Order of Protection

by Lexi Blake

  The big, gorgeous Texan stared at her. “Winnie, don’t you dare hold back on me. It’s been too long. Don’t think for a single second I’m still mad at you. Come here and give me a hug.”

  Oh, that dark-haired billionaire’s son looked like happiness and home, and he was one of the people she’d cut out of her life because he’d been far too reasonable. She ran to him, throwing her arms around her childhood friend. When they were children, her uncle and his father had been on several corporate boards together.

  He was a piece of the old Win that she wasn’t ashamed of.

  “Don’t you worry, girl. I’m going to make sure you’re okay,” he whispered, his arms holding her close. “I’m not going to stop until I figure out who did this because I know damn straight that it wasn’t you.”

  “Uhm, Mike, I think you should let the girl go or her lawyer might murder you,” Case Taggart said with a smirk. “He’s got those crazy eyes my brother is always going on about.”

  With a chuckle, Michael released her, looking over at Henry. “Sorry, Counselor. No one told you Winnie and I grew up together? My father and twin brother run Malone Oil. I got sick of being covered in crude, and honestly I was never good at board meetings, so I joined the navy and eventually ended up at McKay-Taggart.”

  “I ordered an investigator, not another bodyguard,” Henry replied.

  What the hell was going on? Henry was looking at Michael like he was going to attack at any moment. “I’m sure he’s good. And he knows me. I’m thrilled to see someone who knows me.”

  “Knows you?” Henry’s eyes had narrowed.

  Was he jealous? It was her turn to put her hands on her hips and sound a little prudish. “Yes. He knows me in the we-used-to-throw-mud-pies-at-each-other way, not in the biblical sense.”

  “Though you look good, girl,” Michael said in his deep Texas twang. “We could rethink that whole thing. You know I’m still single after all these years.”

  “That’s because you’re a picky bastard,” Case said. “And you’re going to get taken out by Crazy Eyes if you don’t watch it. That dude likely knows how to get away with murder.”

  “This dude, as you so eloquently put it, knows what a truly great investigative team looks like, and it’s not based on childhood friendships.” The words came out of Henry’s mouth in a positively arctic tone. “I need to talk to Taggart because I thought he recruited ex–special forces, not rich boys who like to play at investigating.”

  “Henry, that was rude.” She was shocked.

  He really was an idiot when it came to the whole emotional thing. Men. Not a one of them could be reasonable. She either got idiot men-children or superhot passionate cavemen with brilliant IQs when it came to all things intellectual, and nothing when it came to how to handle themselves emotionally.

  If this was all about sex, he wouldn’t have held her and asked her if she was innocent. He wouldn’t have broken that sacred rule of his for a fun lay. He wouldn’t have spent the last few days skulking around because he didn’t know what to do. He’d said he’d forgotten how funny she could be. Well, she really hadn’t been herself the last few days. That might be part of the problem. He’d been faced with the fact that he thought he didn’t know her, and all his evidence pointed to that conclusion because she’d been a teary, weepy, needy mess.

  She was starting to feel like herself again. Maybe it was time to let that happen.

  Michael started to explain his many qualifications for the job, but she suspected Henry only needed one thing in order to feel comfortable with her old friend investigating.

  She moved to his side and slid her hand into his. He stiffened for a moment, and then his fingers curled around her and he pulled her closer to his side.

  “Better?” Win asked. “You feeling less like a Neanderthal?”

  She could have sworn he blushed, but he simply cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, gentlemen. Of course McKay-Taggart sent their best. If you’ll join Win and me, we can go over some of the reports.”

  He moved to the big dining room table, pulling back a seat for her and then immediately taking the one closest to hers.

  When he sat down, he was right back to the competent, professional Henry she’d always known.

  “You do have crazy eyes, you know,” she said with a shake of her head.

  He picked up a folder, but under the table his leg touched hers, rubbing against it in a way that was more about connection than sex. “Only for you,” he said under his breath before looking back to the investigators. “So what have we found out?”

  She settled back, wondering what the hell she was going to do with that man.

  * * *

  “Would you like the good news or the bad news?” Case Taggart asked.

  Henry hated bad news, but he was definitely a rip-the-bandage-off kind of man. “What’s happened?”

  Besides him making an idiot of himself? He knew he’d been tremendously unprofessional and yet he couldn’t make himself take it back. It was nice to sit beside her. It was completely inevitable that they would sleep together and he didn’t want to fight it anymore. He’d spent days staying away from her because he didn’t want to hurt her again, but he knew he was failing.

  And lying. He was staying away from her because he didn’t want to get hurt again. Because he was still completely unsure of what to do.

  “I’m afraid a couple of the tabloids will be running stories claiming that Taylor Winston-Hughes is sleeping with her lawyer in the next couple of days,” Malone said. “I’ve got some lawyers trying to shut the articles down, but you know how this is going to go.”

  Win’s eyes widened and she gasped. “Oh no. I thought we could keep it quiet. We had a relationship but it was before we started working together. He’s not breaking any rules. We haven’t slept together since he became my attorney.”

