The Tycoon's Temporary Bride: Book Four (10 page)

“Hey man, sweet ride.”

Adam looked up as the boys who’d been
shooting hoops walked toward them. The speeding car, the barking
dogs, and the yelling neighbors must have drawn their attention to
him. Downwind of them, he almost choked on his next breath. They
smelled like young men who’d been sweating profusely on a hot and
humid summer evening.

“Is it hot?” one of them asked as he walked
around the Aston Martin inspecting it closely, but respectfully not
touching it.

“No, it’s very cold,” Adam replied,
tightening his hold on Tashi’s arm.

“Did you win it in a game or something?”
another asked.

“Wanna play us for it?”

“Perhaps another time,” Adam said with a
smile as he addressed the dark-haired one who was dribbling the
basketball on the sidewalk. The boy reminded him of himself when he
was that age. Always ready for a competition. He and Massimo had
challenged each other over a host of things when they were younger,
even girls. He was about to lead Tashi across the street when he
stopped. “What’s your name?” he asked the boy who’d dared him.

“Joshua Cain McCall,” he said, tucking the
basketball under his arm. “Some of my friends call me Josh, and
some call me Cain. My mom goes to church.”

“She lives there,” one of his friends piped
in, drawing chuckles from the rest.

“Hey, don’t talk about my momma.” Josh
playfully shoved his friend.

Adam watched them, enjoying the camaraderie
between them. It reminded him so much of the Granite Falls
Bachelors Club that he, Bryce, Erik, and Massimo had formed in high
school. He felt a little blue that he was the only remaining member
of that club. “Do you know where Granite Falls Country Club is,
Josh?” Adam asked as a thought materialized in his mind.

“Yeah. It’s off Country Club Road on the
other side of town near the highway.”

Adam nodded. “They have a great court and if
you’re still up to the challenge, my friends and I will be happy to
play you and your friends. Four on four.”

“Yeah, we’re up to it,” his friends said in
unison.

Josh’s jaw dropped. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. You have nothing to lose and this
baby to win.” He jutted his chin at his car.

“Okay, dude. You’re on.” Josh dug into the
pocket of his shorts. “Here’s my C.I.”

Deciding not to release his hold on Tashi
who’d been subtly trying to pry loose during his exchange with the
boys, Adam set the bags of groceries on the hood of his car and
took the card Josh held out to him. He glanced at the company name:
McCall & Co. Computer Services. “You’re a computer geek?”

“Yeah. I started MCCCS as a little side
business. I fix computers, build websites, and offer Internet
advice, et cetera, to help out my mom. I’m the oldest of five. My
dad split when my sister was a baby.” He shrugged. “But we doin’
fine. We still here. When they saw how lucrative the business is—”
He waved at his friends. “My boys came on board. We work out of my
mom’s basement for now and we’re all trying to get into MIT next
year when we graduate. But you know how it is. Fierce competition
and lack of tuition funds.”

Adam had no idea how it was to want something
and not be able to have it. Well, until now, he thought shifting
his gaze to Tashi. Her trust was something he had to earn.

“I need to go,” she said, her emerald eyes
flashing the annoyance she felt at being forced to stay and listen
to a conversation that didn’t concern or interest her one bit.

Josh’s gaze followed his to Tashi. “Wow,
she’s hot. She your girl?” he asked.

“No. I’m not his
girl
.”

Adam stifled a laugh as Josh and his friends
jumped back, their eyes wide as if a snake had hissed at them. He
slipped the card into his shirt pocket. “I’ll call you with the
time of our tournament, Josh.”

“Okay. I’m looking forward to it.”

The boys filed back toward the park, debating
who would hold the keys to the Aston when they swept the court with
the old dude and his friends. One suggested selling it for tuition
money for all of them. The others agreed that was a good idea, and
that once they finished college and their computer business was
thriving, they could each buy an Aston Martin of their own.

Impressed with their confidence in winning,
and their long-term goal planning, Adam picked up the bags of
groceries and glanced both ways before escorting Tashi across the
street.

“Would you really give them your car, just
like that?” she asked gazing up at him.

“Of course, if they win.”

