As soon as she was buckled, Dave tossed an old-school flip phone into her lap. “Dial the last number on there. Put it on speaker.”
Emma took a deep breath. She’d been bluffing when she said that within the hour her cousins would be meeting with his boss. They’d told her jack shit, so she had nothing to go on. Emma picked up the phone with her good hand and flipped it open. Probably good it wasn’t a newer model, because her bloody fingers would never work with a touchscreen.
Internally, Emma laughed at the stupid thought, but when Dave made another sudden turn, she was snapped back into the severity of the situation. She found the last number dialed and put the speaker function on.
After one ring, a man’s voice came on the other end. “I thought I told you not to call me.”
“I have Emma Devereaux with me,” he said casually, as though they were just hanging out together. “She says you’re meeting with her cousins today.”
“Shit. Yeah. The Devereaux situation is taken care of. Let her go.”
“Got it.” Dave reached across the seat and grabbed the phone, snapping it shut.
Emma took a nervous swallow. “So you’ll let me go, right?”
Dave’s glance flickered between the road and rearview mirror and for the first time she saw a flash of nerves flicker over his features. “If I stop the car, your boyfriend will kill me.”
She shook her head frantically. “He won’t. I’ll reason with him, I swear!”
He didn’t look at her. Just drove faster. “Guys like him start thinking they’re in love and all sorts of shit goes haywire. There is no reasoning with him.”
Emma looked at him as though he was a maniac. Well, he was, but now he was talking crazier than he had been. “Jace doesn’t love me! I promise.”
“Tell you what. If I lose your boyfriend back there, I’ll let you go. Until then, you might be my only way out.”
Emma tried to focus through the pounding of her heart beating in her chest. He wasn’t going to let her go. Even if her cousins worked some kind of magic, this psycho was going to use her as leverage until Jace wasn’t after him.
But then she saw it. Dave wasn’t wearing his seat belt.
After she glanced in the mirror to ensure that Jace was still there, Emma took one more steadying breath before she lunged. Using her bad shoulder to hold him off, she gripped the steering wheel with her good hand and jerked it with all her force toward her.
Dave punched out at her, but by then the truck was already careening around in a tight circle as the left wheels came off the ground. What started off as a slight tilt turned into the car falling completely over on its side. Emma held her arm over her face as her window connected with the concrete, her belt tightening as the truck lurched forward.
When the truck finally stopped moving, Emma couldn’t move her arm or open her eyes. What the hell had she done? Crashed the truck. Good Lord, she could’ve died. Or maybe she was dead. Or worse, she was alive and so was Dave. Pissed off and in the vehicle with her.
That bit of fear motivated her to finally open her eyes. The truck rested so that the passenger side was against the pavement. Pieces of glass were strewn about the truck, and her head would be on bare pavement if not for the seat belt locked into place. Dave was in a heap in front of her, the lower half of his body dangling out the windshield. And if he woke up, she’d be within arm’s reach.
Emma tried to unlatch the seat belt with her good hand, but the press down button wasn’t moving. After giving it another try, she pulled at the belt, trying to get a little give, but the thing wouldn’t budge.
A groan emerged from Dave and her sense of urgency increased. She couldn’t be there when he woke up. She once again tried to get the belt undone, but suddenly Dave was being dragged out of the truck. His groan turned to a scream as he scraped over what was left of the windshield, but he went silent fast as Jace came into view and landed a sound punch right to Dave’s face. She couldn’t tell whether it was the punch or Dave’s head hitting the glass-covered concrete, but suddenly he wasn’t moving anymore. Emma’s jaw dropped at the violence in front of her. At the crash she’d caused.
Jace dropped to his hands and knees and looked in at Emma. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay,” she said automatically, only belatedly remembering that she wasn’t even close to okay. “No. My arm. He shot me in the arm.”
“Motherfucker. I want to get you out of there, okay?”
Emma nodded. “The belt won’t come off.”
Jace reached around and grabbed something from his back pocket. Gingerly, he climbed through the broken windshield until he was right in front of her. Knowing he was there, smelling his familiar scent, feeling the heat from his body, made her feel so much better. She let out a sigh of relief.
“Wrap your good arm around me. When I cut this, you’re going to fall.”
Emma did as he said and he made quick work of the belt before he pulled her out, trying his best to keep her from cutting herself on the jagged edges. He carried her away from the road and set her down on the grass.
His face was expressionless as he assessed her body for other injuries. “It looks like the bullet grazed you. I don’t see blood coming from anywhere else, but we’ll get you to the hospital and make sure nothing is broken.”
“Wouldn’t I know if something was broken?” Her arm still hurt more than anything.
“With the adrenaline pumping through your system, you could be missing a leg and not realize it. Stay here. I’m calling an ambulance.”
