All He Wants (14 page)

Maxi knew what she was walking into and the last person, besides her father, that she would ever want to witness what was about to happen was right behind her. There was nothing she could do about her unwanted audience, so she held her head high, determined to handle the situation with class and grace.

Ricco was seated on his couch engrossed in his phone. He was sandwiched by two girls, one on each side, who were both wearing little more than what a bikini would cover.

Alan stepped into the room and snapped his fingers. “Okay girls, time’s up.”

Disappointment fell over both of their faces as they stood and shuffled out of the room. Maxi was no stranger to groupies. Growing up around fighters she’d known more than her fair share of ring bunnies. She’d never judged them or their actions. But, when she was a teenager she had tried to find out what was in it for them. Some of the girls had explained that the fighters were basically like notches on their belts. That it felt good to be wanted by them. Others had hoped that it would lead to more, like a relationship. That answer had confused her because she’d never seen that happen.

It still didn’t make sense to her today, as she watched the two girls leave the room silently. Had they gotten what they’d wanted before Alan had come in and told them to leave? She doubted it.

Alan slammed the door shut behind the girls, but remained inside.

“You can both go, too.” Ricco spoke without looking up from his phone.

Maxi assumed that he was talking to her and started to leave. She wasn’t looking forward to being fired by Alan, but honestly at this point it was probably the lesser of the two evils.

“Not you. You stay.” Ricco lifted his arm and motioned towards Alan and Billy. “Them.”

Oh shit.
Maxi knew there was no way Billy was going to leave and she just wanted this whole thing over with. Who would want to drag out their termination?

“Sure,” Alan agreed amicably, but Maxi could see the irritation bubbling just below the surface. Then to Billy he said, “Let’s go.”

Billy didn’t even acknowledge that Alan had spoken. He stared straight at Ricco. “She stays. I stay.”

A thrill raced down her spine. This wasn’t the time to be turned on but she just couldn’t help herself. There was something so hot about Billy not caring who Ricco was and insisting that he stay. With her.

Of course, she doubted that Ricco would appreciate that. Which should be a concern, since he was her client. But since she’d been summoned to this room for the sole purpose of being let go, it didn’t concern her one bit.

“Whatever,” Ricco shrugged his left shoulder, looking back down at his phone.

Both Maxi and Alan’s jaw dropped, but they both remained silent. Actually, everyone did, including Ricco. No one spoke and the silence seemed to stretch on and on.

Finally, Ricco set his phone down. When he looked up and saw Alan he yelled, “What the hell are you still doing here? I told you to get the fuck out!”

Alan lifted his hands in surrender and backed up. As he turned, she heard him whisper “asshole” under his breath. For a second, she almost felt sorry for the man, being spoken to like that by a kid that could be his son. But then she remembered that he’d been in Forbes two years ago as one of the highest paid managers thanks to his A-list clientele and her sympathy evaporated.

When the door shut, Maxi stepped forward. “I’d like to apologize for my absence. I’m not going to make excus—”

Ricco’s head fell back as he laughed out loud. It wasn’t a little chuckle and not a full-blown belly laugh. It was somewhere in the middle. Unsure of what had caused the outburst, Maxi looked over her shoulder to see if Billy had some idea of what was happening. From the bemused look on his face, he didn’t.

“Ahhh, you crack me up.” Ricco sighed as he finally composed himself. “Do you actually think that by coming in here apologizing and
not making excuses
you’re going to be able to make up for not doing your job? Because if that’s what you think, you’re smoking crack, bitch.”

Maxi could feel Billy’s energy shift behind her. The last thing she wanted was for this to escalate. Her only hope was to diffuse the situation.

Speaking as fast as she could get the words out of her mouth, she said, “I understand your frustration. Thank you for the opportunity. Is there anyone you’d like me to forward your itinerary to before I—”

“My itinerary?” Ricco stood. “I don’t give a fuck about my itinerary! Who do you think you are?!” With each declaration he made his voice raised higher and he took a step closer to her. “You fly out to LA, promise me that I’ll be your top priority and then you fail to show up to two events! Do you know who I am, bitch?!”

He was standing right in front of her now. She kept reminding herself to remain professional. He might be an arrogant little shit, but he was also her client and had every right to be upset. She’d promised him things that she hadn’t been able to follow through on.

“Do you?” His shoulder lightly bumped against her as he turned back towards the couch.

That was the line. He could yell, he could call her names, but there was no way she would allow him to get physical, even if it was a light tap. But, before she had a chance to respond, Billy had shifted her so that she was now behind him, just like he had when the dogs had come out of the elevator.

“That’s enough.” Billy’s tone was even and quiet, but she could feel anger radiating off of him.

As much as she appreciated his alpha-tendencies, this was her job, she was more than capable of handling herself and it without him interfering. Even if his intentions were good. After she diffused this situation she and Billy were going to have a long talk about boundaries.

“You don’t say when it’s enough!” Ricco yelled. “Who the fuck do you think you—”

His voice trailed off and Maxi stepped out from behind Billy expecting to see Ricco in a sleeper hold or dropped to the ground, instead she found him staring up in disbelief.

“Holy shit! The Big Bad Wolf! You’re Billy Marshall!” His face lit up with genuine excitement and for the first time since she’d met Ricco, he didn’t look like he was putting on a performance. He looked like a real person instead of a
Saturday Night Live
parody. “When I was twelve, I saved up all my paper route money to see you fight Sheldon. You won in the fourth round by knockout. I’ll never forget that night! I waited for you outside and you signed my hat.”

