Perfect Homecoming (Barrington Billionaires Book 10)

by Danielle Stewart

  The truth wasn’t a story she’d share with him, and a lie, one good enough to convince him of her reasons, would kill the mood. Instead she played into the already working angle. “You mentioned how much the world has changed. Well, men have changed just as much. It’s far more difficult to let your guard down and know that you’ll be safe. I usually prefer to have my wits about me just to be sure.”

  His wide, smug smile was like watching a ball sail over the outfield fence. She’d just hit a home run. “That’s actually very sweet, and I give you credit for having such self-control. But you don’t need it tonight. I’m not some twenty-three-year-old frat boy who can’t get a woman without liquoring her up. I have no trouble in that department. You’re perfectly safe with me. Have some wine.”

  It had been so long since she’d had any alcohol she worried how quickly it might go to her head. But this was part of the script she couldn’t cut out. He’d need this. The power that came from convincing her to give up a conviction of hers was intoxicating to him, and he didn’t hide it well. He filled her glass, much higher than a normal pour, and then slid it closer to her.

  This was a test. How much could he make her do before she protested? Taking the glass between her fingers, she brought it to her lips and sipped slowly. Carmen closed her eyes and savored the wine as if it were the best she’d ever had. There was a chance it was. “That is delicious.”

  “Why deprive yourself of something that good?” His voice was low and full of innuendo. “I’m all about what feels good.”

  “I think I like that.”

  “Trust me, you will. People spend so much of their lives following the rules and playing it safe. As badass as Gloria was, that’s all she was doing. I know she took risks in business, but from what I hear it ended there. If that’s the kind of mentor you’ve had, it’s pretty obvious why you’re like this.”

  Why you’re like this . . . He was clever. The implication that she was somehow broken or damaged was one more land mine he could plant in her brain to blow up later. All these words were intended to send her self-confidence plummeting low enough for him to capitalize on. She wanted to slap Gloria’s name right out of this fool’s mouth.

  “What kind of risks should I take?” She kept the wine glass in her hand and let it hover up by her lips. She’d give him the illusion she was drinking more of it than she was.

  “Skipping dinner.”

  “This dinner?”

  “Yes. I’ll have them cork this wine and we can take it to go.”

  “To go where?”

  “An adventure.” He cocked up one of his overly waxed brows and dared her to say no. How could she at this point? He’d set it up perfectly. Any kind of rejection would have her looking like an immature, inexperienced coward who wouldn’t make it in business or in life. He was going to reap all the seeds of doubt he’d sewn. He jumped on her hesitation. “No pressure, though. We can sit here and have dinner like two very uppity and professional people. But you did say you wanted to start living life.”

  “I did say that.” She looked around the room. “But won’t they think it’s odd that we aren’t staying?” Carmen gestured to the waitress who was taking an order at a table outside their private room.

  “You should start seeing things and people for what they are. At the risk of sounding like a complete elitist asshole, I’m going to give you a lesson. That waitress, as waitresses go, is actually pretty smart. She’s working in an upscale place where tips are good. Someone like a waitress at a breakfast diner, they’re getting a couple bucks a table in tips and have to be up at the crack of dawn slinging eggs. But at the end of the day, this girl probably makes forty thousand on a good year. I doubt she has any benefits. Probably no 40lk. We walk in here and we’re the best-case scenario. We’re living the dream she can’t imagine for herself. I saw your salary on your application. You’ve buzzed around in private jets, and hell, you lived in Italy for years on Gloria’s dime. This girl probably doesn’t even have a passport. When we get up and leave here with our corked bottle of wine and a spark of adventure in our eyes, she’s not going to be judging us, she’s going to be green with envy. I know people think this is uncouth, but it’s reality, and the sooner you start living in it, the better off you’ll be.”

  Her stomach was sour to the point of nausea. This buffoon and his judgmental ignorance was enough to make her puke. “What kind of adventure did you have in mind?” That was the best she could muster. There was no way she was going to actively engage in his hateful classism if she could avoid it.

  “My boat is docked about a half hour from here.”

  That was a no-go. She’d researched him enough to know he liked to sail, but there was no way she as going out to sea with him. Brian wouldn’t let that fly either. It was way too much of a security risk.

  “I wish. I get violently ill at sea. I have a severe reaction, unfortunately. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to deal with that mess on your boat.”

  “We can stay docked. It’s a fifty-six foot yacht. All the creature comforts. I’d love you to see it. I have two more bottles of this wine on board.”

  “That’s a lot of wine without eating any dinner.”

  “We’ll get something to go. Let’s get out of here.” His impulsiveness bordered on manic and the look in his eyes matched. He was ready to go. This place had grown stale to him. It was all suddenly beneath his standards. She had never realized someone’s demeanor and expression could say so much.

  “Promise you won’t go out to sea? I’m not exaggerating. I get very ill and it would kill the—”

  “Mood?” Curtis lifted his wine glass to his lips and drank down a mouthful. He raised his hand and gestured for the waitress to come over. “Wrap the caviar and some other canapés for us to take with us. Then cork this wine and bring the check.”

