Remorseless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 3) (16 page)

The door behind him opened. He turned to see Julie coming in with a few bags of carry-out. Even though she was in the photo that had already hit all the gossip websites, the local news agencies had arrived first. The bigger outlets would be there soon. But he and Julie should be out of town within the day.

“What did Alex say?” he asked as she shut the door.

“He said he’s about to step on the company plane. He’s going to be here in a few hours.” She set the food on the desk. This room was smaller than the suite she had so sneakily booked. If the reporters were looking for one of the richest men in America hiding out in the hotels, they were going to scope out the suites first. Julie pointed out that even though it was difficult to get into a hotel’s reservation system, it was easy to wander up to any floor a reporter wanted to get to.

“Thanks to your absolutely zero input in food, I ended up with Chinese. And I ordered six different things. But, knowing your appetite, there will probably be no leftovers.”

Logan crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re being normal. I don’t like that.”

“I’m annoyingly normal. What can I say?”

Annoying, maybe.
But Julie had never been normal. They’d just slept together and it wasn’t exactly under ideal conditions.
Great—hell yeah.
But he expected her to either slap him once they were done or jump him again or something. Not start packing her bags while moving them across the street.

“Do you want to, um, talk?”

“About the unplanned, ill-advised sex that your brothers can never find out about? No.”

“So you think it was a mistake?”

That seemed to startle her. “A mistake? No. It wasn’t a good idea and should probably never be repeated—”

“Doesn’t that make it a mistake?”

Julie ran one of her hands up and down her arm. She was out of that evilly hot white dress and was back in leggings and her flannel shirt. “A mistake implies that I’d want to take it back. Now stop trying to distract me. What did Alecia send you?”

“How did you know she sent the email?”

“We haven’t talked about it since this morning and now it’s mid-afternoon. Either she sent you the stuff or she’s flaking. So what did you get?”

Logan pointed to the computer on the desk. “Have a look for yourself.”

Julie sat at the desk and looked through the pictures. “Alecia couldn’t have used a proper scanner. I feel like they should give people classes on how to take a cell phone image that actually turns out.”

“I don’t think she’d be willing to send us better quality images of any of this, so it had better be good enough.”

Logan had looked at the file of photos dozens of times already. It wasn’t a lot to go on, but it was more than they had before. Whoever wanted Logan dead had done it efficiently and totally. They’d started by sending Willis picture after picture of the different women he’d been with. Based on the outfits and locations, he was willing to bet Willis had gotten most of his girlfriends from the street corner.

But it was hard to be disgusted by the guy. As far as he knew, murder beat using prostitutes any day. They started out asking Willis to do small things. Alecia had sent every email Willis had gotten. He never replied to the emails, though. If they requested anything from him, it was to be dropped off in a public park. The kind of public park that might even have security cameras—which would be great, if all this hadn’t happened almost nine years ago.

“Did anything here catch your attention?” asked Julie.

“One of the emails mentioned that his rewards would increase. Think that means he was getting paid?”

“If you can get an eye on his bank statements, you could have an electronic trail,” said Julie.

Logan wasn’t nearly as hopeful. “Unless he was getting a pile of cash. Paying for murders isn’t always done through electronically trackable channels.”

Julie tightened her lips but didn’t confirm or deny his doubts. Instead, she started to type something and move the cursor around the screen.

He moved closer to get a better look. “What are you doing?”

“I’m forwarding this to myself and to Alex. The more people who have copies, the better. And now I want to get a timeline of when the emails started and see if there’s a pattern. Alex might know someone who can get us in touch with the police department there. If these are prostitutes, the cops might know them. Maybe we can track one of the girlfriends down.”

“You’re really trying to help me.”

She turned to look over her shoulder at him with a frown firmly in place. “Yes. I’ve been trying to help you from the second I picked you up. Where have you been?”

