Rise of the Billionaire (23 page)

“No
.” Jeisa pulled herself out of her father’s arms. Her mind was still spinning with what had just happened, but she wasn’t going to run back to Brazil.

“No?”

“I’m going back to Boston.”

“I cannot allow
—”

His words stung like a bucket of cold water to the face. Normally, this was where she’d retreat and despise him for not understanding her.
Never again.
“Dad, you’re making things worse.”

Unaccustomed to criticism from his daughter, Romario grew angry.
“Worse? Worse than what I just witnessed? These people are not good for you.”

The pain his words caused
drove Jeisa to be honest. “And you think you’re better? You just insulted a woman who has done nothing but help me since I came here. Marie didn’t deserve what you said to her.”

Romario looked away, his jaw tight with emotion.
The sight of her proud father at a loss for words, even temporarily, touched Jeisa’s heart. She’d created this situation—it was time for her to take responsibility and try to explain it to him. “I know you don’t think I’m safe here. You think someone will try to hurt me, but these people are my friends. I did make the mistake of trusting someone I shouldn’t have and you met him. Reese is an awful man who preys on women like me. Women who have been protected so much they are vulnerable. I don’t want to be that person anymore, Dad.”

Romario rubbed his temple
s. “I just wanted to keep you safe.”

How can I make him understand?
“I know, Dad, and that was okay when I was a little girl. But I’m a woman now. I can’t live like that anymore. I want my own life.”

With tormented eyes, Romario said, “I can’t lose you, too.”

Jeisa touched her father’s cheek. Not since the day her mother died had she seen his eyes shine with unshed emotion. She was so used to seeing him as strong and inflexible that she often forgot he was also a man who had suffered a great loss. She wrapped her arms around his waist and just held him. When she lifted her head, she sniffed loudly and said, “You’re not going to lose me, Dad.”

He buried his
chin in her hair and admitted, “I was scared when you stopped answering your phone. I thought something had happened to you. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if it had.” Jeisa hugged him tighter. “And then when I found out it was a lie . . . that you’d made up everything you’d told me for the past few months . . . I was angry.”

“I know,” Jeisa said.
Seeing the events through his eyes filled her with both regret and a deeper understanding of how much her father loved her. “I was wrong. I should have told you as soon as I found out that Reese was a liar. I just didn’t want you to—”

“Come here like I did.”

Jeisa nodded.
Tell him. Tell him how you feel.
“I’m going to get hurt, Dad. I’m going to make mistakes. But you have to let me make them.”

He
gently pushed her back from him and asked, “Are you okay?”

In the past she would have lied and said she was. This time,
Jeisa let out a long shaky breath and chose the truth. “With what happened with Jeremy?” He shook her head sadly. “I don’t know, Dad. I keep going over the scene in my head and I don’t understand it. That wasn’t the Jeremy I know. He would never deliberately hurt me.”

Romario tensed a bit. “You think he’s in some sort of trouble?”

“I wish I knew,” Jeisa said and turned to look out the window.

She was too emotionally spent to say more
, or to care when she heard her father leave the room.

Only Abby’s hand on his arm stopped Dominic from crossing the room and strangling the man who had, in one day, made his short list of those worth risking jail time to hurt.

Without so much as a glance at Dominic, Romario crossed directly to where Marie was standing.
Abby stopped Dominic from intervening, softly saying, “Marie can handle this, Dom, and she knows she’s not alone.”

Romario stood before a tight
-lipped Marie as everyone in the room collectively held their breath. “I didn’t mean to lash out at you earlier.”

Marie took a deep breath and
chastised him softly, “It was rather cruel and poor manners for a man who should know better.”

He inclined his head in concession to her point.

Relaxing a bit, Marie conceded, “However, I know you were concerned for your daughter and that can make a man say things he doesn’t mean.” Ignoring the fact that they’d become the center of attention, Marie asked, “How is Jeisa?”

Romario
’s jaw clenched. “Understandably upset.”

Marie nodded
. “My father loved to sail. He always said that children are like boats—they cannot reach their potential while tethered to the dock.”

Looking less than pleased, Romario countered, “How very American of you. My family made their money from mining. I would say that when you have something as precious as a child, you must guard it as diligently as you would a diamond.”

Marie raised her chin, looked him directly in the eye, and said, “You may have hoped for a diamond, but you birthed a boat. Denying it won’t change the truth.”

Romario straightened his shoulders and glared down at Marie. “Don’t tell me how to raise my daughter.”

Marie stepped closer, her hands going to her hips. “She’s a grown woman. The raising part is finished. What she needs from you now is acceptance of who she is.”

Romario growled down at her, “This is none of your business.”

Marie held his eyes, her face flushed with emotion. “Yes, it is. I care about your daughter and her happiness. She loves you. I’d hate to see you lose her just because you’re too stubborn to hear what she’s trying to tell you.”

Jake murmured to Dominic, “You tell him, Marie.”

Dominic made a guttural sound in his chest.

Abby
took her husband’s hand in hers. “I’ve never seen Marie look at a man like that before. I think she likes him.”

Dominic swore beneath his breath when Jake agreed.

“Does that mean we can’t punch him?” Jake asked blandly.

Dominic growled, “Not right this second.”

Abby leaned over and asked, “What are you two conspiring about?”

“Nothing,” Dominic said quickly. Too quickly. Abby eyed him suspiciously.

