Justice: A Billionaire Romance (3 page)

I
looked at my suit
, which I hadn't worn fully in nearly a year, with a mix of anticipation and trepidation. After the physical ass-kicking Carter had put me through that morning, I wondered if I was ready to go back out on the streets yet.

"Sweetie?"

I turned and saw Mom coming up the stairs to the Bell Tower. Even though Sophie Bylur was in her late forties now, the practical side of me said that Mom was still a beautiful woman. "Hey Mom."

"What're you doing?" she said, then saw me with my outfit. Different from Andi or Carter's, who favored color motifs that barely broke up the dark blacks and grays of their suits, mine was mostly color, although as a nod to Dad's insistence on stealth above all else, the majority of it was midnight blue. The speckles of white throughout the side panels and back were just part of what earned me my nickname of
Blizzard
. "Oh, I see. How are you feeling for tonight?"

"Worried," I said. It's funny, but Mom is the one person in our household that I've never tried to bullshit or not tell the total truth to. With everyone else, there was always this sort of unspoken need to not show any concern or fear. But with Mom, I never even considered it. "Carter kicked my ass this morning."

"I know, I saw," she said. When I blinked in surprise she laughed. "I can still move around silently when I want to, Riley. I figured you and Carter would have some honest conversation, and I didn't want to interrupt it. When I saw you struggling with the bar, I knew to stay back."

Mom grew serious, not allowing me to respond. "I know you're worried. I was too the first time I ever went out on a mission. It scared the hell out of me."

I'd never heard about this before, and set my suit down to listen more carefully. She had an intense look on her face that I’d never seen before, and I knew whatever she said next would be important. "After rescuing me, Mark and I were trying to just run from the Confederation when we got a call from Tabby. She'd been taken hostage, and was being held at a night club, the same club that Mark and I met at, in fact. We ended up saving her from six or seven men. I hadn't had any training yet, I wasn't in shape, none of it. But I still went."

"That's because it was Tabby," I said. She and Mom had always been closer than sisters, and you could tell that the reason the Bylurs and the McCafferys still lived in the same house was because of them. "You would take on the devil himself for her."

"And my family would be right beside me,” Mom reassured me. "What I'm trying to say Riley, is that despite Carter's misgivings, I know you. You're my son, and I know more about how you feel than perhaps anyone. You're a lot like me, and I know that your heart is in the right place. You'll do fine tonight."

Mom gave me a hug, and I felt comforted. "Thanks, Mom. I'll do my best."

"You better," she said. "I don't want you getting hurt before you bring your girlfriend by for dinner. I only talked to her for a little bit that night of the party, but she seems like a nice girl."

"She is, Mom. And I know you'll like her too."

I
was
nervous a week later as I waited outside Janet's house in my old Mercedes. It was a refitted job, so the self-drive wasn’t part of the original setup. As such, the steering wheel and controls were still the classic size, although there was a computer shunt in the system that disabled them unless there was an emergency. I could’ve afforded a more modern car, hell I could have bought a brand new Bentley. But, as I was officially a Bylur, that meant I had to live like my family didn't have a billion plus dollars in our bank accounts.

Not that it mattered. Sure, it took the occasional jump through an extra hoop to make it look legitimate, but I had never worried about it. Tabby and Patrick were great about it, and inside the house we lived as one large extended family. Carter and Barbara were as much my siblings as Andrea was. Only outside the house did there have to be any sort of separation between us, and that was damn small.

It didn't matter to Janet, who I was waiting on. I was unexpectedly apprehensive as I sat at the curb, looking at her house. It was on the north side of town, not in the worst neighborhood, but not the best either. Janet shared the house with three other girls, and while I'd been invited in before, I was too nervous that night for dealing with the other three.

Seeing Janet come out of the house in her cute little black dress, I didn't care. Turning on a heel, her skirt flared just a little bit, and I got a nice look of her thigh, a little surge going down to my pants. Janet didn't understand how she affected me, and I hadn't worked up the guts to tell her in plain language yet. I was kind of hoping things would just develop organically, or at least as organically as anything ever did in my family. There are certain things that don't get talked about with people without serious consideration.

