Reckless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 2)

by Mallory Crowe

  Alex glanced over his shoulder out the glass sliding door to where Malia swam laps in the pool. “She has you pretty messed up, doesn’t she?”

  Robert moved to block Alex’s view. “Malia is none of your business. What did you want?”

  “If you hadn’t had your head up your ass for the past week, you’d know that we have a date to talk with a judge about getting Logan released in two days, so we need to get our stories straight. Also, I wanted to go over the recent vandalism at the Hawaii location. I figured you’d want to talk about that immediately, but I had to find out from Colin Fucking Carter. So thanks.”

  “I would’ve told you about the incident as soon as I got back—”

  “Then you should’ve taken a plane. We don’t have time for you to go gaga over anyone. We need Logan out and we have deals falling through left and right. I need your head in the game.”

  “The incident was directed at me.”

  That gave Alex pause. “What?”

  “Right after I got to Hawaii, I was sent pictures by someone. Someone who was watching me. They warned me to stay away from Malia and then they went after Jean and burned down Malia’s house. Now that I’m off the island, the incidents should stop.”

  “Until you go back.”

  “The police department knows how invested I am in the investigation. They’re going to find and arrest the culprit sooner rather than later.” And if they didn’t, he was going to see that there was a major shake-up in the police department. He wasn’t going to let whoever caused all this grief just get away with it.

  “They burned down her house?” Alex stretched to look over Robert’s shoulder. “Fuck.”

  “There’s a reason I brought her with me.” He decided not to mention just how much of it was his idea, but Alex, probably more so than any of his brothers, knew that sometimes hard decisions had to be made.

  “I have some other connections on the island. I’ll give them a call and see if they have any idea who is behind this.”

  Robert nodded, doubting his decision to keep this from Alex in the first place. The whole thing had seemed so personal, and asking for help wasn’t something he was used to doing. “That’s great. I’ll send you the emails I received, and the police have a copy of the note that we received.”

  Alex pulled out a pen and opened the folder he had with him to flip a sheet of paper around to get to the blank back side. “Tell me everything that happened.”

  Robert gave Alex an abbreviated version, trying to leave out Malia as much as possible. But it was impossible to leave her out completely. Especially when Alex asked, “What was happening in the pictures you were sent?”

  Robert clenched his jaw. “The first batch of pictures was of Malia and me.”

  “You two were...”

  “We weren’t fucking, okay? We were just in the pictures.”

  “Got it. You can tell me anything, Robert.”

  “I’m not hiding anything.” At least not for his sake. “What else do you need?”

  “Give me Malia’s name so I can tell my guy. I’m sure he can take a look at the burned house and give us his opinion on it.”

  “The police said it was gasoline that started the fire.”

  “Damn. She’s lucky she wasn’t inside.”

  Robert closed his eyes for a second as he waited for the rage to pass. If Malia had been in the house, he would’ve— He didn’t want to think about that. “Her last name is Martin. Malia Martin.”

  Alex dropped the pen and stepped back from the island. “Are you shitting me?”

  “Why would I joke about that?”

  “You’re trying to figure out who’s making your life hell and you’re fucking Malia Martin?” He pointed at the door toward where Malia was still in the pool.

  “She has nothing to do with this. The only reason she’s in danger is because she got involved with me.” Something he’d forced her into. One more thing adding to his guilty conscience.

  “You have no idea who she is, do you?”

  “She’s no one. A tour guide from the islands who I ran into on the beach.”

  “Did she mention that she used to live in New York?”

  “That was years ago.”

  “Right up until Walter destroyed her entire family.”

  Robert felt as though he’d just been punched in the gut. “What?”

  “Shit...” Alex pulled out his phone and typed something in. “I can’t believe you don’t remember this. Here, look familiar?”

  Alex handed his phone off to Robert and he stared at the image on the screen. It was a woman and a young child. The woman had tan skin and black hair severely pulled back. Her outfit was nice, but he could tell it wasn’t high end. The little girl held fiercely to the woman’s hand. The young girl had wide, brown eyes, and she looked terrified in the flash of the camera. It was a candid shot on the steps of a courthouse.

  There was no caption, but Robert would recognize those eyes anywhere. The young girl was Malia. “What is this?”

  “That’s the last court hearing of Theresa Martin vs. Farrell Enterprises. The one where the judge ruled in favor of Farrell Enterprises taking over the land the family house was on. It was in all the papers for months. Everyone felt bad for the family, but Walter was paying off all the lawyers and judges so there was never any chance of them winning.”

  “What the hell happened?”

  “Walter bought up two buildings and planned to tear them down to make Farrell Tower in New York City. Except he needed the third building in the middle to do it and the owner, Theresa Martin, wasn’t budging. So he took her to court under eminent domain. The whole thing was sketchy at best, but with everyone on his side, it was child’s play to get it. In the process, he ran a huge smear campaign against Theresa Martin. She ended up with no property, a reputation in shreds, and probably a massive pile of legal debt. If you want to know who’s trying to ruin your life, she’s swimming in your pool right now.”

