I wasn’t thinking.”

  I decided to leave out the part where I wanted to kiss her. I also didn’t mention that I totally knew I shouldn’t have been leaving the ranch and I just wanted more alone time with Sarah. The idea had seemed very harmless and our trip had been totally uneventful, I hoped that Sid would be able to forgive me.

  “No, you weren’t thinking and you just put yourself and my daughter at risk. I don’t know who it is that you are testifying against, but they certainly could have followed you to Montana. You don’t think that the FBI is all that careful in their planning and dropping off of witnesses, do you? The only thing that was keeping you safe was that no one else in the state of Montana had seen your face because you were here on my ranch. Now you have risked your own safety and put my family at risk. I don’t think I’ll be able to keep you here any longer.”

  His words cut through me like a dagger. I didn’t want to leave. I was comfortable on the ranch; I felt safe there. I had made the mistake and it was my consequences to live with; but I didn’t want to leave the ranch. As panic washed through my body, I had to think of some sort of plan that would convince Sid to let me stay on the ranch. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of anything except to give him a sincere apology and hope for the best.

  “Sid, I’m sorry. I promise it won’t happen again. Please let me stay here. The trial has got to be getting closer and I’ll be gone then, but I like it here. I want to stay.”

  Sid looked perplexed at the situation as he tried to decide if he was going to let me stay there or not. My odds weren’t looking all that great until Mrs. Miller poked her head into the office and offered her advice on the situation. Up until that very moment, I would have put all my money on the idea that Sid was going to get rid of me, but when Meredith looked in the door, she had a bright smile on her face, and I knew it was going to be all right.

  “Sid, let the poor boy get back to work,” she said with a smile and then closed the door.

  I smiled back at her and something in her eyes told me that she knew what was going on. Perhaps Sid had filled her in on who I was when he couldn’t find me and Sarah. Perhaps Meredith Miller had known who I was the whole time? But either way, her comment seemed to be enough to push Sid in the direction that favored me staying on at the ranch.

  Sid loved his wife and he respected her opinion. It was clear that because she told him to let me stay on the ranch, Sid was going to cut me some slack.

  “One more chance, kid. This is it; if there are any other incidents, I won’t wait around for an explanation. You’ll be shipped back to the FBI and they can find you another place to hide out until the trial.”

  “I understand.”

  “And help Sarah with that damn horse. I need to ride it out to the river next week a few times and none of the other horses are up for that long of a trek.”

  “Yes, sir, I’ll do my best. But the animals don’t seem to like me all that much.”

  “Stop letting them be in charge. In whatever you did before you got here, would you have let some kid off the street boss you around and bite you?”

  I laughed at his analogy. Of course, I wouldn’t have; I was a strong, tough CEO.

  “No, I wouldn’t have.”

  “Then show the animals that you’re a strong leader. If you show weakness, they’ll bite you,” he said as he motioned for me to get out of his office. “And don’t ever worry me like that again.”

  Chapter 6

  Sarah

  Garrett kept his distance from me after my father yelled at him. I didn’t really understand why my father had been so angry though. Certainly, he had taken a ranch hand into town before, so it wasn’t that big of a deal for me to do the same. But sometimes there was no reasonin
g with my father; he just got it in his head that something wasn’t right and he went with it. My mother, on the other hand, she was much more reasonable.

  “He’s a good guy, mom, I can tell by talking to him. Is father really afraid that I’ll get mixed up with a ranch hand? I thought he liked Garrett?”

  “Your father doesn’t care who you like or don’t like as long as you’re safe.”

  I waited for her to continue on and explain to me what it was about Garrett that made me unsafe. He was a hard-working guy; he actually worked harder than many of the men. But as the weeks went on and he avoided me more and more, I started to realize my father must have threatened him that he would lose his job if he was flirting with me or something. I really didn’t know what my father had said to him on that day when we returned from the store, I only knew that Garrett and I barely flashed smiles at each other when we passed throughout the day.

  I had finally had enough and went to my mother to discuss the situation. I had to know what it was that my father knew about Garrett and why Garrett was then avoiding me. Just when I had finally come around to considering talking to him, Garrett was pulling away from me and not interested in talking to me.

  “So what about Garrett makes me unsafe? Explain it to me, because I don’t get it.”

  “Sarah, not everything in this world needs an explanation.”

  “Well this does. Garrett’s been here a few months now, there’s only a half dozen men who have been here longer. Sure, he sucked at caring for the animals at first, but he’s gotten a lot better. So much better that Forest has him working as his second-hand man.”

  “Sarah, I’m not going into this. Just stay away from the man if that’s what your father wants.”

  “You know that Buckjoy likes him? A wild horse that only likes two men on this ranch: father and Garrett. How do I even know if Dad wants me to stay away from Garrett? He’s never said that to me.”