Billionaire In Hiding: The Complete Series (Alpha Billionaire Romance Western Love Story) (40 page)

CHAPTER
THIRTY

Leah

I
heard Jack
approach and then listened to his apology. I wanted to stand up and yell at him
and make him feel as terrible as I felt. But I knew that he had only meant to
help and that yelling at him would only serve to upset me more. Plus, I didn't
want to yell at my boss and find I'd lost my job on top of everything else. So,
I said nothing.

"Leah, I
really am sorry," Jack said as he sat down next to me. He sat close enough
that I could feel the heat from his body, and while everything in me wanted to
lean in and feel him pressed against me, I also wanted to run away.

"I know you
meant well," I said wiping the tears from my cheeks and offering him a
weak smile. "I appreciate the gesture."

"It's not
just a gesture," he said as he looked at me. "I really do want to
help. I don't want you to stress about having to find a place to live on top of
everything else. I know it can't be easy."

"What do you
mean?" I asked, trying to hide the fact that my life was in shambles.

"I mean,
Riley told me a little about what's going on at home and I just …" he
trailed off.

"You just see
us as a great way to do your charity work, don't you?" I said bitterly as
I felt the resentment and anger rising in my throat. How dare he pity me!
"Well, let me tell you something, Mr. Yates. I work hard to do the best I
can to support my family, and I'm not a charity case to ease your guilt!"

"Leah …"
he said holding up a hand to stop me, but I was on a roll. The emotions that
had been building reached their peak, and Jack had knocked down the dam that
had been holding them back.

"No, you
listen to me!" I shouted. "I'm sick and tired of being 'poor Leah,'
the girl whose sister ran off and left her with her kid, or the girl whose
mother drinks like a fish and burns down the house, or the girl whose brother
ran off and became a priest just to avoid having to deal with such a messed up
family! I'm sick and tired of it! I want a life that is happy and has some hope
of getting better!"

Jack sat next to
me, listening calmly as I let loose with a torrent of anger and resentment, and
by the time I was done, I was sobbing loudly as all the pain and disappointment
flowed out. Jack leaned over and put an arm around me and drew me to him,
holding me tightly as I cried.

"It's okay,
Leah," he whispered as he rested his chin on top of my head. "Let it
all out. It's okay. I understand."

It took me a long
time to stop crying, but Jack sat patiently, waiting for the storm to pass and
occasionally patting my shoulder as he reminded me that it would all be okay.
When I felt like I'd finally cried the last tear, I wiped my face as I
sniffled. Jack offered me a handkerchief.

"I didn't
know guys still carried these things," I said as I blew my nose.

"My Pop was
big on tradition," he said. "Linc and I always got a box of
handkerchiefs for our birthdays, and any other holiday, really."

"Wow, how
well did that go over?" I said, laughing weakly.

"Not
well," he said grimly.

"I'm
sorry," I said peeking up at him and seeing that he was serious.
"That must have been rough."

"My father
was a rough man," he nodded. "He had a very specific way of seeing
the world, and we were expected to adopt that way or suffer the
consequences—but this isn't about my childhood. This is about how you feel and
what you want to do next."

"It's okay,
Jack," I said, sitting up and looking at him. The thoughtful expression on
his face told me that he was focused on solving my problems not talking about
his own. "It's weird how parents can appear so different to the outside
world than they do to their kids, isn't it? My mother is the nicest person on
earth to strangers, but at home, when she's been drinking, it's a whole
different matter."

"My father
was always nicer to strangers than he was to us," Jack admitted. "It
made me feel like there was something really wrong with me because I wondered
why he couldn't be nice to me, too."

"I've always
thought it was because my mother felt so much pressure to make sure we were
well behaved and grew up to be successful adults," I said as I leaned into
his body. "She didn't have that pressure when it came to strangers."

"I always
thought my father was trying to fix what he'd done wrong by making us be better
than him," Jack said. "Like he was trying to beat the bad out of us
so that we'd be good without having to try so hard."

"My mother
did that to Molly, my older sister," I said quietly. "I think it made
her go the other way. She escaped into drugs and drinking because she felt like
such a failure."

