“No one will laugh at me!” she shouted as she started to turn the gun on Victoria.
But she never got the chance. Victoria lifted up the spray, getting a clean shot in Joslyn’s eyes. Donny abruptly released her as the burning vapor filled the hall.
As soon as Victoria realized she made contact, she ducked away from the sudden explosion of movement. Jace jumped for Joslyn, not seemingly deterred by the remaining spray in the air, and Victoria fell on the floor, backing up until the wall pressed into her shoulders.
As Jace tackled Joslyn to the floor, Dean crouched in front of her. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you? The police are coming, baby.” He pulled her into his arms.
Victoria couldn’t relax into his touch the way she wanted to. She pushed back and glanced to where Donny was running for the stairs. “He’s getting away.”” She pushed herself up.
Dean’s mouth tightened. “No he’s not,” he breathed as he sprung up and sprinted after the man.
“Dean!” shouted Victoria. She didn’t think Donny had any weapons, but she was safe for the moment. She didn’t want him to put himself at risk now that she was safe.
She jumped up and chased after him, but before she even reached the end of the hall, Dean was on top of Donny. And apparently he didn’t need any help from her.
Even with Donny’s head start, Dean gained just enough ground to get a hold of Donny’s shirt collar. The yank Dean gave, combined with the momentum of running, caused Donny to lose balance. He and Dean crumbled to a heap on the ground right outside the door to the stairs.
And then Dean started to slam his fists into the man. Victoria’s mouth gaped open at the violence, and for a moment she couldn’t move. Somehow the entire night had seemed so surreal, but seeing the blood and Dean’s anger brought everything home. She’d been so close to dying. Dean was…she had no idea what he was going through.
“Dean.” Her voice came out as barely a whisper. “Dean,” she said louder.
She must’ve gotten through to him as he finally stopped. His breath came in deep gasps and his chest rose up and down as he stared down at the man.
“Enough!” cried Donny. “I won’t hurt her, promise.””
Victoria took a deep gulp, not sure whether she should be relieved that Dean hadn’t beat him unconscious or sad that he wasn’t in more pain. “Damn right, you won’’t hurt me.”
The sound of sirens penetrated through the walls, and the corners of her mouth tugged up. Maybe she really was okay. She looked over to where Jace was restraining Joslyn, mainly by sitting on her and keeping her immobile.
Except now the other residents of the building were poking their heads out to see what all the ruckus was about.
Great. This was definitely going to make the papers.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Huh?” muttered Dean. He forced himself to pay attention to the officer asking him questions. Dean couldn’t stop his eyes from following Victoria’’s every move.
“I asked if you were sure there were only three perpetrators involved,” said the woman in front of him. The officer had dark hair pulled back into a stern ponytail that was probably par for the course for a city cop.
“Like I said before, I only saw the woman, Joslyn Devereaux, and her caveman of an accomplice. Victoria’s bodyguard said there was a third.”
The officer glanced over to where Dean had tackled said “caveman.” “Donald Price. You’re lucky you were able to take him down. From the looks of his rap sheet, he’s not used to losing fights.”
Dean nodded, but he knew luck had nothing to do with it. The second he’d seen Victoria in the hallway, her eyes wide with terror, he knew the son of a bitch was going to pay. He’d never felt a rage like that. Hot and burning through him, the only outlet was to beat the crap out of the man until he forgot which hole to breathe out of.
Honestly, he didn’t know how far he would’ve gone if Victoria hadn’t been there to stop him. Or what he would’ve done if she hadn’t thought fast to get Joslyn and Donald both off their game. “I’m really tired. Are there a lot more questions?””
The officer shook her head. “You’re all set, Mr. Carey. As long as we have your contact information for more follow-up questions, you’re free to go. Are you sure you don’’t want to go to the hospital?”
He shook his head. The caveman never had a chance to get a single blow in. The only thing he’d need at the hospital was high blood pressure medication, because he was sure he’d have a heart condition after tonight.
~~~~~
Even though it wasn’t cold, Victoria pulled the blanket even tighter around herself.
“You doin’ okay?” Jace was next to her. They both leaned against the wall in the same hallway where the craziness of the night had gone down.
