Beauty and the Billionaire Bachelors
Nicole Elliot
Contents
1. Abby
2. Cole
3. Abby
4. Deacon
5. Abby
6. Abby
7. Abby
8. Cole
9. Abby
10. Deacon
11. Abby
12. Cole
13. Abby
14. Abby
15. Abby
16. Abby
17. Deacon
18. Abby
19. Cole
20. Deacon
21. Abby
22. Abby
23. Abby
24. Abby
25. Abby
26. Abby
27. Cole
28. Deacon
29. Cole
30. Abby
31. Abby
32. Abby
33. Abby
34. Cole
35. Abby
Epilogue
No Boundaries
No Boundaries
1. Kane
2. Julie
3. Kane
4. Julie
5. Kane
6. Julie
7. Kane
8. Julie
9. Kane
10. Julie
11. Kane
12. Julie
13. Kane
14. Julie
15. Kane
16. Julie
17. Kane
18. Julie
19. Kane
20. Julie
21. Kane
22. Julie
23. Kane
24. Julie
25. Kane
26. Julie
27. Kane
28. Julie
29. Kane
30. Julie
31. Kane
32. Julie
33. Kane
34. Julie
35. Kane
36. Julie
37. Kane
38. Julie
39. Kane
40. Julie
Epilogue
Copyright © 2017 by Nicole Elliot
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
1
Abby
Abby pressed her ear to the door. The sounds were muffled, but she could hear enough of the conversation to know all hell was about to break loose. Her hell. She realized they didn’t care if she overheard them. They didn’t whisper. They didn’t use code words. The fear shot down her spine. They didn’t care about her at all. When had they?
Abby shook her head in disbelief when she picked up the remnants of the conversation. They mentioned her as if she were some kind of bargaining tool. She listened harder, straining to make out what Cal said.
He had never respected her. Never treated her as an equal in the family, even though they were the same age. Once he became the head of the Mantellis he forgot all the years they had grown up together. He didn’t remember Christmases or birthdays. He forgot their mothers were sisters. None of it mattered to him.
“She needs to be delivered this morning,” he stated. “As soon as possible.”
No. No, he couldn’t do this. How was this happening? Who in the hell did he think he was?
“When will she be ready?” the other man asked her cousin. He had shown up this morning. She’d never seen him before.
“You can take her now,” Cal responded. “The sooner I get this debt paid, the better.”
Abby paused in shock. Did he just say that? Did he actually trade her for money?
“I told her to wait for our meeting to be over. She should be in the hallway.”
Shit. The panic almost paralyzed her. She looked for a place to hide. There wasn’t enough time to make it to her car. The hall closet was her only option.
She whipped open the door and pushed the winter coats aside. She huddled in the back of the closet, stilling her breath. She inhaled the scent of heavy cologne. It had seeped into her cousin’s wool coats. She turned her head toward the wall.
Maybe if she squeezed her eyes tighter the heavy footsteps she heard would keep walking. This was insane. She shouldn’t be hiding in a closet. But Cal had promised her to the brute in his office and she knew logic didn’t apply when it came to the family business. The footsteps grew increasingly louder.
“Where is she?” he barked.
Cal was only feet away from the closet. “I told her to wait here. She’s in the house. The alarm is on, so I know she didn’t leave. I’ll check upstairs.”
“If you back out, Cal my clients are going to fuck you over. Big time.”
“I won’t. She’s here. I’ll find her. You can take her with you. Just calm down.”
Abby’s chest hurt from keeping the air in her lungs. They were burning. God, this was a nightmare. She looked through the crack where the door met the floor. Her view was blocked by a shadow.
Oh shit.
The door flew open. The light hit her between the eyes as a pair of rough hands grabbed her shoulders and yanked her to her feet.
“Hey!” she screamed, trying to wiggle free. The heels on her boots gave her a disadvantage, not to mention this guy was a giant. She teetered on her feet, desperate to get some kind of leverage against him.
“Got her!” the man yelled up the stairs.
“Let me go.” Abby pushed off his chest, but it was like a wall of granite. “Get your hand off me.”
“Not going to happen,” he seethed. “You’re coming with me. I have orders to deliver you.”
“Deliver me where?” She knew what kind of men Cal gambled with. The men who invested in his shady business ventures. Nothing good could come from this.
Cal ran down the stairs. “Come on, Abby. You were hiding? You were never good at the game when we were kids.”
She glared at him. “I heard what you were talking about. I’m not going with him.” She looked at her captor. “You have no right, Cal. You are way overstepping your authority.”
He looked past her at the man who held her. “She’s yours now. You’ll deliver her today?”
He nodded. “I’ll take her immediately.”
“Good.” Her cousin looked satisfied. “I want my debt paid. I don’t need him breathing down my neck.”