I got out of my car and came up the short concrete walk, taking her hand. "You look gorgeous."

She blushed, accepting my compliment. "Thanks. I had to borrow it from Penny, but she was happy about it when she found out why."

I pulled Janet in for a hug, relishing the feeling of her curves under my hands. She never acknowledged it, but Janet was one of the cutest girls I'd ever seen. Not only did she have curves in all the right places, but a smile that could light up a room. The only shame of it all was that she hid it so often underneath a thick layer of shyness.

On the other hand, it may have been that shyness that attracted me to her. I'd cultivated a well-deserved reputation as a playboy, having wined and dined my way through most of the A-list girls in the city, and then again at Harvard. I wasn't a bad-boy per se, but more of a serial dater.

It wasn't that I intended to be a player, I just never was able to find a woman who interested me past the first date, or at worst, the first time we went to bed together. So many of them were self-absorbed, thinking they were goddesses when the only difference between them and every other girl in the world was usually a few surface changes and the size of their bank accounts. If any of the girls that I dated wanted to meet a goddess, I'd happily introduce them to my mother or my sister.

But Janet was different. If anything, she underestimated her looks and ability, refreshingly so. She didn't kiss my ass either, and I appreciated that. Instead, she just said thank you meaningfully when she thought I did something nice for her, and listened when I spoke. She really listened too, and didn't just wait for her turn to talk. I tried my hardest to reciprocate. My mother hadn't raised a disrespectful fool, after all.

"Regardless of whose it is, you make it look beautiful," I said, kissing her on the cheek. I wanted to take her to bed so much, but at the same time I didn't want to rush things. I was looking for the time when she was ready, and not try to push things like I always had before. "Seriously, my sister is going to be jealous."

"I doubt that. I've seen her, remember? But thank you for the compliment anyway. Come on, lets get going before I lose my nerve."

I chuckled and held the door open for Janet, who took the passenger seat and buckled in while I went around to the driver's seat. I punched in my destination and the car pulled away, gliding with traffic. I waited to make sure things were going well before pushing back from the steering wheel. "You know, you don't have to be nervous. You've already met Mom, after all."

"For all of about thirty seconds the night I met you," Janet said with a little smile. "Although I do owe her a thank you for introducing us. But there's a difference between talking for thirty seconds with the lady of the house and sitting down for dinner with the most powerful family in the city. I mean, Tabby McCaffery is like the woman I wanted to be when I was in junior high school."

I laughed despite myself. “Tabby’s just like any other person in the world. She has her share of quirks and weird stuff about her just like you do. And my Mom is no different.”

I dug into my suit pocket and pulled out my phone, quickly flipping through the files. I'd downloaded one specifically for Janet, after getting Mom's permission, of course. "Take a look."

Janet took my phone and looked. "Who . . . wait, this is your mother?"

"Yep," I said with a laugh. It was one of the only photos of Mom before she became Joanna Smith then Joanna Bylur that I could use, since it didn't have any identifying marks. Since according to her official biography, she hadn't met Tabby until after her and Dad were married, pics of the two of them enjoying the single life in the city as undergrads were
verboten.
"That was taken exactly two months before she met Dad. Look like anyone you know?"

The resemblances were striking. Janet's hair was nearly exactly the same as Mom's natural color. Sure, some wise-ass could make a few Oedipus complex comments, but I really didn't give a shit. I liked Janet for who she was, not her resemblance to my mother.

"Okay, point taken," Janet said, handing me back my phone. “Riley, do me a favor. Pinch me if I say or act stupid tonight, at least?"

"Just be yourself, and there won't be any problems about that," I said with a laugh. Taking Janet's hand, I kissed the back of it, looking her in her beautiful brown eyes. “I know we've taken things slow, probably against my reputation, but don't doubt that I'm not interested in more.”

Janet blushed again. "Uhm, Riley, I guess I should say something about that now. When we have a private moment before we get to your house."

"What?" I asked.

"I . . . I’ve never been with anyone before," Janet said quietly.