“Right.”

Adam smiled at her “I’ll believe it when I
see it” roll of her eyes. She probably thought he had an ulterior
motive for accepting the young men’s challenge, that he was cooking
up some devious plot to
get them
. Well, he would just have
to change her mind about him.

“Would you like to play me for it or another
of your choice?” he asked. “I notice you don’t have a car. Is it
because you can’t afford one? Do you have a job? Do you even have a
driver’s license?” The answer to at least one of those questions
would give him an idea of where she was from, where she’d lived
before moving to this godforsaken neighborhood. He was going to
have a talk with the town planning board. This was just
unacceptable.

“You’re asking questions, Adam.”

“How else am I supposed to get to know
you?”

“You don’t need to get to know me.”

Too late
,
I’ve already seen you
naked
.

“Hi, Kyle. Hi, Britt,” she called to the
toddlers as she passed the kiddie pool.

“Tashi, Tashi,” the little boy said, giving
her a huge grin. The little girl just smiled.

They were really cute kids. Adam killed the
desire to pull the kiddie pool away from the road and farther into
the yard that would have been a lawn if someone had taken the time
to plant and maintain the grass. He could understand how a
well-kept lawn would be the furthest thing from these residents’
minds, especially when they worked two and three jobs to make ends
meet.

“Hi, Billy,” Tashi said, as they ascended the
steps.

Billy grunted, took the last drag on his
cigarette, and crushed it out on the step. He paid no attention to
Adam, got up, and walked down the stairs toward the kids as if he
was deliberately trying to avoid small talk. He needn’t have
bothered, Adam thought as he watched Billy gather the kids and walk
them to the back of the house. He’d had no plans to engage him.

“Hey, Tashi,” the young woman said as they
walked across the porch toward Tashi’s apartment. “Where you been,
girl?” She leaned against the railing, ready for an earful.

“Hey, Mindy,” was Tashi’s only response as
she stopped in front of her door.

So, it wasn’t just him, Adam thought. She was
closed-mouthed with everyone.

While Tashi dug into her backpack for her
keys, Mindy smiled at him, her brown eyes running slowly up and
down the length of him while she smacked away on a piece of
gum.

She wasn’t bad looking, Adam thought. A good
scrub and some decent clothes would significantly enhance her
appearance and chances. He’d seen the improvement in several
Granite Falls residents whom he’d help transition to the better
side of town by way of scholarships, apprenticeships, and
good-paying jobs.

His, Erik, and Massimo’s fathers had taught
them that it was their civic duty to help those less fortunate than
themselves, especially the citizens of their immediate communities.
A town was only as affluent as its people. It was up to the wealthy
to keep the scales tipped in their favor. Adam felt a sense of duty
as he glanced across the street at Joshua Cain McCall and his
friends. The balance would be tipped a little bit more in his
favor.

“This your new boyfriend, Tashi?” Mindy
asked, her eyes never wavering from Adam. “He’s hot.”

“No,” Tashi replied, as she began to slide
her keys into the locks, one at a time. “He’s just a friend.”

Oh, so he
was
a friend. He would never
have guessed.

“You left your bedroom window opened, so I
closed it,” Mindy said.

Adam watched Tashi’s body go stiff.

“What? When?”

“Yesterday. The bottom part was wide open. I
know how you are about keeping your windows closed especially when
you’re out. I called out for you, but you didn’t answer, so I
thought you forgot to close it. That’s what good neighbors do for
each other. You babysit for me and wouldn’t let me pay you, so I
thought I’d return the favor.”

Adam hadn’t even realized that Tashi was no
longer on the porch until he heard the blood-curdling scream from
inside her apartment.

He dropped her bags of groceries and raced
inside. “Tashi!”

Tashi swung her hands frantically back and
forth inside the gaping hole in the back wall of her bedroom
closet. Maybe she’d missed it the first time she looked. She
swallowed in desperation, but as her hand moved noiselessly through
the black empty space, the harsh reality registered in her
brain.

Her duffel bag with all her money was gone.
Gone
. And so was her cell phone.

