The Billionaire Boyfriend Trap (17 page)

"Oh," I whispered, wiping my eyes. My tears
were close, me nerves on edge, and it wasn't just because of
Blake's sorry story. "That's so sad."

"At least he's back now."

"For how long?"

"It depends."

The growl of the bulldozers being driven off
the backs of trucks stopped me asking more questions. Cassie's
voice came over the loud speaker, organizing the protesters into a
line that spanned the length of the house, two-deep. Somebody
started a chant and the line of people linked arms, joining in.

A foreman tried to shout over the top of
Cassie, asking people to move, but he was drowned out. He appealed
to the police, standing by watching. There were only four of them,
not nearly enough to have an impact. They didn't seem interested in
moving anyone yet, and simply shrugged.

The foreman got on the phone. The media crews
got excited, smelling a story that had the potential to explode.
Nothing sells the news like a few celebrities getting involved in a
protest. The only thing that would sell more would be a
violent
protest involving celebrities.

"Holy cow!" said Becky, beside me. She nodded
at the drive where another half dozen police cars rolled into
view.

"The foreman seems stressed out," I said. "No
doubt Reece is riding him hard, telling him to get moving."

Becky hugged my arm. "Our plan isn't working,
is it?"

"No," I said heavily. "It's not."

The increased presence of the cops rallied
the foreman. "Go home now or you'll be forcibly moved!" he shouted
through his own loud speaker.

One of the cops snatched the hailer off him.
"Go home," he said to the protesters in a more placating voice.
"I've got orders to arrest anyone who tries to stop the crew from
doing their work."

"Becky, I want you to leave," I said.

"No way." She sounded excited and not at all
worried.

"I won't let you get a record because of
this. Or hurt."

She puffed out her chest. "And I won't let
that happen to you either. We're a team, Cleo. You take care of me
and I take care of you."

I tried to convince her, but she wasn't
listening. She and almost a hundred others shouted at the foreman
as he signaled the driver to start the bulldozer.

The machine drove forward and paused at the
human line. Nobody moved. An elderly lady smacked her poster on the
bulldozer and a policeman picked her up and carried her out of the
way as if she were as insignificant as a twig. Another cop cuffed
her.

That riled up the protesters even more.
Cassie was clearly the leader, standing at the center, urging her
supporters to hold the line. A policeman headed over to her, but
Blake stepped in before the cop could haul her away. He wound up to
punch him, but Cassie leapt at him and said something I couldn't
hear. She pushed him back, somehow managing to use her small body
against his big one and succeed in shoving him out of trouble.

The other protesters swallowed them up and
swelled forward, surging around us like a tide. We were swept
ahead, jostled and elbowed. I lost Becky. I spotted the three
youngest Kavanagh brothers all shouting and shaking their fists at
the demolition crew. The cops formed a united barrier, but they
were outnumbered.

It wouldn't be long before tear gas and
violence were used.

"Becky!" I shouted. But it was useless. No
way could she hear me. I couldn't even see her. I climbed up on the
porch and scanned the throng, but it wasn't her I saw.

A tall, blonde woman carved a swathe through
the protestors, straight for the Kavanagh brothers. Behind her
trailed a tall, well-built man with gray hair, but it was the woman
who caught my attention.

It was Ellen, and she went right up to Ash
and hugged him. It would seem she knew all the Kavanaghs, not just
Reece. I watched as she urged all three of them to leave. They
shook their heads. Then the man joined in and she got angry at him
too and tried to pull him away. He leaned down and kissed her
lovingly, putting an end to her anger. No brother or mere friend
kissed like that. It was a lover's kiss.

I leaned forward on the porch rail, trying to
get a better look at him. His gait was familiar, and the way he
held himself. It was sort of imperial, as if he were above everyone
there. He turned, giving me a direct view of his face.

I gasped and fell back. It was Reece's face,
only older. It must be his father.

Which meant Ellen was either his wife or
lover. Reece's mother, or step-mother.

