Ruthless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 1)

by Mallory Crowe

  “I didn’t realize that waitresses were trained to handle all forms of combat. My mistake.”

  She frowned at him. “You know, before you were around to harass my customers, I could handle myself. I know where to knee a guy to hurt him the most and you can bet I’ve used it.” She waved her finger at him to emphasize her point and stumbled forward the slightest bit.

  “Okay there, Rambo. I believe that you’re very badass. I do. But you were caught by surprise in enemy territory tonight. It happens to every rookie. Maybe I’ll give you some self-defense pointers later.”

  Her lips tightened. “I don’t need anything from you.”

  There was the Jean he knew.

  “Except a bed. I do need a bed.” She turned around until she saw where the queen-sized bed was pressed against the side wall, so the full wall of windows was along one side and the bathroom, the one room in the apartment with walls, was along the other side.

  “I kind of thought it would be bigger.” She stopped at the foot of the basic bed with no headboard or footboard.

  “Sorry to disappoint,” he said from behind her. “But this is New York. Not exactly known for large living spaces.”

  “Oh, I know that. I just figured you’d bring a lot of women here...” She flipped around to face him, her cheeks red with embarrassment. “Forget I said that. Just...strike it from the record.”

  He grinned at her. “So you’ve been thinking about how I spend my nights?”

  If possible, her cheeks got redder. “You’re sleeping on the couch tonight.”

  “Just admit that you’ve thought about me.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not telling you anything. I’m going to bed.”

  “I knew you were a coward, but really, Jean...” he said with a joking tone.

  “So do you need to take one of these blankets or pillows to the couch, or are you good?”

  “What am I doing when you think about me? Is it sweet or rough?” Even though he stated it as a joke, he got even more curious about whether their fantasies lined up.

  Jean still ignored him as she flipped off her tennis shoes and took off her sweater so she was only in her shorts and t-shirt. “Good night, Colin.”

  He shook his head at his own prodding. She was about to pass out from exhaustion and he was pushing her. Damn, what he wouldn’t give for a cold shower right about now.

  He went to get his pillow. There was another blanket he could use on the sofa, but he’d need somewhere to put his head. The old couch was lumpy as hell.

  Jean rubbed the back of her neck and he knew she was watching him. He’d probably scared her and she was just waiting to see whether he was going to jump her. It wasn’t as though they’d really established any sort of trust over the day. She’d started the day out wanting to kill him, so even getting through to tomorrow morning would be a struggle.

  He got the pillow and started past her.

  “Colin,” she said softly.

  He stopped. She’d said his name right as he was passing her, so he was only a few inches away. “You need to go to bed.” Every muscle in his body wanted something else, but he wasn’t that much of an asshole to take advantage of Jean when she was in this state. He wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t remember anything after leaving the hotel room once she woke up.

  “I do.” But instead of turning to go to sleep, she reached out, twisting her fingers in his shirt as she pulled him to her.

  As much as he kept telling himself the right thing to do, Colin didn’t even hesitate. He bent down, taking her lips with his and groaning as her sweet body pressed against his. This...God, he wanted this.

  Jean kissed him fiercely, pulling him as tight as possible against her, and he was happy to oblige. His hands roamed along her back and waist. When he reached her ass, he pulled her tight against his hard cock.

  Her tongue teased his lips and he forced himself to pull back, even as he gave a quick nip to her bottom lip as he pulled away.

  “You don’t want me?” she breathed, slightly moving her hips forward to the bulge of his erection.

  “Tell you what.” He pulled his hands from her rear and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Tomorrow, when you’re yourself, if you still want me, I’ll have you naked and underneath me in a heartbeat.”

  Jean’s forehead fell forward and rested against his chest. “Yeah, but tomorrow I’ll know better.”

  “’Fraid so, hun.” Her hands were wrapped around him now, and he held her close for a minute. Damn, this had to make up for a few of his past sins, because sleeping on that couch might be the hardest thing he’d ever done. “Why don’t you get some rest? Tomorrow will be busy.”

  “As long as it’s not as busy as today,” she mumbled as she disentangled herself from his arms and crawled onto the bed, still in her shorts and shirt.

  Colin turned so he didn’t have to stare at her ass as she made her way to the head of the bed. “If you need me, I’ll be in the shower.” The arctic-cold shower.

  There was probably a special sort of asylum to house people as crazy as me. Jean stared up at Colin’s ceiling.

  She didn’t know what time it was. Didn’t know where her cell phone was or whether Colin even had a clock at his place. The only thing she really knew was that she’d completely come on to him before she went to bed.

  Why? There hadn’t been any Mark there to make jealous. No crazy assassin around to make her want to hide behind Colin’s mouth. Just her and Colin and her stupid, sleep-deprived brain. Of course, Colin had turned her down, which could’ve been an insult or a blessing. Probably both.

  He’d seemed as if he wanted her. Hell, he told her that if she went up to him today and asked, he’d have her...well, he said he wasn’t opposed to the idea. Oh God.

  Jean pulled her pillow out from under her and covered her face with it. She didn’t need any crazy killers to break into the room. She was about to die of embarrassment.

