Protecting The Billionaire (13 page)

Right now she wished she were a little more like Trent. He wouldn’t have been at all embarrassed. She shouldn’t be either. They were all adults and it wasn’t her dad waiting to come in. Maybe she’d get lucky and Derek wouldn’t suspect they’d been doing anything but watching a movie.

Don’t give yourself away.
Derek glanced up from his smartphone the moment she pulled open the door. “Hey, you. Come on in,” she said, pasting on a smile.

Stepping inside, he looked past her at Rock and then back, a smirk on his face. “Bad timing I see. Guess I should’ve called on my way over.”

So much for a little luck tonight.
“We were just hanging out.” A little lie in this instance wouldn’t harm anyone.

With a laugh, he hugged her. “Bull. You’ve got a rat’s nest on your head and your shirt’s buttoned wrong. You weren’t just hanging out.”

She looked at her shirt. Sure enough, in her rush, she messed it up. So much for playing it cool. Clearing her throat, she reminded herself again how much worse it’d be if her dad was there instead.

“Nice to see you again.” Derek moved past her and shook hands with Rock. “Since I’ve already interrupted you two, do you mind if I stick around and visit?”

Oh, man how she wanted to slap him. “Mi casa es su casa,” she said with a hint of sarcasm. “Let’s go in the other room.” She loved Derek but the sooner they finished their little visit, the sooner he’d leave. “What are you doing here anyway?”

Derek put an arm around her shoulders as they walked toward the kitchen. “What, I can’t visit my lil sister?”

“See what I mean?” She looked over at Rock, but he only grinned back at her. “Five minutes between us and he acts like it’s five years.” She rolled her eyes and turned her attention toward Derek again. “I talked to you two days ago and you didn’t say anything about coming down.”

“Decided at the last minute. Figured I’d visit you and then go see Jake and the baby. Then head home on Monday morning.” Derek went straight to the refrigerator. “I didn’t stop to eat on the way down. Do you have anything good in here?”

“Help yourself,” she said, although there was no need. Before the move down here, Derek had always treated her apartment in Providence as if it was his own, so it made sense he’d do the same thing here. Of course she more or less did that too whenever she visited his condo. “Where are you staying?” She already knew the answer to her question, but asked anyway.

“With you.” He put the pizza she hadn’t finished the night before and a sparkling water on the table and looked over at Rock who’d sat next to her. “Unless that’s a problem, lil sis.”

“If you don’t stop calling me that, it will be.”

“Has she been this grumpy all day?”

“She was
very
happy until you arrived,” Rock said, leaning back in his chair as if he hadn’t just hinted at what they’d been doing when Derek interrupted them.

“Guessed as much.”

Her brother’s answer sent the heat in her face up to her scalp.

Derek pulled a slice of pizza out and smiled at her before he nodded in Rock’s direction. “After I eat, I’ll disappear for a few hours.”

Were Rock and Derek really having this conversation?

“Much appreciated.”

The groan slipped out before she could stop it. “Will you two please stop.”

Her brother and Rock exchanged some kind of look she couldn’t decipher, and she held her breath.
What are they going to say next?

“I saw Trent and Addie on Tuesday,” Derek said.

Thank you.

“I got the impression they know the baby is a boy. They both denied it when I asked. Have they said anything to you guys?”

“Got the same answer,” Rock answered. “But I think you’re right.”

Allison listened as the men switched from one topic to another, the whole time wishing her brother would do less talking and more eating. The faster he finished eating, the sooner he’d be gone

“Allison, you’ve got to work on that,” Derek said, his sudden switch in topics jarring.

“Uh? What?”

“Not letting the world know what you’re thinking.” Her brother pointed a finger at her. “You’re wondering how much longer until I leave.”

Did she really give herself away that much?

“Told her she better never play cards,” Rock said, offering his opinion on the subject.

Great, another one from the peanut gallery.

“She’s better than when we were kids. We used to play a modified version of poker. She always lost. Couldn’t bluff to save her life.” Chugging the rest of his water, Derek pushed his chair back. “I’ll see you guys later. Maybe around ten or so.”