"I think that's
what Lincoln and I did, too. We just had the benefit of money and an
education," he said sheepishly. "We escaped into success, but it
didn't make us better people, that's for sure. I think we're both equally
miserable despite the fact that we've achieved everything my father hoped we
would, and we both have more money than we know what to do with."

"Are you
really that miserable?" I asked.

"I'm not
miserable. I'm just not very happy," he sighed. "I feel like I've
done everything that I thought would make me happy, and now there's nothing
left to do."

"Wow, that's
really …" I began, but stopped because I was unsure of what to say next. I
didn't have this problem. I had so much I still wanted to do, but I didn't have
the resources I needed to be able to do it.

"I know,
first world problems, right?" he sighed again. "I feel like my life
is so meaningless. Like I'm going through the motions and doing what's
expected, but nothing makes me happy anymore."

"Have you
thought about seeing a doctor for that?" I teased as I reached up and
patted his cheek.

"Ha!" he
laughed and was about to say something when a car pulled into the driveway and
the front door opened. Jack started to get up and then saw that it was his
brother exiting the house. He ducked back down behind the bush in front of us.
He put his finger to his lips and said, "Shhh."

Peering through
the bush, Jack tried to get a look at the person getting out of the car. When
he couldn't, he settled in on the bench and waited to see if he could hear their
voices.

"I told you
not to come here tonight," Lincoln said tersely. "Everyone's here.
What if someone saw you?"

"Oh, do shut
up, you silly worrywart," the woman replied. I didn't recognize the voice,
but Jack's eyes widened as he listened. "I have information that can't be
transmitted via phone or email, and it's urgent."

"Fine, tell
me what you need to tell me, and then get the hell out of here," Lincoln
said.

"The Chinese
are ready to make a deal on the warehouse operation, and the buyers from New
Delhi are ready to take over the ordering portion and the customer service
phone support," she said as if ticking things off a list. "I think we
need to settle the deal with the Chinese before we talk with the Indians.
Otherwise we're going to have a hell of a time selling them the partial
pieces."

"You should
have thought of that before you started bolstering the warehouse operation
stateside, Sloan," he replied.

Now it was my turn
to look at Jack with wide eyes. I wasn't sure that what I was hearing was
correct, but the implications were clear: Lincoln and Sloan were working
together to break up Baby Steps. I felt Jack's arm tighten around me and saw
him put his finger to his lips again to remind me to stay quiet. I nodded and
continued listening.

"If we can
break down the pieces of the company, we can sell them at a substantial profit
and pay off the shareholders before we take our cut of the deal," Lincoln
said. "But you have to stop coddling my little brother. You know we only
picked him because we thought he'd run the company into the ground so that he
could get back to doing what he was doing before the old man kicked it."

"You're such
a cold-hearted jerk," Sloan said with laugh, and then more quietly,
"I love that about you."

Jack slid forward
and pushed the bushes apart enough to see that Lincoln and Sloan were locked in
a passionate embrace.

"Son of a
bitch," he muttered under his breath.

"Shhhh,"
I remind him. He nodded and slid back on the bench, his hand squeezing my
shoulder tightly.

"I'll take
care of your little brother," Sloan said after a lengthy silence.
"You take care of sinking the renovation loan and making it look like a
bad business deal. If all goes according to plan, we should be able to get out
from under this thing in the next month. I want it off the table by the time
you make a break with Jessie, and we start to plan the next step."

"Uh, yeah,
about that," Lincoln began.

"Don't tell
me you're getting cold feet," she said in a terse voice. "I told you
when we began this thing that I wasn't going to take no for an answer, Lincoln.
I put you in a position to capitalize on the deals that the bank made. You're
not going to back out on me now."

"Look, I'm
not sure I want to leave my wife right now," Lincoln said. "We have
kids."

"Put them in
boarding school," Sloan said. "My parents did it and look how I
turned out."

"Uh,
yeah," Lincoln said hesitating. "All I'm saying is that I need a
little more time to figure out the personal side of things, okay?"

"Well, don't
drag your feet," Sloan said. "I'd hate to have to pull out the big
guns and take aim."

