The One Thing Money Can't Buy (Custom Solutions Book 1)

by Lisa Oliver

  “But we’ll be gone from there by then,” Ranger yelled. “Fucking hell, this is the only way. Do I have to think of everything myself?”

  “Hey Ranger, I’m not sure I want money transferred directly to my account,” one of the other men said, glancing at his friend sitting next to him. “If it goes in there, then the wife sees it, even if it is moved out again and I’ll be liable for half in the divorce settlement.”

  “You should’ve thought of that before you started screwing girls half your age, Bron. Your divorce is your problem. Not mine.” Ranger focused his laser eyes on Parker. “Laptop?”

  “Hey, hang on,” the friend said. “If any of us use our accounts to receive that money, it’s like pointing an arrow straight at us. They’ll know we’ll be responsible for the theft then.”

  “And kidnapping,” Cari added helpfully, “but then I guess Christian already knows about that by now.” And Quaid. Cari had a momentary flash of how Quaid would look, sitting at the immaculately prepared ballroom, eating his dinner all by himself. Even in the finest of clothes, it made for a sad picture, and Cari rapidly blinked his tears away. When he looked up, everyone in the room was looking at him.

  “Look, you little runt.” Ranger was getting nasty and Cari tried not to flinch as the man’s face came within inches of his. “We didn’t give up well-paying jobs, and solid reputations for the sake of a few bucks. This is going to be the biggest score in the history of crime, and we’re taking all of your money, whether you like it or not.”

  “I don’t understand why,” and the thing was, Cari was genuinely confused. “You guys have worked as a team for decades. Quaid is or was, your best friend. I don’t think he’s going to be very happy with you now. But you’ve saved each other’s lives a dozen times. Why are you doing this?”

  “Why? Huh.” Ranger laughed, waving his arms at his friends. “The little shrimp wants to know why. Because of the money, you idiot.” Ranger’s face was within kissing distance of him, and Cari edged back slightly, taking care not to fall off the table.

  “I’ll tell you why. Because of snot-nosed people like you.” Ranger’s voice took a dangerous turn. “Sixteen tours of duty I did overseas. Sixteen. And then I got booted out of the military because someone said I got a bit rough with them. And what did I come home to? A hero’s welcome? No fucking chance. I got a job, as a bodyguard and do you know what bodyguard’s do?”

  Cari wished Ranger would stop asking him questions he didn’t know the answer to. I should have spent more time talking to Quaid about his job.

  “A bodyguard is a babysitter with a gun.” Ranger turned away. Using the corner of the blanket, Cari quickly wiped the man’s spittle off his face. “A babysitter to people like you with more money than brains. They don’t earn their money. Hell, you didn’t earn yours. You won it with a fucking lottery ticket of all things.”

  “I just got a lucky ticket,” Cari mumbled. Not that Ranger was listening.

  “None of those assholes we so-call guard, would need saving from anyone if they had half a brain. Oh, no. They just make stupid choices because they’ve got too much money and who’s left mopping up their puke and tucking them into bed at night? We are, that’s who. The so-called bodyguards. It’s a joke, a fucking joke, and I’ve had enough of it.”

  “Couldn’t you just get another job?” Cari thought it was a harmless enough question, but the vein throbbing on the side of Ranger’s head told a different story.

  “Another job, he says. Another job? Like that’s easy for someone with a record like mine. What do you suggest I do, runt? Stock shelves at the local grocery store?”

  Cari didn’t see anything wrong with stocking shelves. Someone had to do it and it was a respectable position. But it seemed Ranger was done talking. “Where’s that fucking laptop?” He yelled at Parker who was rummaging through a bag Cari hadn’t noticed in the corner of the room. “The longer this runt is missing, the more chance we have of being caught.”

  “I was looking for a burner phone,” Parker said easily, easing himself back into a standing position, a laptop swinging from one hand. “There’s no internet here, and we can hardly have the boy make a bank transaction without it. If we use any of our phones, we’ll be traced far too quickly to get away.”