  “Is everything all right, sir?” the waitress asked, gulping with concern. “Was something not to your liking?”

  “Relax,” he sniped. “You’re not in trouble. We’ve just decided we’d like less of a crowd, and we should make this a party for two.” His eyes were fixed on Carmen now, and he never spared another glance at the waitress as she hurried away to do his bidding.

  “I thought I was going to get a look at the city. Wasn’t this supposed to be about all the things that would attract me to this place?”

  “Attraction is a funny thing.” He gestured with his chin for her to drink her wine. “It pops up in the strangest places.”

  “Like on your boat?”

  “We’d have to see.”

  “I’m not so sure it’s a good idea for the two of us and a couple bottles of wine to be alone on your boat. It seems like we could really complicate things.”

  “People complicate things,” he corrected with no attempt to hide his condescension. “Situations are actually very simple. They haven’t really changed much since the beginning of time. It’s the people who muddy it all up. But we’ve already established we’re not those kinds of people.”

  “I don’t know what kind of woman I am with wine in me anymore.”

  “I look forward to finding out.” He might as well have sprouted horns and turned red. How had she ever fallen for this kind of man? “But listen, like I said, I’m not a pushy guy. I don’t need to be. So if at any point you want to call it a night, that’s fine by me.”

  She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as though she were giving this all a lot of thought. Then as a silent response, she picked up her wine and began to drink.

  “That’s a girl.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Brian

  A boat? They’re going on his boat? Not happening. This guy, and every word that slithered out of his mouth, was hot burning garbage. If he had been sitting at that table, he’d have thrown Curtis through a wall. How Carmen kept herself composed was a true testament to how dedicated she was to taking him down.

  The night was progressing too quickly. When Carmen had laid out what she th
ought might happen, the timeline was longer. Dinner. Maybe a club or a bar. Some exclusive rooftop where he could show her the views of the city. Then at the end of all that, he would invite her somewhere they could be alone. Less than an hour in, and he’d already arranged that. More importantly he’d picked a place that would be hard for Brian to surveil, and if they did go out to sea she’d be completely at Curtis’s disposal.

  He had to slow this night down, and the streets he’d grown up on had provided him with plenty of options for how to get that done. He’d already been watching the valet and knew where Curtis’s ridiculously large SUV had been parked. They couldn’t fit it in the garage so they’d made a space for it in the alley behind the restaurant.

  Pulling up the hood on his coat, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and made his way there. Brian moved through shadows like a pro. It was important at times to go unnoticed. Whether in a house full of siblings or a street corner late at night, sometimes you had to hide in plain sight.

  When he was certain no one was coming his way, he pulled the small pocketknife from the clip on his belt and moved toward the vehicle. With force he jammed the blade into the first tire and felt some sort of vindication. He couldn’t punch Curtis in the face, at least not at the moment. This served as a good substitute. It would only take one tire to slow them down. Curtis probably had a spare. So even though Brian felt compelled to slash all four tires, that wouldn’t work. Then the vehicle would need to be towed, and Curtis would have a rental pulling up moments later.

  But there was one more thing he could do. He took the blade of the knife and held it against the paint of the driver’s side door. With a swift motion, he carved a word.

  Thief

  It was general enough that Curtis would have to really give some thought to the motivation behind it. Little did he know, it was just Brian’s way of throwing him off his game. Tucking the knife back in his pocket, he jogged away and got back in the car. He was anxious to be able to see the streaming feed from the camera built into the pin on Carmen’s dress. An area that asshole kept inspecting closely. And obviously not because he liked the pin.

  Part of him did not want to miss the look on Curtis’s face when he realized someone had vandalized his car. Brian watched a valet jog over to the alley. From the camera feed, he could tell Carmen and Curtis were waiting outside now.

  Plugging his headphones back in, he could tell from Curtis’s tone he was annoyed. “You knew I was paying the bill. Why isn’t my truck out here?”

  “There’s a problem.” A skittish kid with a lightning bolt tattooed across his forearm was about to break the news. “You have a flat tire.”

  “What? How the hell does that happen in the parking garage?” Curtis was pacing now and Carmen took a step back. It was hard for Brian not to be able to see her face. He wanted to be able to read her expressions and watch for signs that something was wrong. Sure, they had systems set up for how she could alert him, but he’d also be able to tell if he could see her eyes.

  The scared kid stuttered out his answer. “It wasn’t in the garage. It wouldn’t fit. So I parked it around back in the alley.”

  “In the alley? Which is probably filled with garbage and glass. You’re going to pay for that tire. It’s your fault.”

  “I don’t think it was glass,” the valet said, dropping his head apologetically. “Someone cut the tire.”

  “What?” Carmen asked with a gasp. Brian was dying to know if she was acting or if she was genuinely surprised. More than that he wondered if she knew he’d done it.

  “How do you know that?” Curtis barked.

  “They um—” The valet waved him along. “Maybe you should see it for yourself.”

  Carmen followed quickly behind them and the video feed distorted and bounced. But Brian could still make out Curtis’s angry posture.

