Gregor, realizing they meant what they said, shook his head. ‘This isn’t over.’
Randall Mallory let go of his son’s arm. ‘Oh, it is, Gregor. It is.’
***
‘So you fired him? Just like that?’
They were sitting in a crowded bar in the city, at a booth with a table full of empty bottles. Joel and Marley, their drinking companions for the evening were at the bar, getting along famously. Quilla was tucked into the crook of Jakob’s arm, his lips against her forehead.
‘Yup,’ he said, drawing away and looking down at her. ‘Good riddance. I should have done this years ago.’
‘What will he do now?’
‘I really don’t give a fuck, besides, Gregor’s got enough money that he’ll never have to work again.’
Quilla shook her head. ‘I still don’t get why he wanted me out of the way so badly.’
‘Christ, who knows what’s going on in that junky head? Drugs have fucked him up. He was always a tool but never like this. And I might have turned out like that if it wasn’t for you, beautiful, so thank you again.’
She kissed him back, her mouth curving up in a smile. ‘You could never be like that.’
Jakob looked her over appreciatively. She had a white, floating dress on which made her look ethereal, her hair bunched up in a messy bun. The dress fell to her mid-thigh, her golden-skinned legs so tempting to him. He ran a leisurely hand up her inner thigh and she wriggled with pleasure.
‘That dress is driving me crazy,’ he murmured in her ear and she chuckled, sighing with pleasure as his fingers made contact with her panties. ‘I want to fuck you so bad,’ he said, nipping her earlobe with his teeth. She grinned.
‘Later, gator…our friends are coming back.’
The bar was still packed at nearly midnight. Quilla excused herself to go to the ladies room, and Jakob was being grilled by Marley. They were all a little tipsy and Jakob, Marley and Joel grinned as Quilla made her unsteady way to the bathrooms. Jakob listened to Joel and Marley barrack each other. He liked Quilla’s friend very much – so did his brother, by the looks of it but Jakob couldn’t tell if it was the teasing between soon-to-be lovers, or two future best friends the first time they meet. He’d had way too much champagne, he decided, as his vision blurred, he looked out over the crowded bar, waiting for Quilla to return.
Then his heart began to beat faster and he sat up. Gregor. Gregor was in the bar. The other man saw him and saluted sarcastically. Shit. As Jakob looked on, he suddenly saw Gregor turn and he followed his gaze…Quilla.
God…Jakob stood suddenly, startling the other two who followed his gaze. Joel, knowing Gregor’s face, jumped up to and all three of them dived into the crowd. With a wrench of pure terror, he saw Gregor get to Quilla first. He saw her turn, register Gregor’s presence with a look of alarm then Jakob lost sight of them in the crowed.
Someone screamed. ‘He’s got a knife!’
No, no, oh god, no…
‘Out of my way,’ Jacob shouted in desperation and a path started to clear. He got to Quilla just as Gregor disappeared. For a second, Jakob felt relief but then as Quilla turned to him, her lovely face pale, her eyes confused, he saw the blood. Her hands clutched to her belly, her white dress turning red.
Blood. Her blood…
As Quilla began to collapse, he raced forward to catch her…
End of Part One
Mallory
Touch Me
Billionaire Romance Book 2
By Michelle Love
Joel Mallory leaned his head against the cool wall of the hospital waiting room. Next to him, Marley Griffin was sitting hunched over, jiggling her legs up and down. It was three a.m. and they’d been waiting for a couple of hours while the doctors assessed their friend, Quilla Chen.
Joel thought back over the last few hours. The laughter, the fun of hanging with his brother and Quilla and her friend in their favorite bar then the utter horror when in an instant the world had changed and his eldest brother Jakob’s girlfriend was stabbed by a vengeful ex-partner of Jakob’s.
The mad, panicked dash to get help, the flashing lights, Quilla passed out in a terrified Jakob’s arms… God. Joel felt sick.
He looked over at Marley. They’d only met that night but already they’d become good friends but now the young woman looked hollow and scared. He took her hand and she half-smiled at him. ‘Don’t worry, sweetheart, she’ll get the best care, I promise.’
Marley smiled gratefully. ‘I’m going crazy waiting. I’m going to find some coffee.’