“I’m standing right here, Cal. Don’t talk like I’m not in the room. You can’t do this.” She continued to struggle, no matter how useless it was to fight the man responsible for finding her. “I’m not your property. Or his.”
Cal walked to the door that led to the basement. “You can take her out back. Less eyes on you. Especially if she keeps that up,” he explained.
“Good,” he grunted. Abby doubted he had much of a vocabulary.
“There is no way I’m going anywhere with this asshole.” Abby dug her heels against the hardwoods, but it only made it easier for the man to slide her toward the door.
“Come on, the bosses are waiting.” In a single lunge, the man swung her on to his shoulder and dangled her as if she weighed the same as a bag of sugar.
She kicked harder, her feet ramming into his chest. She beat her fists into his back. Nothing fazed him.
“Cal! Don’t do this!” She jerked her head forward to grab his attention. “Cal! Don’t let this happen.”
The last thing she saw as she descended into the Mantelli family basement was the smirk on her cousin’s face.
2
Cole
“Deacon
, this is even shitty for you.” Cole glared at his business partner.
“Why? Did you have a better idea?” Deacon poured a glass of bourbon and dropped two ice cubes in the middle.
Cole exhaled. “Not really.”
“Then stop second-guessing me. We have the launch in Vegas in two weeks. The timing couldn’t have been better.”
“Cal Mantelli is a dick. The fact that you got into business with him in the first place makes me wonder what in the hell you’re doing these days.”
Deacon waved him off. “It wasn’t business. It was a bet. He’s the one who lost. Not me.” He threw back his drink.
“Give me one of those.” Cole walked toward the bar, waiting for a stiff drink. “I need a double after this fuckup of yours.”
Deacon laughed. “Cal texted. The payment is on the way.”
Cole shook his head. “Payment? That’s what you’re calling it?”
The city loomed behind them. It was a bright windy day in Chicago. The co-CEOs were so high above the city neither could make out the people walking below on the sidewalk.
Deacon’s suites extended one length of the skyscraper, while Cole’s spanned the opposite side.
“Cal lost,” Deacon explained. “I don’t know why you’re so pissed at me.”
Cole’s blue eyes fired. “Because the payment is a girl. You bet an actual woman for us?”
Deacon grinned like a wolf. “I sure did. And she’s fucking gorgeous.”
“Like that makes this any better.”
“Want to see her picture again? Might help you commit to how real this is.”
Cole groaned, “I don’t need her picture. This is unorthodox. Even for you.”
“Relax.” Deacon patted the leather sofa. “She’s our guest.”
“An unwilling guest,” he reminded his friend. “I doubt she had a say in this entire thing.”
“A month with us and I think that has the possibility to change.”
“We don’t even know her. What if she’s like Cal? Have you thought about that? She could be the scum of the Earth like him.”
“Stop being so damn pessimistic.”
“It’s called being realistic. You don’t know what the fallout from this is going to be.”
Deacon shrugged. “Details.”
“While I’m trying to keep our empire going, you’re thinking with your cock as usual.” Cole swirled the bourbon in his glass and inhaled half of it. It burned going down. But he needed it to cope with what his best friend had done.
“Our empire needs an empress. Don’t you think?”
Cole pressed his elbows into his knees. It was hard to deny what Deacon said. The company didn’t run as smoothly when they were spinning in bachelor purgatory. They needed a woman. They thrived when they had one.
It had been too long since they had shared a bed.
“We’ve never done it this way.” Cole looked up.
“Doesn’t mean, it’s not the right way.” Deacon was confident there was nothing wrong with his bet. Nothing to regret. Collecting his debt from Cal Mantelli was the only right thing to do as far as he was concerned.
“There was nothing else of Cal’s you wanted? Nothing at all?” Cole pressed him. The fact that a woman was getting ready to be delivered to the HiTech Global offices wasn’t something he could picture.
Deacon scoffed. “Would you suggest I take one of his burned out warehouses or one of his taxi fleets?” He shook his head. “He doesn’t have anything I want. Except this.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Then who let him in the game if he doesn’t have anything to gamble with? You should have known better than to let a loser like Cal Mantelli into a game with those kind of stakes. He didn’t have anything valuable from the start, Deac.”
Deacon drank the rest of the bourbon in his glass. “He does. He has her. As far as I’m concerned she’s all the payment I need for thirty days.”
“This is fucking unbelievable. Thirty days with someone who is a stranger.”
Deacon laughed. He was always the risk-taker. Cole knew HiTech Global wouldn’t be where it was if his friend hadn’t been willing to try the adventurous deals. Make decisions no one else would touch. But it didn’t end with business decisions. Deacon let everything bleed over into his personal life. He seemed to like it best when his two worlds collided. That meant it melted into one, for Cole too.
Cole hated he had to the rational one. The one who kept his head down. The one who constantly brought his friend back on track.
But he knew when he had to back down. There was no talking him out of this one. “But nothing changes, man. It’s on her terms.”