He started to pick through the bags and avoided looking at Julie. He’d heard her claims. And he’d believed them on some level. But even if she was willing to help, he never really believed she could. She was just one woman. A nobody, considering the world he came from. He grew up in a place where girlfriends and wives were all temporary, he was constantly compared to his brothers, and any request for help proved weakness. Surprisingly enough, his childhood in the lap of luxury had prepared him well for life in a maximum security prison.

“Which one of these is yours?” He pulled out one of the plastic forks and a napkin.

“I’ll eat any of them. You pick first.”

“Julie, you have to have at least a few of these things you like more than the others.”

“Fine. Leave me the shrimp fried rice, then.”

“Good.”
Who liked shrimp fried rice the best?
Julie really was an enigma. “I think after today you can drop the nice act.”

“Seriously? Did you go from feeling grateful to being bitter in two seconds?”

“No, I was thinking that we’re sleeping together. I don’t think it’s fair for you to be treating me like your client anymore.”

Julie turned around to face the computer, probably to avoid looking at him. “You’re still my client,” she said softly and he had a feeling she was trying to convince herself more than him. “So tell me the four guys you suspect again.”

“Changing the subject?”

“Prioritizing,” she clarified. “Now spill.” She was poised over the computer as though ready to write down anything he said.

“Peter McKenzie, Ben Brody, Adam Donovan, and Tate Gallagher.”

Julie typed in all the names as he went. “And you mentioned their roles in the company?”

“Peter was the accounting and banking guy. Adam was the boozer and schmoozer who was in charge of getting the software onto every business computer in the US and, eventually, the world. Tate was the CEO who showed up at all the parties to look put together and like he knew what he was doing. Ben was the tech guy. Horrible in person, but it was his brain that actually helped create the software.”

“That’s a start. Have you kept tabs on any of these guys?”

“Tabs from prison?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know what you were capable of.”

He sighed. “Tate is the head of a different software company now. A point-of-sale system used in a lot of warehouse-based stores. Adam is still boozing around and digging up funds from wherever he can. Except now he bagged some rich heiress of a wife who is on the board of fifteen different charities. So he’s turned his evil superpower of getting people to empty their pockets to good. I haven’t heard what happened to Peter or Ben. They both tended to stay out of the limelight, so it will be harder to find out what they were up do.”

Julie kept on typing away. “And you’re sure there are no other enemies with a motive and means of getting you silenced?”

“I’m not sure of anything, Julie. These are the most likely suspects for now.”

She typed a few more words before she swiveled around in the chair. “Well, that’s all we can do for now. Once Alex gets here, he’ll tell us what resources we can use and we can get some private detectives to do some legwork for us. Until then, I have a list of different properties that Farrell Enterprises owns. Did you want to take a look at them?”

He couldn’t help the confusion that came over his face. “Why?”

She cocked her head. “So you have a place to live...”

“Oh. I forgot I was homeless.”

“That sounds like the billionaire I know. Were you thinking New York City? That’s the best selection. There are two different buildings that have openings and I think—”

“Isn’t that where you live?”

Julie’s mouth snapped shut and a flash of fear crossed over her eyes. “No. I mean, yes, I live there, but that wasn’t why I recommended New York. I figured because your family and the main office is there that—”

“No. I want to be close to you. New York is good.”

“You’re moving to New York because of me?”

“We did sleep together.”

“That was a one-time thing.”

“Was it?” He had known that Julie didn’t have any plans on turning this into some grand affair or a long-term relationship. Hell, he didn’t know what he wanted out of it either. But he wasn’t done. “We’re going to be sharing a room for a while... You’re telling me you want to sleep on the couch?”

“I—” She broke off as she stood and rubbed a hand through her hair. “You don’t like me. We just had angry sex, Logan. That’s nowhere close to a reason to move to a city.”

“I did ask you on a date before the angry sex.”

“There was a reason for the anger,” she reminded him. “That doesn’t just go away. We can’t pretend I didn’t do what I did.”

