Taming The Boss (Billionaires In The City Book 7)

by Crowe, Mallory

  She wanted civilization. Lights. People. How far was it until she got to a big city? She thought it was an hour, but wasn’t sure. So only about fifty minutes to go.

  But the longer she drove, the angrier she got. She’d expected the same attentive, sensitive guy she’d met at Farrell’s party. That wasn’t who she got. Somehow Rourke had pulled a complete one-eighty in his attitude.

  No wonder Luke and Michael hadn’t been able to talk any sense into their brother. The man was a tank when it came to listening to reason. But if there was something they’d done that could upset him this much, there must be some sort of ace in the hole she could play. All she needed to do was find that weakness and exploit it. Just like he’d used her smallness against her when he... She clenched the wheel tighter as she remembered how he’d manhandled her. He’d slapped her ass!

  Thoughts of making Rourke beg her for understanding, beg her to let him off the hook bubbled in her head. But she was going to humiliate him the same way he humiliated her, no matter what she had to do.

  A loud bang startled Cali out of her thoughts of revenge as the rental car careened to the right. Her heart leapt in her throat as the car barreled toward the trees. She slammed on the brakes and jerked the wheel as far as possible, trying as hard as she could to stop the impact.

  The back end of the rental swung out as the car started to twist around, until the rear bumper slammed into the thick trunk of a pine.

  For a few long moments, Cali didn’t move a muscle as the adrenaline pumped through her. What the hell had—

  Another loud bang broke through the eerie silence; the car jerked and tilted down. Cali ducked down and pressed her body as flat as possible between the driver’s seat and the passenger’s. She remained as quiet as possible, waiting for another shot or the sound of footsteps approaching.

  Gunshot? Was that really what she heard? But what else could it be? She’d heard a gun before. She’d assumed the loud popping noise before was her tire blowing, but not the second one. Tires didn’t randomly explode when the car stood still. If it was just a flat, she could take the spare out of the trunk and change the tire. It had been over a decade since she’d owned a car, but she was sure she could still figure it out.

  But she would bet anything that if she ever built up the nerve to walk out of the car, she’d find two flats. Which meant someone didn’t want her going anywhere. Someone out there, watching her right now.

  She looked around the car, looking for any sort of weapon, but she was dealing with someone in the trees and armed. Not to mention dangerous. What if she hadn’t been able to stop? What if she hadn’t been able to turn the car?

  Obviously whoever this was didn’t seem to care.

  Another thirty or so endless seconds ticked past and Cali felt more vulnerable by the second. Then it clicked. Her phone. If she could call 911, maybe they could help. She was probably at least a half an hour drive from any sort of police station, but it was better than sitting around and waiting to die.

  Her purse had been tossed onto the floor during the skid, and she reached down to the floor. It was too dark to see anything, but she blindly dug through the bag until she grasped the phone and pulled it out.

  And there was not even a hint of service available. Cali dropped her forehead into the seat as a wave of hopelessness washed over her. She was stuck. Just waiting for someone to walk up to the window and finish things.

  Except the waiting didn’t stop. She checked her (almost useless) phone and, after ten minutes passed, she chanced a look out the window. The sun had descended farther, and the trees were eerily dark. The once beautiful fall foliage was now gone, replaced by menacing shadows.

  But there was no hint of a crazed gunman. Just the darkness and the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves. After a few more minutes, Cali worked up the nerve to get out of the car and assess the damage. As she’d thought, two of the tires were completely sunken in. With the fading light, she couldn’t see much. Even when she used her phone like a flashlight, no obvious sign of cause was evident in either of the two flats.

  She straightened and looked around the deserted street. Well damn. If she wasn’t about to die, she needed to figure something out. Where was the nearest house? She tried to remember her long drive up here from the city, but the forest around her made it hard to differentiate where exactly she was. Did she want to wait next to her car for someone to drive by and possibly stop? Or wander around the creepy road until she found a house and hope whoever it was wouldn’t shoot her for trespassing on their property?

  Cali wrapped her arms around herself as the wind whipped through the trees, chilling her. It would be a cold night sleeping in the car if it came to that. She reached in the backseat where her overnight bag was packed. She’d brought enough to last her a few days if needed.

  She exchanged her high-heeled boots for her bright pink running shoes and pulled on her brown leather jacket that helped to cut out the wind. She’d give it a mile and if she didn’t see any lights on in that time, or get shot by her mysterious attacker, she’d return back to her car and take her chances there.

  Maybe she’d even be able to get a signal, too. Cali started down the road and looked at her phone as she walked, willing more bars to magically appear. Sure, she didn’t have the best provider, but she almost never left the city. Everyone had signal in New York.

  But the damn bar thingy showed no service. Even worse, every time she looked at the screen, she was confronted with all the missed calls she must’ve gotten somewhere along the drive when she still had signal. Five missed calls to be exact, all from Easson. Son of a bitch. Just one break. All she needed was one little thing for the universe to throw at her right now to make up for all this crap.