  He could feel her panic and knew it wasn’t about her own fears. She was scared for him, that she was going to ruin his career. He needed to put all of that to rest. He reached out and put a hand on her arm. “It doesn’t matter. It’s one more scandal and it will blow over after they’ve taken it to its natural conclusion.”

  She looked a bit sick. “Natural conclusion?”

  Oh, he knew exactly where they would take it. “That you might be the real reason Alicia and I broke up, and Brie Westerhaven got caught in the middle. It’s going to get messy and we should try to get ahead of it. Does my ex-wife know about the tabloid stories?”

  “I didn’t want to contact her without talking to you first,” Case explained.

  “Call her. I’ve heard she’s filming in Toronto. I need a meeting set up with her. I want to go over everything she remembers about that night. As for the story, it’s going to hit no matter what. I’m sure they’ll have all kinds of unnamed sources. We can sue, but the truth is we did have a relationship. We need to mitigate the damage. I want it made plain that I am not the lead lawyer on Win’s case. I’m her boyfriend and she trusts my firm to handle this, as many lawyers’ loved ones would trust close advisors. David Cormack is her attorney, with Noah Lawless and Margarita Reyes as seconds. Ms. Winston-Hughes has slept with none of those people. Right, sweetheart?”

  She turned to him, ignoring his final, slightly snarky question. “Boyfriend? How did we go from we’re staying in separate rooms to avoid the inevitable to you’re now my boyfriend?”

  Ah, but how things changed. This situation was completely fluid, and he was excellent at changing tactics when the circumstances called for it. The circumstances had changed. They had to evolve with it. “We release a brief statement to the press about our personal relationship and that it did not begin until after the termination of my marriage. Alicia will back this up with a statement of her own. She will also state that she supports both the relationship and Win herself. Then we will go silent unless we need to strike back because of
gross maliciousness.” He looked to Win. “And avoiding the inevitable is an oxymoron. You understand that, right?”

  She was so confusing to him, but it was clearer when she seemed to be the woman he’d spent those two weeks with. When she was bold and assertive and didn’t take crap from him, he could see her again.

  Was he looking at her in the wrong way? Was he being too hard on her?

  She turned to him, her breasts pressed against the V-neck of her shirt. “Who said it was inevitable, Garrison? I assure you, I could hold out a long time, especially when you’re mean. After all, I have a present coming.”

  There she was. There was the woman who challenged him and made him crazy, and got his dick so damn hard he couldn’t think about anything except her. It wasn’t just the sass that got to him. It was the combination of strength and sweetness. Of brains and that rich vein of kindness everyone who knew her talked about.

  He leaned over. “You haven’t even seen mean yet, sweetheart. I can intercept that present, but you should know that I’m excellent stress relief. You don’t need double-A batteries.”

  Her lips curled up. “It’s a plug-in, Henry. Very powerful.”

  His whole soul responded to her. What the fuck was he doing? He didn’t care. “I’m more powerful. I don’t need to be plugged in and I do more than mere orgasms.”

  “Yeah, well, we’ll have to see about that.” She turned to their guests. “Yes, a nicely worded public statement about the status of our relationship would be lovely. Please put in there something about how taken the counselor is with me and how hard he’s working to ensure my safe status.”

  Bitch. Gorgeous, sexy, smart bitch. And if he was a monster, didn’t he need a bitch?

  Don’t ever settle for a simple woman, Henry. Simple comes easy. You want something worth fighting for and that’s never simple, son.

  Why did he hear his grandfather so clearly now? After he’d gone out into the world, his grandfather had been a photograph he’d carried with him, but then he’d died and Henry had gone butt-fuck crazy for years and now the world had somehow realigned and become something . . . beautiful.

  When he was still, when he put aside the alcohol and ego, the insecurity and arrogance—that was when the world drew down, simplifying into the lessons of his childhood.

  Work was honorable. Love wasn’t simple. People were meaningful.

  He’d forgotten that for so long, and it had really taken Win Hughes to remind him.

  “I think we can work with your publicist to handle that,” Case said.

  Michael was silent and that was super–all right with Henry. He was too young and apparently loaded with cash, and he did not like how that asshole looked at Win. Like she was something precious.

  She’d lied. She’d lied to him.

  Did that mean she wasn’t precious? Did that mean he couldn’t forgive her?

  He pulled back his hand, noting the frown she sent him. It made him wonder if she could hear his thoughts. She’d promised to newspaper-strike him if he said the word lie. He needed to ensure all the papers and magazines were locked up. Would she switch to a water spritzer? He’d heard that was a way to train bad puppies.

  Damn but he liked her.

  “Excellent. I think that’s the proper way to deal with the tabloids. Make it a nonstory. Happy couples are boring.” He needed to move on or he would be the idiot declaring his undying love or something. “What else did you find out? I asked the forensic accountant to try to pull up anything interesting.”

  Michael held up a hand. “The accountant found two things I was interested in. One, did you know that Mary Hannigan spent over five thousand dollars on a recent trip to Los Angeles?”

  Win sat up straight. “You’re investigating my nanny?”

  “Damn straight,” Case shot back. “She’s got an odd history. I can’t find records of her before 1989. Do you not find that interesting?”

  “I was born in 1989,” Win said.