  Malia’s arms burned as she continued her laps, but she didn’t mind. It was just so nice to be able to use her muscles instead of being cooped up in a tight space for days on end. Maybe she could get some good hikes in. Her mother had mentioned how pretty it was on this side of the country. Might as well try to get some enjoyment out of it.

  She reached the edge of the pool and started to flip around to push off the side when she noticed the dark figure standing above her. She stopped mid-stroke to tread water in the deep end as she looked up at Robert. “You scared me.”

  His eyes were intense and guarded. She tried to get a read on his mood; something was wrong.

  “Was Alex bothering you?”

  Malia shook her head in the water. “I think I scared him more than anything. I hear you don’t bring a lot of random women back to your place. I’m almost flattered.” His expression didn’t change at all. Okay, something was really wrong. “What did he say?”

  “He told me who you are.”

  Her body went cold at the words, and Malia felt the sudden need for solid ground beneath her feet. She twisted in the water and did a medium pace front stroke until she reached a part of the pool she could walk and made her way to the stairs. Robert slowly walked around the pool as she swam, and he met her at the top of the stairs.

  “I don’t see what difference it makes.” She reached for the towel she’d brought with her.

  “The fact that your family hates mine doesn’t make a difference?”

  She scoffed. “You knew I had my reservations about you right from the beginning. Don’t act like I fooled you somehow.”

  “I had a right to know.”

  “No. You had a right to back the fuck off, which you refused to do time and time again.” She worked on drying her hair with the towel as she turned to face him. “At what point should I have brought it up? Back on the beach when I had no idea who you were? Maybe when you forced your way on my boat and I was stuck with you for five hours straight with your sister and her boyfriend.
Or maybe when my house burned down and I was so distracted I could hardly remember my own name. So tell me, Robert. Tell me how I betrayed you.”

  “I wasn’t accusing—”

  “Do you think I didn’t want to say something? To scream at you? Punch you right in your cocky face? But every time you reminded me who you were, you’d do something so...human. I just kept hoping you’d leave and I could move on, but you couldn’t even do me the justice of leaving me alone.”

  “You know why I couldn’t leave you there.”

  “Because you’re protecting me. Yeah, I got that. But the thing you don’t understand is I’m not some valuable piece of property you get to protect. I’m a living human being and you don’t own me. Your money and power can push me around—take my land, take my jobs—but you can’t take me. I don’t belong to you.”

  “You think that’s what this is about?”

  She let out a laugh. “Of course that’s what this is about! You and your family take whatever you want and damn the consequences. I know that better than anyone and I’ve seen the disastrous effects. I just need to keep reminding myself of that.”

  “I didn’t bring you here because I think I own you,” he bit out.

  “Then please enlighten me. Because I have spent days trying to figure out what the hell goes on in that mind of yours and all I can think of is that you’re staking some sort of medieval claim on me and you’ve got another thing coming if you think—”

  “I brought you here because I love you, God damn it!”

  Malia’s mouth snapped shut at his admission. Of all the ways she’d thought he’d try to defend himself, that never even crossed her mind. “You don’t—”

  Robert stepped forward until he was just inches away. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence. Because I know what I feel, and I might not be used to the concept, but I am madly in love with you. And you will be under my protection until I know you’re safe and then you can leave or run off or do whatever the hell it is you want to do with your life, with or without me. But at least I’ll know you’re safe.”

  Malia was utterly speechless as his words sunk in. Was it possible that Robert could actually feel that strongly about her? She replayed their small talks, the smiles, all the times she couldn’t help but kiss him. Had he actually been feeling something?

  Before she found any words, he pulled a white envelope out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Here, take this. Alex and I need to figure some things out. I’ll be back soon, though.”

  “What is this?” She took the envelope.

  “It’s proof that I’m not keeping you here against your will.” He turned and stormed inside, leaving Malia alone on the patio. Once he was out of sight, she looked down at the envelope in her hand. Her jaw dropped as she looked inside. “Oh my God,” she breathed.

  She didn’t have to count the bills. There was a withdrawal receipt on top of the stack of hundreds. Ten thousand dollars, taken out that morning when he’d been out. Before he knew who she really was.

  Malia stuffed the bills back into the envelope and looked up to see whether she was being watched. That was more than enough to get her back on the island and get her reestablished in a new place. It was enough that she could leave whenever she wanted.

  And now she had no idea what she should do.

  Malia toweled herself off and headed back into the house. Robert and Alex were hunched over the kitchen island with papers spread out in front of them. As soon as she walked in, they stopped talking and looked over at her.

  “Have you heard anything from your sister?” she asked in a conversational tone, as though nothing had happened.

  “We’re actually discussing Logan,” said Robert, earning him an angry glance from Alex.

  “Logan? Isn’t he in prison?”

  “I see you’ve stayed updated on our family,” said Alex. He’d tried being nice before, but apparently since he knew who she was, he was on the offensive.

  “I don’t need to explain myself to you.” She tried to keep calm. “Just trying to make conversation. Don’t worry. You two just keep on doing what you’re doing. I’ll be upstairs.”