"There's no
need to be unreasonable, Sloan," Lincoln said in an icy voice. "I'll
figure things out, and we'll get what we're after."

"You'd better
hope so," Sloan said as she walked back to her car and opened the door.
"I'm not accustomed to being disappointed, and I don't deal well with it
when I am."

"Understood,"
Lincoln said. "I'll see you tomorrow. Usual time and place."

The car door
slammed, and Sloan backed out of the driveway, leaving Lincoln standing there
alone. He didn't move, but since we couldn't see past the branches in our way,
I couldn't tell what he was doing. A few minutes later, we heard him walk up
the steps and go back inside the house.

"Well, I'll
be damned," Jack said as he looked at me. I had no idea what he was
thinking, so I stayed quiet and hoped that he would keep his arm around me a
little longer.

CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE

Jack

"
That
son of a bitch," I said as
I stood up and started pacing the garden walk. "That no good son of a
bitch is trying to ruin the company!"

"It's obvious
that Sloan wants to pull it apart and sell it off," Leah said. "But
are you sure your brother wants to do that, too? He sounded a little less
certain of … well, everything."

"He's a
greedy bastard who has always done everything for profit, and I'm sick and
tired of it," I said as I felt the ball of anger building in my chest.

"Maybe you
should sit down and talk with him before you get too worked up," Leah
suggested.

"I'm going to
kill him," I growled as I headed back toward the house.

"Jack!"
Leah called. "Don't do anything drastic before you know the whole
story!"

"Fuck that,
I'm going to murder my brother, and then I'm going to go after Sloan Morgan
with everything I have," I called over my shoulder. There was no way the
two of them were going to make a fool of me.

"JACK!"
Leah shouted. I stopped and turned around to see her striding toward me with a
determined look on her face. "No, you are not going to go in there and blow
the one advantage we have simply because you're pissed about some childhood
grudges and mad at a girl who played you. God, you are such a man!"

"What the
hell does that mean?" I said as I turned and looked down at the fiery
Irish girl who was ordering me around.

"It means
that you're an idiot," she said with her hands on her hips. "God,
what do I have to do to get you to see that if you go in there and start a war
with your brother, you'll blow every possible advantage we have. And you'll
make it impossible for us to formulate a counter-attack."

"But he can't
get away with this!" I shouted.

"Keep your
voice down," she said, quieting me. "Look, we just heard their entire
plan. Now we can sit down and map out a way to subvert it. But if you go in
there and tip our hand, we'll never be able to stop them. Your brother has
contacts at the bank, and Sloan is as slippery as a greased snake."

"You've been
hanging around Norma too much," I grinned as the Southern saying slipped
out of her mouth. Leah laughed a little and then stepped closer and rested her
hands on my chest. I felt my body instantly respond, and I had to quickly
remind myself that she was my employee, not a conquest. It wasn't easy, though.
Her fingers were light, and I could feel the warmth of her palms seeping
through my shirt as she looked up at me. Never in my life had I ever wanted to
kiss a woman more than I did at that moment.

"Listen,
we've got to put up a fight," Leah said looking up at me. Her eyes were
softer now, and I could see every one of the freckles that dotted her nose and
cheeks. "There are so many people at Baby Steps who are counting on
keeping their jobs. We can't let Sloan and your brother gut the company and
leave them high and dry, can we?"

"No, we
definitely cannot," I said clearing my throat and forcing myself to look
away. At that moment, I couldn't have cared less about the company.
 
I wanted to sweep Leah up in my arms and
carry her to my bedroom so I could peel off the layers of clothes and find out
if her freckles stretched all the way to her toes.

"Jack?"
she said as she tapped my chest.

"Huh?"

"I asked you
what you were going to do right now," she repeated.

"I'm going to
go inside and not murder my brother," I dutifully replied. "Then
tomorrow morning, we'll go into the office and begin formulating our plan of
attack."

"Good, I'm
glad I finally managed to get through to you," she said, smiling.

I waited a moment,
not wanting to move, but unsure whether I could get away with kissing her. Leah
made the decision for me as she dropped her hands and started up the front
steps. I followed, knowing that keeping all of this under wraps was going to
require the best acting job of my life.