The Courtship Maneuver, Complete Series (An Alpha Billionaire Club BBW Romance) (11 page)

I
shouldn’t have been surprised
when Tim let me pay for lunch. It was only fair; I guess. I had invited him. We left the restaurant and went out of the hotel by a side door, headed for the parking garage and my car. Tim was on the phone with someone, checking around to see if anybody had seen Nolan more recently than Saturday. It didn’t sound like he was having any luck.

I was so focused on listening to Tim’s conversation; I wasn’t paying attention to our surroundings. The parking garage was above ground, but I had parked on the first level so it was a little dim out of the bright afternoon sunshine. Maybe that was why I didn’t notice the shadowy figures closing in on us from both sides. I wouldn’t have seen them at all if I hadn’t spun around at the last second, worried I’d led us past my car.

By the time I registered what was happening, it was too late. I saw Tim hit the ground, his phone spinning out of his hand when he hit the pavement. I was lifted up and back, my arms wrenched behind me and secured with the click of handcuffs. I tried to turn my head and see who had me, but all I got was a glimpse of dark hair before a black bag fell over my head. I was lifted and dropped into a stiff seat, something tight drawn across my chest and fastened with a click. A seatbelt?

Doors slammed, an engine started, and I swayed in the seat as we took off out of the parking garage. I fought against my rising panic. As much as I tried to get myself under control, I might’ve really lost it if the black bag hadn’t been whipped off my head, leaving me staring at a familiar face. A very angry familiar face.

Axel.

“Let me go,” I said. “What the hell are you doing? You can’t kidnap me.”

Axel laughed. “I just did,” he said. “And you’re not going anywhere until Sam gets here. And then only if he agrees to keep a handle on you.”

Infuriated, I jerked against the handcuffs and pulled on the seatbelt. I was strapped into a narrow seat in the back of a cargo van. Axel sat on a similar seat, facing me. “Let me go,” I said, my angry voice filling the van. “This is ridiculous. You can’t do this.”

All the humor was wiped from Axel’s face. “You know what’s ridiculous? You, wondering around Las Vegas, trying to hook up with the Russian mob to help your fuck-up of a brother. That’s what’s fucking ridiculous. I get loyalty, Chloe. I respect it. You’re a good woman. And I know you’re smart. Except when it comes to your brother. Sam’s told you, Daniel’s told you, and I’m telling you again – keep your fucking head down and let me and my guys do our jobs. If Nolan can be found, we’ll find him. Right now, the good news is that no one knows where he is. It seems like he can do one thing right, and that’s hide like a weasel.”

“Hey! Stop talking about him like that,” I protested. Evidence was showing that Nolan was a fuck-up and possibly also a weasel. But he was my brother, and only I could call him those things.

“I’ll say whatever the fuck I want about a guy who would get wrapped up with the mob and put the sister who’s given him everything in danger. You deserve better than this, Chloe. And as much as I respect your loyalty, he’s shitting all over it.”

“That’s for me to decide, isn’t it?” I asked, quietly.

“Normally, yeah,” Axel said. “Not this time. You don’t seem to understand that you’re putting your life in danger. Or maybe you understand and you don’t care. I thought you were smarter than that.”

“I can’t just sit at home and wait.”

“I get that, Chloe. I know what you do every day. I know you’re the woman that makes things happen for Sam, that you spend all your time ensuring that everything around you works the way it should for everyone you care about. And I know it goes against the grain to sit back and trust that other people are doing it for you. But you are not qualified to deal with this shit. And no one, not Sam, not me, no one, wants you anywhere near these people. Last night was a clusterfuck of epic proportions. Did you know my guy wasn’t the only one watching you today?”

“You’ve been watching me?”

Axel shook his head at my naiveté, laughing at me again. “Yeah, most of my guys on your case are looking for Nolan, but ever since Sam found you in the model home, I’ve had a guy on you at all times. How do you think we found you so fast?”

“I hadn’t thought about that yet,” I said.

When I was planning my grand escape it had never occurred to me that I was under surveillance. I really was a disaster at all of this cloak and dagger stuff. It was a good thing I was an executive assistant at a development company and I didn’t work for Axel.

“What do you mean your guy wasn’t the only guy watching me today?” I asked, fear collecting in a leaden ball in my stomach.

“I haven’t had a chance to tell Sam yet, he’s been in a meeting all afternoon. But there was another guy watching you today. We think he works for Tsepov, but we’re not positive yet. We’re still working on it.”

“Who else could it be?”

“There are some players in this we haven’t identified yet,” Axel said, stretching his legs out in front of him and crossing his arms over his chest. He seemed completely at ease on the uncomfortable narrow seat in the back of the van. “We know that Nolan got the information Tsepov wanted. We know he never gave the information to Tsepov. There seems to be speculation as to whether he plans to sell the information to another party, or whether he can’t get close enough to make the delivery without being intercepted.”