Alone, Joel sighed. He’d called his dad, who was on his way. Skandar had wanted to come too but Joel, mindful of the constant press contingent that followed his son everywhere, told him not to. ‘Last thing we need, pal,’ he told him. ‘Quilla knows you care.’
The door to the waiting room opened and a young woman with messy blonde hair to her shoulders came in. She nodded at Joel then took a seat on the far side. She looked exhausted. In her hands, no purse just a set of car keys. Joel realized that she was wearing a nightshirt over her jeans, obviously having to come out in a hurry.
‘Hey,’ he said, ‘you okay?’
The woman looked up, her eyes red from crying and tried to smile. ‘Yeah, thanks.’ She hesitated. ‘Teenage sister thought it was a good idea to go out, drink then gets in a car with a guy who was also drunk.’
‘Damn…she okay?’
The woman sighed. ‘Yeah, she’s just getting stitched up now. Scared the shit out of me.’ She studied him. ‘How about you?’
Joel shifted in his seat. ‘Friend got stabbed. We don’t know how she is yet.’
‘God, I’m sorry.’
Joel nodded then got up and held his hand out to the woman. ‘Joel Mallory.’
She smiled. ‘Nan Applebee. That’s awful about your friend…what happened?’
Joel sat down next to her, shaking his head. ‘Damn if I know…she’s my brother’s girlfriend and the dude that stabbed her was trying to get back at my brother for firing him. Damn coward. She’s tiny too, you should see her.’
The enormity of what had happened seemed to be hitting him now after hours of disbelief. He clenched his fists tightly to stop his hands trembling. ‘Sorry,’ he said when he noticed her watching him. ‘It’s the cruelty of it, you know? Never seen anything like that before.’
Tentatively, Nan put his hand on his back and rubbed it to comfort him. Joel blew out his cheeks then looked up as first Marley, and then Jakob came back to the room. Joel stood and hugged his brother, introduced the others to Nan Applebee.
‘Quilla’s going to be fine,’ Jakob said, his voice scratchy from stress. ‘One stab wound, clean, not too deep but nasty enough. Painful. It didn’t hit any of her major organs. She’ll be here for a couple days then they’ll let her out to recover at home.’
Marley stood at his side, dark purple shadows under eyes. Jakob looked down at her and put his arm around her shoulders. ‘Hey kiddo, do you want to come stay at mine for a couple of days?’
Marley, pale and drained, move away from him, her entire body rigid with tension. ‘No, thanks. I’d rather be at home.’
Joel nodded. ‘I’ll take you.’ But Marley shook her head.
‘No…I’ll get a cab, thanks. I just…never mind.’ She turned to go then stopped, looked back at Jakob. ‘I don’t to be the person who assigns blame…but make this right, Jakob.’
Joel stared after her. ‘Man, she’s angry.’
‘She has every right. Look, they say I can stay with Quilla but…’
Joel nodded. ‘I get it. Look, I’ll go update Dad and the others. What are we going to do about the press?’
Jakob rubbed his face. ‘God, I hadn’t even thought…look, we say exactly what happened. We fired Gregor Fisk because of gross incompetence and his behavior. He got angry, tried to get revenge.’
‘They’ll dig up everything on Quilla they can find – it might get rough.’
Jakob smi
led humorlessly. ‘Not as rough as a stab wound. She’s a fighter; a little intrusion is something we can protect her from. Can Skandar run some interference?’
Joel nodded. ‘I’ll talk to him. He’ll get questions no doubt, and someone from here’s bound to leak it.’
‘Maybe we can ask them to sign some NDA’s?’
‘No,’ Ran Mallory walked through the door at that moment and heard them, ‘we’ve never been the sort of family who hides. We ride…’
‘…out the storm,’ said his sons in unison and Ran smiled.
‘That’s right. How’s Quilla?’
Jakob told him the news and Ran nodded. ‘Good. That’s good to hear. Damn that Fisk…I have everyone out looking for him. Hello…’
He suddenly noticed Nan sitting behind Joel, trying to make herself invisible. Ran smiled and shook her hand. ‘I’m sorry; we seem to have taken over the waiting room.’
