Spending time with her away from the city, it was easy to forget who she was. What she was. He had trouble buying work supplies some days, and here she was buying an entire damn plant.
If he was lucky, she’d invite him back to her room again tonight, but after that, they’d be going their separate ways. He’d had casual sex before, but it had never been this messed up.
He’d been in no position to date when Katy first came to live with him, and something about raising a six-year-old girl made him much more particular. Not necessarily with the women he slept with, but with the women he brought home.
He just didn’t have time to keep a relationship going. Katy was always number one, and he’d never met a woman who would be comfortable being number two.
“Thanks, Dean. Give me a call when you get back and I’ll let you in. The receptionist is gone for the day and we don’t have the keycards to get in.””
“No problem,” he said as she set the keys to the rental car on the table and walked away. As soon as she was gone, he pushed her out of his mind. Practice for when she was really gone.
He quickly scanned the menu and called in the dinner order for the eight people still at the plant. The restaurant said the to-go order wouldn’t be done for twenty minutes, but Dean didn’t feel like waiting. He picked up the keys and strode out to the car.
It was still sunny outside, and he took in a deep breath of the fresh air. It was a bit warm for his tastes, but he liked the seclusion of the plant. It made him miss the camping trips he used to take with Katy. He could never afford a trip to Disney World, but a few times during the summer, he’d get a few days off work and pitch a tent in the middle of nowhere.
He wondered whether Victoria would like camping or whether she’d freak at the idea of living without plumbing for a few nights. Just days ago, he never would’ve imagined Victoria Green living without any amenities for even a short period of time. But she was so down-to-earth and easygoing when working with the guys on the plant floor.
And there he went again thinking about Victoria. Fuck. This could turn out to be a problem.
He hit the little button to unlock the rental Ford. After he sat down, he had to adjust the seat and steering wheel to fit his frame. Victoria had insisted on driving so far and Dean couldn’t figure out why.
Maybe she missed it. She lived and worked in Manhattan, so she probably only drove on these trips. But, God help him, a bit more experience wouldn’t hurt her. To be fair, he didn’t like other people driving him anyway, but there were a few quick brakes that almost gave him a heart attack.
Once he was adjusted, he keyed the address of the restaurant in the GPS. He put the car in gear and turned onto the secluded highway. The other great thing about the small town the plant was in was that there were hardly any other people. Dean wouldn’t give up city life for the world, but it was nice to not be thrown into World War III every time he drove in the city.
He hit the gas as he pushed the car up one of the steep inclines of North Carolina. Once he reached the top, the car rolled faster and faster down the hill. If he was on his own, he might’ve seen exactly what the rental could do. His truck had almost a hundred fifty thousand miles on it, and he didn’t think he’d ever driven a car with less than five figures on the odometer.
Reluctantly, he moved his foot to the brake pedal. He frowned as the pedal easily slipped to the floor, with no effect on the speed of the car. He sat up straighter and gently hit the brake again, but nothing happened.
“Shit,” he muttered. The speedometer ticked higher and higher as the car sped down the hill. He scanned the road and didn’t see any other cars. The road was lined with trees, so he didn’t want to chance slamming into one.
Another hill was coming up. Dean tried his best to keep calm as the speed topped a hundred miles per hour, sighing in relief as he finally headed uphill again. Gravity slowly worked its magic and, as soon as he felt as though he had enough control, he pulled the emergency brake. He tried to be gentle, but the car still jerked at the abrupt friction and the back end spun out.
He steered into it, and the car finally stopped, back end in the gravel of the shoulder and front end hanging out into the road.
For a second, Dean just sat in the driver’s seat, only then realizing how fast his heart was beating. Shit. He needed to move the car out of the road. He needed to call Victoria. What the hell was he supposed to tell her?
His gaze fell to the gauges. The rental only had two thousand miles on it, and the brakes had gone out. He shook his head. It wouldn’t do any good to assume shit. Instead, he put the car in neutral. The one good thing about spinning the car was that it didn’t roll down the hill when it was in neutral.
He hopped out of the car and walked in a slow circle around the vehicle to make sure there was no damage. After making sure everything looked okay, he leaned against the hood and pushed gently, the car inching back until it was out of the road.
As soon as it was safe, he pulled the emergency brake again and bent to look under the car, only to confirm his suspicion.
CHAPTER NINE
Victoria’s stomach growled and she glanced at the clock again. Where was Dean with the food? But when she looked at the time, she realized he’d only been gone for ten minutes. It would be awhile still before he would be back.
For the third time that day, she watched a contractor assess the best location for the scrap processing equipment. Thankfully, she at least understood what the contractor was talking about at this point. One of the benefits of going on tours like this was that when she was getting ready to sign on the dotted line for a multimillion-dollar project, she had some idea what she was signing.
She just had a lot more patience for the technical jargon when she had a full stomach.
A movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention. Dean strode towards her, pissed-off expression on his face and noticeably no food in hand.
“Can I talk to you?” he asked in a hushed tone as soon as he reached her.
