Make Me Whole
Brothers From Money 3
A complete BWWM pregnancy story, brought to you by Shanade White of BWWM Club. Features another free bonus book.
Elizabeth has just moved to Pleasant Valley, and thought it would be a great new start.
But to her horror, she finds the residents are getting sick from toxic waste being dumped into the water supply.
She does some digging and finds out Terrell Industries are responsible, and marches down to their offices to slap a lawsuit on CEO Donovan Terrell.
He claims he doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
But when he sees the toxicology results he decides to go undercover in the town to find out who’s behind it and clear his company’s name.
Elizabeth agrees to pose as his girlfriend, but soon their pretense spills over into real feelings.
Things are heating up between them, and soon they’re falling in love.
But when Donovan unearths secrets in the town that certain people want to keep secret, things get very dangerous.
Donovan disappears, and Elizabeth is kidnapped just after she finds out she’s pregnant.
How can their love, or them, ever survive?
Find out in this suspenseful, exciting romance by Shanade White of BWWM Club.
Suitable for over 18s only due to sex scenes so hot you’ll want your own pretend marriage.
Tip: Search BWWM Club on Amazon to see more of our great books.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Free Book – Marrying The Cowboy
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
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Chapter 1
As the elevator rose to the top floor, Donovan felt the beginnings of a headache coming on. It had been a long couple of weeks, culminating in a second wedding for his bother Sebastian and his new sister in law Leslie, after their desperate flight from the Russian mob. It had been exciting to bargain with the feds, and the capture of two assassins had reminded him how good it felt to be out of the office.
But now, Terrell industries was demanding his attention, play time was over, and in a big way. He’d been forced to cancel or reschedule all of his appointments for the last week and now he was terribly behind. To make matters worse, he’d left the family ranch early this morning, but a bad accident had made what was normally a two hour trip into a five hour nightmare.
His early start to the day had been derailed right from the beginning, he thought as he stepped off the elevator. Sitting down at his desk, he winced at the multiple piles of papers stacked everywhere. Clutter drove him crazy, he liked everything neat and organized, his desk free of anything but the bare essentials.
Ringing to let his secretary know he was there, he grabbed the stack of papers closest to him and began reading through them. His secretary came through the door, carrying a cup of coffee and a Danish, she set them down on his desk and took a deep breath. It was never a good sign when she did this, it meant that something unpleasant was coming.
“Your first appointment is here, she’s been waiting for almost an hour.” She said, wrinkling her nose.
“I take it she wasn’t happy about the wait.” He said, taking a sip of his coffee.
“She’s been pacing for the last half an hour.”
“It couldn’t be helped, besides I don’t even know who she is. Do we do business with her? I don’t recognize the name.” He said, looking at his appointment schedule.
“No, she’s an attorney working for some environmental group.” She replied, the nose wrinkle back again.
“Why isn’t the legal department dealing with her? We have a system in place to deal with these people.” He said, a scowl on his face. He’d been through so many of these meetings since he’d taken over as CEO that he’d developed a scripted response.
“She insisted on seeing you, wouldn’t leave me alone until I agreed to give her half an hour of your time. She claims that she’s found evidence of environmental pollution on Terrell property.”
“That’s nothing new. I’ll hear her out, but first I need to know what all this stuff is on my desk. You know how much I hate all this clutter.”
“What about your appointment?”
“She can wait for a few minutes while you get me caught up.” Donovan said, again reaching for the same stack of papers, his agitation growing.
“Okay, but she’s not going to be pleased.” His assistant said, sitting down in front of the desk, knowing that it would be a while before they’d be finished.
*****
Elizabeth had been pacing the waiting room for almost half an hour when the assistant behind the desk jumped up and disappeared through a door. She emerged carrying a cup of coffee and a Danish, then disappeared behind another door, with not even a word to Leslie.
She’d been pacing out of a need to move, but now her steps carried her anger as well. After waiting for more than an hour, for a meeting that had already been rescheduled twice, her patience was being stretched to the breaking point. The idea of simply packing up her things and walking out of the office occurred to her, but she’d come here with a clear goal and wasn’t going to back down now.
When she’d first been handed the case, she’d almost rejected it, a little research had showed that Terrell industries, including the cattle ranch that was part of their holdings, was actually very environmentally progressive. She’d been impressed by their almost exclusive use of solar and wind energy not only to power the ski resort, but the town around it.
