Kade was the weak link and he knew it. “How?” he asked his friends.
“He hired a PI who went digging through your past.”
Kade didn’t have to ask why Julian had gone after him and not the others. When shit had gone down with Julian, it was Kade who’d stood by him the longest … until he hadn’t. Couldn’t. Not anymore. Once he’d sided with Derek and Luke, agreeing that Julian’s refusal to get treatment would only drag their business down, Julian had been thrown out of anything to do with Blink—and the money that came with it.
Julian made it clear he blamed Kade. Because he’d been closer to Kade than to the other two men. It was Kade on whom he’d seek revenge.
Although Kade’s father had tried to make certain the past stayed buried, nothing was foolproof.
“How did he uncover the information?” Kade asked.
Derek ran a hand through his dark hair. “He found Lila.”
“Fuck!” Kade slammed his hand into the wall, not caring about the consequences.
“Hey, man, calm down. We’ll counter anything he throws at us,” Luke said, coming up behind him and putting a hand on his shoulder.
“Really? We’re taking this company public. You think a date rape accusation against one of the CEOs won’t hurt? No matter how false it is?” His breath caught in his throat, panic surfacing along with the memories.
He’d been twenty-one and a cocky college junior, home from school for Thanksgiving break, and determined to break free from the geek stigma he’d been nailed with in high school, like he already had in college. He’d met Lila at a neighborhood bar. He’d been attracted to her the minute she walked through the door, with her short skirt and I’m available attitude.
They’d fucked that night and he’d felt like a king. Until her parents showed up at Kade’s house, accusing him of raping their daughter. When she’d come home the night before, her controlling father was waiting up, figured out she’d been with a guy, and turned furious. She’d claimed Kade had drugged and raped her.
Kade had wanted to fight the bullshit accusation, but his father preferred to pay in order to make problems go away. Without Kade’s knowledge, he’d gone to Lila’s parents and thrown money at them to prevent his son from being arrested and put in jail, the rest of his life ruined.
Except Kade knew he hadn’t drugged or raped the girl, and going to the cops would have at least proved she’d lied about being slipped a roofie. There was no evidence now beyond he said, she said. He’d begged his father not to pay them off. But Keith Barnes had spent his life trying to make it up to Kade for losing his mother and brother. He thought money fixed all things, and there’d been no deterring him. He’d paid off the family.
Kade’s father wasn’t an idiot. He’d had the parents sign a nondisclosure agreement. But they could have run through the money, or Julian, the bastard, could have offered them even more to snitch.
Fast forward to today—he said, she said was enough to scare off potential shareholders in his soon-to-be public company. So was the payoff. Everyone would assume Kade had something to hide. For all these reasons, he’d confided in Derek and Luke just last year. He felt they needed to know before they took this company to the next level. They’d immediately stood by him.
“Breathe, man,” Luke said. “We’re going to get enough on Julian to bury him. That’ll ensure this stays dead and buried too. I already called Evan Mann. He’s a PI with a solid rep. We’ll get this sorted,” he assured him.
Kade breathed out hard, trying not to panic. The notion of a rape charge wasn’t something he wanted to revisit … and there was a twenty-five-year statute of limitations on sex crimes. He wasn’t close to out of the woods if Lila and her parents decided to make things ugly and press charges. They’d be as money hungry as Julian, out to get a piece of Kade … and Blink.
Suddenly his hand began to throb, and he cursed out loud, looking down at his swollen, bruised knuckles.
“Shit. That could be broken,” Derek said, having joined them on Kade’s side of the desk.
“You should have it x-rayed,” Luke said in agreement.
Normally Kade would balk at going to the doctor, but the way this mother hurt… “Yeah, okay.”
“I’d join you but I have a meeting with a new developer,” Luke said. “Derek is sitting in.”
“Then it’s a good thing Kade has a personal assistant he likes so much. She can go along for the ride,” Derek said with a shit-eating grin on his face.
