The Secrets Between Us (Billionaire CEO Romance)

by Katie Mettner

  I grimaced hard, glad he couldn’t see my face. “I have an entire day of meetings tomorrow.”

  He stood and pulled me up by my shirt collar. “You’ll be in and out of the doctor’s office before seven a.m. Just make sure to bring a magazine and aim. Always aim.”

  I punched him in the gut playfully while laughing. “You’re a fucking comedian tonight.”

  “Better than being a fucking drunk, which is what you are. Go take a shower. You stink like booze, sex, and despair.”

  “Got it, a respectable CEO and all that,” I agreed. “Hey, just promise me you won’t tell Ange about this.”

  He lowered a brow at me. “Let me ask you a question. If you were me right now, and you were living with Mercy, would you not tell her what was going on?”

  I rubbed my temple and eyed him in confusion. “Dude, I think I’m drunker than I thought. My brain can’t even follow that question.”

  “My point is, I’m going to have to tell Ange. We’re partners and we tell each other everything, but she also drove your SUV home. She’s probably wondering what the hell is going on with her boss and friend. I’ll be discreet, but she needs to know.”

  I sighed, heavily, the booze burning like fire in my gut. “Fine, do whatever you want.”

  “Thanks, I will, and I’ll also get the appointment set for you tomorrow morning. By noon, you’ll know the truth. Don’t do anything you’ll regret before then.”

  I laughed sadly, and stared at the floor to hold back the tears. “I think that ship sailed the moment I walked out of Cashmere Camp after calling her a whore.”

  He braced his hand on my shoulder. “Geez, Hayes, tell me you didn’t.”

  I didn’t answer, because the look in my eye was enough for him to see the truth. I was a dickish asshole with a broken heart, but I’d shattered hers. I saw it on her face when I walked away, again.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  MERCY

  “What am I doing?” I asked myself aloud. I sat in my car outside Rutherford Designs on Monday morning with dried tears on my face and pain in my heart. I didn’t know a lot, but I did know the child I was carrying was his. I had to somehow convince him of that. I didn’t want anything from him other than to give him the opportunity to know his child. I was afraid if he shut me out, he’d lose out on the best thing he didn’t know he wanted.

  A tap sounded on the driver’s window and I jumped back, surprised to see a face outside. He wasn’t a cop, and I didn’t know the guy, so I wasn’t rolling my window down. “Mercy?” he asked through the glass.

  I reached over and put it down a crack. “Who are you and how do you know my name?”

  “My name is Caleb Rutherford,” he explained. “You don’t know me, but I know your car. I’m in charge of my brother’s protection when he’s at other properties, so, unfortunately, what you drive and where you live isn’t a secret to me.”

  Without the window obscuring my view, I saw the resemblance immediately. “I see,” I said slowly. “Hayes mentioned you, a lot.”

  “Would you like to come in?” he asked, pointing at the unassuming office building, one I knew was nothing of the sort. The inside of that building was all high tech, something I was likely to never understand. What was I doing here? I wasn’t part of his world. I could never assimilate into this world with success.

  “No, no, I don’t think so,” I whispered, staring at the grip knob on my steering wheel. It was yet another reminder that Hayes Rutherford the Fourth was not in my league. My league was Little League and he played in the majors.

  “Why did you drive all the way here if you don’t want to come in?” He stared in the window at me and it was unnerving how much he looked like his brother.

  I rolled it down a little bit further so I could hear him better. “I don’t know, to be honest. I can barely force air into my lungs right now. I didn’t know what else to do.” I cleared my throat, trying to force the tears back so he didn’t hear them in my voice.

  “Why don’t you let me buy you a coffee?” he asked, motioning at the building. “We have a coffee shop inside.”

  “I don’t want to run into Hayes,” I answered truthfully.

  “Not a worry,” he assured me, “he’s in a meeting until after lunch. At least come inside and have a muffin or something to drink. I can’t let you drive away in the condition you’re in. You’re almost as big of a mess as Hayes was last night.”