But once she’d looked at the evidence the town’s people had brought her, it became clear that something was going on. The levels of cancer and other pollutant related illnesses in the area had spiked over the last year, far beyond what was normal, even allowing for other variables. She’d agreed to look into the problem and discovered that there were high levels of several pollutants in the town’s water supply.
She had attempted to contact the mayor about the problem, but had been stonewalled by his assistant and told to contact Terrell Industries directly. She’d been warned that this would be the response, but she’d been surprised none the less. Normally, elected officials were the first to jump on the side of the voters, but not in this case.
So she’d contacted Terrell Industries, only to be given the run around by the legal department. They’d even mailed her a form letter, explaining how much they cared about the environment. Finally, after a month of daily phone calls, she’d been granted a meeting with the CEO, Donovan Terrell. Now armed with pages and pages of evid
ence, she was prepared to give him an opportunity to explain her findings, before she filed a class action law suit against the company.
The only reason she’d wasted all the time she had trying to bring the situation to their attention, was their fantastic track record on the environment. As she’d been putting the case together, something just hadn’t seemed right with the whole situation. It made no sense that a company who worked so hard to reduce their carbon footprint would be polluting the ground water.
But no matter how she looked at it, the water was polluted, and she was the one who had been tasked with getting the problem fixed and the town’s people healed. As she waited, she began to wonder if she’d been wrong about the company, although she’d made quite a pest of herself to get in here. She hadn’t mentioned the law suit when she’d been granted the appointment, hoping to make this a friendly meeting, but now she was seriously considering just leaving. It might have been a mistake to force this meeting, she should have just filed the lawsuit.
As she was packing her things, fed up with waiting, the door to the inner office opened and the assistant came out, caring a huge stack of papers. “Mr. Terrell will see you now.” She said, still offering no apology about the wait.
This only served to increase her anger and frustration since she was only trying to be helpful. She again considered just walking out of the room and going straight to the court house, but her better judgment over ruled her anger. Gathering her briefcase and purse, she followed the assistant into the office where Donovan Terrell was seated behind the biggest desk she had ever seen.
Pictures couldn’t do the man justice, she thought as he got up and stepped out from behind the desk. He was taller than she expected and much better looking, his dark hair a little longer and his blue eyes a deeper shade than she’d thought. She felt an immediate pang of attraction when their eyes met, he was definitely all man, tall and handsome. He even smelled like a man, wood smoke combined with something she couldn’t name.
Her attraction melted immediately, when the man began to talk however. “I’m sorry about your wait, but it couldn’t have been avoided. I only have a few minutes available so let’s get straight to the point.” He said, not bothering to shake her hand or even offer her a chair, before he went back behind his desk and sat down.
Donovan didn’t really care that he’d been rude to this woman, he’d been annoyed before she came into the room, but when he’d seen her his annoyance had only increased. He’d expected something different, that’s for sure. Instead he’d been greeted by the sight of one of the most attractive women he’d met in a long time and the instant pang of desire hadn’t helped his mood.
She opened her mouth to explain why she was there, but he didn’t give her the chance. “I’m fairly sure I know why you’re here. This happens every few years, some environmental activist finds out that we have mining pollution on our lands and decides we need to be taken to task over the situation.” He said.
“Well, that is why I’m here, but....” Elizabeth started to explain the situation, but again he took the lead.
“I can assure you we are very well aware of the problem and have been working for a number of years with every government and environmental agency out there to solve the problem and keep people safe.” He said, picking up a stack of papers and handing them to Elizabeth.
“I understand that but....” Again she was interrupted by Donovan.
“This should explain everything to you. I’ve also included several contacts who would be happy to speak with you about what we’re doing environmentally. I appreciate your interest, but I can assure you we’re doing everything we can to protect the planet.” Donovan said, getting up from behind the desk, signaling that the meeting over.
“Mr. Terrell, I think it would be in your best interest to hear me out. I’ve been on this case for several months now, and I’ve uncovered some disturbing things on your land.” Elizabeth said, refusing to be bullied by this man.
“Ms. Mathews, you are not the first or the last activist who will come through these doors with a similar claim. If you do your homework, you’ll find that there is nothing to be concerned about.” He said, again trying to usher her to the door.
“I’m beginning to doubt everything I’ve read out you, Mr. Terrell. I’m only here to give you a chance to handle this situation before I file a class action law suit accusing you and Terrell Industries of knowingly pollution the ground water in Pleasant View.” She said, her anger suddenly getting the better of her.
