The Billionaire's Prize: Taken & Tempted: (Book 3 Billionaire Bodyguard Series)

by Kristi Avalon

“And you…said things… Did you mean them?”

  “God, no, sweetheart.” He smoothed her hair with gentle hands, as she lay with her head in his lap. “I didn’t mean any of it. I had to make it seem believable.”

  Tears welled. “You had me convinced.”

  Liquid compassion and sorrow filled his eyes. “It was the best way I could think of to keep you alive. Since I knew you were wearing the vest, I needed to be the one to pull the trigger. I couldn’t leave Lucy’s aim to chance.”

  Kylie froze. “Is she here?”

  “No, sweetheart. Relax. The FBI has her and her men in custody.”

  “But how…?”

  A grim smile tugged at Cade’s lips. “I left and slammed the door at the end of the hall so they thought I’d gone. When Javier went to make sure the coast was clear, I tasered him. Same with the second guy she sent out. Once I took them down, I waited for Lucy. She fled out the window down the fire escape, where Slone’s team caught her.”

  Kylie’s fuzzy brain strove to mold the explanation into a coherent shape of how events had unfolded.

  Although her chest hurt and her head pounded, she could only remember one thing. The way he’d looked and sounded when he told her she meant nothing to him. That he could do better than her for with less hassle. Then him turning and walking away as if she were the easiest thing in the world for him to forget. His reasoning made sense, yet the agony of losing him had broken her heart into a thousand pieces that still lay in a brittle, confusing heap in her chest. She couldn’t live through that again. After all of this madness, she yearned to be back in her old life, surrounded by her own things, safe from heartbreak. Away from him.

  “Cade, you sounded so convincing…”

  A troubled frown bracketed his mouth. “We can talk about that later.” He kissed her forehead. “Someone here really wants to see you.”

  Struggling, Kylie sat up with Cade’s help. She saw her sister standing with a blanket around her shoulders, talking with two FBI agents.

  “Lindsey?” she whispered.

  Her sister’s head turned toward the sound of her voice. “Kylie!”

  Lindsey broke into a run, then dropped to her knees and skidded across the floor to Kylie. They crashed into each other with open arms.

  “You’re okay.” Kylie’s relief overwhelmed her. “Thank God you’re okay.”

  Cade stood and stepped away, giving them space to hug and kiss each other in a rampant display of affection.

  “I didn’t think we’d make it out of here alive,” her sister sobbed.

  Kylie hugged her tight. She wanted to be miles away from the scene of the crime, just her and her sister, recreating their lives that had nearly fallen apart. “Thank God you’re okay.”

  Lindsey gave a watery laugh. “That’ll teach me to change my travel plans.”

  Kylie sniffed. “Darn right. Don’t you ever do that again.” My sister. My family. My life. “I missed you so much.”

  Eventually, the FBI agents pried them apart to gather relevant facts and information.

  While they questioned Kylie, Cade had his arm around her the whole time, filling in the blanks when necessary. He kept her pinned to his side.

  Instead of comforting her, his nearness felt stifling.

  How was that possible?

  She loved him. Didn’t she?

  Conflicted emotions circled her heart like barbed wire, piercing her with self-doubt. How could she have fallen in love with a man she barely knew within a matter of days? What did that mean for the future? And what sort of future could possibly await them, thrust into a whirlwind affair brought on by mutual fear for their lives and based on impulsive emotions?

  Her pulse throbbed in an erratic, unnerving rhythm.

  Nothing made sense. They didn’t make sense, together, now that they had both achieved their goals. Kylie had her life back, and Cade had his father’s killer behind bars.

  But then what?

  Neither of them had planned that far ahead.

  The worst part was that Kylie suspected, on some level, part of what Cade had told Lucy was true. She’d caused him nothing but turmoil. He’d taken on her protection as a duty, a vow to break the cycle of the past.

  Did Cade even love her?

  She had no idea, and he’d never given that indication.

  If he did, was passion alone enough to construct a new foundation to build the rest of their lives upon?