  “Oh, for the love of all that’s holy, can nothing go right tonight?” Ranger addressed his question to the ceiling, so Cari didn’t think he needed to answer him. “All the training we have. All the skills contained in this room, and no one thought to bring a burner phone?”

  “We were doing the ATM thing,” Bron said. “We didn’t need them.”

  “Quaid would’ve told you to be prepared for anything and everything.” Cari sighed as he hunched over his knees. His silly argument with Quaid seemed like a lifetime ago and the ache in his chest from missing him was getting bigger by the minute.

  “I don’t need to hear anything about your mate,” Ranger sneered. “If the damn man had any control over you at all, then we wouldn’t have had to resort to kidnapping and fucking theft. He’d have shared the money with us, and none of this would’ve happened. But no. Anytime any of us mentioned getting our share even as a joke, he fobbed us off.”

  Cari sat up. “You asked him to have a share of my money? Why didn’t you ask me?”

  “Ask you?”

  Cari was sure Ranger’s look equated to “how stupid can you be” but he didn’t think it was a silly question. “Exactly. It’s my money. Quaid was the one who told his brother to put it in a trust account for me when the wolves wanted to steal it. I’m the only one who has access to the account. Quaid wouldn’t give you any of my money without talking to me about it first. If you’d wanted some, and you’d been nice to me for five minutes, I would’ve helped you out. You were Quaid’s friends, his team, the people he counted on to have his back. You could’ve come up, and said, ‘hey, would you and Quaid like to have dinner some time’, and then asked me for a million dollars and I would’ve given it to you. It’s not like I haven’t got a lot and I’m a nice person if you get to know me. Of course, you didn’t talk to me. You didn’t think I was worth talking to. In fact, you treated me like a leper,” Cari shrugged. “But I’m not the bad guy here.”

  There was a moment’s silence and then a burst of angry shouting rang out. From what Cari could tell, and it wasn’t easy to think with all the noise going on, some of the men were angry with Ranger for not planning things right. Other’s were pissed off they gave up their jobs and their homes for a big score they weren’t going to get. There were a lot of shouts of “you should’ve let us talk to him,” and things like that. When Parker came behind him and touched his shoulder, Cari jumped.

  “Are you ready to go home?” Parker held up his phone with the record button flashing.

  “But aren’t you…?” Cari pointed to the argument. Some of the men were getting physical.

  Parker shook his head. “I pretended to go along with this crap because someone had to keep an eye out for you. For what it’s worth, I think Quaid is damn lucky to have you.”

  “Because of the money, I suppose.”

  “Because of who you are,” Parker said gravely. He shoved a bundle of clothes onto Cari’s lap. “Get yourself dressed and we’ll get out of here. I imagine the cavalry will be here in about five minutes. I activated the GPS on my phone when I was hunting through that bag, and we’re about twenty minutes’ drive from company headquarters. If Quaid knows his mate has been naked except for a blanket all this time, he’s going to freak.”

  “But what about that lot?” Growls were ringing around the room and claws were out.

  “You just turn around and get dressed. I’ll make sure no one comes near you.” Parker let out a long breath. “I swear these guys couldn’t organize a piss up in a brewery.”

  “That’s why they have men like Quaid,” Cari said with pride. “He’s the brains of the outfit.”

  “He claimed you as a mate, so yep, I think we have to agree on
that one.”

  Cari couldn’t help the shimmer of pride that ran up his spine.

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Quaid carried his beloved mate into the house they’d been sharing, refusing to let him go. The rescue mission was anti-climactic. It seemed Cari, through sheer innocence and honesty, had incited a riot among his kidnappers. By the time, Quaid, Christian, Dolph and the others burst through the door, ready to do battle, five of the six men responsible for the kidnapping were fighting among themselves. Only Parker was sitting with Cari, keeping him safe from the carnage, complete with a recording of all that had transpired. The man would be getting a promotion and a hefty raise.

  Ranger yelled at him, pleading with him on the basis of their friendship to do something as he was led away in specially designed shifter cuffs. By then Quaid had Cari safe in his arms. He couldn’t bear to look at one of his oldest friends. Christian and Dolph weren’t the only ones who’d felt bitterly betrayed. If it wasn’t for Cari, Quaid would’ve killed all five men without a moment’s remorse.

