Bait: Alpha Billionaire Romance Boxed Set (25 page)

Chapter 18

Nolan

“I need to leave soon, Dad,” I said, standing beside my father in the lush boardroom. The mahogany table felt cold and rigid against the palms of my heated flesh. I gripped the beveled edge with my fingertips and hissed in a breath. Even though I didn’t want to be here, this was my real estate development company and now was the time to man up.

Department heads were arranged around the table. An emergency meeting at night was almost unheard of unless I’d managed to get myself in trouble. That hadn’t happened in a while. Not since the night I’d met Charlie in person for the first time. And that was a fluke due to Jasmine’s melodramatics.

“You’ll leave when we’re done,” Grantham replied, rifling through a file of papers he had in front of him.

My mother sat at the opposite end of the table, like we were here for Thanksgiving dinner, her nose in the air, reeking uptown class. And defiance. Her haughty expression didn’t surprise me at all. When times got tough, she dug one claw in and pointed the others at anyone else but herself.

Callum rushed into the boardroom, cell phone in hand. “Sorry,” he said on a pant. “I was on a date, and I just now got the text. Wouldn’t want to have my phone light up when the woman across from me was so special.”

He grinned at me as he slid into a leather chair on the opposite side of the table, and I gave him a blank stare in reply. Why would I give a fuck where he was when the text came in about this meeting?

“I called you all here to bring an issue to your attention. Several issues, actually,” Grantham said, tucking his hands behind his back and puffing out his robust chest. He exuded confidence, and the suits hung off the edge of his every word since he was rarely in the country. I took the opportunity to scan their faces and rested my gaze on Mother. Her beautiful face had turned ashen. Sickly. With all bloom gone from her cheeks. I stared at her for at least a minute, but her eyes were locked on my father, and she never made eye contact.

“Mrs. Banks has made her presence known around the office,” Dad said, “and I want to make it clear to all of you that neither she or Jasmine St. James have any say in what happens at Banks Realty in my absence. Nolan runs this leg of the company. Period.”

My mom straightened and opened her mouth but must have decided against it because she clamped it shut again.

Dad didn’t notice her fidgeting or didn’t care. “From now on, all directives will come directly from myself or from my son, or his appointed assistant. Otherwise they’re to be ignored. Is that clear?”

Every person seated at the table nodded their consent. Some looked openly relieved, and I wondered just how far my mother had pushed when I wasn’t in the office or out of earshot.

“You think you can discount me so easily, sweetheart?” my mother said, finally losing her shit. She slammed her chair back and stood with her fists pressed into the table. “I helped make you who you are, Grantham Banks. You were nothing but an arrogant army sergeant when we met. I refuse to be ignored.”

I stroked my forehead and shut my eyes for a second. Of course this would digress into an all-out verbal war of wills between two equally stubborn and privileged people. They’d been together so long and had so much disposable income it seemed as if both of them had lost touch with reality. But this was between her and my father.

I’d waited too long to get Charlie back as I allowed her to labor under the delusion that I’d manipulated her for my own selfish gain. I’d lost my chance to truly make it right, but I had to try. Dad erupted behind me, dismissing my staff with a wave of his meaty hand. They rose from their chairs and strode toward the two exits. Once my dad nodded in my direction, I moved to join them. This was between the two of them, and I was no longer needed.

Reaching the elevator, I punched the button for the ground floor, and the doors slid closed. Before they could meet in the middle, a large hand snaked out to stop the flow of movement and Callum stepped into the car with me. Shit. Could this night get any worse? He probably wanted to debrief me on his hot date. Ever since Charlie’s eyes had fallen on the other man, I’d hated his guts.

“Sorry to hear about your break up,” Callum said, his lips twitching into a smile. He leaned back against the wooden guard rail with his hands behind his back. What the hell was he up to with his trite words and his smug expression?

“Why do you think I’ll discuss my personal life with an employee,” I replied and pushed the button for ‘G’ a few times in an angry snit.

“You don’t have to, Nolan,” Callum snorted. “Your personal life is an open book reported on daily by the gossip rags. But I don’t have to read that drivel because I heard it all from Charlie at dinner.”

I turned on him, grabbed him by the lapels of his stupid, striped shirt and rammed the other man against the back wall of the glass elevator. I didn’t give two shits if someone from below was watching the entire scene unfold. “What the fuck did you just say?”