  Once the FBI told them they were all free to go, Kylie glanced at Cade, a rising level of uncertainty filling her.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, brushing a kiss to her lips. “We did it. We made it through this together. Like I said we would.”

  A growing numbness spread through her. “I need to spend some time with my sister. I want to go home.”

  He pulled back, alert caution in his gaze. “Sure. I get that. She can move into the guest room, and you’ll sleep in my bedroom with me.”

  “No, Cade.” She struggled to say the words. “I need to go home— m y home. In Las Vegas.”

  He stiffened, his arm tightening around her. “If this is because of what I said earlier, you have to believe me, it was all part of the show. I didn’t mean any of it—”

  “I believe you,” she said, though dark doubts crept further into her mind. “It’s just, so much has happened in the past week. And between us. I just need…space, and time. To sort all this out in my mind.”

  “I can give you space,” he said softly. She hated the hurt she put in his eyes. “You don’t need to leave.”

  “Please, Cade,” she whispered, her voice catching with emotion. “I need to be there for my sister, to put our family back together. Just for a little while.”

  “How much time do you need?”

  “I don’t know.” She sighed, feeling disoriented and depressed, but knowing this distance between them was necessary. So they could each consider what they wanted, what they needed. Even if it meant they never came back together again. The thought stabbed her like a serrated knife. But better for him to decide he didn’t want her now, than in six months when she gave him all of herself and would have nothing left of her heart to salvage. “I have to put things around me in order again. I can’t think in the middle of chaos. I’m not like you.”

  He cupped her face with one hand and smoothed his thumb across her cheek. “I know we come from different worlds. But I want to meet you somewhere halfway.”

  “And when I can do that, when my heart and head are in the right place, I’ll call you.”

  He dropped his hand. “You’ll call me,” he said, his gaze hardening.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s all I deserve after what’s happened between us. A phone call. Maybe.”

  Feeling a sudden chill, she hugged her waist. “It’s all I can promise you right now.”

  “Save your promises.” He took an abrupt step back as if he could no longer stand near her. “Tell me in person. When you come back to me.”

  The words sounded like half-demand, half-threat. With no warm little space in between for her to cling to. She either wanted him or she didn’t.

  Everything or nothing.

  There would be no in between with Cade.

  She should’ve expected that, but the reality bit into her sharply. She averted her face, blinking away the sting in her eyes, as he turned his back on her and walked out.

  *

  A fist pounded on the sixth floor conference room door.

  “Go away.”

  Cade sat in a chair, hunched over his laptop, typing an email that laid into a newscaster on Fox Business Network who’d misquoted Soren Security’s quarterly financial report that just came out Monday. Investors had been hounding him for three days straight, demanding answers. He’d fielded all their calls and had dealt with their concerns, for the most part, freeing him up to hunt down the source of the screw-up.

  A key slid into the lock that Cade had bolted from the inside. He stopped typing when the
door swung wide. Damned janitor had let someone in despite Cade’s strict orders to be left alone. Undisturbed. For however long he chose to shut himself away in here.

  “What do you want?” Cade snapped.

  “God, you’re a crabass.” Liam strolled in carrying a heavy brown sack with a grease stain, along with a tall garment bag. “Is this the new normal? Am I supposed to get used to you like this?”

  “Guess so,” Cade muttered.

  “I brought you a change of clothes. And food—remember what that is? The stuff you eat that keeps you alive?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Okay then, don’t eat. I’m not going to sit here and force-feed you. But you seriously need to change your clothes.”

  Cade scowled.

  “Is that what I smell all the way from my office?” Adam strutted in, joining his brother.

  “Whatever.” Cade was in no mood to deal with either of them. “If I’m that offensive, walk away.”

  “And miss watching lover boy pine away in misery?” Adam grinned. “Fat chance.”

  “Adam,” Cade said through his teeth, “if you want to leave here with your arms still attached, you need to go now.”

  Adam snorted. “Or what, you’ll tear me limb from limb?”

  “Pretty much.”

  Liam elbowed his brother in the ribs. “Quit it. Or he’ll never change out of those clothes. Then he’ll stink up the entire floor.”