  “Are you okay?” Cari asked quietly, as Quaid slumped on the couch, Cari held securely on his lap. “You’ve been awfully quiet.”

  “I’m thinking of handing in my resignation. I think being with you is the only full-time job I want,” Quaid admitted, burying his nose in Cari’s hair. As always, Cari’s scent soothed and aroused him all at the same time.

  “You can’t do that.”

  Quaid pulled back, looking at his mate’s face intently. “Babe, you can’t quit your job,” Cari said again. “Christian’s company needs people like you. If you could’ve seen the mess Ranger and the others made of the kidnapping, you’d have slapped them silly. They didn’t even bring a burner phone for internet access.”

  “Hang on a minute. You want me to keep my job?” Quaid shook his head. He’d been up almost twenty four hours and with the stress of Cari’s kidnapping, he was running on fumes. “I thought you were upset at me before the party because of my job.”

  “I was upset because you didn’t seem to want to spend time with me, and when I came to visit you at the office none of those other guys would talk to me. But I know why now. They were planning to rob me instead and I guess you can’t be friends with people you’re going to steal from.”

  “No. No, that would be a pretty shitty thing to do,” Quaid agreed. “But….”

  “They were so disorganized,” Cari went on, seemingly oblivious to Quaid’s confusion. “I mean, these are trained men, right? Responsible for the safety of others. But they forgot the most basic of things. Like, they checked the balance in my bank account, but they didn’t think to look at the limit on my ATM card. It’s right there under the account settings. They had all these big plans of stealing a huge swathe of my money from ATM machines, but they didn’t stop to think that someone would be watching my account the moment I was taken and transactions like that are in real time.”

  “You’re complaining about the way they wanted to rob you?” Quaid felt a smile forming on his tired lips.

  “Well, you’d think if you were planning to rob a billionaire, you’d be a bit more organized than that.” Cari was deadly serious. “Lack of skills aside, think about their attitude. Sure, I imagine some of your clients must be assholes who get fall-down drunk all the time. But what about the people who are in genuine fear for their lives? They deserve people looking after them to care about keeping them safe, not begrudging them because they’ve got money in the bank.”

  “Oh yes, I agree.” Quaid nodded, his smile getting wider.

  “And then there’s the disloyalty. I mean, how can someone do that to you, not to mention Christian and Dolph. Those men have been nothing but kind to me and yet Ranger said that was just because Christian was after me to donate money. I know that’s not true. You know that’s not true. So why Ranger thought that, I’ll never know.”

  “Uh huh.” Quaid nodded again.

  “And I asked him, you know.” Cari was getting quite animated now, wriggling around, which was putting a lot of pressure on Quaid’s growing cock. “Simple question. Why didn’t he ask me for some money if he needed it? Bron too – he’s going through a divorce. It sounds like it was mostly his fault, but if any of those men needed money why didn’t they ask me? But no, they were too busy plotting how to take it. A plot full of holes. You wouldn’t be so inefficient. But then, I suppose they could hardly ask you to help kidnap me.” Cari sighed. “They needed your brains.”

  “I love you.” Quaid started chuckling and found it hard to stop. “I’m not sure if I’ve actually mentioned that before, but I love you so damn much.”

  “You think it’s funny, telling someone you love them?” Cari’s eyes were bright, a flush brushed over his cheeks, but the look on his face was priceless. “I love you too, you know. I missed you so much when those men were fighting and carrying on. And I know I get upset about the little things sometimes, but a lot of that’s because I miss you when you’re busy.”

  “We’ll find a way to change that,” Quaid promised, his eyes focused on Cari’s mouth. He had a lot of ideas on how to use those luscious lips, but he had to ask first, “So, you didn’t have to use your power? They didn’t hurt you at all?”

  “Nope.” Cari shook his head. “But they weren’t worried about my power anyway. Ranger said Christian told them, you needed to be with me for it to work. Just another example of them not paying attention, I reckon. Beats me how they ever got their job done. They’re just so inefficient.”

