The Romance Challenge, Complete Series Box Set: BBW Hot Alpha Billionaire Romance (14 page)

As I debated, he caught site of me and
smiled, then motioned for me to come to him.

"Fine. I'll get with you on the
details later. Goodbye." He touched his phone, then put it on a table.
"Come here, I want to show you something. Good morning."

"Afternoon," I corrected.
"What's this?" I looked at his open laptop.

"This is the report of your sister's
robbery and attack. And this," he pointed, "is someone accessing the
file the next day."

"Detective Taylor, probably.
So?"

"Not the detective. Whoever opened
this bypassed official channels. Through a cyber back door."

I frowned. "Who would do that?"

"You tell me. Did you ask anyone else
to look into your case?"

"No, and if someone did, Chuck would have
let me know. How did you get this info?"

"I have friends. Friends with
skills."

I put my hands on my hips. "And why
are you digging around in the first place?"

"To see if there's anything that's
been missed on the night your sister was attacked. It might help, having a
fresh set of eyes view the file."

"I don't want your help, I told you.
I'll hire a private detective. He can do his own digging."

"He won't have access to this, trust
me."

"No, I don't want to trust you. I
don't want you involved in my life. At all." My voice rose but I couldn't
help it. "I want you to drop this. I appreciate you having the statue sent
to me, but that's enough."

"Listen." He took my arm but I
snatched it away.

"Am I in the right place?"

We both turned at the sound of the voice
across the room, to see a woman in a housekeeper's uniform, standing in the
doorway.

"You sure are." I hurried to
greet her. Hopefully, the music drowned out our argument.

I introduced myself, showed her the food
and handed her the envelope with her name on it. She promised to fill out a
comment slip and drop it off in the suggestion box, which I'd put in the
employee break area. Nathan came to join us.

"I'm Nathan, from Cameron Industries,
the new owners of Bay Paradise."

He shook hands with the woman and she
giggled, a shy grin lighting her face.

"We've heard about you."

"What have you heard?" He
frowned.

"Uh, just stuff." Her smile fell
and she took a step back.

"I'm sure everyone here has been
talking. That's what people do when new owners take over." I nudged him
with my foot.

He must have realized, scowling at
employees didn't promote goodwill. He cleared his throat and smiled.
"You've heard all good things, right?"

Her eyes opened wide and I swear, the woman
looked about ready to faint. That smile, when he turned on the charm,
was
pretty
dazzling. Packaged with his piercing eyes and sexy body that looked good in
whatever he wore, Nathan made an impact.

"I just heard you're the new owner,
and you're going to make improvements around the place."

"That's right. So please, fill out
the comment slips with any questions or concerns you have. I want to hear
them."

"Okay." She giggled again, we
chatted for a few more moments, she picked out a sandwich, and left.

I headed toward Nathan, who had moved to
the back of the room while I'd been talking. This argument was not over.
"Please, stay out of my business. I don't need your help."

"Fine. If that's what you want."
He shut the laptop.

"It is." But not really. I wanted
to see that screen again, to know who else showed an interest in the case.
Nathan said he had friends with skills. Could they find out?

My face must have given away my curiosity.
Nathan's mouth turned up slightly.

"If you change your mind, you know
how to reach me."

Another employee entered, and I stepped
back a pace from Nathan, suddenly aware how close I stood.

He gestured up front. "I'll let you
say hello before I approach and scare them off. In between talking to people
today, we can go over the notes and suggestions you've made so far."

"Works for me." I went to the
front of the room, anxious to get away from that damn pull Nathan had on me.

We stayed busy with people visiting off
and on, sometimes more than once, bringing in a co-worker and snagging another
sandwich. All of them seemed happy to have food and a chance to win a hundred
dollars. Nathan and I both relaxed and enjoyed talking to people.

At least I did. He still maintained a slightly
standoffish attitude, like he didn't know how to make small talk. Maybe he
didn't. He probably hired administrative people to take care of all his
interactions with workers. The people he normally talked to were on a way
different level than these employees. Points to him for showing up and being
here, on the ground floor, making the effort.

 After their initial hesitation, most of
the staff chatted with him at least a few minutes. And it might be my wicked
imagination, but I could swear, the women eyed Nathan with longing. He looked
hot, as usual, in a short-sleeve button down shirt tucked into khaki pants. A
weird possessiveness made me want to reach out and curl my arm through his,
pulling him next to me tight. I resisted and kept my distance. Bad enough one
employee already figured out I'd been to bed with the boss.

We kept conversation between the two of us
business only, the way I wanted it to stay, and the day moved along fast. At
three forty-five, we started to pack up the food to take to the café's
refrigerator. We'd leave at four, then return at nine o'clock for a short time,
to catch the few night-shift staff.

"Hey, are you the new owner?"

I was at the back of the room, turning off
the stereo. Nathan stood at the front and greeted the man walking in with an
outstretched hand.

"Yes, I'm Nathan Cameron. And you
are?"

"I hear you've got a suggestion box.
I got one for you. Stop treating your employees like shit."

I stared. Who the heck was this? A tall
guy, mid-twenties maybe, someone I'd never seen before. I hurried up near
Nathan.

"And you." He turned toward me and
I smelled whiskey on his breath. He weaved slightly and my mind pulled up a
sudden memory of my father, coming home some nights, reeking and moving the
same way. Then the arguments that followed, with him and my mom.

"You're the bitch going around asking
questions. Shit that's none of your concern. Stay out of our business, you got
it? That's my suggestion."

Nathan's hand formed a fist at his side.
"What's your name?"