  Shaking his head in mock regret, Adam said, “Then we’ll have to open all the windows, let the fresh air in. And it’s too damn cold for that nonsense.” The amusement in Adam’s tone mellowed. “I take it she hasn’t called.”

  Cade skewered him with a glare. “You think?”

  “She better hurry the hell up.” Adam fanned his face. “We’re dying in here.”

  “I don’t smell,” Cade muttered. “And I’m not hungry.”

  Liam sighed. “Yeah, well, you look like a homeless man, with your wrinkled shirt and your beard and your hair messed up.”

  “You think I care?”

  Adam shrugged in response. “I sure as hell don’t, but it’s bad for publicity when the face of Soren Security looks like road kill.”

  “Like you give a crap about our image.” Cade scoffed at Adam. “Walking around in t-shirts and ripped jeans.”

  “Hey, at least I showered today. More than you can say.”

  Cade shot to his feet. “I’m working here. Get out and leave me in peace.”

  “Peaceful misery.” Liam contemplated the paradox. “Nah, I like annoyed misery better. I think we’ll stay.”

  Cade’s anger boiled dangerously close to the surface. “You better re -think that answer.”

  Ignoring Cade, Adam strolled over to the couch near the pool table. He slapped the cushions back into shape, plopped down and crossed a booted foot over his knee. “How’s the couch treating you at night?”

  Cade shrugged. “Better than sleeping on my bed of nails at home.”

  With a sympathetic nod, Liam asked, “Too many memories?”

  “My whole goddamn penthouse smells like her,” Cade admitted, irritated by his cousins doing a hack job of running interference, saving him from himself—or something equally as noble and stupid. If they knew what was good for them, they’d run fast in the opposite direction. He had a short fuse, growing shorter by the second.

  Liam went to the fridge in the mini-bar. “Jesus, dude. Is there any beer left?”

  “Nope.” Cade smiled without humor. “I’ve moved on to bourbon.”

  Arching his eyebrows, Liam said, “That’s not good.”

  Cade shrugged. “It is what it is.”

  Adam sighed. “So are you going to keep searching for her at the bottom of every bottle, or will you call the girl already?”

  “She’s supposed to call me,” Cade said acidly. “Maybe.” He let out a rusty laugh. “Or something.”

  Adam scratched his chin. “Hey, would you mind if I shoot some video, then? Since you don’t give a shit about anything, and all. I want to capture the moment.”

  “What moment?” Cade growled.

  Standing up, Adam reached for his smart phone in his back pocket. “You—Mr. Perfect Everything—reduced to the same sad playing field as the rest of us poor schmucks.”

  A red light blinked on Adam’s phone. The bastard was serious. Cade seethed. “Shut it off.”

  Adam peered through the viewer. “Who’d have thought we’d see the day? Golden boy, Cade, who’s always gotten every woman he’s ever wanted…”

  “Shut. It. Off.”

  “Now he’s finally found the one he can’t have.”

  Red rage gripped Cade.

  He charged at Adam. Drew back. Swung hard.

  The impact of knuckles against bone cracked the silence. Adam’s head whiplashed. He fell backward onto the couch, landed hard.

  Pulling in stilted breaths, Cade’s chest heaved. He wanted—prayed—Adam would say something else worthy of another punch.

  Instead of retaliating, Adam smiled through his split lip. “That’s gonna hurt in the morning.”

  Suddenly, Cade’s back went down. The raging haze lifted. He paused and cursed under his breath for losing control. The one thing he’d always had that Adam didn’t. Now their roles were reversed.

  “Not bad.” Adam moved his jaw side to side to make sure it hadn’t unhinged. “I’d give you a pat on the back, but I think I’d rather high-five a viper.”

  “You got him good,” Liam said, casually inspecting his brother’s already swelling jaw.

  Adam brushed away a trickle of blood from his lip with the back of his hand. Then he glanced at Cade. “Feel better?”

  “Yes.” Cade shook out his hand. He realized his muscles had released the tension that had plagued him since Kylie left. “Actually, I do.”

  Adam threw Cade a grin. “Thought that might help.”