  “It might be an idea for you to make a list of those things,” Quaid said in all seriousness. “I’m sure Christian and Dolph would appreciate the input.”

  “A list?” Cari sat up straighter, and then he relaxed again, and Quaid was pleased when he felt arms around his neck. “I can make the list in the morning, can’t I?”

  “Technically, it is morning,” Quaid reminded him. “It’s been a very, very long night.”

  “Are you too tired, you know, for other things? Only it’s been days since we’ve done stuff.” Cari’s lips were a whisker away from his and the sweet smell of his arousal flooded up between them.

  “Remind me to turn off my alarm. We can sleep in, in the morning” Quaid closed the distance between them. My precious mate is so right. It’s been far too long. Groaning, he settled down to the serious business of making Cari moan, whimper, and eventually scream his name.

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  “You want to give me a job?” Cari looked at Christian in disbelief. It was late afternoon. It was during the lunch he and Quaid were sharing with Christian and Dolph, that Quaid encouraged him to repeat the flaws he saw in Ranger’s planning efforts.

  “As a quality control supervisor.” Christian pointed to the list Cari had printed for him that morning, in between blow jobs and making breakfast. “You have a good eye for detail. I’m sure Quaid won’t have a problem teaching you our systems so you can see where we’re going wrong. Ranger’s comments about being a glorified babysitter were concerning, but they do have some merit. You could be an integral part of changes that we make going forward.”

  “But I don’t have any experience in guarding others, or security or any of the other things you do,” Cari protested. “The only thing I seem to be capable of is being a victim. I didn’t know the prickle had an issue with me until they banished me. I did wonder why the wolves suddenly got friendly with me, but it turned out they were just wanting to use me too. Ryan and Jo weren’t much better. But I still took them all at face value initially.”

  “And there’s nothing wrong with any of that,” Dolph said gently. “You trust people. It’s just unfortunate, you trusted the wrong people. We found out last night we’d done the same thing, trusted people who couldn’t be trusted. So, don’t feel bad about it, use the experience as a learning tool. It happens to the best of us. We know we can trust you.”

  “And Quaid,” Cari said quickly, looking up at his beaming mate. “Quaid can be trusted. He pu
t his job first even after we claimed each other.”

  “Another reason we want you around.” Christian agreed. “It is not now, nor has it ever been our policy to come between mated pairs, and we don’t want to lose Quaid. That’s a selfish reason for giving you the job, but I do think you’d be good at it. You have an excellent eye for detail and your questions seem to encourage confidences.” Christian grinned widely. “Inciting a fight was pure poetry on your part.”

  “It wasn’t intentional,” Cari grumbled, although he did admit to himself at least, it made the rescue efforts easier.

  “We’re all military men, or ex-military as the case may be,” Dolph explained. “We see things and respond to situations in a predictable way best suited to resources available at the time. Speed and stealth have always been our motto and nine times out of ten, it works. You have the unique ability to look at our systems, our policies, and cast a fresh eye on things. It is a win-win for the company. We get to keep Quaid, you get to work with him, and we get an edge other companies don’t have.”

  “This has got nothing to do with my power, does it?” Cari hated to put a downer on what was, frankly, an awesome opportunity, but the question had to be asked. He’d never feel comfortable in his new job if he wasn’t sure.

  “Actually, it does in part, but not in the way you think,” Christian said. “Your power is protective. That means we don’t have to train you to defend yourself. You do it instinctively. I also imagine, as you get to know the other loyal members, we have working for us….”

  “Considerably less than we had before,” Dolph added. “We weeded out a few more trouble spots last night after you were recovered.”

  “Exactly, but once you get to make friends with other team members, your protective instincts are likely to extend to them as well, wouldn’t you think?”

  Cari wasn’t sure what to think. It was a perfect opportunity, but it wasn’t as though he came free of baggage. There was the target on his back for a start. “What about the danger from the Fanshaw pack, the cat coalition, and the council? They never got a chance to see I wasn’t a weapon after all. Won’t they cause problems for you and your company if I’m working here?”