Luke shook his head and walked across the room, unlocking and opening the door. “Lexie get in here!” he called before Kade, with his excruciating pain, could process what he was doing.
Lexie rushed into the room. “Is everything okay?” she asked, her voice filled with concern. Her gaze immediately rested on Kade, who cradled his injured hand with the other. “Oh my God! What did you do?”
“He had an accident,” Derek said. “Can you get us some ice? And call for a car. You’re going to need to accompany him to the emergency room for X-rays.”
“Of course.” She spared a worried glance at Kade before rushing out.
“Thanks for that,” Kade muttered. Now Lexie had proof he wasn’t just a pain in the ass, he had a temper as well. Except he didn’t. Fear had driven him to this jacked move.
“We’ll handle things here. Get the hand looked at and go home. Let your new assistant take care of you,” Derek instructed, that same pleased grin on his face.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were playing matchmaker,” Kade muttered.
“Who said I’m not?” Derek asked, just as Lexie returned with a bag full of ice, her timing impeccable.
Her presence very needed. As much as the reminder of the past had Kade wanting to close out the world and shut down, he couldn’t deny he’d much rather turn to Lexie for comfort. And much more.
Chapter Four
Lexie rushed downstairs and retrieved ice in a bag from a restaurant nearby, then headed back to Kade’s office in record time. Derek and Luke must have left, so she walked up to Kade, who stood staring out the window, as if he hadn’t heard her come in.
“Can I see your hand?” she asked softly.
He turned around, and the raw pain in his face stole her breath. Without speaking, he held out his hand. His knuckles were swollen and bruised, already a deep purple. She lightly rested the bottom of his palm in hers and gently put the ice over the top.
“I’ll call for a car, and we can head over to the hospital,” she said without pushing for answers as to why he’d gotten so angry the plaster on the wall behind him was cracked. She hoped he’d confide in her eventually because he seemed like he had a lot to get off his chest.
“You don’t have to go along. I’m capable of taking myself.”
“I’m sure you are.” She sensed this man was an island. He thought he liked it that way. He just didn’t know any other way.
“But I want to help.” She glanced down at his ice-covered hand, rotating the bag so as not to overdo any one spot. “Put your free hand here and I’ll arrange for a car.”
She’d found a helpful list of various things, left behind by one of the former assistants. Car service had been on it.
He placed his hand over the ice, brushing her skin as they switched positions. Electricity—inappropriate and so wrongly timed—rushed over her, causing the hair on her arms to stand on end.
They made the trip to the closest hospital in silence, Kade’s clenched jaw an indication of his pain. And because this was a typical emergency room and since a bruised hand wasn’t triaged as urgent, they waited for hours, surrounded by sick people who used the ER as a doctor’s office.
Hacking coughs, lots of noses being blown loudly, a knife-wound victim with blood trailing behind the injured man, and the topper, the child vomiting in the corner.
Squicked out, Lexie inched closer to Kade, afraid of catching anything. But she was determined to stick it out and get him that X-ray. She wasn’t a doct
or, but those knuckles looked bad. She held her tongue and tempered her frustration at how long they had to wait.
Not Kade. He complained. Bitched. And finally tried to bully and ultimately bribe the triage nurse to let him pass before she threatened to call security and have him thrown out on his ass.
Lexie got in his face with a wagging finger. “Look, you might be used to preferential treatment most of the time, but here you’re less important than someone having a heart attack. Deal with it,” she ordered, feeling every inch the shrew as she lectured him. He deserved it.
“You’re bossy,” he muttered.
“But I get the job done.” She folded her arms across her chest and, with a glare, dared him to comment.
He didn’t. Instead he focused on the fresh ice the nurse had given him.
His compliance lasted another hour before he rose to leave. “That’s it. I’m done. The pain’s not that bad anymore.”
“Liar.” She scowled at him, then physically grabbed his arm on the uninjured side and pulled him back to his seat. “Quit making a scene, and I’ll go ask if they have any idea how much longer it might be.”