Tashi screamed her anger into the air, and as
an avalanche of utter despair and hopelessness descended on her,
she collapsed to the floor and buried her face in her hands. Hard
sobs erupted from her throat as a numb ache settled in her belly
then quickly spread to the rest of her body.

How was she going to survive without that
money? She couldn’t buy food or pay her utilities. She couldn’t
leave town. She couldn’t work.
She couldn’t do anything
. She
was trapped.
Trapped, broke, and alone
. And in two weeks,
she would be homeless since she had no money to pay her rent. She
may as well be dead. Her eyes stung from the hot tears that poured
out of them.

“Tashi. Sweetheart.”

Tashi was barely aware of Adam’s voice, or
his body dropping down beside her, cradling her against him.

“
Tesora, ciò che è sbagliato
?”

“It’s gone. It’s gone. They took it. They
took it all!”

“What’s gone? What did they take?”

“My money. All of my money. They took all of
it. It’s all I had in this world.” Her hands fell listlessly to the
floor and her head slopped down on Adam’s chest as she gave in to
the agonizing maelstrom inside her.

“
Cara
. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It’s
my fault. It’s all my fault. I forgot to close the window.”

“I can’t…. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t
live like this… I can’t...” She wrapped her hands about Adam’s
waist as her body shook from her misery and defeat. “They took…they
took my cell and…and now he…he can’t call me. He can’t call
me….”

Adam’s heart was ripping apart for the woman
weeping hysterically in his arms as she clutched him as if he were
her only hope in the universe. He wanted so much to ask her about
the “he” who couldn’t call her, about how much money was stolen
from her, and what she meant by she couldn’t live this way
anymore.

Now he understood the frantic look in her
eyes earlier today when she’d asked if he’d locked up the apartment
and if he’d happened to grab her phone the night he’d taken her to
his home. Her money and her cell phone were the reasons she’d been
anxious to get back to her apartment, only to find them gone. He
felt horrible for failing to close the damn window after he’d
crawled through it, for creating more havoc in her already
tumultuous life.

God, he wished he knew what was going on with
her. What kind of trouble she was in.

“What’s wrong, Tashi? Why you crying,
girl?”

Adam looked up to see Mindy hovering near the
bedroom door, staring at him and Tashi on the floor.

Tashi’s sobs ceased and she stiffened in his
arms, but she didn’t try to lift her head or respond to Mindy? In
fact, her arms tightened around him as if silently begging him to
shield her from the rest of the world, to never leave her alone, to
never let her go.

In that instant, Adam vowed in his heart that
he would die protecting her if it came to that. Whoever was after
her would have to go through him first, and then his three trusted
friends before they got to her.

“Someone broke into her apartment,” he said
to Mindy. “They stole her money and her phone, and maybe more.” He
shrugged. “I don’t know, yet. Did you see anyone strange hanging
around in the past three days?”

Mindy shook her head. “No. We weren’t home
since Friday. Me and Billy and the kids went to visit my mom in
Evergreen. But I can ask the kid two doors down. He came by to feed
and walk Bacon. My mom doesn’t like dogs. They must have come
through there.” She jutted her chin at the window. “That’s why it
was open. You want me to call the cops?” She held up her cell.

“No. No cops.” Tashi pushed out of his arms,
and stared at Mindy.

Just like no hospital the other night, he
thought, watching her closely. Was she hiding from the law? God, he
hoped not.

Mindy gave her a strange look. “You sure?
‘Cause they caught the guys who broke into Mrs. Shane’s house last
week. They got back most of her jewelry and stuff. How much money
we talking about, anyway?” She advanced farther into the room. “You
got some nice furniture, Tashi,” she remarked, glancing around.
“That leather couch, and plasma TV... How you afford this stuff?
You don’t even work.” She ran her hand along the glossy cherry
surface of Tashi’s bureau that matched her nightstands, and the
head and footboards of her bed.

Tashi looked at him with a hesitant plea in
her eyes.

Mindy’s curiosity mirrored his, but Adam was
not about to let her questions upset Tashi any further. The girl
had been through enough, and whether or not she wanted him to, he
was taking her back to his home, and he was keeping her there until
she told him her story. All of it.