  “Get up. We need to get leaving in half an hour.”

  Colin knew she was awake. Fantastic. What kind of person lived in a house without walls? Her trailer could hardly be called a house, but at least the bedroom was separate from everything else.

  “I’m good to just hang out here for like...forever.”

  “Is that an invitation for me to join you?”

  Jean popped up and sat stock-straight. Colin, wiping his face with a towel, stood at the foot of the bed, wearing jeans and no t-shirt. She thought she’d heard him shaving...

  “Do you have something against clothes?” she asked with a slight hint of bitterness. Damn him and his beautiful body. And damn her for touching it last night...

  “Hey, I’m all for equal rights. Feel free to walk around topless as much as you want.”

  “I think I’ll pass on that offer.”

  He shrugged. “Suit yourself. But I’d recommend getting up. Not sure how long it’s going to take you to get ready.”

  She mentally ran through the list. Shower, teeth, makeup... Probably more than half an hour. Which meant she did have to get out of the bed and face the day. At least Colin was back to his normal asshole self and wasn’t rubbing what happened last night in her face. Unless she counted him walking around without a shirt as rubbing it in, and she was going to assume he wasn’t doing it on purpose to torture her.

  “I’m going,” she said as she got up, groaning at the feel of her pants cutting into her waist. Another reason she normally slept in just her panties, but that wasn’t really an option for last night—even if she had been conscious enough to do anything.

  Though her pajama shorts would’ve been nice. Jean hopped up and ran into the bathroom, speeding through her morning routine. By the time she emerged from the bathroom, she started to feel more like her normal self. And more like she could actually face the day.

  “Are you about ready to go?” asked Colin as she pulled on her boots over her black leggings. He wore dark-brown cargo pants and a black Henley today
. He always seemed to look as if he were a few steps away from getting onto a helicopter and flying off to some war-torn country.

  “Almost. Have you seen my phone?” She didn’t want to mention the haze she’d been in last night, but she really needed that before she left.

  “I plugged it in last night. It’s on the counter.”

  “On the counter next to the coffee machine?” she asked hopefully.

  “No coffee here. But it’s Manhattan. You can get coffee every hundred feet.”

  “I knew I’d like this city.” Jean stood and pulled her sweater on over her blue t-shirt with some sort of graphic floral print on the front. “Have the police called?”

  “Called about what?”

  “Umm...the crazy guy who broke into your hotel room last night. I know I was out of it, but I have a distinct memory of that happening.” Not to mention the bruise on her cheek that had five layers of foundation on it to hide any evidence of the attack.

  “They have the guy in custody. There’s no reason for them to call.” Colin picked up his keys and her phone from the kitchen counter and waved her on. “Let’s go.”

  She frowned at his dismissal even as she followed him out of the apartment. “So is random people attacking you normal?”

  “It’s not normal, but they caught the guy. What else do you want me to say?”

  “I want you to say who he was and what he wanted. Not sure if you noticed, but I almost died.”

  “You’re not going to die.”

  “Easy for you to say.”

  Colin stopped and turned to face her so abruptly that Jean backed away, bumping into the wall behind her. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Okay?”

  She raised a skeptical brow. “You’re going to stay with me every second of every day?”

  He set a hand against the wall and caged her in. “I’ll stay as close as you’ll let me.”

  She took a nervous gulp and averted her gaze, staring intently at his chest as she tried to find the words. “I, um, we shouldn’t pretend yesterday didn’t happen. I mean the attack yesterday.”

  “Trust me, I haven’t forgotten a damn thing. But I’m going to take care of that. You just need to remember that you’re safe with me.”

  She met his dark blue eyes. “So shut up and trust you?”

  “Yep.”

  “I’m starting to think you really don’t know anything about me.”

  “Then don’t trust me. But bear with me the next few days to get things figured out.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Fine. I’ll shut up—temporarily. But I expect answers, Colin.” He seemed to have some idea of who the man at the hotel was and didn’t want to tell her. But considering that he had a violent past, it could be any manner of criminal who was trying to track him down. It wasn’t as if the man had broken into her hotel room.

  “Fair enough.” Colin took a step back and lowered his arm so she could get by.

  “And by temporarily, I mean a day tops. I’m not going to die because you’re too prideful to answer my damn questions.”

  “Walk, Jean.”

  She tightened her lips and started to go down the hallway to the stairs. “God, you’re bossy,” she muttered. She didn’t look behind her but could’ve sworn she heard him chuckle. Her mind kept on going back to the attack. The one good thing about her moment of frozen fear was that she’d been able to get a good look at the guy.

  He didn’t look like Colin. As in he wasn’t the military type. At least not any time recently. His cheekbones had been slightly sunken in with age and probably a hard life.

  There was always the chance that this “brother” she was going to meet had sent the man, but that didn’t make any sense. Sure, she believed that people would kill for a lot less than Colin was trying to scam out of this family, but killing her wouldn’t help. If they thought she was their sister, and there was no need to kill her if she wasn’t, a post-mortem DNA test would prove she was the rightful heir and the money would go to whoever got the rest of her few possessions.

