Billionaires In Love (Vol. 2): 5 Books Billionaire Romance Bundle

by Glenna Sinclair

  So what was he going to do about it?

  Was one woman worth losing billions of dollars?

  If there were no one to answer to but himself, Taylor would say yes.

  He woke his computer from sleep and pulled up a spreadsheet he had been working on that listed a number of eye specialists as well as patient studies of people who’d suffered similar detriment to their sight. Unfortunately, he had come across no examples of anyone having been blinded from the precise chemical that Rose had been exposed to, so while many studies were ultimately promising, they were no guarantee that Rose would undergo the same result should she opt for the same surgery.

  Rose's recovery and subsequent surgery would hinge on the degree of damage to her optic nerve behind her eyeballs. Until she healed well enough for tests to be run exploring the actual damage done to those nerves, any presumption of surgery would be a guess, at best. Would one surgery be more promising than the next? What frustrated Taylor most was that Rose would be in no condition to undergo those tests for at least a week, and that was a highly optimistic timeline. If he wanted to stay realistic, it would likely be two weeks, or perhaps a month. Could he live with himself that long?

  He heard a faint knock and startled, at first thinking it was Rose in the bedroom. But after a moment of listening closely, he realized it was coming from his front door.

  Quickly, he moved through the study, hoping his father wasn’t here to micromanage and lecture him on the sensitive matter of Rose’s health, but when he opened the door and found a large black man on the other side, he remembered Rose had promised to call her team to get started on their next course of action.

  “Carter, right?” he asked, stepping back and urging the man inside.

  “How’s she doing?”

  “Resting.”

  “We didn’t hear from her, but I wanted to stop by, anyway.”

  Taylor followed him, as Carter stalked into the living room and seemed to sneer, turning three hundred and sixty degrees and taking in the decorum.

  “It’s fine,” said Taylor, who admitted to himself that he was more than a little annoyed at the unexpected interruption, though he preferred Carter over his father. “I can see if she’s up.”

  “Not just yet,” he blurted out in a booming tone. “I have a few questions for you.”

  Taylor raised his brows and wondered if he meant questions or confrontations, since that was what the look on his face seemed to imply. Carter’s brow was furrowed, his mouth twisting into a disgusted grimace that couldn’t possibly be good news for Taylor.

  “Hey look,” he began in a preemptive apology. “This shouldn’t have happened to Rose. I never expected this, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, but I’m going to do everything I can.”

  “Are you?” he challenged. “Because doing everything would include making for damn sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

  “Your point isn’t lost on me.” Taylor meant to shut the conversation down, but his retort only seemed to incite Carter.

  “Think about it,” said Carter. “That chemical burns when it’s in direct contact with skin. What do you think is going to happen when it leaches into the soil, gets sucked up into the Bellevue water tower, and people drink it for thirty years?”

  Taylor exercised his ability to say nothing. Hopefully, if Carter vented, he’d run out of steam and wouldn’t need to further engage Taylor.

  “I know for a fact you knew about that chemical.”

  “I don’t deny that, Carter, but in reality I’m a CEO. The chemical is completely foreign to me, and I relied on my construction team to get the necessary clearance from the government to use it and they did.”

  “Ignorance is no defense.”

  “I hate to break it to you, but it is. If you want to do something productive, lobby government to outlaw the chemical.”

  “We’re working on that.” Carter took a few deep breaths, but it didn’t appear to calm him, only fuel his intensity. “What do you want with Rose?”

  “What do you mean?” he asked, unsure whether he was confused or offended, but feeling both strongly.

  “I mean what kind of sick game is this that you’re fucking the woman whose life you destroyed? Do you get off on this? Have some kind of cripple fetish?”

  “Excuse me?” he gaped.

  “You heard me.”

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but Rose and I became involved before this tragedy. If anything, you should be thanking me for not abandoning her.”

  Taken aback, Carter snorted at the audacity of the man, and Taylor quickly stammered.

  “I didn’t mean it like that. No one should thank me for this, but I didn’t do this to Rose, and I’m determined to see her through this, so I think I deserve a little credit.”

  “Yeah,” he said in a sarcastic drawl. “You’ll get credit for this, I guarantee you.”

  Just as sarcastically, Taylor said, “Thanks,” then realized his robe was open. Working the sash around his waist, he closed his robe and started for the bedroom, saying, “I’m going to put something on and see if Rose is available. Have a seat.”

  Defiantly, Carter planted his feet, and Taylor again exercised immense maturity by not rolling his eyes.

  In the bedroom, Rose was lifting out of sleep, her hand brushing over the gauze around her eyes as though she was discovering it for the first time, and Taylor quickly sat by her side, placing his hand on her leg.

  “Hey, you’re up?”

  “How long did I sleep? I can’t tell what time it is.”

  “It’s a little after six.”

  “I slept all day?” she said, bolting upright.

  “Hey, it’s okay. Carter’s actually here for you, if you feel like working.”

  “Oh,” she said a bit woozily as she swooned in bed. “I just got lightheaded.”

  “How’s the pain? You’re due for another pill, if you need it.”

  “I have a slight headache, but I’m fine. I could use a little help finding my clothes.”