“What is it that he has?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Axel said, grimly. “And I don’t want to know. You don’t want to know. Whatever Nolan has is important to a lot of people. We’ve gotten some hints that some of the parties after it are working for Tsepov and involved in their own double-cross. They may be using Nolan as a scapegoat. It would explain why he’s having such a hard time making the delivery.”

“How do you know he’s not double-crossing Tsepov?” I asked, the words sticking in my throat.

“I don’t, yet. It’s just a hunch. But when we talk to people, most of them are sure Nolan wouldn’t try to fuck with Tsepov. And the few people who suggested it are suspicious enough on their own to make me think they have their own agenda.”

“So why aren’t you following them? Why aren’t you-”

“Chloe, enough. I know my job. And you know that I know my job. Let. Me. Do. It. Stop getting in my way. Go home to Sam, work from the house for a few days and let us find your brother. Can you do that?”

“No.” I wished I could cross my arms over my chest in a mockery of Axle’s position. I also wished my glare was half as good as his. I wasn’t intimidating enough, and Axle could be scary when he was smiling.

“Why the fuck not?” Axel asked, exasperated.

“I’m not going back to Sam,” I said and looked away, not wanting Axel to see the pain on my face.

“I thought you two finally worked things out.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“You know what it means. You two have been hot for each other for so long it’s a miracle you manage to get any work done. Then he drags you out of the bar last night, and I know you went home and fought, because you were pissed, too. Don’t tell me you didn’t end up in bed.”

I looked away and pressed my lips together, willing the tears back from my eyes. I refused to cry in front of Axel. He was a rock, and I didn’t want him to see my weakness. Worse, what if he told Sam I was crying over him? I didn’t think I could bear that.

“He fucked it up, didn’t he?” Axel asked, shaking his head. “Un-fucking believable. The guy can get any woman with no effort. He has the only one he really wants right in front of him all day, every day, and he still manages to fuck it up.”

“I don’t think you understand,” I said, with as much dignity as I could muster. “Sam and I made a mistake, that’s all.”

“No, Chloe, I don’t think
you
understand.”

“Axel,” I snapped, tired of talking about this with him. “I heard him tell Daniel that he was only with me to keep me from looking for Nolan and that whatever was between us it wasn’t something serious. I think that’s pretty plain. And it’s none of your business so can we please stop talking about Sam?”

“I don’t suppose you’d trust me if I told you that there is no way Sam meant that.”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t trust you. I know how close you are to Sam, and I know you’d probably lie if you thought it would get him out of trouble.”

Axle laughed again. I was getting tired of his amusement at my expense. “I probably would. Forget that, I
have
lied to get him out of trouble. But I’m not lying now Chloe, I promise. It goes against the guy code to tell you this, but you’re having a shit week, so I’m going to cut you a break.”

“What?” I said, not wanting to hear whatever crap was going to come out of Axel’s mouth.

He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees, his body swaying in perfect balance with the van as it turned the corner. Axel wasn’t my type, too hard-edged and intense. Besides, unfortunately for me, Sam had always been the only man I really wanted. But the part of me that wasn’t stuck in a total emotional upheaval could appreciate that Axel was a very good-looking guy. Especially like this, his face soft, his eyes concerned but serious.

“Chloe,” he said. “Sam has been crazy in love with you for longer than even he knows. And he’s known how he’s felt for months. He’s so tied up in knots over you, he’s been terrified to make a move, scared he’ll drive you away and lose you. If he had any idea that some comment he made to Daniel had done exactly that, he’d be sick over it. Give him another chance. He’s a good man, and he loves you.”

Axle was so sincere I couldn’t keep his words out of my heart. To my embarrassment, I burst into tears sobbing out, “He told Daniel he wouldn’t tell me he loved me, that it wasn’t what our relationship was about.”

I heard Axel say, “Fuck,” under his breath as he got off his seat and came towards me. Gently, more gently than I would’ve suspected Axel could, he wiped the tears off my face and took my chin in his hand, forcing me to meet his dark eyes.

“I don’t know why he said that, Chloe. But I do know it’s not true. And so do you. You know Sam,” he said, wiping the tears from my cheeks again. “I know everything going on has you totally spun, and I know you’re terrified for your brother, but you need to think. You know Sam, and you know he would never treat you like that.”

I closed my eyes and looked away, afraid to believe Axel. I wanted to. I wanted it with everything I had. But it seemed like too much to hope for. All I’ve ever wanted in life was a family. I tried to make one with Nolan after our mom left and our dad started ignoring us. That hadn’t worked out very well.

When I fell in love with Sam, impossibly and completely in love with a man I was sure would never love me back, it seemed like that dream was even further away. I wanted Sam to love me, so much that I couldn’t bring myself to trust it.