‘It’s no problem…oh hey,’ Nan looked over at the door where a young blonde teenager hovered, her face crisscrossed with butterfly stitches. She glanced shyly at the three men then at her sister.
‘Doctor says I’m good to go.’
Nan got up, smiled at Joel. ‘It was nice to talk to you.’
Joel nodded. ‘You too, glad it’s not too bad.’
‘You wait til I get her home,’ Nan muttered with a wry grin. Joel laughed but didn’t envy the younger woman.
‘Look, can you get home okay?’
Nan, at the doorway with her sister now, turned. ‘Yeah, I have my car but thanks. I hope your friend is okay.’
***
Hayley Applebee glanced over at her elder sister as they drove home. So far, Nan had said precisely nothing but Hayley knew, that just meant the build-up of lava under the volcano was just getting bigger.
To head at least some of the eruption off, she sighed. ‘Look, Nan, I’m sorry. It was a dumb thing to do.’
‘So dumb.’
‘I know.’ Hayley waited. Nothing.
‘Aren’t you going to yell at me?’ She frowned at her sister, weirdly disappointed. Nan, who looked drawn and tired out, shook her head.
‘Hays…I was all ready to rip you a new one but then…that dude I was talking to, his friend got stabbed by a guy because her boyfriend fired him. He stabbed her. Not the boyfriend. When we live in a world like that, you doing something most teenagers have done at one point or another and getting off relatively unscathed? I can live with that.’
She shot a side look at her sister. ‘Doesn’t mean you’re off the hook, though.’
Hayley smiled. ‘Didn’t think so. Nan, you know who those dudes were, don’t you?’
Nan looked blank. ‘I know the first guy’s name was Joel but…’
Hayley sighed. ‘Nan, occasionally read a gossip site. The Mallorys? The richest family on the west coast? Kit Mallory, the actor? Skandar Mallory, the tennis player?’
Nan looked confused. ‘He wasn’t there.’
Hayley muttered something under her breath then said ‘I know. The dude with the long blonde hair? That’s Skandar’s dad.’
Nan shook her head. ‘No way, that dude is way too young.’
After explaining who they all were to no avail, Hayley gave up. At home, she apologized to her sister again, hugged her and went to bed.
Nan flopped down on her bed and checked the time. Just after five a.m. She groaned. In a couple of hours, she’d have to be up and ready to go teach a class full of eighth graders about Hemingway. Why couldn’t Hayley have decided to do this on a weekend? Nan realized what she was thinking and sent an apology into the cosmos.
She plumped up her pillow and closed her eyes but sleep would not come. For some reason, she was thinking about the tall, blonde, impossibly handsome Joel Mallory. And you’ve just answered your own question, she grinned to herself. She couldn’t believe he was the son of a billionaire, the father of another. He had such a plaid-wearing homeliness about him. She could imagine him chopping down trees or bringing in the cattle…but not coaching a world-class tennis player. She wondered if the dark haired girl with him was his girlfriend – she hadn’t seemed like it but who knew?
She fell asleep eventually and was only ten minutes late to her first class. She called that a good day.
***
Two weeks later, Joel sat, watching Skandar’s practice session with his hitting partner, barely registering the skillful shots his son was hammering down the other end of the court. Soon, he wouldn’t need to do this, get up early to fly off all over the world. It had been his decision to bow out of Skandar’s training at the end of this season but damn, as his responsibilities had lessened, and his time freed up, he’d been flailing around for things to do. Before Skandar had been born, he’d started at college, intending to take an architectural degree, to go into business with Jakob, building and designing exquisite homes at affordable prices. But when a one night hook-up with a girl called Felicity had resulted in a pregnancy and subsequent maternal abandonment, all that changed. He’d given his son both his own and his son’s grandfathers’ names and Skandar Randall Mallory II was born. And he had honestly loved every moment. His bond with his son had been one of trust and love and laughter. Skandar, as soon as he could run, was a bundle of energy and when Ran had bought him a tennis racket for his sixth birthday, it was obvious to everyone that Skandar’s future career path was pretty much set.
