Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (114 page)

“You don’t have to come.
 
I’ll meet you back at the apartment,”
Nicole told her.

“Are you kidding me?
 
I’m not letting you get in there by
yourself.”

Nicole smiled.
 
It felt good to know that Danielle would
fight to protect her.
 
She was a
great friend.

“Well then, let’s get this over with,”
Nicole muttered.

The two of them got inside the spacious,
luxurious limousine and sat as far away from Kane Wright as was humanly
possible.

He didn’t seem to mind.
 
The limo pulled away from the curb and
into fifth avenue traffic.
 
“Would
either of you like a drink?” Kane asked them.

“Where are you taking us?” Danielle said,
ignoring his question.

He looked at her without responding, and
Nicole wondered how Danielle felt being stared at by this wealthy, handsome
older man.
 
His eyes had that
familiar intensity that blazing confidence.
 
She watched her friend gaze back at him,
refusing to give an inch.

Finally, Kane settled back in his
seat.
 
“We’re just driving
around.
 
I told my driver to circle
Times Square for a bit while we have a chat.”

“She has nothing to say to you,” Danielle

 
said.

“Oh? Is that so?”

“Yes, it is.”

“And who might you be?
 
Her chaperone?” he said with a twinkle
in his eye.

“Better than that.
 
I’m her friend.”

“Oh, her friend,” Kane nodded.
 
“That is better.
 
It’s good to have trustworthy friends.”

“I’m sure you have none,” Danielle
replied.

“Let’s not make this hostile,” Kane
said.
 
“What’s your name?”

She crossed her arms.
 
“Don’t worry about my name.”

He grinned and snapped his fingers.
 
“You look like a Danielle.
 
I bet that’s your name, isn’t it?”

Danielle’s face got pale.
 
“How did you know my name?”

Kane shrugged and smiled.
 
Then he turned to Nicole.
 
“So, have you thought at all about my
proposal?”

She nodded.
 
Then she licked her lips.
 
“I’ve thought a lot about it.
 
But I don’t think I can trust you to
keep your word.”

“How can I earn your trust, Nicole?”

“I don’t think you can.”

He nodded and thought for a moment.
 
“What if I did more than just keep Red
Jameson’s dirty laundry from the public eye?”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” she said.

“I’m a nice guy, Nicole.
 
Really I am.”

“Only asshole’s say they’re nice guys,”
Danielle replied.

Kane glanced at her.
 
“I believe you’re in a significant
amount of debt, aren’t you?”

Danielle’s cheeks flushed and for a
moment she looked stunned, as if he’d slapped her across the face.
 
But then she seemed to recover.
 
“Everyone living in New York City is in
debt.
 
Nice guess.”

“True, most people are,” Kane nodded, as
if empathizing with the plight of the common man.
 
“But you,” he said to Danielle, “are
even more in debt than most.
 
Almost
a hundred thousand dollars between student loans and credit cards.
 
The loans you can defer for a little
while, but those credit cards…” he shook his head.

Danielle turned to Nicole.
 
“How does he know this stuff about
me?
 
My name, my financial
situation?”

Nicole shrugged.
 
“He’s rich and he’s decided he wants
something from me.
 
He probably had
a private investigator put together a file on me and everyone close to me.”

“Don’t forget, I’ve been researching Red
Jameson for a long time.
 
Anyone close
to him gets the same treatment,” Kane smiled.
 
“It’s nothing personal.”

“Leave Danielle out of this, it’s between
us,” Nicole said.

“I tried to leave her out of it, but
she’s chirping away like a little bird in my ear,” he said.
 
“So I think maybe I’d like to sweeten
the pot a little bit.
 
I’d like to
help Danielle.”

“You don’t want to help me,” Danielle
said, shaking her head.
 
“You’re
only interested in trying to intimidate people.”

“That’s far from the truth,” he said,
turning back to Nicole.
 
“So let me
help you with your decision.
 
All
I’ve asked is that you spend some time in my company.
 
For a few days on a tropical paradise
having your every need met, I’m willing to give you quite a bit in return.
 
One, I’ve offered to keep Red’s name out
of the media in connection to those things we discussed.”

Nicole nodded warily.
 
“I understand that.”

“And further, I’ll go another step to
show you my heart’s in the right place, Nicole.
 
I want to help you and the people you
care about.
 
So if you come with me to
the Caymans, then I’ll pay off Danielle’s student loans and credit card
debt.
 
Almost one hundred thousand
dollars wiped away, she’ll be free and clear.”

“He’s lying, Nicole,” Danielle told
her.
 
“Don’t listen to his
bullshit.”

Kane looked back at Danielle.
 
“You really don’t know me.”
 
Something about the way he said it
silenced her.
 
A certain gleam in
his eye, a tone of voice—something in him shifted and suddenly his full
presence was palpable in the car.

Suddenly you realized that you were
sitting next to a man who had more wealth than small nations, who could
literally buy and sell you.
 
He
could pick up a phone and have someone killed, make someone disappear, or he
could wipe out hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt the way someone might
pick up the check for lunch at the corner deli.