Unable to get away from Axel and his eyes that saw everything, I squeezed mine shut. “Just go away,” I whispered, pleading when I wanted to shout. “Please, Axel, please just leave me alone.”

“Okay, sweetheart. When we get to my office, I’m taking the cuffs off and I’m locking you in our safe room until Sam gets there. Then I’ll let you two work it out.”

There was nothing to work out, but Axel would see that soon enough. I was too heartsick to care about convincing him.

T
he meeting didn’t go too
badly considering I had my mind on Chloe half the time. Fortunately, it wasn’t a complicated deal. A local construction firm had gone bankrupt, and the investors in one of their commercial developments were looking for someone to pick up the project. I had a crew just the right size wrapping up a project by the end of the month. They were ahead of schedule, so I could split the crew and get started on the new job right away.

Chloe would be happy. She’d hated the company who had the project before. The owner had been an obnoxious blow-hard who had some very outdated ideas about women. She hadn’t been glad when his company went under, but she’d love that we’d picked up the job they’d lost.

Chloe. Something wasn’t right with her. She’d been distant that morning, not meeting my eyes, in too much of a hurry to get me out of the house. I’d expected her to be skittish. She’d been so against us having a relationship and then she’d changed her mind so suddenly. I’d figured she’d back-peddle on me. Then why did I feel so uneasy? Axel had a guy on the house, so I knew she was safe. I hadn’t set the alarm when I left; it was way too complicated to show her one time and hope she’d be able to operate it without setting it off. And I didn’t want her to feel trapped.

By the time we’d all shook hands and left the conference room, it was pushing five o’clock. I’d left my phone in the truck, and I walked out eager to turn it back on and check on Chloe. I wasn’t expecting to see multiple texts from Axel on top of three voicemails. All telling me to call him the second I was free. My gut tight with dread, I dialed his cell.

“Where the fuck have you been?” he asked, sounding pissed.

“In a meeting, exactly where I told you I’d be. What’s wrong?”

“Chloe is a huge pain in my ass, that’s what’s wrong. You need to get in here and deal with your woman.”

“Here where? Your office?”

“Yeah. My safe room, to be exact. I’ve had her locked in since I caught her meeting that tweaker friend of Nolan’s off the strip a few hours ago.”

“Fuck,” I said. I didn’t want her anywhere near that guy. “Is she okay?”

“She’s pissed as hell. And she thinks you’re just using her for sex.”

“WHAT?!” I couldn’t help yelling into the phone.

“Yeah, she overheard some conversation you had with Daniel and now she thinks you’re using her for sex and your going to get rid of her as soon as she’s not convenient. And she knows that you’re trying to stop her from finding her brother. So she’s pissed and miserable, which means I have a crying woman locked in my safe room. My safe room isn’t for crying women, Sam. It’s for locking down badasses and imprisoning guys we need to question. I don’t even have tissues in there. Get your ass here and take her home where she belongs.”

“I’m on my way. Is she okay? Physically okay? She didn’t get hurt when she was with Tim?”

“Like I’d let anything happen to Chloe,” Axel said. “She’s fine, just extremely stressed out and unhappy.”

I hung up on Axel and concentrated on getting downtown to his offices as fast as I could.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
If Chloe had overheard my conversation with my dad that would explain a lot. I’d given dad the impression that things weren’t that serious, or at least I tried to, but only to get my dad off my back. I should’ve just told him to butt out. Fuck. I was trying to figure out what to do when my phone rang. I looked down to see it was Dylan. A good friend of mine and Axel’s, Dylan ran the Delecta casino. I’d invited him over for dinner a few days ago, along with his girlfriend Leigha.

I answered, trying to decide if dinner was still a good idea. At the time, Chloe hadn’t been living with me. Would she want us to be alone, or would a distraction be better? My gut said distraction was the way to go. Chloe was far too polite to be rude to me in front of guests. And Dylan and Leigha had only been dating for a few weeks. They were still in that disgusting lovey-dovey phase where their hands were all over each other and they got caught staring into one another’s eyes. It could be annoying, but it might also be a good influence on Chloe. I took the call, saying,

“Hey man, what’s up?”

“We still on for dinner?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah, definitely. But I need a huge favor. Chloe's staying with me. She’s having a bad time, her brother’s missing - it’s a long story.”

“That sucks. Chloe’s a sweetheart. Is Axel on it?”

“Yeah. And get this – the brother’s tied up with Tsepov.”

“Not good,” Dylan said. He would know. Leigha had been attacked the month before by her ex-boyfriend who, like Nolan, had a gambling debt with Tsepov. Tsepov had taken the ex when he got out on bail after his attack on Leigha, and no one had seen him since.

“I know. And she’s royally pissed at me for trying to keep her from finding her brother. Right now it’s a mess.”

“Are you sure you want to do dinner, then?”