  Yes, he found that interesting. “You think she was brought in as an illegal?”

  “With your permission, we’ll go out and have a talk with her,” Michael replied.

  Win was shaking her head. “No. My nana did not murder Brie. First off, she wasn’t even there that night. She was stuck in a hospital on the island, recovering from surgery. She was in a car accident.”

  Case worked the tablet he’d brought in. “Yes, I’ve got the police report on that. Were you aware she was driving your vehicle?”

  A fine chill made the hair on Henry’s neck stand up. “She was driving Win’s Jeep? The same one that someone tried to run off the road a few months back?”

  “Yes,” Michael replied. “She was driving the Jeep. This was roughly forty-eight hours after she got back from Los Angeles.”

  “Do we have any idea what she was doing in L.A.?” Henry asked.

  “I’ll ask her,” Win offered. “I’m sure she was taking a vacation or something.”

  “Or going to have a talk with Brie Westerhaven.” Case turned the tablet around. “I’ve been combing through banking records. I find it interesting that Brie Westerhaven deposited five thousand dollars the same day Mary Hannigan pulled five thousand dollars out of her account. Coincidence? I think not.”

  “I think I’ll go out and talk to Nana Mary myself.” He wasn’t leaving that to the investigators. Something was up with the nanny, and there was no way Win would believe it if he didn’t have airtight proof against her. “What else?”

  “Dear Uncle Bellamy has a mistress.” Michael winced a little as he made the announcement. “Sorry, Win.”

  She waved him off. “Is it still Amber or did she get too old for him? I’m not an idiot. I’m fairly certain he’s always had a woman on the side. Even when he was married. I caught him one time at a Broadway show and he tried to pass her off as a coworker who had won a company-wide contest to attend with him. Sure she was. They’re always roughly twenty-five and always brunette and flashy. Henry, Mary had nothing to do with this.”

  He put his hand on hers. “Sweetheart, have you thought about the fact that she loves you and if she found out someone was trying to hurt you, she might put herself in harm’s way to protect you?”

  That was the way to get her on his side. Oh, he didn’t necessarily believe it, but Win wouldn’t accept that her precious Nana could do wrong. So he had to flip it around until he had proof.

  Win could be naive. She needed someone to protect her.

  Or she was a liar who was good at getting people to protect her. His cynical self wouldn’t go away, but it was easier and easier to push him back. Maybe he could have held on to all his righteous anger if she weren’t here, but it was hard when he saw her every day. It was hard to reconcile the woman who had lied to him about her past with the vibrant, loving woman she was when he was around her.

  “I need to talk to her,” Win said. “She might have tried to do something to protect me. I know she didn’t want me to go back on the show and she knew Brie was pushing. I can’t believe Brie would blackmail her like that. And for five grand? Brie comes from money. She can’t buy a handbag for that.”

  “Brie Westerhaven’s father cut her off six months ago,” Michael pointed out. “He stopped putting money in her trust fund and stopped paying her bills. I do believe that had something to do with his new wife and the fact that she’s having a baby, and Brie was quite upset by all accounts.”

  Win’s mouth had dropped open. “She didn’t say anything to me. I mean, not about the money. She said horrible things about the baby, but she didn’t mean them. Or maybe she did. I didn’t realize how desperate she was. She can’t live without money. She would have no idea how to live a regular life.”

  Yes, that was his thought exactly. Brie Westerhaven wouldn’t know how to live without plenty of cash, and she would need to find alternative sources of income. “Wo
uld her salary from the show make up for it?”

  Win shook her head. “Not at all. She made maybe fifty thousand a show. I know that sounds like a lot, but it’s not to a woman who drinks five-hundred-dollar bottles of champagne without blinking and who can’t buy a car for less than a hundred K. We were different in that way. My uncle didn’t grow up rich and he was a frugal man. Trev hated it, but he put us on a budget while we were in school. I learned how to make my money last. Brie’s dad was a rock star and spent much of his time high on coke. He gave Brie whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted it.”

  At least now they had some kind of a lead. “Are there other deposits? Ones we can’t account for?”

  Case nodded. “There were three cash deposits in the last four months. Nothing at all before that cashwise. Everything else is direct deposit or check.”

  “How much cash are we talking about?” Henry asked.

  “Thirty thousand dollars,” Case replied.

  That was a nice amount. The day was looking up. “It sounds like she’s got a nice side business going. And we’re sure this isn’t from Mary?”

  “Mary wouldn’t have that kind of money,” Win said quickly.

  Michael cleared his throat and sent Win a sympathetic look. “Mary Hannigan is worth almost two million dollars, according to her accounts. That’s liquid and her stock in Hughes Corp.”

  Win shook her head as though trying to clear it. “She bought stock?”

  Case flipped through the file. “Not that I can tell. There are some complex dealings, but it looks like part of her employment package included vesting in stock every five years or so. She even received another round of shares three years ago. It’s like clockwork. Your uncle has taken good care of that woman.”

  They needed to talk to Mary. He would have to find a way to do it without involving Win because he wasn’t sure she could handle finding out her precious Nana was hiding something. Had she had an affair with Bellamy?