  She didn’t have to watch that many episodes of Law and Order to figure that out. But if the guy was really after Colin, why wouldn’t Colin just tell her? She shook her head as she reached the bottom of the staircase. If she spent too long trying to figure out what went on in Colin’s head, she might end up with permanent brain damage.

  True to his word, he took her to a coffee shop down the street from his apartment. Jean felt much better equipped to handle the day with the large—sorry, Trente—latte with a double shot of espresso in hand. “If I’m going to be staying with you for much longer, I think you need to invest in some sort of coffee maker. Especially with all this money you’re saving by not paying for a hotel.”

  “You’re not going to be here for that long.”

  Jean looked at Colin over the plastic lid of her coffee as she took a drink, which would’ve been too hot if it hadn’t been mostly whipped cream at the top. “From what, admittedly little, I know about these kind of things, doesn’t it take a long time for inheritance payouts?”

  “Probably a few months. But I’m hoping Robert will front you a loan to tide you over until the final settlement comes through.” He started out of the shop and back onto the busy street. It was nine in the morning, so Jean assumed most of the nine-to-fivers would already be at work, but the streets were still crowded.

  “Why the hell would some guy I’ve never met before give me anything?”

  “Because you’re a variable and Robert doesn’t like variables.”

  “So I shouldn’t expect an outpouring of brotherly love?”

  Colin scoffed. “I don’t think this family knows the definition of the word ‘love.’”

  Jean took another sip of her coffee but barely got anything out because it was still so hot. “This Robert is supposed to be smart, though, right?”

  “He’s probably too smart for his own good. Why?”

  Because Jean was hoping he was smart enough to know that killing her wouldn’t get him any more money. She wanted to think that Colin wouldn’t take her to meet someone who wanted her dead, but with his new tight-lipped policy, she wasn’t putting her faith in his judgment. She looked around them at the busy street. Here she was in New York City and hadn’t really had any time to appreciate it. “Think we can do sightseeing stuff later?”

  He frowned. “I’m not your tour guide, Jean.”

  “I can go without you. I’m not sure if you noticed, but I’m a full grown adult, Colin.”

  “I noticed,” he grunted. “But I don’t want you going anywhere alone.”

  “So you do think yesterday was about me?”

  “Stop digging, Jean. If you want to see the fucking Statue of Liberty, I’ll take you.”

  He seemed exceptionally grumpy at the moment. She knew she should let it drop, but she just had to add, “If you’re going to act like this the whole time, there’s no point in going. You’d just ruin the whole thing for me.”

  Colin’s hand reached out and hooked around her waist to pull her closer. She gasped at the unexpected touch and stiffened in his arms, concentrating on getting her steps to match his so she wouldn’t trip and fall.

  “Are you mad at me?” he asked in a suddenly pleasant voice.

  Jean kept on concentrating on her footsteps, trying not to get too worried about why Colin suddenly changed his tone. “I’m concerned. I don’t like you acting like everything is okay when it obviously isn’t.”

  “I don’t think everything is okay. I think everything is fucked, but I expect you to let me handle it.”

  “That’s not how I work, Colin.”

  “It’s the only way I work.”

  Jean kept quiet as they walked three more blocks. The buildings around them all seemed so...shiny. She expected the city to look grungier. Maybe older. But she supposed they were in the Upper East Side. Probably not too many places there that were rundown. There had been a map of the boroughs at the hotel that she’d lo
oked at, and now that she was actually walking on the streets, she realized just how big the city truly was.

  And for the entire walk, Colin didn’t let go of her waist. She tried not to think too hard about why he was so insistent on holding onto her, but her mind kept on flashing to the previous night. When he told her that all she had to do was ask and she’d be his.

  “We’re here.” Colin pulled her inside a building.

  The place didn’t look like a restaurant at first, but after they took an elevator to the third story, the door opened to a posh-looking place with pristine white tablecloths on every table and waiters and waitresses in neat, pressed black uniforms walking between the tables to serve the guests.

  The closest she’d ever had to a uniform was a t-shirt Striker had made that was never replaced after an exhausted trucker spilled coffee all over it. No matter how much she washed the thing, she swore she could always smell that sludge on it.

  Colin gave the hostess his name and they were led to a table next to a window so Jean could look out at the busy streets below them. “So is Robert running late?”

  “He’s never late.” Colin took one of the menus the hostess had given them and looked it over.

  “He’s never late and doesn’t know how to love. This guy sounds like a peach.”

  Colin looked at her over the menu. “Robert is... He’s a decent guy. Probably. I never got to know him all that well. But he’s smart and when he makes a snap judgment, he doesn’t change his mind. Just be yourself and don’t lie.”

  Her eyes widened. “What do you mean, don’t lie?”

  “I’m a better liar than you. I’ll do all the lying necessary.”

  He thought she wasn’t a good liar? “I happen to be a great liar.”

  “Whatever you say.” Colin obviously wasn’t convinced.

  Jean grabbed her own menu but couldn’t look at it for more than a few seconds. How the hell did Colin have the power to annoy her so quickly? “So did Robert make a snap judgment of you?”