Now, Skandar was twenty-five and the number one tennis player in the world. His matinee idol looks meant he was never off the front page of the tabloids and his dad, not a slouch in the looks department either, garnered almost as much attention. Joel, unlike Skandar, didn’t relish the attention, and he was looking to go back to relative anonymity when he left the coaching team.
‘Yo.’ Skandar nudged him out of his reverie, holding out a cold bottle of water to him, then cracking one open for himself and draining it. The morning was warm for a Seattle autumn and Skandar’s shirt was drenched with sweat. Peeling it off and dumping it on the ground, he yanked another from his bag.
‘You okay, Pa? You’ve been quiet all morning. I hit a pristine backhand down the line earlier, see it?’
‘Good job,’ Joel said automatically then blinked, coming back to the present. ‘Sorry, my head’s not in the game today.’
Skandar sat down next to him. ‘Pa, I’ve been meaning to ask…what are you going to do now? It’s been a couple months since you said you were going to hand over to Carlos.’
Joe shrugged. ‘Honestly, I’m not sure. I was talking to Jakob about it…I was thinking maybe I could go back to college, finish my degree, partner with him.’
Skandar tipped half a bottle of ice water over his head. ‘Sounds good. What’s stopping you?’
Joel smiled, sheepish. ‘This sounds crazy but my confidence in my ability to do that now I’m older has taken a knock.’
Skandar studied his father. ‘What about taking a couple of adult courses at night school? See if you like that before you commit to college.’
Joel squinted at his son. ‘When did you get so smart?’
Skandar grinned. ‘Just occasionally, I can bring my A game. Although really, I’m thinking, you’re a freaking billionaire, just enjoy life. You did all the heavy lifting bringing me up on your own.’
‘Never felt like heavy lifting, and it’s Dad whose a billionaire, it’s you, not me. I need to make my own way,’ Joel said and Skandar clapped him on the shoulder.
‘Dad, I know. Regardless, it’s not easy…I’m not sure I could have done it. Anyway, I’d better get back to it. Think about the night classes, yeah?’
The kid was right, Joel thought. A taster class might be the way to go. He grabbed his iPad and started to research as Skandar destroyed his hitting partner with a vicious serve.
***
Jakob started to laugh as soon as he got home. Quilla, obviously bored after being house-bound while she recovered, had built a fort out of the boxes of her stuff he arranged to have picked up. She
lay in the middle of it, propped up on pillows, reading, and a half-drunk cup of tea beside her. He peered over the ramparts of the fort and grinned at her.
‘Didn’t the doctor tell you not to lift anything heavy?’ he said in mock-disapproval.
Quilla stuck her tongue out at him. After the horrific night, the terror of not knowing if she was going to be okay, Jakob had been afraid her natural merriment would be subdued but no, she was astonishingly resilient.
Quilla had talked about the attack – she’d had to go over and over it a hundred times with the police, after all – and she seemed remarkably practical about it. ‘Weirdly, I didn’t even realize he’d stabbed me until I saw your face, and the blood,’ she told Jakob, ‘I thought he’d just punched me. My body knew something was very wrong before my brain did…then that’s when the pain hit. I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up in the hospital. Did the police find Gregor?’
Jakob had shaken his head, his face grim. ‘No. He’s still out there, somewhere. But I promise you, Quilla, he won’t hurt you again.’
She smiled, touched his face. ‘I know that.’
She’d been released from the hospital a couple days after the stabbing but on the understanding that she was to take it easy. ‘Taking it easy’ had meant being spoilt by Jakob, he’d told her and he had. He’d arranged for all of her possessions to be moved to his penthouse, had made sure his home was turned into their home now, making room in his closet for her clothes, room on his bookshelves for her beloved books. He’d even cleared out a guest room and made it into an artists’ studio for her. There were tears of gratitude and love when she saw it.
Now, though, restricted by her injury to sitting for most of the day until it healed properly, Quilla was being to get stir crazy.
Jakob helped her to her feet and led to the couch, pulling onto his lap and kissing her. ‘How was work?’ Quilla asked between kisses.
The Shameless Billionaire Series: Billionaire Romance Box Set (An Alpha-Male, Billionaire, Bad Boy, Bad Girl, Romance) Page 135