  She glanced up at the road and everything seemed darker in contrast to the bright screen of the smartphone. She tucked the phone into her jacket pocket. She needed to be able to see where she was walking if she didn’t want to add “tripping and breaking her leg” to the list of ways her night had gone wrong.

  Well, she hadn’t been shot. Maybe that was the silver lining? Though now that the whole ordeal was further and further away, she replayed it in her mind. Had it really been a gunshot? She’d been so sure at the moment, but thinking back, the whole thing made no sense. She didn’t have enemies. All the people who had reason to hate her were normally really mad at Luke or Michael. Even Easson...

  Lights appeared behind her and Cali turned to see the blinding glare of headlights. She moved to stand a bit farther on the pavement, and waved her arms, praying that the person who approached wasn’t an ax murderer. Or any type of murderer, for that matter.

  As the vehicle got closer, she saw it was a pickup truck and it was slowing down! Cali let out a sigh of relief as the truck came to a stop alongside her and the window rolled down. She ran up to see who the Good Samaritan was, only to stop in her tracks.

  “I thought you’d be long gone by now,” drawled Rourke from the driver’s seat.

  She opened her mouth and shut it again, utterly speechless at this continued string of bad luck.

  “I saw your flat tire back there,” he said. “If it will get you out of my hair faster, I’ll change the tire for you. Hop in.”

  “Unless you happen to have a spare that will fit, I doubt you can do anything. I have two flats.”

  “How the hell do you manage to get two flat tires?”

  She opened her mouth to tell him her theory, but then stopped. He already thought she was crazy. If she started blabbering about people shooting her from the woods, he’d probably try to commit her. Anyone else could think she was crazy, but not the guy she was betting two million dollars on. Instead, she shrugged. “It’s a rental. They probably put some crappy tires on it. Maybe some hick out here thought it would be funny to put nails in the road. Who knows?”

  “So where the hell are you walking to in the middle of the night?”

  She held up her phone. “Hoping there’d be signal s
omewhere on this stupid highway. Are you going to let me use your phone or not?” She knew she was supposed to be sweet-talking him, but she found it hard to muster up any charm.

  “What the hell do you need my phone for?”

  “Um...so I can call a tow truck,” she said slowly, willing him to stop asking her stupid questions.

  “Auto shop’s closed. You can pay out your ass for someone to drive from three towns over, but what’s the point when the car won’t be fixed until tomorrow anyway? But, because I’m just this generous, I can take you over to Mary’s. She runs a bed-and-breakfast right outside town. She might have a free room for you to stay at for the night.”

  Cali wished she wasn’t so desperate so she could tell him exactly where to shove it, but she would kill for a warm place to stay and a phone that worked. “That would be fantastic.” She plastered on a smile as she crossed around the front of the truck and climbed into the passenger seat.

  She thought about asking him to go back so she could grab her overnight bag, but then the memory of the man in the woods came back to her. Well, the supposed man in the woods. She decided she could go one night without the bag.

  Rourke was quiet as he put the truck in gear and started down the road and the miles ticked by. The truck was big and newer, but she could tell it was used. Not just one of those shiny pickups guys get so they looked rugged. Judging from this truck and the muscles she’d felt for herself on Friday, Rourke did something labor-intensive for a living. Which was strange, considering he had a trust fund over a hundred times bigger than the two million she was so desperate for.

  Finally the silence got to her. “I don’t know how you can live this far from everything. I’m so used to anything I need being a quick cab ride away.”

  “Don’t talk,” he said abruptly.

  Cali sputtered at the command. “Excuse me?”

  “It’s damn convenient that two of your tires happened to go out right after I told you to get the hell out. So you’re not using this delay as a chance to worm your way into my good graces. Got that, honey?”

  “And here I was thinking that the only person here with motive to sabotage me was you,” she shot back.

  He glanced over at her, and even through the darkness, she could make out his glare. “Why the hell would I sabotage your car so you’d stay here longer?”

  “You carried me off your property. Hardly a sign that you’re a logical thinker. And even if I had slashed my own tires, I wouldn’t have done it in the middle of freakin’ nowhere.”

  He was quiet again and she figured he must’ve believed her. Good. He should believe her. She’d been nothing but honest with him. “So what were you doing at Farrell’s party?”

  “I thought I told you not to talk.”

  “I thought you weren’t the boss of me.” Sure, the retort was childish, but it was just so accurate.

  His fingers gripped the steering wheel tighter and Cali tried not to stare. Damn. She’d always had a thing for masculine hands, and Rourke had some of the best. Long fingers, strong, probably callused from his work. And those hands had been on her.

  Suddenly the cab of the truck seemed much too small. There was no center console between them. To touch him, all she’d have to do was scooch over.

  Cali inched toward the window as she tried to direct her thoughts to safer territory.

  “I was meeting with someone there about a land deal.”

  That made sense. Walter Farrell made his fortune on real estate. “Thinking of building something?”

  He looked over to her again and she could tell he was debating whether he should answer her or not. “I have a few plans in the works,” was all he said.

