Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (122 page)

“You ready to hear the rest?” she asked.

He nodded dutifully.
 
“Sure.
 
Why not?
 
It’s only one of the hardest things I’ve
ever had to listen to in my entire life.”

“Kane invited me to go with him to The
Caymans.
 
Of course I said no.
 
He made it clear that he didn’t expect
me to have sex with him, he said there’d be no strings attached.”

Red snorted.
 
“What a class act,” he said with more
than a little sarcasm.

“Again, I said no thanks.
 
Well, I think I just told him I needed
to leave and he asked me to sleep on it.”

Red looked at her.
 
“So did you tell him no or what?
 
I don’t understand.”

“I think I was leaving it a little bit
open-ended because I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”

Red closed his eyes and licked his lips.
 
“Remain calm,” he said, as if talking
only to himself.
 
“Calm.”

“And then the last thing that happened,”
Nicole said.
 
“He picked Danielle
and I up in his limousine while we were walking in Manhattan.
 
He must have been following me or
something.”

She could feel Red’s entire body tense up
as she said the words.
 
She knew
this whole thing was his worst nightmare come true.
 
But he didn’t say a word.

“Danielle was telling him he was a jerk,
and Kane didn’t seem to mind one bit.
 
He made it clear he’d done enough research to know who she was and even
how much money she owed on credit cards and student loans.”

“Well I can see where this is going now,”
Red sighed.
 
“Don’t tell me, you
guys let him pay off her fucking debt.”

 
Nicole hesitated.
 
“This is the part I’m not so proud of.”

“Oh, Nicole.
 
You didn’t.”

“I did.
 
I said I’d go with him to The Caymans if
he would pay her debt—nearly a hundred thousand dollars worth—and
also keep you out of the media spotlight.”

Red pulled his hand away from her and
rubbed his jaw.
 
“Fuck.”

“I’m sorry, I know it was stupid.
 
I just—I thought…it was only going
to be a couple of days and I couldn’t reach you.
 
Danielle was in trouble and you were in
trouble and maybe it would be fixed.”

“I hate to say it, but that was not the
brightest move you’ve ever made,” he said.
 
“I want to say a lot worse, but I know that I love you and that you
didn’t intend to hurt me.”

“I didn’t.
 
I was honestly trying to protect you,
Red.”

He rubbed his hands on his knees.
 
“Okay.
 
Okay.
 
I’m going to stay calm here.”

“I’m scared that if I back out on the
deal—“

“Of course you’re going to back out,” Red
told her.
 
“I don’t give a shit what
evidence he has on me.
 
Yeah, I
employed undocumented workers.
 
You
know why?”

Nicole shook her head.
 

He continued talking, his voice low with
barely suppressed rage.
 
“These were
people seeking political asylum, but they couldn’t get into the United States
anymore because of all the red tape and the Homeland Security crackdown.
 
I’m talking about good people who were
speaking out against their horrific governments and their lives were in
danger.
 
Occasionally we would find
a way to help them.
 
Very, very
rarely, but we did it and I’m not ashamed of it either.”

Nicole couldn’t help but say what was on
her mind.
 
“But you’re sure they
weren’t terrorists or something? You’re sure they didn’t just fool you into
believing they had good intentions?”

Red laughed.
 
“Yes, I’m sure.
 
They were the very opposite of
terrorists.
 
These were reporters,
peace activists, men and women who were brave enough to speak out against
dictators and abuses of power in their respective countries.
 
What we did wasn’t legal—but I
think it was moral.
 
And I don’t
care if Kane releases those so-called incriminating documents.
 
Fuck him.”

“I love you,” she said, smiling at his
passion and his bravery.
 
This was a
man who was willing to do the right thing even if it put him in jeopardy.
 

He smiled at her.
 
“Well, I love you too, buttercup.”

“But now that Kane’s paid Danielle’s
loans off, I’m also scared for her.
 
I can’t imagine what he’ll do if he’s not compensated in some way.”

“Listen, I’m going to take care of this
right now.”
 
Red stood up and walked
to the cabinet, opened it, rummaged around.
 
“I know I put my cell phone in here
somewhere.”

“Clearly you intended to forget about
it.”

“It felt good to stop using the phone for
awhile,” he said.
 
“Ah.
 
Here it is.”
 
He picked it up and showed it to her.
 
“I’m going to make a call to Kane Wright
and deal with this little situation.”

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”

“I’ve never been more sure.”
 
He smiled at her.
 
“I don’t get any service in the cabin, I
need to drive up the road a bit to get a signal.
 
You wait here, I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t do anything crazy,” she said,
suddenly afraid.

“I’ve never been this clearheaded in all
my life.”
 
He grabbed his keys from
over by the sink and wrapped his hand around them in a fist.
 
He was smiling, and in that moment
Nicole realized something.

Red Jameson had come back to life.

***

He returned to the cabin about fifteen
minutes later, looking satisfied.
 

Nicole was walking around the cabin on
her slowly healing ankle, trying to regain some mobility.
 