  She didn’t want to say she ran, but there was definitely some pep in her step as she made her way up the stairs to get out of there as quick as possible. As soon as she got back to her room, she pulled out her phone and did a quick refresh on Logan Farrell.

  Arrested for insider trading seven years ago and was serving out a ten-year sentence. Nothing about it recently, though, so she wondered what the guys were talking about downstairs. But her mother had been pretty vocal about the entire ordeal. Actually, she’d been pretty happy about it. A Farrell in prison. One down, four more to go.

  But she’d also mentioned a little theory one day. She was saying that she suspected that the trading deal Logan was busted on was actually headed up by Walter. Meaning that the wrong Farrell was probably the one behind bars.

  She raised a brow when she noticed one of the more recent articles. No wonder Alex was here. Logan had been transferred to a prison in southeast California, right outside LA. The one person who knew what it felt like to be screwed over by the Farrells.

  Malia set the phone down and shook her head. She’d always assumed the Farrells were swimming in piles of money and laughing at the rest of the world. Seemed as if they had more problems than she imagined.

  She took a quick shower to wash off the chlorine, and after she braided her wet hair, she slid into her blue shorts and a loose pink t-shirt. In LA, she’d probably stand out like a sore thumb. She was so used to the casual clothes of the island she didn’t know whether she could fit into this crowd even if she wanted to.

  Once she was showered and dressed, she went downstairs. Robert and Alex weren’t in the kitchen. Instead, there was a note in strong, sure handwriting.

  Ran to the downtown office. Be back soon.

  -Robert

  At least she wouldn’t have to deal with Alex being grumpy around her. She rummaged around the cupboards until she found a glass and drank some water. The place seemed so quiet and empty. She was all alone with a working cell phone and ten grand burning a hole in her pocket. Robert said he was going to trust her, and this was probably her test.

  So, did she run away or give Robert another chance? She took another drink of water. She might need something stronger in order to get through the day.

  Robert powered up his laptop in the corner office of the LA Farrell Enterprises building. He didn’t use it all that often, so the office was used on a rotating basis by him and his brothers.

  “As soon as we go over the Fullmont Building deal and then the Atlanta one, you can head out of here. These two can’t wait any longer, though, and we need your approval on some of the last-minute details.”

  Robert nodded as he started to go through some of the basics. It was easy to push work to the back of his mind when he was with Malia, but now that he was actually going through the emails, he was reminded of how far behind he was.

  “So how far are we on the Logan situation?”

  “We’re closer than we’ve ever been. Once we had access to all of Walter’s emails, it was only a matter of time before we found some proof of all the moves he’d orchestrated for the frame-up. In a few months, Logan will be a free man.” Before Robert could get excited, Alex added, “And he’ll probably never speak to any of us again.” Alex had been the one to spearhead this little project to get Logan out of prison. A project that would've been easier if Logan would talk to any of the family members.

  “We don’t know that.” Ever since Jean had come into the family, she’d been the push they needed to get Logan out. As long as Walter had been alive, there was no evidence that Logan had been framed and no one they could talk to without Walter somehow beating them to the punch.

  But now all they had to do was jump through a few quick hoops.

  “Where’s Nathan right now?”

  “He flew back to the city as soon as we were done
out here. I think he had some party or something. I had a few alerts about him being out.”

  “You still get emails whenever he pops up online?”

  “I have those alerts on all of us. Julie taught me that. It’s useful.”

  “It’s useful for us since we’re not mentioned often. Nathan is in the press every day.” Robert opened up the packet for the Fullmont Building and started to go over it. “When did you start to talk to Julie?” After Nathan’s image started to become more problem than playboy, Robert had hired Julie Anne to help make sure their family didn’t come off worse than the public already thought they were.

  And she’d managed to keep Nathan’s drunken, drug-fueled exploits from the press from the second he’d started paying her exorbitant fees. But as far as he knew, Nathan was the only one who worked with her. Not Alex.

  “I’ve been emailing her a bit. Getting her opinion on how to handle Logan.”

  “I thought we were handling Logan.”

  “We are. But he’s been in that hellhole for years. We can’t expect him to get out and for things to just go back to normal. It’s fair to assume that he’s going to...act up. I was thinking that if we got Julie involved early, we could be proactive about it.”

  “Logan won’t talk to us. Why would he listen to a stranger?”

  “Same way we got Nathan to listen to her.”

  That was a valid point. Julie wasn’t the first PR consultant they’d hired. She was, however, the prettiest, and it was much easier to get Nathan to listen to a pretty woman than some old bearded guy. From what he could tell, Julie had been nothing but professional with Nathan, so he didn’t care what got Nathan to listen as long as he behaved himself. “So you’re going to throw a beautiful woman at Logan and hope she can rein him in?”

  “You’ve talked to her before. She’s smart and knows her shit. I’d say that if there’s anyone who can keep an eye on Logan for us, it’s her. Nathan has been on the straight and narrow for a while now.”

  “You think he’s on the straight and narrow?”