  He was a regular fountain of information. She decided to try a different tactic for the few minutes she had him alone. Instead of probing him for information, maybe she could get him to ask her some more questions. “You know, Emma is probably going to get married soon.” She studied him for any possible reaction, but he seemed completely unaffected by the news.

  “I’m surprised it’s taken her this long. I thought she’d marry right out of high school.”

  “She and Michael are both halfway down the aisle already. Michael started seeing someone at the office. A computer tech.” Rourke nodded, but didn’t say anything, so Cali continued. “Even Luke seems to be in a semi-serious thing.”

  That got a reaction. He snorted and glanced over to her as though to assess whether she was shitting him. “Luke? Settling down? I doubt it.”

  Cali smiled. She would’ve thought the same thing if she hadn’t seen Luke and Evelyn together herself. “His girlfriend was at the Farrell party with him. You probably saw her.”

  “Must’ve missed her. Is that why you were so upset? Seeing Luke with a new woman get you going?”

  She tensed at the implication. “You think I was jealous? No! Luke and I were never...he was just a really good friend.”

  “Until he wasn’t.”

  Until she found out she was a pawn in his extracurricular activities with the FBI. “I was never stupid enough to feel that way about Luke and he never led me on. Something else happened that night that upset me.”

  “And you’re not going to tell me, I’m assuming?”

  “If you want to open up to me, I’d be more than happy to spill all my dirty secrets,” she offered.

  “Dirty secrets?” he asked, his tone suggestive.

  She was happy it was dark enough that he couldn’t see her blush. “Nothing that fun, I promise.”

  “I know you’re trying to stir up some sort of repressed emotion toward my family, but I’m telling you, Cali, there’s nothing to stir up. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have a family anymore. If they’re moving on with their lives and getting married and popping out babies, that’s fine. But it doesn’t have anything to do with me anymore.”

  “And you’re just going to slam the door on that part of your life forever?”

  “Isn’t that what you told me to do?”

  She cursed as she remembered the stupid advice she’d given him about cutting his family out of his life. “That was different.”

  “How was it different?”

  “Well, you’ve never met my family. Seeing as how I’ve met yours and mine, I’m qualified to determine which one is worse between the two. I would kill to have Luke and Michael as my brothers.”

  “You can have them. My gift to you.” Rourke pulled into a driveway.

  Shit. He was going to drop her off any minute now and she’d hardly made any progress. “It doesn’t have to be that way,” she insisted.

  “I know it doesn’t have to be. But that’s the way I want it.” He brought the truck to a stop in front of an old Victorian. Through the beams of the truck, she could see that the wooden exterior was painted a vibrant purple.

  He cut the lights before she could see much more and hopped out of the truck. And that was that. Unless she showed up at his house uninvited again. Like that had gone so well the first time.

  The door suddenly opened and she frowned at Rourke holding the door for her like a perfect gentleman. One minute he was carrying her over his shoulder like a caveman and the next he was opening doors for her.

  Or maybe he was just trying to get her out of his truck as fast as possible.

  She undid the seat belt and hopped down so Rourke wouldn’t physically carry her out. She pulled out her phone and checked for signal and smiled when she saw the two bars. “I have signal!”

  Rourke leaned forward and looked at the phone right as a series of text messages started to pop up from Easson.

  “Where R U? Y won’t U answer? Answer the fucking phone.”

  “Who’s that?” he asked.

  Cali yanked the phone out of his view and rapidly deleted the text messages. “Let’s just go see if there’s a room available.” If Rourke knew that Luke had let her date a known killer, she’d never be able to get the brothers to reconcile.

  She left Rourke stan
ding there as she made her way up the three steps to the porch. It looked as if this porch was a fresh white color, matching the color of the door and the window shutters. It was all very picturesque. She wished she’d gotten there in the daytime to appreciate it.

  Before she could reach up to knock, Rourke was there and rang the doorbell. She cringed at the thought of waking up the other guests, but in just a few seconds, the door was pulled open and a smiling woman in her mid-sixties stood before them.

  “Rourke! What an unexpected surprise!”

  Cali was mostly surprised that there were actually people who liked him.

  “Hey, Mary. Sorry to drop by so suddenly. I found this one wandering the highway in the dark and she’s looking for somewhere to stay. She’s had a bit of car trouble and will need to stay somewhere until she can get a rental.”

  “Another rental,” she clarified.

  The woman looked between the two of them. “I’m so sorry to hear that! Come on in.” She stood aside and motioned the two of them to enter.

  Cali stepped in and Rourke followed. “She might need some essentials. I can cover the cost of whatever she needs,” said Rourke.

  “I have my credit cards. I think you’ve already done enough for a virtual stranger.” She narrowed her eyes at Rourke as she pointed out his lies.

  “This was so nice of you to offer her a ride.” Mary beamed up at him.

  Cali had to fight the urge to roll her eyes. Mary was fully under his spell. She knew that look well enough from all the women around Luke. He had that charm that could get anyone eating out of the palm of his hand without even trying. Just one flash of his handsome smile was all it took.

  Cali had suspected it was her immunity to that smile that caused Luke to like her so much, but she wasn’t having that same luck with his brother. And Mary seemed smarter than this.