It was a lot better, the swelling was
down and the bruising had gone from a dark purple to a lighter smattering of
blues and greens.
 
“So?” she
asked.
 
“How did it go?”
 

 
“It went.
 
I took care of it.”
 
He threw the car keys on one of the
bookshelves and looked at her.
 
“You’re getting about nicely.”

“All credit to my doctor.
 
I’m not sure if it was the frozen peas,
or maybe late last night when he found some creative ways to rehab my ankle.”

“Speaking of which, I’ve got some new
positions in mind for today.”

She expressed a mixture of feigned
surprise and genuine pleasure at this statement.
 
“I’m a very willing patient.”

“I noticed.”
 
He walked to the cabinet and started to
rummage through it.
 
“Hungry?”

“Yeah.”
 
She plopped herself down on a chair and
watched him.
 
“So, are you going to
tell me exactly what happened or not?”

Red glanced over his shoulder at
her.
 
“I told Kane Wright to stick
whatever evidence he has against me up his ass.”

She laughed.
 
“No you didn’t.”

“Ummm…yeah.
 
I did.”

“And that was it?”

“I told him to leave my fiancé alone, and
I assured him that he had plenty of money at his disposal and there were lots
of desperate escorts and sex workers who’d be pleased to relieve him of some of
it.”

“Oh, boy,” she sighed, putting a hand on
her forehead.
 
“This doesn’t sound
like it went well at all.”

“Actually it went great.
 
Shitheads like Kane Wright respond
better to a show of strength.
 
That’s the only thing that backs ‘em off.”

“But what about Danielle?”

“Oh, right.
 
I almost forgot.”
 
Red opened a package of bagels, went to
the fridge and took out some eggs and bacon.
 
“Breakfast?”

“Sure.
 
Besides, that’s the only other meal you
know how to cook.”

“True.
 
I suppose I could have just made you
toast.”
 
He started the burner and
grabbed a pan from above the stove.

“I’m still waiting to hear about the
Danielle situation.”

“There’s no situation,” Red replied.
 
“Kane started bitching about how there’d
been an agreement and he was being ripped off.
 
He gave me the sob story about how he’d
paid off her debt under false pretenses, yada yada.
 
So I told him I’d take care of it and I
did.
 
Phoned my accountant and had
him wire Kane the money right after we hung up.”

“So you just spent a hundred thousand
dollars on Danielle’s loans?”
   

“Why not?
 
That’s nothing to me—and it’s
worth getting him out of our lives for good.”

“I feel awful,” Nicole said.
 
“I didn’t mean to start this trouble for
you.
 
That’s a lot of money.
 
I’m sure Danielle would be happy to pay
you back over time…”

Red shook his head.
 
He was throwing bacon strips in the pan
and they started to pop and snap in the grease.
 
“I don’t want her money.
 
Consider it my formal apology for being
such an asshole and running away from my responsibilities.
 
If I’d been around, you never would have
been in that situation to begin with.”

“I guess.
 
It just feels weird to me.”

Red turned to her.
 
“Nicole, that’s our money.
 
What’s mine is yours.
 
Do you mind that I spent our money to
help your friend out of a jam?”

“I suppose not.”
 
She still felt uneasy, though.
 
“I’d like to call her and let her know
what happened.
 
She still thinks that
Kane paid off her debt and I’d rather she know the current situation.
 
I’m sure it’ll put her mind at ease.”

“After breakfast I’ll drive you up the
road so you can call her,” he said.
 
“You can’t drive on that ankle.”

Nicole couldn’t help but smile.
 
Even now, Red was trying to protect her,
if only from driving a mile up the road on a sprained ankle.
 

When he was done cooking breakfast, they
sat down at the table together and ate.
 
“Not bad,” Nicole told him.
 
“I’m impressed.
 
You sure you
don’t have any other recipes up your sleeve?”

He winked.
 
“Maybe one or two.”

She playfully slapped his arm.
 
“You liar!
 
You can cook!”

“Who do you think taught Chef Roland
everything he knows?”

“Well, which is it?
 
I thought he taught you.”

Red shrugged and refused to answer.
 
“So.
 
Moving on, we’ve got bigger fish to
fry—so to speak.”

“We do?”

He broke off a strip of bacon and popped
it in his mouth, nodding and pointing at her belly.
 
“The little elephant in the room.
 
Specifically, in your belly.”

She automatically put a hand on her
stomach and looked down.
 
“Is it
crazy that I sort of forgot for a second?”

“I don’t know.
 
I just know that we have a lot to
discuss.”

“Like?”

“Like, when do we want to tell people
that you’re pregnant?
 
And, what’s
the next step?
 
Don’t we need to
make you a doctor’s appointment and all of that stuff?”

Nicole swallowed.
 
“I—I don’t know the answer to any
of those questions.
 
I’ve never been
pregnant before.”

“Neither have I, so I guess we’re going
to figure it out together.”
 
He
chewed his bacon and grabbed her hand in his.
 
“I’m so happy we’re doing this,” he
said.
 
“Starting a family together.”