BILLIONAIRE ANGEL (Point St. Claire, where true love finds a way) (9 page)

Around noon the following day, Jax pulled his vehicle into Ann and Rick’s driveway. When they found the door wide open, but no one around, a chill sped through Billy’s blood. Jax herded her behind him before he entered the foyer and scanned the scene.

He called out, “Anyone home? Mrs. Hallows? I’m here with your sister, Belinda.”

Billy stayed close. Was it possible that a gun was peeping around a corner? She knew that, under his jacket, Jax was packing.

Billy wasn’t certain if Ann was aware that something was up. Whether somehow her sister had been forewarned. When she’d phoned to tell Ann to expect visitors, there was a different tone in her sister’s voice and no invitation for lunch.

Billy touched Jax’s arm. “I know where she might be.”

Taking his hand, she led him through the showcase house and out onto the back veranda. Sure enough, with a relaxed air, Ann was pruning her geraniums. When she turned to face her visitors, Billy saw the dull resignation in Ann eyes.

“You’ve brought a guest.”

“This is Jax Angel,” Billy said.

“The private investigator helping you with the disappearance of your ruby ring.” Ann offered a thin smile and her hand. “Billy says you’re good at what you do.”

“We seem to have got to the heart of it,” he replied.

When he withdrew his hand, Ann’s fingers hovered mid-air before her smile tacked back up and she brushed a kiss on Billy’s cheek. “Anyone care for something to drink? Water? Freshly squeezed juice?”

Billy exhaled. She’d been so angry. Now she just wanted to know.

“Why did you do it, Ann? How could you lie to me all these years?”

Ann’s head went back before a perfectly manicured eyebrow lifted and that thin smile returned. She looked Jax up and down. “You
are
good.”

“You stole the ring,” Billy went on, struggling to keep her voice steady. “You stole it from
me
. And then you took the insurance money. That’s fraud, Ann.” She felt sick. “I looked up to you.”

While Ann’s face was tight, a pulse popped madly at the side of her neck. Billy saw her sister’s throat convulse twice before she managed a reply.

“I didn’t mean for it to turn out that way.”

When Jax turned around, Billy realized that someone had joined them.

Rick was edging out onto the veranda, his expression guarded, thinning hair lifting on a valley breeze. His eyes shifted between the three. “Everyone looks so serious.”

Ann stepped forward. “She knows.”

Rick’s complexion paled. He pulled out a chair and plonked down.

“We tracked down your shop,” Jax said to Ann. “The drawers weren’t cleaned out properly.”

“It was a legitimate business,” Rick said.

“Which you used to palm off Billy’s ruby ring,” Jax added.

“I hadn’t planned it that way,” Ann said.

“You said that already,” Billy ground out. “How exactly
did
you plan it?”

Her sister withered into a chair, too. “After Mom died, I got behind on the mortgage. I borrowed to pay the funeral expenses. You were so distant and angry. I was worried you might drop out of school.”

“So, you set up the fraud,” Jax supplied.

“I started packing,” Ann said. “I had to cut expenses.”

“I told Ann,” Rick cut in, “that she could move in with me. Billy, too, of course. It wasn’t a palace but I couldn’t see another way.”

Billy snapped. “
Crap
you couldn’t see another way.”

Ann’s arm shot out, trying to calm her. “This isn’t Rick’s fault,” she said. “At the beginning, it wasn’t anybody’s fault.”

“Stop lying,” Billy groaned. “It’s too late for that.”

“I packed up my stuff,” Ann went on. “I was trying to find a way to tell you that we needed to move. I knew you didn’t like Rick.” Ann’s eyes glistened. “I just wanted Mom back. I was only twenty-one. It was
hard
. So very hard for me to know what to do.”

“Well, it was hard on me,
too
.” When Billy’s voice cracked, she swallowed and toned it down. Losing it wouldn’t do any good. “Mom would never have wanted us to break the law.”

“Billy, I
lost
the ring. When I was packing, I thought I’d put it in a safe place, hidden among some books. I was worried about Aunt Cathy dropping in and flat out taking it. But when I took those boxes to Rick’s, I couldn’t find it. I searched and searched. I couldn’t believe it.”

Rick was still looking white. “We searched together. Everywhere. At my place and yours.”

“I went to the authorities,” Ann said. “I told them it must have been stolen. I told them everything. I honestly believed it was taken. Obviously the insurance company believed that, too. They paid out.”

Billy wanted to shake her. “But it
wasn’t
stolen. You sold it two years later.”