“Thanks for the warning, brother dear.”

“Do you have a key I can use to get in when I come back so I don’t disturb you again?”

Nope, don’t respond to that one.
Allison grabbed the spare key she kept in a kitchen drawer. “Don’t worry about rushing back,” she said, dropping the key in his hand. “And if the alarm is on when you come in, the code is the same as the one I had at my apartment.”

“Have fun tonight,” Derek called out as he walked away.

Allison relaxed in her chair when she heard the front door close. She’d thought her brother would never leave. She still couldn’t believe he’d alluded to the fact he’d interrupted her and Rock in the middle of sex so many times. Talk about embarrassing on a grand scale. The only way it could’ve been worse would’ve been if he’d actually walked in her bedroom. She owed him big time. But she’d figure out her revenge later. Right now, they again had the house to themselves and several hours to do whatever they wanted.

Reaching under the table, she touched Rock’s thigh and moved her hand upward. She smiled, her own libido kicking back all the way on when she hit his zipper and the erection behind it. Slowly, she rubbed her hand against him.

“Upstairs now.” He grabbed her hand, making it impossible for her to move it, and kissed her.

He wasn’t a violent person. Really he wasn’t, but he had no other choice. He’d watched them kissing today at the Botanic Garden. Even now the creep’s truck remained parked outside her house. He’d seen her disheveled appearance when she opened the door for Derek. He knew what they’d been up too.

No man had any right to touch her but him. Yep, his mind was made up. The Marine had to die. Once that happened, she’d be his.

He knew the perfect person to contact too.
Kane
. A guy like him would know people. People who would take out Raimono and not ask any questions. Across the street, Derek exited Allison’s house and drove away, and he slammed his fist into the wall. Damn, they were alone again. Blood trickled down his fingers, but he barely noticed as he pulled his second cell phone from his pocket. From memory, he dialed Kane’s number and waited.

Soon, he’ll be gone forever. And she’ll be all mine.

“I should’ve let him come up again,” Allison said, changing lanes on the highway again. She’d felt bad though. Over the past two and half weeks, Rock had made the trip from Dumfries to Alexandria several times. He never complained; then again, she doubted he complained about much. Still it hadn’t seemed fair he always went out of his way. Now, she wished she’d given in last night when they’d talked. Actually, they’d talked on the phone a lot, which surprised her because Rock didn’t seem like the type to have phone conversations on a regular basis.

“Relax and think about the night ahead.” Doing that shouldn’t be difficult. She’d been looking forward to spending time with him again since yesterday. As far as she knew, he didn’t have any definite plans for them tonight, but so what. Unlike the men in her past, Rock never insisted they go out every chance they got. In fact, since they’d started dating, their only three big outings had been the hockey game, the Botanic Garden, and a movie. They’d stopped for dinner one night too, but right afterward they’d gone back to her townhouse. The other times he’d come up, they’d ordered takeout and just spent time together.

A good portion of the day she’d actually fantasized how they might spend their time together tonight. Since she’d gotten on I-95 however, she’d been wishing she could lock herself behind her front door and turn the security system on.

When she left work and spotted the car behind her, she’d assumed it just happened to be heading in the same direction. There were a lot of office buildings around the Falmouth Foundation and it was five o’clock on a Friday. She’d assured herself it was just a coincidence when the same car followed her onto the highway. Lots of people used Interstate 95 everyday to commute to and from work. Just because the car had been behind her since the city didn’t mean anything. The driver was probably heading home or off to meet someone like her.

That reassurance lasted until they merged with traffic and the same car stayed behind her. She’d changed lanes three times now, hoping the car wouldn’t follow. Twice the car behind her did the same. Had it followed this last time?
Only one way to know
.

Allison glanced in her rearview mirror then let out the breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. A bright red tractor-trailer with a large Bulldog on its grill followed her, not the dark-colored sedan from earlier. She’d overreacted.
Again
. The car hadn’t been following her. They had merely been heading in the same general direction.