  “Thief?” Carmen questioned quietly as she approached the car. “Who would write that?”

  “Get someone out here now, way above your pay grade.” As the camera leveled out, Brian could see the blood rising to Curtis’s cheeks.

  “Do you have a spare?” Carmen asked gently. Curtis snapped his head around so quickly that Brian worried he might actually do something. The flash of anger on his face was impossible to miss.

  “Of course I have a spare.”

  “So we can change it and be on our way. It doesn’t have to ruin the night.” She reached a hand out to him and then recoiled it quickly when he glared at her.

  “This suit is three thousand dollars. You think I’m about to break out the jack and change this tire?”

  “Of course not. I only meant we could call someone and have it changed.” Carmen sounded small and apologetic. It filled Brian with rage.

  “Sir.” The valet’s voice quivered. “The manager is ready to talk to you in his office.”

  “Right,” Curtis scoffed. “Because he doesn’t want me making a scene out here or in the dining room. Fine. Let’s go.”

  “I’ll make a call about getting the tire changed,” Carmen offered in a far too chipper voice.

  “You aren’t my personal assistant,” Curtis snapped.

  “I know that. But it’s easy. I’ll take care of it.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Curtis insisted. “Let me go deal with this moron inside and then I’ll handle the tire.”

  “Of course,” Carmen agreed. “I’ll just enjoy the fresh air.”

  Curtis stormed off and Brian readied himself to answer his phone. She was going to call him. Or at least he hoped she would.

  When it rang, he answered immediately. “Hey.”

  “Seriously?”

  “I had to do something. Things were moving way too fast and the boat is a terrible idea.”

  “I know it is, but you could have been caught.”

  “I checked for cameras and made sure no one was around. Trust me, it’s not the first time I’ve pulled that move.”

  “I’m sure.” She sighed and he worried for her.

  “You doing all right?”

  “He’s such a piece of shit.”

  “He really is.”

  “I swear if I just released the recording of him so far, it would at least be enough for people to know he’s a dirtbag.”

  “For sure.”

  She was quiet for a moment and he worried that Curtis was coming back. “But it’s not enough.”

  “The boat is a bad idea. It complicates the situation. I can’t protect you if he decides to take that thing out to sea. Even if he doesn’t, I don’t know where exactly he’s docked. It could be very hard for me to keep an eye on you.”

  “I know.”

  “Then why did you say yes?”

  “Because he needs to hear a lot more yes before I give him the no. It has to catch him off guard in order to really set him off.”

  “What if you set him off and you’re in the middle of the ocean?”

  “That’s my line in the sand right now. I’ll get on the boat, but if that engine starts up, I’ll pull the plug. Okay?”

  “Nothing about this feels okay.”

  “I know.”

  He wondered what exactly she meant. Was she just appeasing him, or was this her way of saying she didn’t want to do this anymore?

  “Come to the car and let’s get out of here. We can grab our stuff at the hotel and be back at your apartment.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then whatever you want. Who knows how long it might take to really get anything incriminating on Curtis.”

  She paused for a moment. “That’s very tempting, but we’re closer than you think to this being over. I’ve got to go. He’s coming back.”

  “The boat is a bad idea.” The line cut off and he wasn’t sure how much of his warning she’d heard. Or if it would sway her. Clicking back over to the live feed, Brian watched with more intensity. Carmen’s words were haunting him. We’re closer than you think to this being over.

  That was exactly what was worryi
ng the shit out of Brian now.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Carmen

  The tire change and ride to the boat were not nearly as contentious as she thought they might be. All Curtis wanted was enough people to line up and tell him they were terribly sorry. They kissed his ass for a while and promised to make it right. The young valet who looked terrified to lose his job changed the tire himself. The carving in the door still had her thinking. Why had Brian chosen the word thief?

  Carmen had kept mostly quiet, which Curtis seemed to like. It wasn’t until they were pulling into the boat docks that she finally spoke up.

  “What a crazy night.”

  “Nothing some wine can’t fix. And look at how much they sent home with us. This tray of canapés alone costs a fortune. But I’m not done with them.”

  “You’re not?”

  “That kid is getting fired. No way he deserves a job like that. You don’t park a vehicle like this down some alley. Of course it’s going to draw the wrong attention. Jealousy puts a target on my back. It’s the cross I bear.”

  “You’re going to get Jonathan fired?” Carmen asked, her heart aching for the poor kid. This was her doing, and he’d end up paying for it.

  “You know his name?” Curtis scoffed at her as he put the truck in park and turned off the ignition. She wanted to look behind them to see if Brian was pulling in too. But he was obviously too smart for that. This was a quiet port with just a few docks, and most looked unoccupied. Another car pulling in right behind them would look suspicious.

  “You don’t?” she snapped, forgetting herself for a moment. She regained her composure and rephrased it as concern for Curtis’s interests. “I mean, you should if you plan to call about him tomorrow.”

  “Some people don’t learn without very hard lessons. I’m doing the kid a favor. He’ll remember this for a long time. He won’t make the same mistake twice.”