“I’m not pretending anything. There’s an encampment of reporters moving in across the street. Trust me, I’m still pissed. Want to know what will make me less pissed? Sex. Sex with you, if you want to get particular.”

“We have food here,” she reminded him as she pointed to the container in his hand that he barely touched. “Also, Alex will be here soon and we need to get ready for him.”

“Get ready for him how?”

“Umm...”

He could tell she was grasping at straws and let her flounder for a moment as he set the untouched food on the desk and sat back on the bed. “Come here, Julie.”

She set a hand on her hip, and he could tell she was fighting the urge to bolt. “I have a lot I need to do.”

“The only job you have is keeping me out of trouble. Thanks to your very busy morning, I am now saved from one very dirty scandal and have replaced it with a new, sexy, innocent one. Now I want to spend time in bed with my sexy, innocent scandal. So come here.”

“We can’t, Logan.”

“Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want me going over there to get you.”

The threat must’ve gotten through to her, because she finally stepped forward, crossing the few feet between them until she stood at the edge of the bed. “We need to—”

She broke off as Logan reached up and started to undo the buttons on her flannel shirt. Even though it was a historically masculine print, this flannel shirt was designed to drive men crazy. It was tight enough to outline the curves of her hips and breasts, and she only had it buttoned up to right below her breasts, so the tight tank top she wore beneath could make his mouth water with the urge to get his mouth back on those breasts.

It didn’t take him long to finish with the buttons and push the shirt over her shoulders and onto the floor.

“If it’s just sex you’re looking for, I’m sure I can find someone who can—” She broke off as he slid his hands beneath her tank top and flattened his palm against the bare skin of her back, pulling her closer to the bed and between his legs.

He pressed a kiss to her stomach and then leaned his head into the curve of her breasts, savoring the feel of her in his arms. “You can’t find anyone else who can do this for me.” He didn’t want some whore who didn’t know a damn thing about him. He wanted his girl next door. The girl next door who was a little crazy and willing to do anything to get the job done. But for now, she was in his arms, and he could pretend for a second he could have her.

He pulled her shirt up, and she even helped finish pulling it over her head, until she was just in the tight black leggings and her bra. She finally reached forward and touched him, running her fingers through his hair and over his shoulders. “This has to end. Once Alex gets here, we’re nothing but coworkers, understand?”

He would never agree to that. Julie was going to be his until they both worked each other out of their systems, and that would take a hell of a lot longer than a few hours. “I understand.”

She nodded as she bent forward, pressing her lips to his. The second she gave him that little inch, he took everything she had to offer.

With his hands on her waist, he pulled her closer and lifted her knee until she straddled him on the bed. She kept her fingers framing his face as she tilted his head for better access and his hand roamed all over her—her hips, her ass, the curve of her waist, and then her breasts. He made quick work of the bra, and she broke the kiss just long enough to throw the scrap of lace on the carpet.

He pulled her fully against him. His cock strained against the confines of his jeans as she rubbed against him. He bit back a groan at the friction even as he held her closer. He left her lips to taste the sensitive skin along her neck, inhaling her intoxicating scent.

He could even feel the vibrations as she let out a little moan she couldn’t keep in. He didn’t want her to keep in those sounds of pleasure. He wanted to hear every little thing he did to her.

He pulled her hips tighter against him as he moved down to her breasts. He’d gotten a few glimpses earlier that day and their time together that first night. But now he was able to give them his full attention. He took his time with each one, learning exactly the way she liked to be touched. What made her jump with pleasure or tighten her fingers on his shoulders and what made her bite her lip to keep from screaming.

And then he couldn’t take it anymore. In one quick motion, he flipped her onto her back while moving both of them farther up the bed. She tugged at his shirt, and he flung it off him and started to focus on the bottom half.

He went down her body, pulling at her panties and leggings in one motion, having to stop for a frustratingly long time to get her boots off. But then everything was gone, and Julie was once again naked in front of him. He had plans to kiss his way up her body and drive her crazy again, but she sat up and tugged at his pants.