Before she could do as she promised, a male nurse stepped through the double doors. “Barnes? Kaden Barnes.”
“Thank God,” Lexie muttered, remaining seated when Kade stood.
“This way,” the nurse gestured.
Kade glanced at her. “Well? Let’s go.”
She shook her head. “They’re not going to let me go into X-ray with you. I’ll be here when you get out.”
“They’re just going to take me into a room and make me wait some more. You’re coming.”
She shrugged and rose to follow, surprised and secretly delighted that he wanted her with him. The nurse didn’t argue, so she soon found herself in a curtained cubicle as Kade had predicted. After the expected wait, a doctor finally came in to examine him.
Lexie winced along with Kade as the doctor lifted the hand and attempted to move fingers and thoroughly looked at the injury. “I’m pretty certain it’s a Boxer’s Fracture, a result of a break in the metacarpal when the bones hit a hard, immovable object.” He glanced at Kade as if waiting for an explanation as to how he’d gotten the injury.
When none came, the man shrugged and called a nurse to take him to X-ray. He allowed Lexie to wait in the cubicle.
While he was gone, Lexie called her sister to check in. The call went straight to voice mail, and she left a message, requesting Kendall call her back.
Kade finally returned, which led to another long wait for a doctor to come in with the results.
“Thank you,” Kade said into the prolonged silence.
“You’re welcome.” She almost told him she was just doing her job but stopped herself because that would have been a lie. True, Derek and Luke had asked her to go along, but she would have anyway and not because she was Kade’s personal assistant.
Because in a very short time, she was coming to care about him, and that was something she couldn’t let happen. She already had firsthand experience of what happened when she didn’t put a man first in her life. And a demanding man like Kade? He’d have no patience for her sister or her issues, no matter how kind he’d been when she’d told him the truth about her mother.
With a little luck, Kendall’s meds would kick in, and this would be the time things stuck. She’d turn herself around and get her life back on track. Then Lexie could focus on herself. Even if Kade was truly interested in her now, the sad truth was that said interest would fade long before that ever happened. The thought caused a pain in the pit of her stomach.
“Mr. Barnes.” The doctor pushed his way through the curtain. “I have your X-ray results, and it’s just as I expected, a Boxer’s Fracture. I’m going to splint the hand and fingers. I think we can avoid casting the entire arm up to the elbow.”
“Thank God.” Kade let out a groan of relief.
“That said, you need to keep the hand and arm immobilized as much as possible so it heals. Follow up with an orthopedist within the week. No lifting or stress on the hand or you risk injuring surrounding blood vessels, tendons, ligaments, and nerves. And keep the splint dry.”
The splint covered his entire hand, keeping his pinky and ring finger in place. The bruising on the knuckles of the other two fingers was still visible.
He was going to be in pain, something the doctor confirmed when he wrote up a prescription for painkillers. “If those make you sick, ibuprofen or acetaminophen might take the edge off. But for the first twenty-four hours, try to take the prescription as written and use the ice.”
“Thank you,” Kade said, sounding deflated at all the restrictions and issues he’d caused himself.
When the doctor finally left, Kade turned to Lexie. “Can you let Derek and Luke know the results?”
She nodded. “Of course. Is your housekeeper there to help you with meals?” Lexie asked.
“I’ll be fine.”
She frowned, not liking the idea of him going home alone, taking painkillers, and doing too much with his dominant, injured hand. “I’ll come back with you and help you get settled,” she decided out loud, reassuring herself it was the right thing to do.
“On the clock?” he asked.
Surprised by the question, her gaze shot to his only to find him grinning at her, and she realized he was mimicking her similar question of the night before. He’d asked her to stay for dinner, and she’d wanted to know if it was business. He wanted to know the same thing now.
“No,” she admitted, not questioning herself too much. Because she knew she wouldn’t like the direction the truth would take her.