  “I’m not sure if I should be offended by that or worried about him,” I said, trying to joke, but my voice was nasally and tired.

  “I’ll say you are cleaner and smell better than he did, but otherwise, I think you’re both feeling the same way. Come in with me? We can even hide in the basement in my office so there’s no chance of an encounter with anyone else. It was a long drive here. At the very least you better get out and stretch your legs.”

  I let out a breath and nodded. “You’re probably right,” I agreed. I rolled up the window, climbed out, and locked the door. “I probably shouldn’t drive back home without resting.”

  He held a door open near the back of the building and motioned me in, leading me down the hallway with his hand on my back. We took a set of industrial style stairs down to the basement and my feet paused in their steps. The bottom floor of the building was obviously the main work hub. There was a glass-encased room that held nothing but TV monitors as men and women kept an eye on what was happening throughout the building. I could see hallways that branched out into rooms where people were using tools to build, cut, and pound.

  “Wow,” I said, taking in one room as we walked by. “That’s incredible.”

  He paused by the door and motioned inside. “That’s our model building room. Every project gets a miniature build down here to present to the client. It’s one of my favorite rooms to stop by each day.”

  I stood transfixed as they built a skyscraper, adding the peak, which required the architect to stand on a ladder to complete. “I see why,” I agreed and followed him down the hallway.

  He pulled out a chair for me to sit, and grabbed the phone, punching in a number. All he said was, my office.

  My head snapped up. “Tell me that wasn’t Hayes,” I whispered, starting to shake. “You promised.”

  He held up his hands. “It wasn’t Hayes. Just his assistant. She’ll bring you some coffee, decaf in light of the situation, and a snack. From there, you decide what to do.”

  I leaned back in the chair, physically exhausted and unsure of what to think, feel, or do. “Thanks. I didn’t think it out when I left this morning. I just knew I couldn’t leave it the way we left it. I figured he wouldn’t take my call.”

  He tipped his head to the left for a moment. “He may have. He’s awfully chewed up about all of this.”

  “He has that right,” I agreed. “I’m not trying to trap him or the Rutherford family, Caleb. I hope you know that. I’ll do what I’ve always done and take care of business on my own, but I also think he deserves the chance to know his child. I know it’s his baby, even if he doesn’t believe me. He’s the only man I’ve been with since my husband died.”

  He leaned forward and clasped his hands. “No one thinks you’re trying to trap us, Mercy.”

  “Uh, yeah, Hayes does,” I whispered sarcastically, but with a heavy dose of hurt and confusion. “He straight up told me that yesterday after he called me a whore. Or was it before? I can’t remember.”

  Caleb rolled his shoulders tightly. “Listen, it’s Hayes’s job to protect the company, not yours, and he failed at that job the moment he walked into your camp. You can’t blame yourself for his mistakes.”

  “Hey,” a voice said, and we both turned to see a woman in the doorway. “I’m Ange,” she said, stepping in and holding her left hand out for me to shake, which surprised me since most people don’t think that quickly on their feet. It’s usually an awkward dance of hand switching when they encounter Justice. I shook it limply and then my hand fell back to my lap.
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  “Mercy,” I answered. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you from Hayes. I should offer both of you my congratulations. He mentioned you’re engaged now.”

  “Thank you, and it’s a pleasure to meet you. Hayes talks about you nonstop.”

  I laughed softly and shook my head. “I doubt that’s the case now.”

  Ange smiled encouragingly. “I actually haven’t seen him today. He had a meeting early and has been tied up all day. I was going to bring you something to drink and a muffin, but I thought maybe you’d like to see the facility. We could tour it on the way to the coffee shop.”

  Caleb stood and put his arm around Ange. “She wanted to stay down here so she wouldn’t run into Hayes.”

  Ange nodded once. “I can understand that, but if you don’t want to run into Hayes, why are you here?”

