The Billionaire Bad Boys Club (36 page)

“Stay where you are!” he demanded in a quavering voice.

He had a dark object in his hand. He was pointing a gun at them. Trey’s heart had a second to trip over itself before Zane roared and rushed Owen.

The driver was a big kid, but he had no chance against Zane’s determination and athletic skill. The mere fact that 6 foot 4 worth of solid muscle was barreling toward him rendered him too scared to shoot. He froze, and Zane hit him, the heels of his palms targeting his lungs. The blow threw him back. Zane’s momentum carried both of them onto the bed, on top of the suitcase. There, they struggled for about ten seconds for control of Owens’ shooting hand, which Zane held wrenched above his head. Losing patience, Zane did something to his wrist. Owens cried out, and the gun clattered to the floor.

Not required for the wrestling match, Trey kicked it farther away. The weapon looked a lot smaller now that it wasn’t aimed at them.

“You can’t . . . kill me!” Owens panted, cradling his possibly broken wrist. “Even you’d go to jail!”

Zane sat on top of him, hands trapping his upper arms, subduing him with his greater weight. “What is your damage? We hired you as a favor.”

“A favor to my fucking aunt,” Owens spat, trying to wriggle free. “You and she think you’re such hot shit. The famous bad boys. Ooh, how awesome to work for you! Everyone’s supposed to kiss your stupid billionaire asses. The truth is you’re nothing but a pair of jumped-up homos trying to pretend you like girls.”

Zane growled, the sound more irritated than enraged. Owens flinched anyway.

“You hit me again, I’ll sue,” he blustered. “You already broke my wrist.”

“You had a fucking gun in your hand!” Zane shook his head at the kid’s stupidity. Trey knew then that Zane wouldn’t hurt him. Owens wasn’t an equal enough opponent, and Zane’s history didn’t allow him to play bully. That was too bad. Trey wouldn’t have minded seeing the kid with at least one more broken body part. Since Zane was setting the standard, Trey stepped to the side of the bed and looked down at him.

“Where’s the footage you took?”

“Somewhere you’ll never find it,” Owens sneered.

If
never
meant five seconds, his claim was true. The little shit’s gaze cut left, where a laptop sat on a coffee table. Trey strode to it. Owens’ email program was open. Trey’s spirits sank when he saw the last message sent. They weren’t going to catch a break tonight.

“He emailed a video file to a [email protected].”

“Anybody else?” Zane asked.

“Not that I can see on first glance.”

“Shut it off,” Zane said. “We’ll go through the hard drive after we deal with this idiot.”

“Hey!” Owens objected. “That’s my property.”

Zane gave him a look, swung off him, and retrieved the gun from the floor. Once he’d checked the safety, he tucked it into the back waistband of his trousers. Owens had just enough sense not to protest that.

“You have five minutes to finish packing,” Zane said. “Since you seem a little slow, I’ll explain that you’re fired, and you shouldn’t use me as a reference. You violated the nondisclosure agreement you signed when we hired you, and for that you can be sued.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Owens huffed. “I’ll turn you and your ass-licking butt-buddy into laughing stocks.”

Zane seemed to take this coolly, but a vein ticked at his temple. “Considering your new best friend is sure to do that anyway, that’s hardly an effective threat.”

Owens sat up, about to spout off again. Zane stopped him with narrowed eyes. “I don’t give in to blackmail, boy. Not from you and not from her.”

“She has lawyers too,” Owens retorted.

“I’m sure she does, but if you think she’ll pay them to work for anyone but herself, you’re stupider than you look. She has what she wants from you. You’ll be lucky if she returns your calls.”

“She cares about me! She said I’m the best lover she ever had.”

Zane simply smiled at him. Jumped-up homo or not, Trey expected that title belonged to him. “Are you planning to pack? You’ve got maybe three minutes left.”

Owens packed, hefted his suitcase, then stomped like a surly teenager down the outside stairs. He owned a scooter, which he putted down the long drive. Thanks to his broken wrist, the machine wobbled at intervals. Trey joined Zane at the window to watch.