Ann nodded. “I found it a week later. It just appeared again in a nook in my bedroom. I remember thinking that Mom had brought it back. That she might have taken it in the first place to help us out...”

As Ann shrugged weakly, Billy glanced at Jax; he didn’t look convinced. 

“It just showed up?” he drawled.

“I know how it sounds,” Ann said. “But hasn’t it happened to you? You can’t find something. You search every conceivable place ten times over. Then, out of the blue, it magically appears.”

Billy wondered. Yes, that had happened to her, and more than once. But this all sounded too convenient.

“By then,” Ann went on, “the wheels were turning. The police were investigating. Papers were with the insurance company. I made a decision. I kept quiet. Rick thought I was making a mistake.”

“I told her we should come clean and go back to plan A,” Rick said. “Both of you moving in with me. We had a big argument about it.”

Ann explained, “I was filled with guilt. Later, I was sure someone would turn us in.”

“Not
us
, Ann,” Billy pointed out. “Turn
you
in.”

But now...she was certain Ann was telling the truth. That didn’t excuse the fact that she had made that huge decision without her. She would have fought her on it, like Rick...who Billy suddenly had more respect for.

“The insurance money went through,” Ann went on. “We paid out the mortgage. You had money for college. I started up a business.”

“The cafe?” Billy asked. “Or the sex shop?”

“You know I love health and cooking. From day one, I adored my cafe, but it was slow to kick off. After some research, I found out what others have known for centuries. What our courtesan ancestor must have known. Sex sells.” Ann’s expression changed. “You almost came across the ring one day,” she said. “You were looking through my jewelry box and I came in. The blood froze in my veins.”

Billy crossed her arms. “Maybe that was the time to tell me.”

“Maybe it was.”

Jax summized, “You decided to move it on instead.”

“I sold a lot of erotic jewelry,” Ann said. “There’s a huge market.”

Billy sat down beside her. “You didn’t, well, get more into that scene, did you?”

“I sold books, jewelry,” Ann said, “that was it. I kept the ring hidden there for a while. One day a lady came in looking for something different. She was prepared to pay a great deal.”

“Mrs. Garfield,” Jax said.

“I showed her the ring,” Ann said, “gave her a price. She walked out one very happy customer and that was the end of the whole long, unpleasant episode. Or so I thought.”

Rick added, “She always intended to repay the insurance money.”

Jax cocked an eyebrow. “How?”

“I had ideas of telling them,” Ann said, “that the ring had shown up and they could have their payout back.”

“But the insurance company went belly up a year after the payout,” Rick explained.

Billy wasn’t happy, but she could see how events and circumstances had conspired. She searched her sister’s eyes.

“Were you
ever
going to tell me?”

“I always wanted to,” Ann said, reaching for her sister’s hand. “I’m almost glad you found out. I don’t know that Mom would ever have forgiven me…”

When Ann’s voice hitched and she hung her head, Billy squeezed her sister’s hand and then brought her in for a hug.

Finally that mystery was solved. And now?

Well, she’d made a plan. It was time to push forward. Time to move on with her life.

An hour later, Billy was back in the passenger seat of Jax’s vehicle when, standing outside, Rick handed something to Ann who passed it on to her sister.

Billy studied the envelope. “What’s this?”

“Open it on your way home,” Ann said, and then smiled softly at Jax. “Thanks for helping make this right. This last bit...” She leaned in through the window and dropped a kiss on her sister’s forehead. “Well, now all the loose ends will be tied.”

On the road again, Billy ripped open the seal. Hands on the wheel, Jax glanced across and grinned. “Looks interesting.”

She extracted a bank passbook and opened it to the identification page. “It’s a bank account made out in my name, opened eight years ago.” She flipped to the next page and made a sound like she’d lost her breath. “There’s a single transaction. A deposit. A big one.”

When she told him the amount, Jax let out a long low whistle. “The purchase price of the ring from Mrs. Garfield, I presume.”

“There’s a note or card in here, too. No. A
photo
. It’s me and Ann selling homemade perfume in front of our home.” She flipped over the decades old snap. “There’s a message on the back from Mom.”

“What’s it say?”

Something so simple and strong. “Something she always used to tell us...” A tear slipped down Billy’s cheek as she met his gaze and smiled. “
Don’t forget...live your dream
.”

The closer they got to Point St. Claire, the thicker the tension grew. By the time Jax pulled up in front of Billy’s house, he’d come up with two dozen different ways to keep from saying goodbye. Beside him, still clutching that envelope, Billy looked just as torn.