"Not going to fuckin' tell you.
Where's the food, bitch?" He came toward me.

Nathan stepped in front of him. "Get
out. And you're fired."

The guy raised his hand and so fast I barely
saw him move, Nathan grabbed it, twisted his arm, and brought it up behind the
guy's back.

"Mother fuck! Let go of me."

"First, you tell me your name. Then,
you apologize to my associate. After that, I'm going to escort you off the
property."

"Robert, my name's Robert. Let go of
my arm."

"I haven't heard an apology."

"Nathan." I moved into his line
of sight. "I overheard one of the other employees talking. I think Robert
lost his mother today, is that right?" I looked at the young man, who suddenly
burst into tears.

Nathan lowered his arm and Robert crumbled
to the floor.

"She wasn't supposed to die so
soon," he sobbed. "Doctor said she had another couple of years. We have
plane tickets for a trip to New York for Christmas." He buried his head in
his hands.

I knelt with him and put my hand on his
shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Robert. Do you have other family, someone you can
be with right now?"

"Naw, it's just me and her down here.
All my other people are up North. Shit, I got to call them."

I took his hand. "Why are you still
here? Why didn't you go home?"

He sniffed. "I ride with a buddy.
He's not off his shift yet. My supervisor let me go early, so I went to a bar, had
a few drinks."

"I'll take you home." Nathan
stood over us and held out his hand. "Come on."

The man looked up at him, hesitated a
moment, then took it and allowed Nathan to pull him up. "I live in Homestead."

"No problem. Amber, please pack up
food for Robert. Can you get the room cleaned up by yourself?"

"Yes." I quickly grabbed several
sandwiches, sodas, and a big bag of pretzels and stuffed them all into an empty
grocery bag.

"Are you going to contact his
supervisor?" I handed Nathan the bag.

"You contact her. I'll follow up
later."

"Call me when you're back,
okay?"

"Will do."

I waited till they left the room before I
blew out a huge sigh and wiped my damp palms down my shaky legs. Holy crap. That
scared the spit out of me, more than I'd thought. Poor Robert. I'd heard a
whispered conversation with his name, but didn't know he was working today. I
couldn't imagine how awful he must feel.

Why didn't he ask someone to take him
home? Did he really feel he was being treated poorly at the hotel? Probably
not. Probably, it was the booze and grief making him crazy. I texted myself a
quick note, to see what kind of bereavement policy Bay Paradise Resort had, then
called Elena, Robert's supervisor. She wasn't at the hotel, but answered her
cell phone.

"Yeah, he told me, late in the day.
He'd just got the call. I told him to go home. Shit, he stuck around? I didn't
know he needed a ride. I wasn't there; it's my day off. I would have come in,
taken him home myself. He okay?"

I mentioned nothing about him coming into
the Reef room, or his drinking. I'd let Nathan decide what to do with that.

"Nathan gave him a ride home. He'll
contact you later. Let us know if we can do anything."

The staff needed to realize, when
something so horrible happened, they could ask for help. I hoped Nathan would
be on board with making everyone aware of that. I knew he wouldn't be the one actually
managing the hotel, but hoped he would make sure good benefit policies existed.
Bay Paradise and the employees were starting to leave an imprint on my heart.

I loaded up the cart housekeeping had
left, locked up the room, and wheeled the cart to the Water's Edge Café. We'd
pull it back out for our late shift tonight. Both of us would be tired by the
time this weekend was over, for sure. I went back to my room and knowing it
wasn't the best idea, poured myself a glass of wine anyway. My pulse still
raced a little too fast. Having a man come at me was far out of my comfort
zone. Watching Nathan jump in to protect me… I smiled, and a warm, fuzzy feeling
wrapped around my heart.

I called Michelle and left her a message,
along with another picture for her to guess what her surprise was, and texted
my cat-sitting neighbor. I was rewarded with a return text and a picture of
Pumpkin, curled up on her couch. I touched the phone screen.

Stay warm, little buddy. I'll be home
soon.
Much as I loved this place, I'd be happy to see my
cat, to enjoy his soft, purring body snuggled up next to me. I grabbed a chunk
of cheese from the refrigerator and splashed another portion of wine into my
glass.

How would I feel if something happened to
my mom? We weren't on the best of terms, but I still loved her. Though she was
the one to pull away from me after Michelle's attack, I never put much effort
into keeping us close. I could do better.

I took out my sparkly notebook and on my
Things To Do page wrote in giant letters,
Call Mom. Talk.
It would take
work and maybe Mom would still reject me, but I had the feeling, she might be
ready to bridge the gap. Thinking of Robert's tear-stained face, I vowed to
keep trying until she did.

Then I remembered. The statue. It should have
been delivered today. I got so wrapped up in resort business, I totally forgot.
I called to the front desk and they said the delivery service hadn't been there
yet. Deciding to rest for a few minutes, I flopped onto my bed. A knock at the
door startled me awake.

Crap. Eight o'clock. How had I slept for
so long? "Who is it?" I called, then peeked out the window. Nathan,
holding a package. I opened the door.

"This came for you. I picked it up at
the front desk."

I took the box. "Thanks. You got
Robert home okay?"

"Yes. Can I come in?"

Ohhhh. Bad idea. As the cobwebs cleared
from my brain, I felt that usual magnetic pull to Nathan. I didn't want to let
him in, but it would be pretty rude not to. I stepped back, and he entered.

"Thanks for picking this up for
me." I cut the box open with a knife from the kitchen, dug through the packing
paper, and pulled out the statue.