Senior Advisor to the Boss: Billionaire Obsession Dark Romance (Managing the Bosses Series Book 9) (13 page)

She was going to have to tell Alex.

Jamie came to that realization as she was leaving the store and heading home, thinking about when Alex was going to be back from work and the dinner that was sitting in the fridge waiting for them to heat it up. He wasn't going to be happy that she'd been to see Nicholas. But if she didn't tell him, and it came out later, that would be much worse.

If going to see Nicholas had actually accomplished anything, she would have felt better about it, but the whole trip had been a waste of her time. Even turning the things he'd said over and over in her thoughts, she couldn't see anything that would help them catch the person who was trying to destroy their business.

She pulled into the driveway at the house, pulling the bags that she'd picked up while she was out from the car and heading inside. The kitchen was empty. Brianna and the twins must be somewhere else. Jamie unloaded the results of her shopping trip, mostly odds and ends, some shampoo and soap. Then she went to look for them, finding them in the twins' room, playing with the stuffed horse that they had enjoyed so much when Christine came to watch them.

Jamie had hardly seen her sister in the last few weeks. She really needed to remedy that, she reminded herself. Maybe she would see if Christine was free to come over soon. Family dinners on Sundays had been sporadic since the problems at work came up, and in the last two weeks they hadn't happened at all. She was lucky if Alex was home for dinner on Sunday evening, let alone anyone else.

"Hey, peanuts," she said as she walked in the door of the nursery. "Did you miss me?"

Benton made excited noises, breathing quickly and flailing his hands in the air toward her, and Lilliana abandoned the horse that she'd been trotting a little violently across the floor and crawled toward her, grabbing onto Jamie's pant leg and pulling herself to her feet.

"I guess you did," Jamie laughed, leaning down to pick up Lilli and then moving further into the room, sitting them both down on the floor next to Benton. He put his hands on her thigh so that he could push himself to his feet, too, and then leaned against her side. Jamie wrapped an arm around her son and held both of her children close. "I missed you, too. Lots and lots, peanuts. Mommy’s very glad to be home with you."

She turned and smiled at Brianna, who was cleaning up some of the mess that the twins had made. It had taken her some time to get used to the idea of a nanny, but Brianna was great with the kids, and Jamie had come to trust her.

"How were they?" she asked.

Brianna smiled. "They were both great. A bit cranky after you left, but they got over it pretty quickly and we had a really fun time."

"Good." Jamie set Lilli carefully on her feet. "I'm glad that they weren't too upset when I left. They seem to be doing a little better with that lately."

When she had first started leaving for work regularly, the twins had been almost inconsolable after she left. While it had made Jamie feel a little better about her worries that they would forget who she was if she left them with a nanny too much, she didn't like to know that her babies were upset. It was good that they were learning that it was okay when she had to go for a while. She hoped that they knew she would always come back to them.

"Is there anything else that you need, Mrs. Reid?" Brianna asked, the room tidied up.

"No," Jamie said, "that's fine, Brianna. You can go ahead and head home. Thanks so much for watching them while I was out this afternoon."

"Not a problem, Mrs. Reid. You know I love Benton and Lilli." She waved as she headed for the front door. "I'll see you again on Friday, Mrs. Reid."

"See you then, Brianna. Have a good night."

She heard the younger woman's footsteps retreating down the hall, and then it was just her and the twins in the room. Jamie smiled down at them. "So. What should we do, do you think?"

Both of them looked up at her with wide blue eyes that she thought were one day going to be as piercing as their daddy's.

"Should we go get dinner ready so that we have food when Daddy comes home?" Jamie suggested.

She knew that they couldn't really understand what she was asking, but they knew the word ‘Daddy’. Both of them started clapping their hands, making joyful little noises.

"Dada!" Lilli exclaimed.

"Yes," Jamie said. "Dada. He'll be home soon." Benton squealed, and Jamie laughed. "I'll make sure to tell him that you're both very excited to see him."

It was harder to carry both of the twins at the same time these days. They were getting so big, and Jamie was abruptly reminded that it was almost their first birthday. The days were rushing past so quickly that she'd almost forgotten how soon that was coming up. But it would be in just a couple of weeks, and she needed to plan the party before it got any closer. One more thing to add to her to-do list.

She lifted Benton onto one hip and Lilli onto the other, wrapping an arm around each of them, and then hoisted herself to her feet. "There we go. One of these days soon you're going to be too big for Mommy to carry you like this, you know."

The twins didn't seem concerned about that. They probably didn't care whether or not they were too big, as long as Mommy kept carrying them. Jamie shook her head and walked toward the kitchen. At least this way the weight was balanced.

In the kitchen, she put the twins into their highchairs so that they were be able to safely entertain themselves while she got dinner in the oven. She set a few blocks in front of each of them, and turned toward the fridge. The sound of a block hitting the floor made her pause. Jamie turned to find that Lilli had thrown one of her blocks down from the highchair. Benton followed suit.

"You two," Jamie said, trying to keep the laughter out of her voice. "You both know that you're not supposed to throw things like that."

They looked at her like they had no idea what she was talking about, and Jamie swallowed a laugh. Obviously they didn't really know what she was saying when she wasn't using words and sentences geared toward their comprehension level, but she could already sense a bright future in the theater for both of them.

She picked up the blocks they'd thrown and set them back on the trays. "No throwing,” she said.

The minute her back was turned, the sound of two blocks hitting the floor reached her ears. Jamie knew that she wasn't supposed to laugh at them, because it would just make them think that throwing the blocks was a game, but it was hard not to.

"You're not getting that back," she said, turning to look at the twins. "If you're going to throw them on the floor, they're going to stay on the floor. So you'd better keep the two that you have."