A sharp cramp shot up her hand, and she loosened her death grip on the steering wheel. “I need to get control of my imagination.”

The ridiculous thing had been acting up since January, but the silly bear and candy weeks ago had sent it into overdrive. So far, she hadn’t received any more gifts, but she also hadn’t figured out who sent the first one. She’d questioned the receptionist who’d accepted the present that afternoon, but she hadn’t remembered anything about the delivery person except that it had been a man. Unsure of how to proceed next, she’d seriously considered contacting the police like Derek suggested. Each time, she convinced herself not to bother. The police had enough to deal with handling real crimes. They didn’t have the time or manpower to hunt down her secret admirer, especially since the individual had only sent her a present. Sending presents, even anonymous ones, was not against law, just unnerving for the person receiving them.

The red tractor-trailer passed her on the right as it headed for an exit. Immediately she checked the cars behind her again. A white pickup now road her bumper so close that if she stopped quickly, the driver would find himself in her trunk. Unfortunately, that wasn’t uncommon for this time of day. And as infuriating as it might be, if it meant the dark-colored car from earlier wasn’t around, she wouldn’t complain.

The pickup drifted a little to the left as the driver spoke on his cell phone, giving Allison a good view of the cars further back. She wasn’t an expert on cars, but the dark sedan three vehicles back on the right resembled the car from earlier.

Is it the same one?
They’d passed multiple exits since leaving Alexandria and she’d changed lanes three times. If it was the same driver, could it be a coincidence that they still remained behind her?

“In one mile, take exit twenty.” The GPS directions forced her to watch the exit signs rather than the cars behind her, which was something she really should’ve been doing all along.

If someone did follow her off the interstate, should she still go to Rock’s apartment? What if she parked and whoever drove the other car attacked her in the parking lot? Heading straight to the police station made much more sense. Too bad she didn’t know where it was located.

Her stomach clenched at the sight of the white pickup truck and the dark-colored sedan following her off the exit ramp and right onto Dumfries Road.

“Turn left,” the GPS said a few seconds too late as she passed the road she needed. Normally, she didn’t rely on only the device’s verbal instruction but also checked the map on the display screen. Thanks to the car behind her, she’d ignored the map and missed her turn.

The GPS repeated its instructions as the line representing her route changed on the screen to compensate for her error. A quick look in the mirror showed the dark sedan still behind her as she turned down the next street.

Unsure of what else to do, she pressed the phone icon on her steering wheel. “Call Rock,” she said, thankful for whatever technology made it possible for her car and phone to work together. “Come on, answer.” If he didn’t answer now, she’d drive around until he did. No way was she getting out of her car without him around.

***

Rock ignored the beep of his cell phone. Ever since the pictures from the hockey game and another of them exiting Bartholdi Park went live in the media, he’d been getting texts from his buddies, all of them letting him now what a lucky SOB he was. Not that he needed any of them to tell him. However, a part of him did wish he’d thought a little harder before making out with Allison in full view of a camera lens. Having pictures of them making out all over the Internet wasn’t the best way to make a good impression on her father. She said it didn’t matter, insisting her father wouldn’t make any judgments about him based on some pictures. Regardless of her reassurance, he remembered his own reaction when he spotted a similar picture of his sister and Trent on the cover of
The Star Report
back in the fall. When he’d told Allison, she’d reminded him of Trent’s playboy reputation and stated it had probably contributed to his negative feelings. He hadn’t argued with her. People might call him a lot of things, but he wasn’t a heartless playboy like the media had once portrayed Trent.

Oddly, he didn’t disagree with Allison on much. Since the weekend they’d gone to the hockey game, he’d either driven up to Alexandria to see her or they’d talked on the phone. The only time they’d come close to really disagreeing had been last night. He’d promised to drive up once his interview with Elite Force Security ended, which was an event he still needed to process. She’d insisted this time she’d come to him instead. Rather than argue about something so trivial, he’d given in.