  “Okay, give me a sec, just got to find my pants.”

  Taylor did, pulling on a pair of jeans and a black tee shirt from his closet, before finding her pants on the floor. Realizing she’d need her panties first, he searched around for them and found the black pair tucked under the foot of the bed. When he found her sweater, he stole a glance at her and wondered if she had any idea how gorgeous she was, sitting upright in bed, nude with the sheets bunched around her waist. His gaze lingered on the curve of her breasts, their full teardrop shape, then he snapped out of it, cursed Carter for being here at all, and set her clothes beside her.

  “Here are your panties,” he said, placing them in her hand.

  “I got it,” she said, pulling them on. “Do you have my bra?”

  He handed it to her and helped her fasten the hook and eye once she pulled the straps on. Her pants and sweater were next, and soon Rose was dressed and taking careful steps in the direction she presumed the door would be.

  Before she could bump into the ottoman, he rushed to her side and took her arm, guiding her away from the furniture and out the door.

  “Carter’s standing in the middle of the room,” he said quietly, and Carter’s eyes snapped to him.

  “So where can we work?” asked Carter.

  “Where’s my laptop?” asked Rose.

  At a loss, Taylor said, “I can go out for a few hours and let you set up in my study.”

  “Rose,” said Carter, “I have your laptop. Layla should be here soon. I gave her the address.”

  As if hell-bent on proving Taylor’s uselessness, Carter took Rose by the arm then glared at Taylor expectantly.

  “Uh, right this way,” he said, leading them through the suite and down the hall where his study was situated across the hallway from his entertainment den.

  As soon as he got to his desk, Taylor collected the documents that were strewn across it and tucked them into a filing cabinet, then closed
a number of spreadsheets and Web pages on his computer. He switched out of his user and into the guest one, and said, “Feel free to use my computer. The Wi-Fi password is here on this Post-it.” He indicated the yellow flap of paper, then asked, “Would anyone like water or coffee?”

  “We can help ourselves,” said Carter as though Taylor’s hospitality were really an insult.

  “All right, then I’ll let you get to it.” Backing away towards the door, hesitant to leave Rose alone with Carter, Taylor observed the man help Rose into the office chair and then pull her laptop out of his black satchel. “Call if you need anything, okay?”

  “We will, thanks,” said Rose, feeling for the keyboard of her laptop and angling her nose in the air.

  It pained him to leave her, but the fact of the matter was that Rose wouldn’t need him to do her work, and if anything made her feel more in control of her life, it would be to proceed as though nothing, not even blindness, could stop her. So Taylor eased the door shut then wasted no time getting into his bedroom where he changed into a gray suit and dress shoes, the uniform of his persona whenever he expected to face his father. And face his father, he would.

  Opting to take his Lexus over sitting in the back of a limo, Taylor started off on the twenty-minute drive out of Seattle. Traffic was light, but he barely saw it he was so deep in thought as to how to confront Porter Montgomery, argue points for re-envisioning the pipeline, researching new materials, and making it as acceptable to Rose as possible. There had to be a way. It might be more expensive and take longer, but if it would make her happy, that’s all that mattered. His father wouldn’t be easily persuaded, and not just because of the pragmatic obstacles of time and money. Porter Montgomery rarely liked an idea that wasn’t his own. So the real skill Taylor would have to employ to get through to the man would amount to cunning and artful manipulation. Taylor would need to plant the idea in his father’s head and let it sprout into action all on its own. It would be no easy task.

  By the time he was pulling along the dusty road leading towards Davey Construction and the corporate trailer next to the trench, night had fallen. Aside from a few work lights posted along the trench, the site was dark with shadows.

  As he climbed out of his Lexus, Taylor spied a few figures through the trailer windows, though they were masked with curtains.

  Knocking once at the door after ascending the trailer steps, he opened the door and found his father hunched over a table topped with developmental plans. Another executive, Lawrence Mathers, stood beside him and appeared to be walking Porter through a course of action.

  Porter’s steely gaze snapped to Taylor, and he gradually straightened from the table.

  “I wasn’t expecting you.”

  “And I wasn’t expecting you,” said Taylor. “This is still my build.”

  Porter snorted, but his lip curled into a provocative grin.

  “I can’t help but feel like we’ve had this conversation,” he said, folding his arms. “I’m not going to grovel or defend my right to be here, Taylor, but I will say you were sorely missed today. Had I not been here to oversee things, we’d have lost another day.”

  Taylor pressed his mouth into a hard line, knowing he couldn’t argue with his father’s point. He’d been cooped up in bed with Rose, and it had been easy throwing caution to the wind to do so. Perhaps he’d been foolish to assume the project would hold off so long as he did.

  “What did I miss?” he asked in an even tone to draw his father’s good side out.

  “One disaster after another. We only have half the materials we need. That Godforsaken terrorist group has us tied up with legalities based on that idiotic woman’s accident. But we’re dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s, and we’ll be up and running in no time.”