Stay here? Where did he think she was going to go? But she was a bit too traumatized to be snarky, so she just nodded. Emma cradled her injured arm against her chest and stared at Dave, ready to run at the slightest sign of movement. Jace spoke rapidly to whoever was taking his call, giving instructions on how to get to the motel where apparently the front desk attendant had been assaulted and directions on their location. She was glad he knew where they were, because she was completely lost.
Jace hung up his phone and came back to her. “Help should be here soon. I told them to go to the motel first since I’m not sure how badly injured the attendant is and you seem to be doing okay.”
Emma nodded and scooched closer to Jace. He softly set an arm around her shoulder and she could tell he was worried about hurting her. It was only as he pulled her close to his body that she realized she was completely trembling. “I was so worried that he would lose you,” she murmured against the fabric of his t-shirt.
“I’d never let him get away with you,” he promised. “And from now on you’re never getting out of my sight.”
Emma smiled against him, not sure if she should be happy or terrified at his declaration. “Never is a long time.”
Jace pulled away and looked down into her eyes just as sirens sounded in the distance. “Well, get comfortable. Because from now on, you’re stuck with me, Emma Devereaux.”
Emma flinched as Jace opened the passenger door for her.
“Are you okay there?”
She laughed at her own jumpiness. “Yeah. Long day, I guess.”
He narrowed his eyes as he held out his hand to help her out. She didn’t really need help, but she’d never pass up an excuse to touch him. She put her palm in his and stood.
“You’re worried about Luke and Michael, aren’t you?”
“How am I supposed to feel? They made some sort of deal with a man who was willing to have me shot to cover up something.” Jace was silent and Emma considered him for a second. “You agree with them, don’t you?”
Jace’s expression hardened. “You saw exactly how far I was willing to go to keep you safe today. How can I really judge them?”
That wasn’t a fair comparison. Jace was different. He could handle himself. Michael and Luke were businessmen. They didn’t know what they were getting themselves into.
Jace set an arm around her shoulders and leaned forward to press a soft kiss to her forehead. “Relax,” he bre
athed. “They’ll be okay. Evelyn and I will make sure of it.”
Hmmm. Emma wasn’t sure how she felt about his FBI contact. From the brief phone conversation she’d heard between the woman and Jace at the hospital, it sounded as though she was much more concerned with landing a potentially huge arrest than helping Emma’s family. But she trusted Jace. If he said he would help, she believed him. “Okay. Besides, I’ll be seeing a lot more of them now anyways.”
Jace headed for the porch. “Why is that?”
“Luke offered me a job. The not-for-profit coordinator. DevX is setting up a 501c(3) to handle all its donations and they asked if I’d be the director. I think they felt bad for me being out here all alone, so they wanted to give me something to keep me busy.”
“So you’re moving to New York?”
“Oh no. Just flying out once or twice a month. I wasn’t going to accept, but it will be nice to keep an eye on those guys.”
Jace pushed open the door and held it open for her.
“So since you’re keeping an eye out on the terrible twosome, does that mean you’ll be hanging out with me for a bit longer?” She wished she could find a more subtle way to ask. Before the crash, they’d said they’d go on a date and afterwards, Jace had seemed determined to stay with her for much longer than one date. But that was the heat of the moment. Now that the immediate danger was past, she didn’t want to be blindsided by him changing his mind.
He raised a brow and the corner of his mouth hooked up. “Hanging out? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”
“Give me a—” She broke off as she noticed the entryway. What had previously been a crumbled mess was now almost back to normal. The patches in the drywall were no longer noticeable, as though they had been patched and painted over. The color of the walls was the exact same color as before. If it weren’t for the new paint smell, she might never have noticed it was a fresh coat. The priceless antique secretary was no longer in the room, but the entire space had been cleaned, polished, and dusted. Even though there were still a few spots here and there where Emma saw evidence of the fight, the space was well on its way back to normal. “What happened?”
“I didn’t want you to come back to that,” he said softly from behind her.
“But how? You were with me all day.”
“Well, don’t be too grateful. I didn’t lift a finger. While you were getting your x-rays, I called the owner of that diner who seemed to be so fond of you. I explained what happened and he was more than happy to get a group of guys together.”
Emma’s heart swelled at the sweet gesture. Damn it. She was trying to stay cool and remind herself that she’d only known Jace for a few days, but he was making this whole “not rushing into things” hard.
“Don’t look at me like that.” He intertwined his fingers with hers. “I happened to come into a lot of cash lately, so it’s not a big deal.”
“Well, I happen to have a pretty pink cheerleader’s bedroom upstairs and, believe it or not, no man has ever slept in that bed. It’s no big deal or anything, but how would you feel about being the first?”
His eyes darkened with desire as he looked her over. “You should probably rest.” He moved in closer.
“Oh, I will,” she promised. “Afterwards.”