Dean looked in her direction again and she jerked her gaze away. Damn it. She desperately wanted a few minutes alone with him, but had no idea what she’d say. She’d had a shitty day before all this and she just wanted it to be over.
“I’m okay,” she lied. Before he could call her out on it, she looked at his cleaned up, but bruising, face. “What about you, buddy? You bled a lot.” His formerly pristine suit was now ruined with the amount of blood that had run down the front.
He shrugged. “I’ve had worse. Besides, head wounds are drama queens.”
She eyed the evidence of just how much he’d bled. “If you say so.”
Jace looked her over once again and she glared at him. “What?”
“It’s nothing. You just seem to be handling the whole thing well.”
Normally she would take that as a compliment, but he made it sound as if she were a freak. “Is that a bad thing?” She saw Dean run a hand through his hair in exasperation and she wondered how much longer the police would keep them both.
“Not at all. Just an observation,” said Jace. “The handyman handled himself okay too.”
Victoria jerked her gaze away from Dean. “The handyman? Is that what everyone is calling him?”
“Not everyone. Your entire office maybe, but I’m sure the press won’t give him a nickname for at least another day.”
She laughed softly. Good Lord, the press were going to eat him alive. The story was juicy enough, but when they saw how photogenic Dean was, he was never going to have a calm moment again. Somehow, she thought he could handle it. “I don’’t think I’ve thanked you yet, Jace.”
“It’s my job,” he said modestly.
She scoffed. “Well, your job is to save my life and you did it perfectly tonight. And if I’d listened to you, I wouldn’t be in this mess.””
“You were right, though. Your brother had nothing to do with it.”
Her brother was, in fact, innocent, but he’d have his own price to pay for Joslyn’s betrayal. “Thank God for that. Now I just have to break the news to him.””
“He’s a big boy. He can handle it.”
Victoria wasn’t as sure. Between Dad dying and Joslyn, it was going to be one hell of a time. But that was tomorrow’s problem. The officer talking to Dean shut her notebook and nodded at him as she moved aside.
Dean was finally coming back to her.
~~~~~
Dean gave Jace a quick look, and the bodyguard nodded and backed away from Victoria.
“About time.” Victoria smiled up at him. “Are you clear to go? They gave me the go-ahead already.”
“I’m clear. Let’s get out of here.” He paused and drew his brows together. “Do you think any of the cops noticed I’m illegally parked outside?”
Victoria let out a soft laugh. “They probably had bigger things to deal with,” she assured him. “But the meter reader totally gave you a ticket by now.””
He sighed and shook his head. “So can I expense that?”
She narrowed her eyes as though she seriously debated his request. “Just this once.”
As she turned, he suddenly remembered the entire reason he’d driven out to see her in the first
place. “Wait! Before you go, there’s something I need to tell you.””
Victoria whipped back around, eyes wide. “Yes?” she breathed.
“I didn’t just happen to be in the area right as you were about to die. I came out to talk about something.”
“What, um, what did you want to tell me?” She took another step closer.
“Well, this might sound weird, but Katy really wants to go to some hoity-toity school in the city called King Academy. Do you think you’d be able to help her transfer in for her senior year?”
Victoria frowned and leaned away from him. “That’s what you wanted to ask? I thought you were going to say you love me or ask me to move in or something crazy. Get your sister into school? Really? That’s easy.”
Dean blinked a few times. “Did you want me to say I love you? I mean, we’ve only been together…”
She shook her head and pushed away. The blanket fell off her shoulders. “You don’t have to tell me how stupid I am. I know exactly how crazy it is to feel this way after only two weeks, but I’m sorry. I just had to face death and I really don’t want to go on living without you in my life!”
He tried to fight it, but a smile tugged at his lips. “Is that your way of saying you love me?”
“I almost died tonight, okay? I had to think about my life and my company and my friends and who I’d be leaving behind and for the life of me, I couldn’t stop picturing you. You and me together and happy, and all the times I’d miss out on if Joslyn pushed me off the stupid roof, okay? So I know I’m rushing into things and I know we’re completely different people and I know that you live way too far away from me but—”
Dean bent forward and covered her mouth with his. After a brief moment of shock, she leaned in and kissed him back. He pulled away and ignored the police officers across the hall who stared at them. “I love you too.” He smiled down at her.