“I don’t think she’s looking forward to spending the evening alone with me. Some company would be good. But can we do it at my place? I want Chloe somewhere secure. And would you mind bringing dinner with you? I’ve got the wine covered.”

“No problem,” Dylan said. “You have anything in mind, or should I pick?”

“It’s up to you, whatever you guys want will be great.”

“See you in an hour or two then.” Dylan hung up, and I tossed my phone on the seat beside me.

Of the three of us, myself, Axel, and Dylan, Dylan had the best game with women. If anyone would know exactly what to bring for dinner with a stressed out, exhausted, emotional woman, it would be Dylan. And Leigha joining him was just a bonus. She was a perfect match for him, strong, funny, and absolutely gorgeous. She was also kind and friendly. I knew she’d make friends with Chloe right away. Which could backfire if they decided to gang up on me as the asshole guy making Chloe miserable. I was willing to take the risk.

I pulled into the parking garage beneath Axel’s building, my mind racing. I had no idea what I was going to say to Chloe. And I couldn’t begin to guess what she was planning to say to me. Getting out of the car, I realized I was just going to have to play it by ear. I’d fucked up today by trying to mislead my dad. And I’d lost all these months with Chloe by being too afraid to tell her how I felt.

Axel met me at the door and walked me back to their safe room, down several winding corridors and behind three separate security doors. As a rule, I didn’t ask Axel details about his clients. I’d been in his offices a few times and they always reminded me that whatever Axel did, it wasn’t simple security.

At the door to the safe room, Axel paused before punching in the code. Looking at me, he said, “Go easy with her, okay? I think she’s at the end of her rope.”

“I plan on it. Give me a minute, will you?”

He punched the code and swung the door open. “I’ll turn off the cameras. Knock on the door when you’re ready to come out.”

I walked in to find Chloe fast asleep on the double bed in the corner, curled on her side, her hands stacked beneath her cheek, trails of tears staining her skin. My gut clenched. I’d done this to her. Not entirely, maybe. Some of it was her idiot brother. But my careless words had hurt her. It was the last thing I’d ever want to do.

Moving on instinct alone, I toed off my shoes and climbed into the bed beside her. Fitting my chest to her back like a spoon, I tucked my arm around her waist and held her, waiting for her to wake up. It was a testament to how exhausted she was that it took her more than five minutes to realize she was no longer alone. And despite what her head was telling her, her body still trusted me, because she woke slowly, her eyes fluttering open, her limbs relaxed. In a whisper she said,

“Sam?” Her voice was heavy with sleep.

“Right here, honey. Everything’s okay.”

In a flat tone that tore at me, she said, “Nothing’s okay.”

I lifted my hand to smooth her hair away from her face once, then again, unable to stop touching her soft, smooth cheeks. “It will be,” I said. “I promise Chloe, it will be.”

On a sob, Chloe said, “Sam. Sam, I can’t-”

“Shhh, love. Shhh.” I didn’t know what else to do. She wept quietly, every hitching breath making me more desperate to fix what was wrong. I rolled her into me, pulling one thigh over my legs and tucking her face into my collarbone.

“Chloe,” I said. “Chloe, love, don’t cry. Don’t cry.” I buried one hand in her hair and rubbed the back of her head, hating how tight the muscles in her neck were. She was under too much stress and the pressure was breaking her. Not sure if it was the right thing to say, I forged ahead anyway and said,

“I’m sorry about this morning. What you heard me say to Daniel... I was lying because he was pissing me off. It’s true, I’ve been trying to keep you from putting yourself into danger while you’re looking for Nolan. I’m not going to apologize for that.”

“Sam-”

“No, let me finish,” I said. She raised her face to meet my eyes, hers tear drenched and painfully uncertain. “I won’t use how I feel to manipulate you. That’s not what this is between us. It’s more. And this isn’t how I wanted to tell you, but I need you to know. I love you. It feels like I’ve loved you forever.”

My body was relaxed against Chloe’s but inside I felt strung tight with apprehension. What if I’d misread everything? What if she didn’t want to know that I loved her, or didn’t care? Her eyes searched my face, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks.

“Sam?” she whispered. “Are you sure? I don’t want-”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life, Chloe. Never. I love you. I want you. Please come home with me.”

Her eyes met mine, and I saw something inside her shift. Raising a hand to wipe her cheeks, she said, “I love you too, Sam.”

“Thank God,” I said, the tightness inside me easing. “If you’d said you didn’t, I was going to have to lock you in here until you changed your mind.” As I’d hoped she would, Chloe laughed.

“How long did you think that would take?” she asked. I shrugged.

“Not long. I was going to use orgasms.” Chloe laughed again and looked around the room.

“Is that how Axel deals with his prisoners?”

“Somehow, I really don’t think so,” I said. I sat up, pulling Chloe with me. “Let’s go home.”