“Much as I hate to admit it, you did the right thing not beating him up. He’s still Mrs. P’s nephew.”

Zane grimaced, his frustration showing now that Owens was gone. “Missy will give him his comeuppance. What do you want to bet he’ll dial her the minute he’s off the grounds?”

“Are you going to call her?”

“And say what? She’d enjoy it too much if I beg, and I refuse to pay her off. Money isn’t what she’s after anyway. This is about revenge.” He covered his face. “When that film goes public, the media will have a field day.”

“We have friends in the media. Maybe they’d agree to keep a lid on this.”

“It won’t matter. Missy can post the file on fucking YouTube or a hundred of her fan’s blogs. Our lawyers might get it taken down, but not before it’s seen—and copied—who knows how many times.”

Zane’s arm muscles were hard with tension when Trey rubbed them. Zane wasn’t in the mood for sympathy.

“It’s my own damn fault,” he said bitterly. “I’m the one who hid what he was and gave them something to expose.”

“Everyone has a right to keep their private life private.”

Zane snorted. “Not me. And not you, apparently. I’m sorry, Trey. You saw what Missy was. I should have known better.”

“I wouldn’t have predicted she’d do this. Anyway, maybe we should worry about Rebecca. She’s in that footage too.”

Trey’s reminder hardened Zane’s face. “Damn it. She doesn’t deserve this.” He looked toward the house and sighed. “We should go back. Warn her what happened.”

“We can’t let her go home tomorrow,” Trey said.

“No,” Zane agreed. “Whatever it takes, we protect her until this blows over.”

Unlike Owens, they went quietly down the garage stairs.

“So,” Trey said, because he truly couldn’t leave it alone. “Were you trying to give me a heart attack by running toward a guy with a gun?”

“He wouldn’t have hit me,” Zane said. “He was too scared to aim. Besides, sometimes the best defense—”

“—is a good offense. I remember.”

They’d stopped on the walk at the bottom of the steps. Zane squeezed Trey’s trapezius exactly the way he used to on the football field in high school, when they’d had to hide what they were to each other. The potentially lethal danger they’d just faced had shaken Trey. At the squeeze—and the reminder—emotion sheened his eyes.

Zane saw this and touched his face. “No way could I let that pipsqueak shoot you.”

“Good to know,” he said roughly.

Zane pulled Trey to him, holding him hard and tight. This would have been the time to say
I love you
. . . if he’d been anyone but him. Trey usually didn’t mind not hearing it, but right then wasn’t usual. Rather than complain, Trey hugged him back. Zane had taken a risk tonight. To expose the other side of his nature to Rebecca, and then have this happen, must have seemed like the universe reaching down to smack him. Trey himself wasn’t looking forward to total strangers passing judgment on what should have been private acts. Bad enough that Owens and that bitch had seen.

He rubbed Zane’s back and let go of him.

“Rebecca will be wondering what happened,” he said.

To his relief, his voice was steady.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Fallout

REBECCA’S
relief when the men returned safe and unbloodied was dizzying. She jumped up from the bed and hugged them in turn.

“God,” Zane said, bending to squeeze her. “I’m so sorry you’re getting dragged into this.”

“It’s done,” she responded, stroking his golden hair. His face was pressed to her neck. She looked over his head to Trey. “I take it you didn’t kill Owens.”

“Broken wrist,” Trey said. “Confiscated laptop. Fired and gone from the house. I’m afraid he sent the file already. To Mystique, like you guessed.”

Rebecca had concluded that from Zane’s apology. She reminded herself she was good in a crisis. This wasn’t going to break her. She pushed back gently from Zane’s embrace. “I was thinking while I was waiting here. If you can’t convince that woman not to use the footage—”

“I doubt we can,” Zane warned.

“Then maybe you should prepare a statement. Come out as bi voluntarily. As if you’re not ashamed, but you wanted to keep it private. That’ll take at least half the wind out of the gossips’ sails.”