With her sister’s issues, Lexie didn’t have time for a real relationship. She couldn’t afford messy feelings for her boss. And though she feared that was exactly where she was headed, she knew nothing could come of it as long as she had to put Kendall first.
It was, Lexie thought, the story of her life.
* * *
Kade settled in on his couch, reclining the chair and trying to get comfortable despite the raging pain in his hand. Although he hadn’t wanted to take the narcotic the doctor had prescribed and deal with feeling woozy, Lexie had insisted. And with the pain increasing, especially after how the X-ray tech had manipulated his hand, Kade had finally agreed.
Lexie had the driver stop for a hamburger from McDonald’s so he didn’t take the pill on an empty stomach and then watched as he swallowed. She was the ultimate caregiver, something he’d never experienced in any woman before.
Though she was his PA, any way he sliced it, this wasn’t in her job description. Then again, he was light-headed and feeling no pain due to the narcotic. His judgment probably couldn’t be trusted at the moment. He kind of liked the feeling of not worrying about a damned thing.
He picked up the remote and flipped through the channels, settling on a movie he couldn’t name. His head spun, and he saw two of everything on the screen. Nice, he thought, leaning back against the headrest.
“Here are some things I thought you might need,” Lexie said, walking in from the kitchen, carrying a bottle of water and a bag of Twizzlers. “Your favorite.” She smiled and placed the items on the tray between two seats. “Can I open the bag for you?”
He nodded, realizing for the first time how immobile and ineffectual he would be. “This was really an asshole move,” he muttered. “I can’t believe this.” He gestured to the hand he was icing with his good one.
She curled into the chair next to him, tucking her legs primly beneath her. She opened the bag and handed him a piece of the red candy. He took a bite, savoring the burst of cherry flavor.
“So … anything you want to get off your chest?” she asked. “Like why you felt the need to punch the wall?”
His mind wandered, from his past to Julian. “Assholes. I’m frustrated by assholes.”
She waited patiently, which was a good thing, because his brain was like mush, and he had to search for his thoughts. �
�An old friend is suing us for a stake in the company and for the money we’ll get upon taking Blink public.”
“I read about the lawsuit,” she admitted. “Does he have a case?”
“Fucking lawyers said he’s got enough to stand on that we should settle. And now Julian’s dug up old dirt on me. He found a girl who claims I raped her in college.” The words came out fuzzy to his ears.
“What? No!” Lexie said, immediately coming to his defense, which, addled brain or not, managed to surprise him. Her blue eyes widened in horror, but he instinctively knew it wasn’t at him.
“How do you know?” he asked.
She grabbed his good hand, leaning over the divider between the two seats, and met his gaze. “I just do. I trust my instincts. Always have. And you might be an arrogant ass and an occasional jerk, but you’re not a rapist!”
“Tell it to the judge,” he muttered.
She still held his hand as she moved in closer. “I would if I could.”
And he’d let her.
Because nobody had automatically believed him before. Nobody stood up for him without question. His father’s words, when he’d found out about the date rape accusation, were, It doesn’t matter, son. I’ll take care of you.
Which was all well and good, except it had mattered to Kade. He’d been innocent and wanted to prove it, not throw money at the situation to make it go away. Ironically, all he’d done was make Kade feel more alone.
Not Lexie. She made him feel good about himself for the first time in a long time. He wanted more. Without hesitation, he closed the distance between them and pressed his mouth against hers. She startled, jerking in surprise, before almost immediately giving in, her lips softening against his. He breathed her in, both her warm breath and her intoxicating belief in him.
He ran his tongue over her lips. Though he was confined by the wide armrests between them and his own injury, he was every bit engaged. Just ask his body. Painkillers had no effect on his cock, because it was hard and ready to go.
He wanted to lift his hand and cup the back of her neck, pull her closer, kiss her harder, but he was hindered by the need to keep his bad hand away from the furniture and any pressure against it. Instead he made good use of his tongue, delving deep into her mouth and tasting her sweetness.
Going Down Easy (Billionaire Bad Boys) Page 4