Parked with the engine idling, he studied her profile, while she pressed her lips together, and then finally looked across. Her eyes were wide—like she wanted to invite him in but also didn’t want to prolong the inevitable.

“Did I mention the club’s anniversary evening?” he asked, trying to sound casual. We’re extending invitations to partners.”

“Wow. That’s a turn up.”

“So, I was thinking, if you’re still in town...”

Her eyes were glistening. “I’d like to. Even if Judge Garfield might not be so keen to see me there—”

“He’ll be fine with it now.”

“—but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Because it was better to end it here and now?

Billy expelled a shaky breath. “So...”

Jax sat straighter. “So, keep in touch,” he said.

Her smile was achingly beautiful. “Yeah,” she said. “You, too.”

When she leaned across and pressed her lips against his cheek, Jax forced a groan of longing back down.

But then she reached to hold his jaw and coax the angle of his jaw until her lips found his. The contact was like a downpour filling a dam. And as the kiss lingered, the level only got higher. Grew deeper.

His hand covered hers as every muscle in his body hardened.

“Billy? What are you saying?”

“I’m saying goodbye...the way you and I should.”

“With a kiss.”

Her hand trailed down over his shirt. “We deserve more than a kiss.”

She and Jax stood in her bedroom facing one another as he searched her eyes. Other than his forehead resting on hers as she gazed up, they weren’t touching and yet she’d never felt closer to any person in her life.

What was she willing to give up if she stayed?

What would she gain if she left?

His hands trailed down either side of her throat at the same time his chest rumbled with a sound Billy took for need. She wanted him too. Her breasts were tingling, begging to be touched. Her core felt on fire, needing to be filled.

As his palms trailed over her shoulders, Billy let her head rock back. She took in a lungful of his scent while he squeezed her upper arms, winging them forward, and nuzzled her temple…her ear...her throat.

His jaw was rough with a day-old shadow. Billy shivered as that sandpaper feel trailed down and his grip brought her achingly near.

Parted lips feathered over hers before the tip of his tongue tasted one corner of her mouth. She felt him swell, harden, and focus even more. Then he nipped her lower lip and tugged just enough to make standing without his help pretty much impossible.

“Are you okay?” he asked and then nipped and tugged again.

She smiled and leaned in. “I get it. You’re making this last.”

Toasting her slowly and thoroughly from the inside out.

His palms slid across and then down her back. While he weighed the globes of her behind in each palm, his mouth worked pure magic on the sweep of her collarbone. Then his hands scooped between the back of her thighs and lifted her up. Curving into him, she wound her legs around his hips.

One arm held her in place while he took his time unbuttoning her shirt. He used his teeth to open one side. What he did next shot rockets through her veins. The roughness of his chin, the teasing and twirling of his tongue… And when he drew that sensitive part of her back into his mouth and lightly sucked―

Losing her breath, she wound his hair up in his fingers. Inside, she was coiled so tight, if she pulled herself any closer to his belt, she would explode and go through the roof.

He murmured against her skin, “I’m glad you broke into my club.”

She hummed out a smile. “I’m glad you offered to help.”

He rotated her so that he held her in his arms like he’d done the day he’d thought she might faint. His expression told her everything he was thinking…feeling. He wished they had longer.

Something beyond a final night.

He carried her to the side of the bed, lay her down carefully and then unbuttoned his shirt. All the time he focused on her eyes, on a connection that grew stronger by the second.

When he dropped the shirt, Billy let her gaze sweep over his chest and shoulders and arms. Hard, hot and, for tonight...

Only hers.

*

The next day, Jax jumped on his motorcycle and roared out from his Newforth Cove home. A thousand miles and three days later, he rolled into a crap neighbourhood two state lines west of Maine. Kids wandered around wearing big brother’s clothes and no shoes. Women sat on porch steps chugging on smokes and sucking on beers. Youths on ‘interplanetary missions’ strutted down the street, hoodies hiding their faces.

How many cookhouses were hidden away in this square mile? Jax would bet at least one.

He sat, parked, for an hour. Every now and then, he’d check his ride’s compartment box and the 9MM pistol waiting inside.

It was late, dark, by the time the man slithered out the front door of the rundown tenement. As the man flicked his roach at a bush and darted a predator’s glance around, Jax eased off his motorcycle, opened the compartment and slid the 9MM under his jacket. His hands didn’t shake. In some respects he felt serene.

Felt redeemed.

Resources said that Hurly Green had moved here a few months back. He was still out and about, ruining families like they were pieces of garbage he had the god-given right to destroy. Someone, sometime, needed to stop him.

Billy had finally got her justice. Her answers.

Now Jax needed his.