“I went on a date with Charlie. She couldn’t stop talking about how much she hated you and what you did to her. Not that I blame her. Everyone here knows that Charlie would never embezzle money and that farce had your mother’s name written all over it. Imagine how she feels knowing that the man who was supposed to want to spend the rest of his life with her sold her down the river for his overinflated ego.”

I balled up my fist and raised it, lined it up with his nose. I’d break him for talking about her like that. I’d bend him over my knee and snap him like a fucking twig. I sucked in deep breaths to calm myself, then gradually loosened my grip. It wasn’t worth it. He wasn’t worth it.

But she was.

Callum reached up to smooth the wrinkles from his cotton shirt. The elevator pinged, and I turned so I could march out the car and the glass doors of the office building. My steps quickened. Charlie had gone on a date with another man. She wanted to move on before I had the chance to explain the situation to her. I couldn’t let her go like this.

I sprinted to the waiting car and slipped into the back seat. I gave my driver Charlie’s address then spent the next twenty minutes drumming my heels on the baseboard. I would make her see reason. I’d done what I’d done with positive intent. For her own good. She had to know that.

I practiced my speech in my head, over and over again. My confession, the truth about my feelings, the need for her. If she rejected me after this, I’d curl up into a fucking ball and sob like a baby. Because from the moment I’d been within one foot of her in person, I’d been gone.

Long gone.

The town car slid to a stop at the curb of her apartment. Pulling the door handle open, I didn’t even wait for my driver and jumped out, slamming it shut behind me. The steps were the only thing between us, so I took them two at a time. I banged on her door with closed fists.

Please, God. Let her be home. Let her have gone home after dinner with Callum and not out clubbing and trying to find someone else to help her forget about me.

“Charlie, it’s Nolan. Please open up. We have to talk.”

I wasn’t above begging. Pleading. Offering her one of my kidneys or my first born child. Of course, she’d be the mother of all of my children so that probably wouldn’t entice her at all. Footsteps approached the door, and I held my breath.

The bolt drew back, the door creaked inward, and Charlie’s roommate appeared, wearing a frown.

“Where’s Charlie?” I asked Melissa.

“She’s at JFK, Nolan. The taxi picked her up like ten minutes ago.”

“What?” I ground my teeth and spat the question. “Where is she going?”

Melissa shrugged. “She wouldn’t tell me, but I would assume home to Atlanta. She said she’s never coming back. I’m supposed to box up her stuff and ship it once I here she’s made it there safely.”

And just like that, my world collapsed into rubble. For the second time, she’d left me.

Chapter 19

Charlie

I stood in front of the Formica counter and listened to the storm outside. Thunder rolling, lightning blinding me with its vibrant white light and the rush of pattering rain on the roof.

“Miss?” The woman in her navy blue airport uniform stood waiting for a response. “Do you need help?”

“I – uh, are any of the planes flying out tonight? With the storm I mean?” I raked fingers through my hair and gripped my bag in one hand. I’d packed just the necessities to beat a hasty escape without the baggage. Now, the emotional baggage, that shit would hound me for years. Melissa had offered to pack up the rest of my stuff and ship it once I got in touch with her.

“The planes don’t take off if there’s a risk of wind shear or an electrical storm, but a little bit of rain shouldn’t stop them,” the woman said helpfully. Her name tag read Linda, and she had kind eyes. Deep, brown and soulful. I wanted to curl up in the fetal position and get lost in them. “Would you like to purchase a ticket for this evening?”

“I think so,” I said and took out my wallet. I didn’t have much in my bank account, just what I’d been saving in my emergency fund. I couldn’t think of a more glaring emergency than this.

“Where would you like to go?” Linda’s fingers hovered above the keyboard, her eyes trained on my face. Answers. Everyone wanted answers, and I still didn’t know. I just wanted to run.

Dad told me I wasn’t a quitter, that I couldn’t escape my problems, but terror had taken a hold of my heart. I’d been hurt by Nolan, and I couldn’t trust him. I couldn’t trust anyone. Not even myself.

“Where can I go? I mean, which flight takes off first?” I opened my wallet and slipped my card onto the counter. The lights overhead gave me a steaming headache, and I massaged my temples. “I need to be out of New York as quickly as possible.” My lips said the words, but my heart screamed that it was a mistake.