  “She doesn’t know that either,” Caleb answered for me, winking at his fiancée.

  “Maybe a tour of the place and a good cup of hot cocoa would help you figure out that answer? I can promise that you won’t run into Hayes. He’s offsite for a meeting and won’t be back for hours. You can be long gone before he’s back if that’s what you want.”

  “If you’re sure. I could stand to walk around a bit.” I stood and wiped my hand on my pants, my nervousness obvious to everyone in the room.

  Caleb patted Ange on the back. “You two go ahead. I have a meeting with Vanessa in twenty. Let me know if you need anything and I’ll be there.”

  “Thanks, Caleb,” I said, hugging him for a quick second. “I appreciate your kindness.”

  He offered me a smile much like his brother’s and winked. “Anyone who can chew my brother up the way you have is someone I want in this family.”

  “I don’t understand. Usually, that’s a bad thing.”

  He did the so-so hand. “While the baby complicates matters, what I meant was, you’ve made his heart beat again. You’ve been the only woman to make him feel anything in all these years. Just don’t give up on him yet, okay?”

  I nodded once and followed Ange out of the office and down the hallway, the opposite direction of the way we came in. “I — I don’t think I’m going to stay,” I said, my head down. “I think I should leave and go back to camp. I thought I could handle another confrontation with him, but I don’t think I can. I’m tired and I shouldn’t have come.”

  She put her arm around my shoulders and slowed her steps to match mine. “Listen, I know what an asshole Hayes can be, but I also know what an amazing heart he has. You threw him for a solid loop yesterday and while I haven’t seen him, his brother had to pull him out of a bar last night before he got alcohol poisoning. Those are not the actions of a man who doesn’t care.”

  “I fucked this up royally, didn’t I?” I asked when we stopped by a room with a glass window overlooking it. I leaned my head on the cool glass and took a deep breath, but it got stuck in my chest.

  “No, Mercy, if what you say is true and that baby growing inside you is a Rutherford, then Hayes is the one who fucked it up. That’s not on you. I happen to know he’s trying to sort this out. Love can overcome anything, have faith in that.”

  “I’m not great at the faith or the love part. I’m sure he’s told you about my past. I’m a widow, a black widow. He should probably run while he still can. Maybe that’s what he did and I should let it go.”

  She rubbed my back slowly in a comforting rhythm. If I wasn’t standing up, I’d probably fall asleep. “You’re no more a black widow than he’s a thoughtless murderer. The only difference between you and him is affluence.”

  I laughed then, my head tipped back and the sound free for the first time in twenty-four hours. “Funny, he once said the same thing to me.”

  She chuckled and dropped her hand from my back. “Because he can see the truth. You were both in the same hopeless, no-way-out situation. No matter what decision you made, someone was going to die. That’s a lot to live with, but that doesn’t mean the rest of your life has to be ruled by it. Hayes lucked out because of his birthright. You weren’t afforded the same support and that altered your path. I don’t think that makes you a black widow. I think that makes you resilient, strong,” she said, grasping Justice’s elbow, “and cautious. That said, somewhere in you remained the ability to love. I’m not that strong. I would have buckled under the pressure. You didn’t. You put one foot in front of the other and kept going. Just like you’re doing now. That says more about your character than words can, as far as I’m concerned.”

  “I sometimes forget that other people see my life differently than I do.” I offered her a genuine smile. “I appreciate your kind words to support me right now. I’m feeling rough.”

  “I can tell. How about that hot cocoa?” she asked, hitting the elevator button and it opened, allowing us entrance.

  I turned in a circle, taken aback by the beauty of the space. “I don’t think I’ve ever been in an elevator like this before.” My voice was filled with awe. “Is this brocade?”

  “It is,” she said, facing the door. “Hayes the Third was nothing if not flashy. He wasn’t afraid to spend money to make a good impression.”

  “I guess his son learned it from him then.”