I blinked, surprised. I mean, I'd lost my virginity in high school. I figured everyone did. I knew for sure I wasn't the first in my class either, considering one of my classmates in freshman Spanish had to take four weeks off to have a baby. "Okay then. I guess what I just said comes off as a bit pervy."

Janet shook her head, then smiled that smile that I had come to look forward to. It was her smile that told me she was genuinely pleased, but at the same time she was pushing past her shyness. "No. To be honest, I've been thinking a lot about it too. Can I tell you something that might come off a bit crazy?"

"Considering the household I grew up in, I doubt there's anything you could say that I'd really think of as crazy," I said. "So go ahead."

"I've kind of had a few fantasies since you started asking me out," she said, her blush deepening. "The kind I wouldn't feel comfortable telling my parents about."

I smiled and kissed her hand again. "We can talk about them later if you like." My car made the turn into the Mount Zion driveway, dominated by the view of the Bell Tower. "Just remember, you might think of them as celebrities or something, but they're really just normal people."

My car parked, and I went around to the passenger side to help her out. I saw the front door to Zion open as I did, and Andrea was there, holding the door open for the two of us. "Hey Riley, glad you made it. Dad's got the chops on, he was worried he'd have to pull them off before you two got back."

"Chops?" Janet asked, looking at me questioningly. "Pork chops?"

I shook my head. "Knowing my father, lamb or veal. He likes to show off the culinary skills he's picked up over the years. He's no great chef, but he can put together a pretty mean meat and three veg plate. He knew you weren't vegetarian or vegan, but he didn't know if you were Jewish or Muslim or anything that doesn't allow pork. By the way, are you?"

Janet laughed and shook her head. "Nope, maybe a healthy dose of lapsed Methodist I think, but that’s it."

I noticed out of the corner of my vision that Andrea was covering her smile with her hand, a knowing look on her face. I led Janet up the steps to Mount Zion, stopping in front of my sister. "Janet Wayne, this is my sister, tormentor of my days and the keeper of my life on the somewhat straight and narrow, Andrea."

"Andi," my sister said. "The only people who call me Andrea are my father and Tabby, and Tabby only when she's angry at me or thinks I'm acting too much like a tomboy. Come on, Mom and Dad are waiting inside along with everyone else."

Andi led us inside, Janet holding onto my arm, her eyes big. "Wow," she whispered. "I mean, I was here the night Mayor McCaffery had his party, but it's still a bit strange."

"You can call him Patrick, or maybe Uncle Patrick if he really takes a liking to you," I said. "They may not be blood, and they aren't legally family yet, but they're family, you know?”

"Considering that Tabby and Patrick were just as likely to bust our butts over a bad report card as Mom and Dad were, they’d certainly earned it," Andi added. "So Janet, Riley has been a bad little brother, and hasn't told us much about you yet. Just be ready, you're going to get a lot of questions tonight. I hope you don't mind."

"I'll try my best," Janet said. "By the way, I love the skirt."

"Thanks," Andi said. "I don't normally wear skirts and dresses, but this is a special occasion."

"Really? Why?" Janet asked, then looked perplexed when Andi gave me a knowing look. "What? Riley?"

"I've never brought a girl home to meet my parents before," I said after a moment. "They kind of would just meet in other situations. Kind of what we were talking about in the car on the way over."

I watched as Janet blushed again, and Andi stifled another laugh. "Come on, you two. I guess by the end of the night, both of you are going to be red-faced at least a half dozen more times. By the way, has Riley told you about his collection of dolls?"

"They're not dolls, Andi. How many times do I have to tell you they're collectible figurines? Some of them are worth thousands of dollars!" I groaned, thinking of the cupboards in my room in the supposed servant's wing.

"They're posable action figures, Riley. And don't even get me started on what they're made up of."

"Anything I should worry about?" Janet said, relaxing. It was a skill of Andi's, and one that despite my short term embarrassment was one I could see immediately why she was doing it. By exposing that I too wasn't perfect, it was helping Janet relax and recognize that despite her impressions, we were a real family with real flaws and foibles. Andrea may be shy herself in terms of public speaking, but perhaps that was what gave her the ability to understand Janet and help her relax that evening. "Don't tell me he's got a collection of bikini models."