What the hell? She had set me up to spy on
her own son? It all fell into place. The reason why she'd targeted
him and this project—she lived right next door—her deep knowledge
of what Reece liked, and her reason for ultimately telling him that
I worked for her. It would have come out eventually, and it was
better coming from her sooner rather than later.

Even so, she'd misjudged her own son badly
and her plan had backfired. Not to mention she'd manipulated me as
well as Reece. I got the distinct impression she'd known I would
sleep with him all along and that he would want to have a
relationship with me. A proper one, not a casual fling.

A high-pitched cry to my right dragged my
attention away from the Kavanagh family reunion. I recognized that
cry. Becky. A policeman was hauling her away by her arms. Another
leaned over her, threatening. The look on her face was one of pure
terror.

CHAPTER 12

I fought my way toward Becky. I could no
longer see her or hear her, but I kept pushing through. I got
elbowed in the chest and hit across the cheek with the edge of a
wooden banner.

I spotted her pink shoe and barreled toward
it. She sat on the ground, one arm pinned behind her by a cop, the
other lashing out aimlessly. The other policeman shouted at her to
stop struggling or she'd be arrested for assaulting an officer. But
Becky wasn't listening. She was hysterical, crying and screaming
and kicking.

I had to get to her and calm her down before
she got herself hurt or arrested. "Becky!" I cried, shoving at the
sweaty body of a man who got too close. The crowd was thick near
her, the noise level deafening. It was chaos. The protesters
jostled for position and surged whenever the police arrested
someone.

"Becky, it's me!" I said when I drew closer.
"Stop fighting the cops." Another man crashed into me, and I tried
to push him away, but he was too heavy. Unbalanced, he fell in my
direction and took me down with him. He landed half on my chest,
but scrambled to his feet and got swallowed up by the crowd
again.

All the air rushed out of me. My lungs
constricted and wouldn't expand. I tried to suck in breaths, but
only managed a painful rasp.

"Cleo!" Becky screamed. I spotted her through
the legs. Her face was a picture of panic as she stared wide-eyed
back at me. At least she'd stopped struggling against the cop who
held her.

I tried to call out and tell her I'd be all
right, but without air, the words wouldn't come. Panic seized me by
the throat. I needed to breathe.

There were so many people around, but nobody
seemed aware of me. Feet kicked out or stepped over me. If I didn't
move I'd be trampled. But I couldn't get up, couldn't call for
help.

"Cleo!" Becky cried. "Help her! Over
there!

One of the cops charged through the crowd and
lifted me in his arms. He held me against his solid chest and
carried me out of danger to a bench seat beneath a tree where he
settled me gently down again, but did not let me go. He cradled me
against his body, my head tucked beneath his chin. He rubbed my
back with slow, melodic strokes, easing the panic out of me. My
chest inflated as the panic eased. I breathed once, twice, and
turned to my rescuer.

I stared into Reece's worried face.

He backed away, breathing hard, as if he too
struggled for breath. Then he turned and ran back to the house. I
tried to call his name, but my voice hadn't completely returned. It
died on my lips.

A moment later Becky was spat out by the
crowd and ran to me. "Cleo! Are you okay?" She helped me sit up
then sat beside me. "I saw you go down and the cops wouldn't let me
go to you. Next thing I knew, Reece was picking you up. He told the
cop to let me go just now, and he's dispersing the rest of the
protesters too."

"He is? How?" I followed her gaze to see the
bulldozers being driven onto the backs of the trucks.

The protesters cheered and Cassie's voice
came over the loud speaker, hailing it as a victory over the greedy
RK Financial Group and Reece in particular. She went on to say the
war wasn't over yet. The bulldozers would be back tomorrow.

Reece hadn't given in.

I shut my eyes and concentrated on filling my
lungs with delicious air, but I couldn't completely block out
thoughts of Reece, the way he'd wrapped his arms around me, and the
terror I'd felt at seeing Becky dragged off by the police. The
thought of doing it all again the next day defeated me. I started
to cry.