Ricco rushed to a large case that was sitting in the corner and pulled out a tattered baseball cap that had Billy’s signature on it. He stared down at it. “You asked if I was getting good grades in school and I told you that I ditched a lot. You asked me why and I told you that some kids made fun of me because I wanted to be a singer.” His eyes were watering as he looked up, “Do you remember what you told me?”

Maxi’s eyes shot to Billy. Did he?

“I said fuck ’em,” Billy answered confidently. “They’re probably only acting like that because they have small dicks.”

What?!
Maxi held her breath as she cut her gaze back to Ricco.

He was nodding his head as he wiped his hand beneath his watering eyes and sniffed. “Yeah. And I started my YouTube channel the next day ’cause I didn’t give a shit what some small-dicked assholes had to say. You’re the reason that I’m doing what I’m doing. Without you there wouldn’t be a Ricco Kingsley.”

Maxi couldn’t believe what she was witnessing.

“Why did you come here?” Ricco asked in awe, like Billy was the ghost of Christmas past.

“I’m here with Ms. Rizzo.”

Maxi knew what he meant, but that didn’t stop her from getting a thrill at hearing
those
words leave his mouth.

Ricco’s face went pale. “Oh shit. I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to fire you. Honestly, I didn’t even notice that you weren’t here. Everything’s been great. Anytime I need something, it’s here. But, Alan said you didn’t take me seriously and I needed to make an example out of you. He told me what to say, how to say it.”

That didn’t surprise Maxi at all.

“It’s fine. I totally understand and I’m so happy that my team has taken care of everything for you. I’ll make sure to let them know.” Since they were on better terms, Maxi figured she’d try again so she asked, “Is there someone you’d like me to send your itinerary to?”

She and her team had spent a lot of time making sure that for these next four days that Ricco was in Chicago there wouldn’t be a wasted minute. She really didn’t want all that planning to go up in flames just because Alan Turner wanted to “make an example out of her.”

“No. I want you to keep it. You’re not fired.”

Maxi was stunned.

When she didn’t respond, he added. “Please don’t quit.”

“No… of course not.” Maxi shook her head trying to recover from the professional whiplash she’d just experienced. “Well, if I’m still your publicist, then I need you to go to the meet and greet.”

“Great! Let’s go.” Ricco grabbed his phone and headed out the door like he had a new lease on life.

As they followed behind Ace who was directly behind Ricco Maxi whispered to Billy, “I can’t believe you remembered what you said.”

He placed his hand on her back, the way he had on the way out of the police station and the same warmth spread through her. Leaning down he spoke quietly against her ear, “I didn’t. That’s what I always said to kids that were getting bullied. It seemed to help more than telling them it gets better.”

That was Billy in a nutshell. He didn’t ever do what was expected of him, but somehow it was always the right thing. Which was why he was here, taking care of her. It was the right thing to do. Nothing more, nothing less.

Her brain knew that, it was her heart and hormones that didn’t.

T
he scream of the crowd was deafening as Ricco finished his last performance of the week and exited stage left. Billy watched as Maxi applauded while simultaneously speaking into her headset, most likely putting out a small fire before it turned into an uncontrollable blaze. She truly was the queen of multitasking.

It was Friday night and over the past four days the only time he’d seen her stop was the three or four hours sleep that she grabbed each night, which he thought it more accurate to describe them as naps. He was running on fumes just from trying to keep up with her.

Wednesday night they’d had a two-hour break when Ricco was visiting his family. Billy had assumed that she would use the time to rest or eat. But that hadn’t been on the agenda. Instead they’d paid a visit to Carter Simpson. Since they’d only been back at the condo for a few hours in the early morning, they hadn’t seen him since the police had questioned him. After talking to him it was painfully clear that the poor kid had been through the wringer, but Carter’s main concern was that Maxi knew he had nothing to do with anything that was going on. Maxi took her time assuring him she believed him. Billy knew they could’ve gotten out of there with an hour to spare, but instead of leaving Maxi had invited Carter out to pizza.

Paranoia had never been something that Billy had struggled with, but he was really starting to think that Maxi was avoiding any time alone with him. What had started after they left the police station on Monday continued throughout the week. If they were in the car, she was on the phone. If they were home, she always made an excuse to be in a separate room than him. If they ended up in an empty room together elsewhere, again, she was on the phone or furiously answering emails. It was odd to be with someone twenty-four hours a day and not actually be spending any time with them.

Not that that was his purpose for being here. He was here to keep Maxi safe. And she was. Since the bogus tip that had implicated Carter, all had been quiet on the stalker front. Which should make Billy happy, but instead with every day that passed he grew more unsettled. Someone was out there and he hated the idea of her being a sitting duck.

Neither the Chicago PD nor Elite Security were any closer to finding out who was behind this. But whoever it was had Maxi in their sights. Chances were they also knew the real reason that Billy was here, and if they didn’t they would soon. After tonight his cover as working for Ricco would come to an end. This was the last event the kid had in Chicago and then he would be on a plane back to New York.

“The after party is just down the block. We’ve rented out the entire club,” Maxi informed him and Ace. “Ricco has a VIP meet and greet in the green room and then we’re leaving through the back alley with a police escort”

This was all the information that both men had, but another thing that Billy had observed over the past week was that Maxi didn’t just dot her i’s and cross her t’s, she looped her g’s and swooped her s’s. Everything was double, triple, and quadruple checked and confirmed. At first, Billy had thought it was a bit of overkill, but after she’d caught mistakes on the third and fourth pass, he’d seen the error of his ways.

As the group navigated through the organized chaos that was backstage, he clocked every person to make sure that they belonged there. Other than the three girls that were obviously wearing fake VIP credentials everyone checked out from his visual sweep.