When Romario turned to Jake and Dominic, he spoke with the calm authority of a diplomat. “My daughter thinks Jeremy may be in some trouble. Do you know why he left with that woman?”

Dominic’s temper flared. “Hoping someone
else will take him out so you don’t have to?”

Jake injected, “None of this makes sense unless Alethea told him something that he felt he couldn’t share with us.”

Jake’s mother stepped into the conversation and said, “Maybe something to do with his work in Tenin?”

“What would he be doing in that country?
” Romario demanded. “They are verging on civil war.”

Ever the voice of reason, Jake suggested,
“Whatever’s going on, I suggest we find out where he went.”

Dominic
motioned for one of his security men to approach as he asked Jake, “Did you bring your helicopter?”

“Never leave home without it.”

Dominic conferred with his security for a moment, then said, “Let’s go. I think I know where he went.”

Jake’s parents
joined them. “We’re coming, too.”

As
Dominic started to refuse them, Jake’s father said, “Jeremy has helped us more than anyone in our field. If the trouble he’s in has anything to do with hacking, you’re going to need us.”

“They’re right.
We may need them,” Jake added.

Romario
flexed his shoulders decisively. “I’m also coming.”

“No way in hell
,” Dominic countered.

Nose to nose with Dominic, Romario said, “My daughter loves that man. If there is the slimmest chance that he is not as bad as I think he is, I need to know. This involves my family. I’m going to
either save him or kill him. Can you tell me that you’d do any differently?” When Dominic didn’t waver, he added, “Besides, if this is a political issue, I may have some pull.”

Dominic tensed.
God, I hate that man. I hate him even more when he’s right.

Victor Andrade put a hand on Dominic’s shoulder and said, “Strength is also shown in restra
int, friend. Take him with you.”

Knowing that it’s the right thing to do doesn’t make the unpalatable more desirable.
Dominic looked down into Abby’s trusting eyes and swore beneath his breath in concession. “Is anyone else coming?”

“
I’ll stay here. Jeisa will need someone,” Abby said.

Lil gave Jake a quick kiss on the lips. “Me, too.”

Victor Andrade bowed out gracefully. “I can wait to hear how it turns out. I’m getting too old for all this.”

Therese
stepped forward and, with a hint of desperation in her voice, said, “Jeremy is a good boy. If he’s in trouble, you’ve got to get him out of it.”

Marie took the woman’s hand in hers to comfort her.
“If anyone can, it’s these boys.”

Abby met Dominic halfway for a
lingering, parting kiss. “Be careful, Dom. You don’t know what you’re walking into. I know you have to go, but”—she stepped back and put a hand on her belly—“just remember all the reasons you have to come home.”

He pulled his wife to him and gave her a
long kiss that promised more than just his return. Marie cleared her throat behind him and said, “Enough of that, off you go.”

Dominic chuckled
and reluctantly released his wife. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

Abby nodded and hugged
herself.

With that, Dominic, Jake, Jake’s parents, and Romario
—along with some of Dominic’s security—boarded Jake’s helicopter and headed after the elusive Jeremy.

A perk of being integral to fortifying Corisi Enterprises’ technology infrastructure was that building security was no hassle for Jeremy. He simply showed his high-level badge, vouched for Alethea, and walked into an area of the building that very few ever saw. Behind the access-controlled security doors was a room filled with rows of black racks. The hum of fans and blinking of lights was familiar and calming to Jeremy. He and Alethea walked down one of the rows until he found the server he was looking for.

Alethea hadn’t said much during their trip over and he was grateful for that. He didn’t want to know if she had followed her
usual behavior and made the situation worse rather than better. He was already having difficulty concentrating. He pulled a shelf out of the rack and flipped up a monitor. He took a seat in front of the console and started typing in codes.

B
reaking through firewalls was something he normally did with ease. But Alethea was right—they’d been blocked out of the communication network he’d built. Someone had deliberately locked them out. He tried to gain access by using an SSH tunnel,
but it failed. He tried again and, when that failed, he knew that whoever had locked him out had anticipated how he would try to break their codes.

This wasn’t the Tenin government. This was personal.

Sliver.

He’d
done something similar to his online nemesis a hundred times before—and laughed about it. But lives had never been on the line back then. Sliver had made a name for himself in the hacker community by hijacking the sites of major companies. Although his real identity was a secret, many had felt his online presence had been felt in their wallets. In the past, when Jeremy had gotten a whiff of one of Sliver’s planned stings, he’d locked him out just for fun. Sliver had threatened to retaliate, but Jeremy had always remained one step ahead of him.

Which was why some referred to Jeremy as a cyber
-superhero.

And this was payback for that title.

What if I can’t fix this? People are relying on me to save their lives.

I lose them. I lose Jeisa. Everything.

He couldn’t shake the haunting image of Jeisa as she told him to go with Alethea. She hadn’t looked as angry as she’d looked . . . defeated. Which didn’t make much sense to Jeremy since he’d spent the day telling her he loved her. Why wouldn’t she believe him? What happened to put that deep hurt in her eyes?

When he realized he’d stopped typing altogether, he swore.
This is too important for me to screw up. More important than Jeisa and me. There are people depending on me to save them. Focus. Fucking focus.

He paused to send a plea out to the heavens.
Let me figure out this one issue and I will change my ways. I swear it.

When his next attempt failed, he slammed his hand down on the table near the keyboard.
“I can’t break through,” he said in frustration.