Zane sat on the edge of the mattress to think while Trey very carefully refrained from commenting. Zane might not like this, but he was too smart not to follow her reasoning. “I’d have to act fast,” he said. “I doubt Missy will wait to deploy this bomb.”

“We could call Evan,” Trey said. “He’s handled damage control before. You could record something quick tonight. —Evan is a friend of ours who’s a lawyer,” he added for her benefit.

“All right,” Zane said, his face determined. “I’ll call him now.”

He’d only half risen when Rebecca heard her cell phone’s ringtone. She got up to get it, pretty sure someone calling her at this hour wasn’t a good thing. When she answered, her brother Charlie was on the line. She returned to the bed.

“Are you all right?” she asked, big sister worry kicking in. “Did something bad happen?”

“Not to me,” he said in a funny voice. “Maybe this is a misunderstanding, but someone saw a sex-tape online of you and Zane Alexander and that other guy from TBBC in a shower. He sent me and Pete a copy. I didn’t watch, and I guess there was steam blocking some of it, but Pete said he thought it was really you.”

“Crap.” Her free hand rose to her brow. This certainly settled the question of whether Mystique was serious.

“Rebecca?” Charlie asked when she didn’t say it was a mistake. His voice had jumped half an octave. He always was the sensitive one.

“Okay,” she said, forced to bite the bullet. “The tape is really me, and it’s really Zane Alexander and Trey Hayworth. We were filmed without our knowledge.”

Trey lowered himself to her other side, both men’s presence bolstering her.
Your brother?
Trey mouthed, and she nodded.

“Let me talk to him,” Zane said, easing the phone from her.

Rebecca would have stopped him, but he moved away too fast. He took the cell to the arch that opened into the sitting room. From the sound of his side of the conversation, he was accepting a chewing out from both twins.

She supposed they were kicking themselves for tricking her into meeting Zane at the photo shoot.

“Let him handle it,” Trey said, giving the back of her neck a squeeze. “They’re your brothers. They love you. They can’t curse at you the way they can at him.”

“This isn’t Zane’s fault,” Rebecca protested.

“They’ll think it is. They’ll think he should have protected you better.”

Maybe Zane thought so as well. He didn’t appear ticked off after he hung up. “I told them to come here,” he said. “In case the media track them down.”

Rebecca covered her mouth. Was the scandal going to be that big? Trey put his arm around her shoulders, which was comforting and not at the same time.

“Your brother Pete told me something interesting,” Zane said. “The footage was posted anonymously. Missy seems not to want to admit she’s the source.”

“That
is
interesting,” Trey agreed.

Rebecca didn’t see why it mattered. Either way, the shit was going to hit their fan.

~

The boys were still angry when they arrived. They didn’t goggle over the mansion the way they would have otherwise.

“We’re here for
you
,” Pete said to her. “Because the three of us stick together. We don’t care about hiding from the press.”

His fierceness took her aback, along with the fact that Charlie echoed it.

“Who you sleep with is your business. That stupid model should be sent to Siberia. In her bikini.” Charlie’s arms were crossed. He was glaring somewhat illogically at Trey, who’d joined her to greet the boys in the luxurious front hall. Zane was in the library with the tall dark lawyer, working out the fine points of his statement.

“We’re very sorry,” Trey said to Charlie. “We didn’t take care of your sister like we should have.”

“You didn’t take care of her at all!”

“Charlie,” Rebecca scolded. “That’s not fair. They took . . . they took very good care of me before this happened.”

“They dazzled you with their money. We thought Zane was a nice guy, but he and his buddy here just wanted you for their plaything.”

“They didn’t,” Pete broke in unexpectedly. Charlie gaped at his brother. “They didn’t. I watched that tape and—okay, I totally didn’t need to see my sister doing that—but I could tell they cared about her. Anybody with eyes could. Sure, some people are going to be outraged, but some will just be jealous. Love is love, Charlie. It’s not always tidy.”

Rebecca didn’t know whether she or Charlie was more flummoxed. Charlie’s mouth worked a moment before he glowered at Trey again. “You love her?”

“I do,” Trey said, the ghost of a smile playing around his lips.