A sinking feeling settled in her stomach. “Sure.” She faked a smile, not wanting to scare anyone. She looked to the plant manager and the salesman across the plant aisle. “I’’ll be right back.” She turned to walk with Dean. As soon as they were out of earshot, she asked, “What happened?”
He clenched his jaw. “Someone cut your brake lines.”
It took a second for Victoria to realize that her jaw hung open. “What? Are you serious?”
“I was in the car when the brakes failed,” he snapped. “There’s a puddle of brake fluid where the car was parked.”
“And you think someone did this on purpose?”
“It’s practically a new car,” he pointed out. “What are the chances there just happened to be a slit in the front and back lines that happened to appear while we weren’t anywhere near the car?”
Victoria rubbed the back of her neck. “So someone tried to kill me again?” Even saying it out loud seemed so unbelievable. She was likeable, damn it! People just didn’t want her dead. “I thought this kind of stuff only happens in the movies.”
“It is something that only happens in the movies. It’s a stupid way to off someone.”
Off someone. Someone wanted her offed… Dean must’ve sensed where her thoughts were going and set a hand on her arm. Without thinking, she leaned into the touch, grateful for the comfort. What if he hadn’t been here? Then she would’ve been driving the car. “What happened? How did you get out?””
His hand ran up and down her arm. “When the lines are cut, it’s not subtle. If they were cut clean through, I would’ve noticed as soon as I got into the car, but they weren’’t cut completely. I was less than a mile away when they gave. I was able to trigger the emergency brake and pulled over.”
“Emergency brake? That still worked?” Shock set in more fully. What would she have done if she were in the car? She didn’t know a damn thing about brakes failing, sabotage or not.
“Relax.” D
ean stepped in closer. “You’re heading back home tomorrow. Gordon should have some answers by then and you’ll have a real bodyguard, right?”
Her gaze jerked up and she tried to read his face. Was he counting down the minutes until he didn’t have to risk his life for her? The man had almost died while picking up her dinner! Of course he wanted to get back to his perfect little sister, who didn’’t give him half the crap he got from her.
“Yeah,” she said. “I just have to survive ’til then,”” she muttered.
“You need to be careful, you know?” She nodded, but Dean continued. “This is twice in one week. That’s serious.”
“I know,” she said between clenched teeth.
“But I want you to realize something else. Whoever is behind this has no idea what they’re doing. The brakes being cut is one of the stupidest ways to kill anyone, and whoever attacked you last week had no idea what they were doing.””
Her brows drew together. “That’s a good thing, right?”
“Well, you’ve made it this far, so it’s not bad. But you still need to figure out who’s doing this. How many people besides Terry knew you’d be here today?” he asked.
“Plenty. Denise booked the tickets. Simon knew about the visit. There’s a team of at least ten in the finance department who have touched this project in some way or another.” But the only person who might want her dead and knew about her trip was Terry. To make it look even worse, Terry was exactly the type of person to rush into action. At least if Victoria wanted someone dead, she’d make damn sure she found an assassin who would do the job right.
“Where’s the car?” she asked, changing the subject. Gordon would help her sort out who was behind this. It wasn’t Dean’s responsibility.
“It’s about a mile down the highway, off the shoulder. I wasn’t sure where you wanted it to go from here.”
“We’re going to be tied up here for a while. I’ll tell the guys that we had a flat and the wheel was damaged and you can call to have the car towed. We can catch a ride back to the hotel.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll start making some calls. Think everyone will be okay with pizza, since we can get that delivered?”
Ugh, she’d forgotten about dinner already. Damn it! “Pizza would be great,” she said.
Dean gently squeezed her arm. “Take a breath. I’ll handle everything.”
She looked up to meet his dark brown eyes, and in that moment, she completely believed him. This broke handyman living paycheck to paycheck said he’d take care of her, and she had no doubt that he would.
She hadn’t had that support from anyone. Even Simon, who she was paying a fortune for, wouldn’t guarantee that everything would be taken care of. It was always “I’’ll see what I can do,” or “I’ll get back to you.” And here was Dean, being dragged into her mess and not even batting an eyelash.
“I need to get back,” she said abruptly. She didn’t have time for murder attempts and handymen who were far too capable for their own good. She had a business to run.
CHAPTER TEN
“You’re serious?” asked Victoria.
“Yep,” said Gordon. “I don’t think Terry is your problem. I found the private investigator he’s been working with, and cornered him last night.”
Her brow creased. “I don’t think I want to know what ‘cornered’ means……”
“It was a friendly corner,” assured Gordon. “Just don’t be surprised if my next invoice has a larger than normal miscellaneous section.”
Great. Bribery. “What did he tell you?”
“He was able to get a contact at the airlines to tell him where you were flying out to. Since it’s a smaller airport, he guessed which plant you were visiting and spent an entire day calling hotels to track down where you were staying.””
“So I don’t have a leak?” she asked hopefully.