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard, if you’d done your homework, Ms. Mathews, you would find that we have that water tested frequently and I always see those results.” He said, his anger beginning to show.
“People are sick in your perfect little town, Mr. Terrell, and the water is the cause. But if you’re too busy to see what is right in front of your face, then I’ll see you in court.” She said, shoving her own sheaf of papers into his hands, as she stormed out of the room.
Donovan stood in the doorway, clutching the papers she’d shoved into his arms, watching her stomp away. One thing was for sure, Elizabeth Mathews was quite a woman. Besides her obvious beauty, she was tough. That had been clear when she’d stood up to him, something even most men wouldn’t do.
Too bad she was using all of that to further a cause that wasn’t even a real cause. He knew without a doubt that her accusations had been false or at least misguided. He’d seen the results from the last water tests himself. While they’d shown some evidence of contaminants in the water, the levels had been so low he’d finally thought their containment issues were solved.
Cleaning up the mess left from years of mining on the Terrell land had cost millions already and would continue to be costly for years to come. But everyone in the family had agreed that it was money well spent. The land had provided them with a very comfortable living and it had all begun with those mines.
The mines had been the beginning of the Terrell fortune, which had grown to include nearly a hundred square miles of mountain property. Their ancestor had made wise investments with his money, including the land, then gotten out of the mining business at just the right time.
After the silver crash, he’d still been a very wealthy man. Each generation after him had added to the business, including their father who had built the ski area and the town. They had continued to prosper, but the pollution had been a thorn in their side. When he’d taken over as CEO of Terrell Industries, he’d been given the task of cleaning it up.
He’d considered it his life’s work to see that the land they all loved so much, was as pristine as it had been before mining had done its damage. While he’d had a good education, it had been in business, not in environmental science so he’d spent countless hours learning everything he needed to know about clean up methods and costs. It had paid off in the end, Terrell Industries was considered one of the most progressive companies in the country.
When the elevator door closed on a still angry Elizabeth Mathews, he’d finally been able to tear his eyes away and close the door. Returning to his desk, he set down the report she’d shoved into his hands on her way out. He didn’t really have time for this, but it had been brought to his attention and he couldn’t just ignore it. Before he looked at the report, a little investigation of Ms. Mathews was necessary. That alone might tell him if there was any truth to her claims.
When he put her name into his computer, a long list of results popped up. At first he was sure that they weren’t all about his Ms. Mathews, but as he looked at one after another, he realized that his first estimation of her character had been correct. Elizabeth Mathews was quite a woman.
He went back to the first result he’d found, a biography from the United Nations. Evidently, Elizabeth Mathews was a bit of a prodigy, having graduated from Harvard at 18 with a degree in environmental studies, she got her masters by 20. After that she went on to law school, passed the bar and headed
to South America and the Amazon.
She’d worked with both the United Nations as well as some well-known environmental groups since then, making real progress on saving the rain forest. Along the way, she’d done some work with the people as well, making great strides for the indigenous tribes of the Amazon. She had even been nominated and received quite a few awards, including African American woman of the year in her home town of Mable Falls.
Now evidently, she was home to make trouble for him. Making trouble seemed to be what she was good at, if what he read was any indication of what she could accomplish when she set her mind to it. Leaning back in his chair, he looked at the report again and had to admit that part of his problem was that he’d found her incredibly attractive.
With her long wavy black hair, skin the color of rich caramels, and luscious curves, he’d been immediately attracted to her. But, now that he knew who and what she really was, all he felt was alarm. Even though he knew that her accusations were unfounded, she could still make trouble for Terrell Industries.
He’d hoped that his little investigation would show that she was just another one of the multitude of environmentalists that liked to bug them from time to time. But, now he’d have to make the time to look at her report, something he didn’t have time to do today. With a sigh, he put it in his briefcase to take home, just the kind of bedtime reading he loved.
*****
As Elizabeth watched the elevator doors slide shut, she breathed a sigh of relief, Donovan Terrell’s blue eyes had watched her walk across the office like she was his favorite meal. She’d been able to feel his eyes on her the entire time, then when she’d turned around, the look of pure desire in his eyes had made her heart flutter.
It was ridiculous, the man had been extremely rude to her, had never even given her a chance to speak. Now he was looking at her like he wanted to devour her, he probably hadn’t even heard a word she’d said, the report already in the trash.
Make Me Whole (Brothers From Money #3) Page 1