Victoria leaned into him and wrapped her arms around Dean’s waist. “Oh, thank God. I thought I was completely insane.”
“Well, I never said you weren’t crazy.” He hugged her tighter. ““It just happens to be one of the things I love most about you.”
EPILOGUE
“Denise, can you please send Dean into my office,” said Victoria into the intercom.
“Right away, Victoria,” said her assistant.
Victoria glanced around her office. It wasn’t as if Dean hadn’t seen it a million times already, but she still felt the need to swipe her empty chip bag into the trash and smooth her blouse. Her suit jacket rested over the back of her desk chair, but she didn’’t bother. Dean had seen her in much less than this.
She got to work on straightening the piles of paper that surrounded her desk. It wasn’t unorganized, really. There was just a lot of stuff: On her desk. On the coffee table next to the office couch. On the filing cabinet in the corner. Inside the filing cabinet. Just thinking about it all gave her a headache.
But then the door opened and Dean walked in. As always, her heart skipped a beat when she saw him. The man could fill a room just with his presence. He wore his now customary dark jeans and buttoned-up shirt. “Hey.” She put the papers in her hand back down.
“You called? And your assistant called? And you texted?”
“I was trying to get your attention.” She crossed to the front of her desk and leaned against the polished dark wood.
He grinned at her. “You know, just because we have a personal relationship doesn’t mean you can boss me around.”
She raised a brow. “Oh really? Because last I checked, I was your boss. And I can boss you around.”
He approached her slowly. “Is that right?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and bit her bottom lip. “Umm hmm.” He stopped so close to her that she could feel his heat through her thin blouse and pencil skirt. Victoria closed her eyes and shook her head. “No. None of that. I didn’t call you in here for,” she motioned with her hands, “this.””
He didn’t say anything, but his eyes told her exactly how much he wanted to kiss her. She’d seen that look often enough.
After her crazy declaration of love, they’d tried to take things slow. A real, honest effort. But between the intense traffic they had to fight through to see each other and the fact that Katy was going to school in the city, Dean had taken up an IT position at Green & Sons, and a week before school started, he, Katy, and Rigby had all moved in.
“I need to show you something.” She twisted around to reach for her phone. When she straightened back out, she could’ve sworn he’’d inched closer. She shook off the suspicion, mainly because wanting him as close as possible was her natural state of being these days.
For the most part, their working together hadn’t been an issue at all. Mainly because the department he was in hardly ever interacted with hers. A different section of IT assisted her with technical problems, so she’d barely seen him at all during his one week at the office so far.
“Katy sent me a picture.” She pulled it up on the screen and showed it to Dean. Katy was smiling and posing with two other female classmates in the picture. “I thought you’’d want to see.”
Dean’s smile stretched from ear to ear as he looked down. “Figures she’d have a bunch of friends already.”
“Pretty good for her first day in a new school.” The handbag perched on the teen’s arm probably helped. Victoria had shelled out way too much to get the hottest bag of the season as a treat for herself, and apparently Katy had decided to borrow the bag for the first day of school. But the boundaries talk would have to come later.
“Thanks for this, Victoria.” Dean softly kissed her forehead.
She smiled up at him, as his kisses pushed her into a stupid happy mood. “She’s a good kid.” Victoria leaned into Dean’’s big body.
“You think she’s going to be okay?” Dean held her closer.
Victoria thought back to Nathaniel Farrell, who she’d ordered to stay away. Lord knew he was probably the first of many men who Katy would have chasing after her. And Dean would probably freak out if he knew just how much trouble he was in for.
She leaned back and smiled up at Dean. “I think that, whatever happens, we can handle it.”
~~THE END~~
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Have you checked out the other books in the Billionaires in the City series?
When Emma Devereaux comes to New York determined to clear her family’s name, she gets help from an unlikely source; Jace, the man who put Emma’s sister in prison to begin with.
TRUSTING THE BOSS WILL BE AVAILABLE IN JUNE 2015!
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