“No leak, but you have someone who wants to kill you.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” she snipped. “And I’’m expecting you to find out who wants me dead.” If one more person reminded her that there was a death order on her head, she was going to snap. Did they think she’d forget?
“I’m working on it,” he said gruffly. “I have some interviews for muscle lined up for tomorrow. Five guys—all have good qualifications and recommendations.”
“These guys will blend in?”
“All nerdy looking, guaranteed.”
She snorted. “Sounds good. Thanks for the update, Gordon. I’m at the airport now and should be back home by four, but I’ll probably be going straight to the hospital, though, to visit Dad. I’ll be checking my phone when I can, so let me know if there’s any progress.”
“You’ll be the first to know,” he said with a decidedly unoptimistic tone.
“Thanks.” She hung up.
“Everything okay?” asked Dean.
Victoria twisted around to see him standing with two bottles of water in hand. He handed one to her and she nodded her thanks.
“Boarding is in a few minutes. Are you ready?”
“Yep.” She hooked her computer bag over her shoulder.
“Hold up.” He sat down next to her. “I wanted to clear up some things.”
She could already feel the knots forming in her stomach. She found the first man in the history of men who wanted to have the talk. “Oh boy,” she muttered.
The corner of his mouth hooked up. “I’m not trying to stress you out. We’re heading back home and I’m thinking you won’t be needing my help anymore after today. So this is it, right? I mean, for us.”
“Oh yeah.” The words rushed out of her mouth. “It was good while it lasted, but we were never really compatible, you know?””
“Exactly what I was thinking.”
An awkward silence stretched between them. She’d never intended to do anything with Dean, and once their working relationship went…further, she’d known it wasn’’t a permanent situation. For one, the media would have a field day. And then there was the fact that they had nothing in common except sex. Good sex. Great sex. Mind-blowing sex.
But besides that, everything about them was different: family life, education, careers. She’d just have to push herself through this irrational infatuation that had somehow invaded her mind.
It might hurt at first, but she’d been through much worse than breaking off a two-night stand. She’d just stop and pick up a fancy new vibrator to keep her company. That way she could get her orgasms without bringing any real, live people into it.
The overhead speaker announced that boarding was starting and Victoria stood, not wanting to spend any more time sitting in silence with Dean. At least during the flight, she could open up her laptop and pretend to work.
And then, just like Dean said, they’d land and go their separate ways.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Dean collapsed onto the couch. The hotel room was nice and new and clean, but this couch and he had a connection. He knew the lumps and bumps. Knew exactly where all the holes and tears in the worn leather were. This was his couch, damn it, and it was perfectly conformed to his shape.
Rigby padded over and hopped onto the couch, right onto Dean’s stomach.
Dean grunted as he rearranged the large dog to a slightly more comfortable position. “What the hell?” he muttered.
Katy laughed from the doorway to the small living room. “He missed you.”
Dean rubbed the dog between his ears. He had a feeling Rigby couldn’t care less about him as long as Katy was around, but he didn’t say it. “Have you eaten yet? I was thinking about making mac and cheese.” He’d tried his best to be a surrogate father to Katy, but had never been able to get the whole cooking thing down.
“I ate at Becky’s. It’s like eight o’clock, Dean. You haven’’t eaten yet?”
Shit. He knew it was late, but hadn’t realized how late. “I must’ve lost track of time,” he muttered. The damn trip with Victoria had definitely been profitable, but he�
�d had over twenty calls for service while he was gone. Most of them he’d been able to refer to other workers, but a few more of his more loyal customers insisted on waiting until Saturday, so he’d been running around since six in the morning to fit in as many jobs as possible.
“Becky and I were going to the movies and then I was thinking I could stay over there.”
And there went any plans of him relaxing for the night. “Kind of late, don’t you think? Didn’t you just get back from there?””
“I’m not the one who gets up at the crack of dawn,” she reminded him. “Come on. It’s summer break and you can call Becky’s mom if you want.”
Damn it, he hated when she offered to let him call the other parents. If she didn’t offer, he felt as if he was being clever, but if she gave him the option, suddenly he felt paranoid. He could text Becky’s mom, though. Much more casual and less paranoid. ““Fine, fine. Just don’t be stupid, okay?”
“I’m not you,” she reminded him.
He sat up and stared her down. “I’d yell at you if you weren’t right,” he said with a smirk.
~~~~~
Victoria couldn’t tell what terrified her more: the fact that Terry was at the hospital before her or the terrified look on his face. “What’s wrong?”” she asked breathlessly when she finally reached where he sat outside their father’s room.
His lips tightened and he let out a sigh. “Have you talked to the doctors today?”
“No. Last night everything was fine.”
“Things have changed,” said Terry solemnly. “His blood pressure has been dropping all day and his heartbeat is erratic.””
Nerves churned in her stomach and she felt as though she’d been punched in the gut. “What? No. That’s not possible. That’’s why he was put into the coma. This shit isn’t supposed to happen while he’s under sedation. His body is supposed to focus on healing.”
Tempting The Boss Page 7