She slid the foil-covered dish Murray had left behind into the oven, glad that was something that she didn't have to worry about too much. One of the twins had thrown another block, but it didn't sound like there had been more, and when she turned Lilli had one block on her tray and two blocks on the floor.

"Lilli," Jamie said, "if you throw that last block you don't get any more blocks."

Lilli looked at her. She picked up the block.

"No," Jamie said. "Do not throw that block, Lillian Reid."

The little girl paused. Then, slowly, she set the block down on the tray.

"Yay!" Jamie exclaimed, clapping her hands and smiling at Lilli. "Thank you, Lilli, for not throwing the block."

She turned around to get dishes from the cabinets, and heard the sound of the kitchen door opening behind her.

"Alex?" she called.

"Hey, baby," Alex's voice called from the doorway. "You getting dinner ready?"

He sounded exhausted, and Jamie felt a little bad that she was going to have to tell him another thing that would probably upset him. She turned around with the dishes in her hands. "Dinner’s in the oven."

"Fantastic," Alex said, setting his briefcase down on the counter and then catching her around the waist to pull her into a kiss that Jamie couldn't resist. She opened for him, arching in close, and felt Alex smile against her mouth.

A block hit the floor. Jamie opened her eyes, and found Benton with a block in his hand, looking like he wasn't sure whether he wanted to throw more of his blocks or not. Lilli was staring at her third block, which was lying on the floor next to her feet. She pointed at it.

"Yes," Jamie said. "I see it. But you threw it on the floor. I don't know why you expect me to get it back for you."

Lilli's face crumpled, and Jamie sighed. She didn't want to see her little girl cry, but she also wasn't going to reward throwing blocks on the floor.

"Mama," Lilli said, and pointed more urgently.

Jamie bent down to pick up the block. "Are you going to throw it on the floor again?" she asked, holding it out but not quite letting Lilli take it just yet.

"Have they been throwing them on the floor a lot?" Alex asked, wrapping himself around her from behind, his chin against her shoulder.

"Not a lot," Jamie answered. "But I want to discourage that before it starts."

She suspected that Alex was making faces at the twins over her shoulder, because Lilli had stopped looking like she was going to cry, and Benton was giggling, but when she turned around he was standing straight and expressionless. The only thing that gave it away was the smile still dancing in his eyes.

The oven beeped, and Jamie went to get the enchiladas out.

“So,” she said as she straightened and set the hot pan on the stove. “I went and talked to Nicholas today.”

There was dead silence in the kitchen, broken abruptly by the sound of little hands smacking against a highchair tray.

Jamie took a deep breath and turned around.

Alex was standing next to the highchairs, a block in his hand, staring at Jamie. "You did what?" he asked finally, voice almost a growl.

"I went and spoke to Nicholas today," Jamie said, keeping her own voice even. "Just for a few minutes. I wanted to see if he knew anything."

"You went to a prison," Alex ground out. "And spoke to Nicholas. Without saying a word to me about it."

"I'm saying a word to you about it now," Jamie answered. "I didn't plan it. I was out running errands and I thought that talking to Nicholas might tell us something. So I did."

Alex set the block down on Lilli's tray, and she threw it on the floor. He didn't look at it. "You could have been hurt," he said.

"I wouldn't have been hurt. There were plenty of guards around. They were watching the whole time. I didn't have to go anywhere near anyone but Nicholas, and he sat on the other side of a table." Jamie took a step toward Alex as Lilli pointed at the toy on the floor again, babbling in baby language that only had a few recognizable words in it. "I wasn't going to get hurt."

Alex was looking at her like he wasn't sure how he wanted to respond, and Jamie moved around the edge of the counter, within reach.

"I'm fine," she said. "Really, baby."

He reached out and wrapped both arms around her, pulling her in close, burying his face against her hair. "Don't do it again," he said, low and rough. "Please, Jamie. Don't do anything like that ever again."

"I won't," Jamie answered, wrapping her own arms around him. She had expected him to be angry, but he was obviously not. Just worried, and it made her heart ache that she had scared him like that. "I promise, Alex. I won't."

"I can't lose you," Alex said. "Not you, too."

Jamie held her husband tight, one of her hands lifting to curl around the back of his neck. "You're not going to lose me, baby. I'm not going anywhere. I told you. No matter what happens, Lilli and Benton and I are going to be here for you. And you're not going to lose Reid Enterprises either. We're not going to let that happen."

His arms tightened around her until it almost hurt, but Jamie didn't mind. She let herself be held. Behind Alex, Lilli was pulling against the straps that held her in her chair, trying to reach toward the block she had thrown while Benton contentedly banged two of them together in his hands. Lilli started to cry.

Jamie and Alex untangled themselves, Jamie letting her hand linger against Alex's neck until he moved away, sliding it down his shoulder in a caress. He picked up the block for Lilli, and Jamie went to serve the enchiladas.

"What did you find out from Nicholas?" Alex asked.

"Not much," Jamie said. "He wouldn't tell me anything." She scooped out two enchiladas onto plates, and then cut a little off the end of another for the twins to share. "He didn't deny that he was involved, though."

"Which means that he either is," Alex said, "and doesn't care that we know, or he isn't and he's trying to make us think that he is because as long as we're looking in the wrong places he's going to get to enjoy watching Reid Enterprises go under."

"He told me," Jamie said, slowly, remembering the words and suddenly wondering if they might have meaning after all, "that there were important things at stake. That he wouldn't tell me what was happening because of that."

"So you think that he’s actually involved?" Alex asked.

Jamie carried the plates over to the table and set them out, then went back for glasses. Alex started cutting the enchilada for the twins into pieces to let it cool.