Becky folded me in her arms. "We'll get
through this together, Sis. It'll be all right." It was what I used
to say to her after she underwent chemo. I hardly thought the two
things compared, but clearly my words had made an impact. I felt
proud of her, of her courage and fight, and hugged her back. She
was a great kid.
Woman
, I corrected. She was all grown up
now.

"Cleo? Cleo, are you all right?" It was
Ellen's voice, edged with worry.

I wiped my tears and blinked back at her.
"You're his mother," I accused.

"Who's this?" Becky asked.

"Ellen," I said without taking my gaze off my
former boss. "Mrs. Kavanagh. She hired me to sleep with her
son."

"I did not!" Ellen said, hands on hips. She
shook her head and sat on my other side. "Cleo, I hired you for
exactly the job I told you to do. Stop Reece from tearing this
place down."

"We failed."

"It looks like it's still standing to
me."

"Reece will be back with his bulldozers
tomorrow and more police. The standoff won't last forever."

"Well," she said, her voice brittle as dry
paper. "Why did he come here today, do you think? He's not been
here for ten years, but he came despite telling me, his father and
each of his brothers that he wouldn't."

I shrugged. I didn't want to play games with
her. Ellen was just too good and I was a mess. "I don't know and I
don't care."

"Of course you do. Blake told me why Reece
came. He knows his brother better than anyone else. They're very
similar."

"What did Blake say?" I was too tired to
battle with her. I couldn't see Reece and for the first time in
weeks, I didn't want to. He was no good for me and it was time I
realized it and moved on.

"That Reece heard your voice when Blake
called earlier and came straight over. He knew there was going to
be trouble. It was all over the news, which is why I came too.
Reece was worried about you, Cleo."

I sighed and scanned the thinning crowd. I
found Reece talking to the police, perhaps smoothing things over.
At one stage, he turned around and snapped at the reporter shoving
a microphone in his face. She scampered away to a safe distance
with her camera crew.

"We don't believe that," Becky told Ellen.
"If he was worried, he would have come and seen if she was okay in
the last few weeks. Because you know what? She hasn't been
okay."

"Becky," I scolded gently. "Don't."

"He's too proud to back down and give in,"
Ellen said. "But he did take care of you, in his own way."

Becky folded her arms and
humphed
. I
stared at Ellen. "
Reece
paid off my loan?"

She nodded.

"How did he know? I never told him. Or you,
for that matter."

"I found out when I first employed you. Don't
look at me like that, Cleo. You don't expect me to employ people
without checking their credit history and other records, do
you?"

I shook my head, not because I was
disagreeing with her, but because I couldn't believe I'd
underestimated her. "That was my private information, and you told
Reece! Christ, Ellen, that's…" I was lost for words. I should have
been angrier than I was, but it was hard to get angry when she and
Reece had actually done me a favor. "Ruthless," I finished for
myself. "Like mother, like son."

"It does tend to run in the family."

"The information you gave me listed his
mother's name as Bertha. Is that you?"

She pulled a face. "Bertha. Ugh. Ellen is my
middle name."

"So what other secrets did you tell him about
me and Becky?"

"Nothing!" She held up her hands. The gold
rings on nearly every finger winked in the sun. "I only told him
that because I became worried after he fired you. I knew you had
debts and needed a well-paying job to pay them off. I was furious
with him and told him he shouldn't have behaved so rashly. He'd put
a huge amount of pressure on you in doing so. He asked me for your
account information."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I would have if you returned my calls."

I bit my lip.

"But that's all I told him," she said. "I
never mentioned your parents' deaths or your sister's health. I
don't know how he knew about her, but he must have found out
because he paid for that cancer wellness center."

Becky gasped. "
He
paid for it! You
mean…all of it?"

Ellen lifted one shoulder. "They only needed
another million to finish it off."

Becky's eyes bulged. "A million!"

"He knew about Becky," I said. "He found out
just before we…before he fired me."

Ellen nudged my shoulder gently with her own.
"See?"

"See what?"

"He cares about you. He wouldn't have done
those things if he didn't."