  It took everything Taylor had not to lunge at Porter for referring to Rose as an idiot. He clenched his jaw, swallowing hard and reminding himself that his father was a callous man, plain and simple. When Taylor himself had been laid up in the hospital for months, his father had barely visited. When he did, all he managed to convey was that Taylor was being weak and needed to snap out of it and get on with life. If he viewed his own son in that manner, why on earth would he treat a perfect stranger with more compassion?

  “Concerning the legalities,” he began, keeping his tone even and his gaze steady. “Is there any logic in reevaluating the chemicals we use? There might be a way to come out of this with more public respect than we went in with.”

  “I’d leave that to our PR manager if I were you,” he countered, dismissing the proposition, though Taylor had only skimmed the surface of the idea. “You shouldn’t have taken that rebel in, son. You should be highly cautious and guard against anything that presumes guilt. Helping her in any way, shape, or form presumes guilt. The best course of action would’ve been to have her arrested as soon as she left the hospital.”

  “Have her arrested?” he gaped, losing his cool then working hard to reel it in. “What would the headlines read if I did such a thing?”

  “They’d read as justice served.”

  Taylor touched eyes with Lawrence, but the man’s gaze held just as little compassion as his father’s. Registering that Taylor was searching for an ally, Porter indicated for his colleague to give them a minute, and Lawrence, reading him loud and clear, stalked to the door.

  “Now, son, I know you think you found a new pet—”

  “She’s not a pet—”

  “Fine, plaything. And mark my words, you’ve crossed a very serious line with her. My God, don’t you know better than to bed the enemy? Why do you think I send you escort after escort. Fucking around with the wrong woman can get a man killed, and I’m talking political suicide.”

  Taylor was about to object, but Porter cut him off without hesitation.

  “If you’ve worked in an accidental advantage, it’s the fact that you have her there. First of all, don’t think for one second she’s wormed her way into your pants for any other reason than to assess your vulnerabilities and use them against you. But the advantage is that you can do the same to her.”

  Taylor couldn’t stop the twinge of worry that stabbed him in the gut. He trusted Rose, but was that a mistake? At this very moment she and Carter were in his study, unsupervised. What would prevent them from searching through every last file? What if Carter had ways of hacking into Taylor’s user on the computer to pull up every last sordid fact about the Starlight pipeline? He was jarred from his fretting mind when Porter cut in with his second point.

  “Second of all, and this is the silver lining here, she’s blind...” Porter trailed off, chuckling, and it turned Taylor’s stomach. “She’s a weak woman. You can distract her, keep her in bed, give her a new focus in life.”

  He wanted to mention that Rose was hardly the type to be distracted in that manner, but he held his tongue, focusing on the end game and how best to persuade his father, not that he’d been doing a very good job of it so far.

  “It’s also to our advantage that she’s in your care.” Porter took slow and deliberate steps towards him, angling his dark eyes at him. “What’s best for the pipeline is that Rose Cole disappears.”

  Shocked, Taylor widened his eyes and felt his breath hitch in his throat.

  “If she knows what’s good for her, she’ll disappear from meddling and go on living her sad, little blind life. But if she doesn’t have the good sense for that, then there are ways of helping her along.”

  “What in God’s name are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about keeping your eye on the ball. I’m talking about blood being thicker than water. And I’m talking about annihilating the opposition. Maybe she leaves indefinitely. Maybe she gets inspired to set off on a new life path, start instructing yoga or some shit. I don’t care. We need her out of the way entirely. And a dead woman who trespassed is easier to mitigate in the public eye than a blind woman on a crusade to use her disability to shut down my pipeline.”

 
Taylor couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and the shock of it all scrambled his brain.

  “You’re in charge of her meds,” Porter went on, oblivious to Taylor’s evident horror. “You’ve got all the necessary medical supplies. Say she needs an IV. And hey, I’m not suggesting you do what needs to be done. I’ll arrange for a hospice nurse to swing by. And Taylor, this is a last resort. I have faith in you that you can persuade her otherwise, get her to leave well enough alone, but if she doesn’t, we need recourse. We need to shut her down before she shuts us down.”

  Finding his ability to think straight, Taylor said, “I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”

  “I can’t believe you’re put off by this. If you think earning billions of dollars doesn’t come with blood, sweat, and tears then you are sorely mistaken. I grew up eating canned sardines. I had holes in my clothes and I didn’t get new pants until the old ones were hanging at my knees. I was poorer than sin and did everything I could to build a real life for myself, for your mother, God rest her soul, and for you. And you’ll do the same.”

  “No,” he said, “I won’t. And neither will you.” Taylor stepped in close to his father and pointed hard against his chest. “If you go near her, if you send someone, I will destroy you.”

  “No, you won’t,” he said easily. “You don’t have it in you.”

  “The build is paused until further notice,” he declared. “I’m going to find new materials, make this thing eco-friendly, start from scratch if I have to—”

  “We can’t afford that.”

  “That’s a joke if I ever heard one.”

  “We have investors, a board—”

  “And I’ll deal with their resistance, as necessary, but this is my pipeline and I can’t live the rest of my life in good conscience knowing it’s poisoning people.”

  “Taylor, I’m warning you, don’t make me tear you down again to build you into the son you should be.”

  “Again?” he said questioningly. “What the hell are you talking about?”