Deacon smiled. “Of course it is. I wouldn’t want it any other way. I wouldn’t want her if she wasn’t the one asking for us.”
Cole knew that to be true. Deacon was stubborn and prideful. He’d never chased after a woman. His cockiness prevented him from ever throwing his heart into a relationship. It was the reason they lost Tessa.
All she wanted was to hear him say the words. She would have done anything for them. But Deacon couldn’t let his guard down long enough to be vulnerable.
Cole worried he never would.
The conversation was interrupted when Deacon’s private elevator buzzed. He pressed the speaker button.
“Yes?”
“It’s Johnson. I have your payment from Cal Mantelli.”
Deacon eyes lit. He punched in the code that would give Johnson access to use the executive level. “We were wondering where you were.”
“It took a little longer than I thought. I’ll be right up.”
Cole looked at his friend. “You sure you don’t want to back out of this? Have Johnson take her back?”
“No fucking way. I won her fair and square. You’re going to thank me. I swear.”
They stood as the lights on the elevator in the corner office began to illuminate. Cole straightened his tie and tugged on the pressed cuffs of his shirt. Deacon straightened his tailored jacket. There was a nervous energy that ran between them.
The doors retracted and Johnson walked into the office, carrying a woman over his shoulder.
“Put me down,” she squealed. She kicked and thrashed in his hold. Her blond hair flew in all directions.
All he could see were limbs.
“That’s enough, Johnson,” Cole instructed him. He didn’t like how this was going.
Deacon stood next to him as Johnson unwrapped the girl from his grasp and placed her feet on the floor. His hands wrapped around her waist while she squirmed free and pushed forward away from him.
For a second, Cole thought the world fell away.
She brushed her long locks from her face. Her green eyes glowered with anger. Her cheeks were flush and her plump lips with in a perfect heart shape. Fuck. His ribs felt as if they were caving in.
She was beyond beautiful. She was stunning.
He broke his gaze to look at Deacon. Cole had no idea what to say.
He realized for the first time, his best friend didn’t either.
3
Abby
Her chest heaved with giant breaths. She threw the man’s arms off her. “Stop touching me,” she spat. “You’re disgusting.” He wore too much cologne, but it was mixed with sweat, creating a pungent odor. It reminded her of the cramped coat closet. It felt as if his scent clung to her leather jacket and sweater.
“Delivered as requested,” he announced. He presented her as if she were some kind of prize cattle at a fair.
“Yes, we can see that.”
She shoved the hair from her face. Abby’s eyes lifted to the men standing in front of her. She felt as if she were a wild cat. Feral enough to pounce on them and attack. Maybe fight her way to freedom. The only problem was she had to get through their hired brute first. She knew he was a wall of pure muscle and outmatched her in every way.
“That’s all we need, Johnson.” One of the men dismissed her escort. “Your payment is in your account.
I made sure it was processed immediately.”
“Thank you. Always a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Rockford.”
Abby swallowed. Did he say “Rockford?” As in Deacon Rockford? Her heart hammered harder in her chest.
Johnson chuckled. “Watch out for this one. She’s feisty. You’ll see what I mean.” He blew her a kiss.
Abby glared at her captor as he retraced his steps to the elevator. Within seconds the doors closed behind him and he was gone.
It took Abby a minute to get her bearings. Riding in the back of a trunk had made her nauseated. She had been roughly pulled into the elevator and deposited in front of two men dressed in expensive suits.
Every possible scenario had gone through her head during the car ride. She never thought she’d end up at the top of one of the tallest buildings in Chicago. And certainly not standing in front of the city’s most eligible and famous bachelors. It wasn’t just any office. It was immaculate. Designed with every detail in mind.
“Now that he’s gone, maybe we could introduce ourselves properly. I’m Cole.” As he extended his palm toward her, Abby’s eyes narrowed.
“I know exactly who you are, Cole Evans.”
He dropped his hand.
“Then I assume you know I’m Deacon Rockford.”
“I don’t really care who you are.” She pulled her shoulders back. “What do you want with me?” She wasn’t interested in stroking their egos with how much she had read about them.
Cole smiled. He had perfect straight teeth. Maybe the best smile she’d ever seen. “Perhaps we could start with a drink? We have a full bar. Anything you want. Are you a martini drinker?”
“I don’t want anything of yours. I want an explanation and I want you to let me go.”
Deacon rubbed his chin. “That’s going to be difficult, sweetheart. At least for the next thirty days.”
“I won’t do it.”
“Do what?” Cole asked.
She didn’t want to play games. She had been a member of the Mantelli family long enough to know how these arrangements worked. She had witnessed them, but never thought she would actually be part of one. These were the kinds of things that happened to other people—not her. She had done everything she could to stay out of the business since last year.
Beauty and the Billionaire Bachelors Page 1