  She spun on her heel and peered at me. “Hayes? Hayes doesn’t spend money on anything unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

  “He drives a hundred-thousand-dollar car!” I exclaimed, throwing my hands up.

  She started to laugh, her original snort breaking out into full-on laughter as the doors parted and we stepped out onto a carpeted walkway. Ahead was a coffee shop on a balcony overlooking the main floor. It was breathtaking to stand at the railing and look down at the marble floor or up at the open ceilings, something you definitely wouldn’t expect from outside the building. Maybe Hayes was more of a mystery to me than I thought he was.

  “He does drive expensive cars, but he’d prefer not to. The difference is, his dad owned that Mercedes dealership.”

  I sighed and hung my head. “Which means now he owns it.”

  “You got it.” She patted my back with patience. “He gets the cars at cost, so it just makes sense to him to drive one. The rest of him though, about as least pretentious as you can get for someone who has this much money,” she said, motioning around. She stepped to the counter and ordered two hot cocoas and two muffins, then directed me to a table to sit.

  When the food was brought out, I took a sip of the hot cocoa, moaning a little at how good it was. “I think I’m in heaven.”

  “Good, right?” she asked, taking a drink of her own. “Did you know that the coffee shop is run by special needs kids and adults?”

  I lowered my muffin to the table. “No, I didn’t know that. He never mentioned it.”

  “I’m not surprised, he has a tendency to ignore the good things he does. Part of me thinks he does them as a way to make up for his past.”

  I laughed sadly. “Yeah, I know that one, too.”

  “Hayes knows business, and he knew a coffee shop in this place would make a ton of money by default. He saw a chance to do something with the money to help others, so he implemented a program to employ those with special needs. It gives the workers a chance to learn job skills and have steady employment, with the added benefit that all the money made goes to fund their Special Olympics trips.”

  “That’s spectacular,” I agreed, waving at one of the boys who stood at the counter continually waving at me. “You can tell they’re happy to be here. I bet coming here for coffee makes everyone’s day.”

  “Some days you can’t even get near the place,” she agreed, winking. “Now, finish your muffin, there’s one more place I want to show you.”

  She didn’t elaborate, so I took a bite of the muffin and tried to pretend this was like any other time two women met up for coffee. My heart knew it wasn’t, though. Try as I might, I couldn’t convince my heart it wasn’t broken, or my brain that I wasn’t carrying the love child of Hayes Rutherford
the Fourth.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  MERCY

  My stomach was no longer angry at me after eating the muffin, but my body still wasn’t happy in general. I was exhausted and ready to go home, which I would do as soon as I finished the tour of Rutherford Designs with Ange.

  “Did Hayes talk to you about our new project?” she asked while I ran my hand over the stained-glass doors. There was nothing factory or industrial in this building that I could see. It was one hundred percent extra, as the kids liked to say.

  “The 3D printing, you mean?”

  “Well, we have a lot of 3D printing here since it’s what we use to build our models,” she hedged.

  “I meant printing 3D hands for people,” I said, holding up Justice for a split second.

  She grinned and put her hand to her chest. “Good, he did talk to you about it. I mentioned it and then all of a sudden, I worried he hadn’t had a chance. What did you think about it?”

  “He surprised me, a lot. I wasn’t expecting him to pick this as a subgenre when he talked about it with me before Christmas.” She frowned and I caught her arm, stopping us short. “Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s awesome that the company picked it as a new avenue to explore. I’m just not sure how making 3D printed hands will be profitable.”

  She held up her finger. “Not just hands. We hope to be making other things as well. Things like custom braces for arms and legs, braces for athletes, and even braces for pets. There’s a need out there for quality products that people can afford.”

  “You’re not kidding,” I agreed, holding Justice up again. “If you can’t afford the microprocessor arms or knees, you’re basically stuck using technology from the nineteen-hundreds, which isn’t comfortable, effective, or particularly useful. I can do more without a prosthesis than I could with a socket and hook.”