Don’t do it, Charlie. You can’t run from these feelings. They’ll follow you even if you land halfway across the world.

My conscience sounded a lot like my dad.

Linda typed with her long red fingernails. As they ticked the keys, she looked up at me. “Our first flight out leaves in fifty minutes for Honolulu.”

“Hawaii,” I said then snorted a laugh. A little lei. A little Pina Colada. I locked eyes with Linda. “Yeah, why not.”

She picked up my card.

You need to talk to him, Charlie. You need to find out the truth before you make this decision. You’re in pain. You’re not thinking straight. What if Diamond Head decides to roar back out of dormancy and covers you in molten hot lava and ash before you’ve even talked to him?

“Wait,” I said and slapped my hand on top of the empathic woman’s. Linda snatched her fingers back and blinked a couple of times in confusion. “I, ugh, I’m sorry, Linda. There’s something I need to sort out before I can leave. I’ll be back later, okay?” I picked up the card and slipped it back into my wallet.

“All right, but the fastest flight out might not be Hawaii later on. You could end up in Fargo.” Linda replied and tapped the side of her nose. “You betcha that won’t be as tropical as the main island.”

“I’ll have to take that chance,” I said as I chuckled and waved before turning my back to retreat. I hurried through the airport, past crowds of tourists and folks buying plastic Statue of Liberty’s and t-shirts emblazoned with I heart NY. I’d talk to him in person and sort out my confusion once and for all.

But what if Nolan didn’t have a valid reason for what he’d done? Could I handle that truth? I chewed the inside of my cheek until I tasted the metal of blood.

Minutes later, I dragged my bag – thankfully it had wheels at the base that spun in every direction – out of the exit doors of the airport and walked straight into the rain. Fat drops splattered the top of my head. I raised my face to the weather and welcomed the sting of the pelting water. It made me feel alive.

I closed my eyes to the splutter and hurried along the side of the road, raising my hand to shield my eyes from the driving rain. Thunder rolled overhead again, and I was having a hard time spotting an open taxi. This was crazy. I should’ve just called a cab from inside the airport, rather than running out here like–

I slammed into a solid muscle of man and stumbled back.

“Sorry,” I yelped and looked up at him. The breath whooshed from my lungs.

Nolan stood in front of me, sopping wet, his shirt sticking to his chest and abs. His suit jacket hung loose on either side of it.

“Charlie,” he said, his voice barely audible above the driving wind. Splatters of wetness permeated every inch of his skin, and his hair hung like a halo around his forehead.

I shivered against the chilly wind and soaking wetness. “What are you doing here?” I could barely hear my own raised voice, so I coupled it with some frantic hand gestures.

“I had to come. Melissa said you were leaving. Probably home to Atlanta. Is that where you’re going?” he asked in that charming tone. The one that could move mountains. And hearts. Except this time, it held a hint of vulnerability.

I stepped backwards, and he moved toward me again. I was in his sights now. I didn’t have time to gather myself, to create a rebuttal or a speech. It was the two of us, wet in the rain, with a valley of emotion separating us.

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“Did you forget something?” he asked, blinking water and glancing towards the front of the airport.

The shock of seeing him had worn off, replaced by pain. Such searing fucking agony I could barely breathe. This man who’d loved my body and touched my soul. And then proceeded to drag me over the coals. Again and again.

“No. I didn’t,” I said and then turned and did what I seemed to do best. Run. In all my life of facing obstacles and overcoming them, it seemed I couldn’t do anything but flee like Cinderella minutes before midnight.

But I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t think when I looked at him, it was stupid to believe that I could. I needed to go. Far, far away. Think. Heal. Give myself time to sort through everything raging inside of me.

I might be too late for Hawaii, but I could go somewhere else. The world was my oyster. I probably wouldn’t be able to afford rent for an apartment, but at least I’d be alone.

And safe.

“Charlie, stop,” Nolan called out. “Don’t walk away from me. Please.”

I froze in my tracks and spun to face him. “Why shouldn’t I walk away from you, Nolan Banks? You leave nothing but pain and shattered hearts in your wake.”

“Because you haven’t given me a chance to explain.”

I jabbed my index finger towards him. “I’m not sure it’s deserved. Chances are earned, not demanded.”