“So, Nicole, what’s your answer?
 
A few days with me, no strings attached,
nothing required but a little of your time.
 
And in exchange you get so much more for
the people closest to you.”
 

“Don’t do it Nic,” Danielle muttered.

“Just let me think for a second,” Nicole
said.

“This offer is only good for the length
of this car ride,” Kane told them.
 
He glanced at his gold Rolex.
 
“I never make bad deals, Nicole.
 
In fact, the main reason I’m as wealthy as I am is because I refuse to
make a deal unless it benefits me most.
 
I don’t like feeling as though I’m getting the worse end of things, but
for some reason, it’s different with you.”

His eyes fixed on her.
 
She couldn’t look at him.
 

What would Red tell her to do? She
wondered.
 
Of course he’s say that
Kane Wright was a snake, untrustworthy, all of it.

But then again, Red wasn’t here.
 
And because of that, she was on her own,
dealing with a shark in deep waters with nobody to help her.
 

“I’m fine,” Danielle told her.
 
“I don’t need his help.”

But Nicole wasn’t so sure.
 
She’d seen Danielle crying not that long
ago, opening bills and shaking her head, saying she didn’t know how much longer
she could last in the city.

“If I say yes, how can I be sure you’ll
keep your promises?”

“If you say yes right now, I’ll get on
the phone with my accountant and put the word in to take care of Danielle’s
financial situation immediately.
 
By
the end of business tomorrow, she’ll be free and clear.
 
Before you and I even get on a plane
together, your best friend will have a new lease on life.”

Nicole glanced at Danielle.
 
She was shaking her head no, but somehow
Nicole couldn’t believe her.
 
“I’ll
do it,” she said.
 
“I’ll go with
you.”

“Nicole, don’t!” Danielle cried.

Kane Wright smiled like a proud
father.
 
“Good decision,
Nicole.
 
You won’t regret it.”

“Of course she will.
 
She’s not a prostitute.”

“I never claimed she was.
 
Nicole doesn’t have to have sex with me,
I’ve made it very clear that all I’m asking is for some time together.”

“That’s bullshit.
 
What man goes through this much trouble
for a woman he doesn’t want to sleep with?”

“I never said I didn’t want to sleep with
her.
 
I said that I wouldn’t have
any expectations that she’d do so on this trip.
 
The deal is simply for some of her
time.
 
It’s a good deal, especially
for you Danielle.”

“I don’t want it.”

“Regardless, by this time tomorrow you’ll
have no debt.
 
Your credit cards and
student loans, even your rent for this year—will be paid in full.”

Nicole looked at him and he smiled at
her.

She knew she couldn’t trust him, and
yet—for the first time—she wondered if she’d somehow misjudged Kane
Wright.

***

The next morning she threw up again.

This time it was when she was brushing
her teeth after her morning shower (there was no way she could go two days
without bathing, no matter how depressed).

Everything had been going just fine up
until the point that she got sick.
 
One moment, a typical weekday morning and the next—blecchhhh.

Her stomach lurching, she leaned over the
toilet and everything came up yet again.
 
This was now officially something weird.

Two days in a row she’d been sick in the
morning.

There was a term for that—wasn’t
there? Nicole thought, as she went through the now familiar process of wiping
her mouth and chin with toilet paper and flushing the mess away.
 

Morning sickness.

A wave of unreality washed over her,
making her so dizzy that she had to grab hold of the sink and close her eyes.

It’s a coincidence, she told
herself.
 
Maybe I do have a touch of
the flu.
 
Wasn’t I sweating a lot
last night?
 
I woke up and my sheets
were damp.
 
It’s the flu. I probably
even have a bit of fever if I take my temperature.

She tried to talk herself off the ledge,
because the alternative was just too frightening.
 

Morning sickness.
 

Uneasily, Nicole touched her stomach as
if she might be able to discern a subtle difference there.
 
She asked herself what her instinct
was—and then she blinked in surprise.

When
was the last time I had my period?
 

She swore at herself for not having kept
better track of it.
 
Usually she
made a note of it on her iPhone calendar, but this past month she’d forgotten
to do so.

I can’t be pregnant, she thought yet
again.
 
I’ve been on the pill for
months and months.
 
But still, it
happened.
 
She knew that the pill
wasn’t a hundred percent—no method of birth control was a hundred
percent.

It was so irresponsible of her to have
had unprotected sex with Red, even if she was on the pill.
 

Stunned, Nicole left the bathroom and
walked to her bedroom in her towel, trying to think back to the last time she’d
had her period.

She recalled being annoyed because it
came at an inconvenient time at work.
 
Was she still working on the cowboy stuff for Remi at the time?
 
Nicole tried to do the math to figure
out if she was even late.

I
think I’m late.

Of course you’re late.
 
You don’t have morning sickness without
being late, Nicole.

Oh god, she thought.
 
I’m going crazy on top of being
pregnant.

Nicole knew what she had to do.
 
She had to go get a test
immediately.
 
Whether or not she
knew exactly how late she was didn’t matter anymore.
 
Get the test and find out for sure one
way or another.