  The brothers clasped hands, and Liam helped Adam to his feet.

  “You’re not serious.” Cade’s glance bounced between the two of them. “You did that on purpose?”

  “Uh, yeah.” Liam rolled his eyes as if it were painfully obvious. “Something had to snap you of your funk. Might as well have been my brother’s hard head that did it.”

  Cade’s eyes widened at his cousin. “Adam, I’m—”

  “We’re straight.” Adam nodded to Cade. “Just promise me one thing. If I ever get this stupid over a girl, you’ll knock some sense into me.”

  “That’s hardly fair,” Cade said reasonably. “I get to punch you twice.”

  Adam snorted. “The second time, I’ll deserve it.”

  Out of appreciation for Adam’s sacrifice, Cade spent the next several mornings showering at Adam’s place. He still refused to go home. He still had no word from Kylie.

  Over the weekend he even borrowed from Adam’s closet, because the second he let himself think about his own place, or Kylie, or that it had been a week since she left, his heart wrenched. His gut churned. And he felt like seven kinds of hell.

  Early Monday morning, he woke on the couch in the conference room, as usual. Judging by the darkness outside and the lone mourning dove cooing on the rooftop just above him, it was not yet six o’clock. Not that it mattered. Time had become an irrelevant concept anymore. Just days and, worst of all, nights without her. Sitting up, he tossed off the blanket covering him and scrubbed a hand down his face. That’s when he saw a tall, dark-haired shadow across the room. He wasn’t alone.

  Suddenly, his brother moved into the reflected light of a streetlamp. “What the…Trey?”

  “I didn’t even know you could grow a beard.” An amused chuckle followed the remark.

  “Jesus.” Cade sat up and shook his head to slough off the last vestiges of sleep. “What are you doing here? Man, when did you get back? How long have you been home?”

  Trey dragged a rolling conference chair behind him toward the couch. He sat down a few feet in front of Cade.

  �
��I’m checking up on your sorry ass, though I heard how your brilliance saved the day, and the girl. I thought I had the monopoly on that. Then again, you did get your MBA. That diploma had to be useful one of these days.” Trey’s dark eyes assessed Cade with blunt appraisal. “Adam and Liam warned me you were in rough shape. But I never thought I’d see the day you wore jeans with holes to work.”

  Cade grimaced. “They’re Adam’s.”

  “That’s a relief.” His brother grinned. “If you’d gone through your closet with shearing scissors, I’d know it was time to commit you. Or maybe there’s a Twelve Step program for that.”

  “Give it a rest,” Cade grumbled.

  Trey sighed. “That’s the one thing not happening at my house. It’s chaos and bedlam. The kids haven’t exactly had a smooth adjustment to First World living.”

  “Right. Man, how are the kids?” Cade frowned. “And give me one damn good reason you didn’t call me the second your plane landed so I could meet my new nieces and nephew?”

  “I could give you several reasons. Not the least of which is you’re in no shape to meet them.”

  “I’d clean myself up,” Cade growled. “That’s a crap excuse.”

  Trey’s expression softened. “No one’s met them yet. We wanted to give them time with me and Devon alone, before we paraded more strangers through their uprooted lives. Yesterday the four-year-old and the toddler finally called us Mommy and Daddy. Believe me, that was huge.”

  “That’s amazing,” Cade whispered.

  A flash of his future, and his future children with Kylie, rolled like phantom video footage through his mind. His lungs clenched so hard, with such fierce longing, he struggled to breathe.

  “We’ll have the rest of our lives to talk about our kids,” Trey said, weariness etched on his features. “Right now I need to know what’s going on with you.”

  “I’m freakin’ fantastic. Can’t you tell?”

  “I can tell you’re in love.”

  “Yeah. A lot of good that’s doing for me.”

  Trey leaned into the chair and crossed his legs at the ankles. “Remember back when Devon told me she was leaving Denver for a new job, and that things were over between us?”

  Cade huffed a laugh. “I found you tearing your house down. Literally. The rain was pouring through your nonexistent roof. Adam brought a tarp, and we nailed it over the hole you made.”