Emma pulled up to the house and caught her breath when she didn't see Jace's truck out front. It's going to be okay, she told herself as she parked her own car right in front of the door so she could easily pull the carryon sized roller luggage out of the backseat.
The tension stayed with her as she unlocked the door and went inside, but her pent up breath left her in a big whoosh as she saw Jace crouched in the entryway, paint brush in hand, as he went over the banister to the main staircase. Now there were no signs any disruption had ever happened there.
"You're early," he said in an accusing tone as he set the still wet brush onto the plastic tarp covering the hardwood floor and stood.
"I caught an earlier flight. I missed you."
He frowned. "Is everything okay? Did your cousins call?"
She gave him a smile as she shook her head. "No. Nothing like that. I just... I got it in my head that you wouldn't be here."
He was quiet for a minute. "Where else would I be?"
"I don't know. Off doing Jace things."
He held up the paint brush. "I guess this isn't a Jace thing?"
She let out a laugh as she tried to figure out where the conversation had gone off track. "No that's not what I-" Emma took a breath. "You're here and fixing my house for no reason besides the fact that you're perfect. Being perfect is definitely a Jace thing."
He cocked his head and looked at her wordlessly for a moment. "I'm not painting because I'm perfect. And if you think being perfect is a Jace thing, I think you have me confused with someone else."
Emma shook her head. "Nope. Practically perfect in every way. That's my Jace."
"You're obviously suffering from selective memory loss but since this is working in my favor, I'm going to allow it."
"Very generous of you."
"Emma, I'm here with a paint brush in my hand because I love you. And I'm collecting goodwill for the next time I piss you off. Which I'm sure will be sooner rather than later."
She looked around her at all the work he'd already done. "I can't believe you did all this." She was still overwhelmed with all the work he'd done while she was in the hospital and here he was working once again on making her house perfect.
He shrugged. "Nothing better to do. I have a job coming up in a week so I wanted to get a jump start on the repairs."
Job. So he was leaving. She knew it. "I didn't realize you were taking jobs."
"I was going to tell you. You literally walked through the door a few seconds ago."
"Well I've been gone for a few days and all I could think about was us. Where are we going and what are we doing and how can we expect to make this last? And then I kept thinking how new this all was and that I shouldn't even ask the questions, but now you're here being perfect and talking about leaving for a job at the same time, so I'm really confused about what's happening here."
"I'm in, Emma. I'm all in. Do you want to be all in?"
"Of course I'm all in! I don't have mental breakdowns like this over just anyone. But how can we be all in? I mean, you have your job and you don't even live in this state and-"
"I don't live in any state," he reminded her. "I'm technically homeless."
"You know what I mean."
He closed the distance between them and caged her face in his hands. "I know exactly what you mean. Emma Devereaux, I love you. And I'm willing to figure all this out. Do you trust me?"
"Yes," she said softly as she looked up and into his eyes.
"Good. Now I want you to stop worrying for the rest of the night."
She bit her bottom lip as she contemplated that. "I don't know. I'm kind of a worrier. I think I'll need a distraction."
He moved one of his hands to her waist and pulled her up against him. "I think I can manage a distraction."
~~THE END~~
Trusting Michael
by
Mallory Crowe
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Fonts used with permission from Microsoft.
Copyright © 2015 by Mallory Crowe
Mallory Crowe (2015-09-10). Trusting Michael (Devereaux Billionaires Book Two)
Porn. So much porn.
Lori deleted file after file on the laptop in front of her. Kyle Drum apparently had quite the collection of adult videos. And, hey, Lori was all for letting off steam once in a while and getting to know one’s hand a bit better. But this collection was on a work computer. And it had caused at least two different viruses and countless malware programs to be installed.
Hell, with the amount of time it
would take her to clean up this damn thing, they might as well toss the stupid computer and buy a new one.
She let out a sigh and clicked on the control panel, but a pop-up suddenly appeared and a woman with more plastic on her body than fat appeared and started to pull off her shirt.
“Oh, for the love of—”
“Is this how you normally spend your days?”
Lori twisted around in her chair and her eyes went wide at the sight of the man who stood at the entrance of her cubicle.
Not just any man. Michael Freakin’ Devereaux. Her jaw dropped, but no sound managed to come out.
“Are you just going to let her keep going then? I think she’s about two seconds away from putting that cucumber—”
Lori reached behind her and slammed the laptop shut without even glancing behind her. She plastered on a smile and tried to pretend everything was normal. “That’s not my computer. Just cleaning off some viruses.”
He nodded but didn’t look the slightest bit convinced. “Ms. Briggs, do you mind coming upstairs with me?”
Upstairs? What the heck was upstairs? He couldn’t be firing her for this. She could explain. If he would only listen for a few seconds, she could clarify everything. Tell him that Kyle had been let go and she was trying to get the computer back to factory specs. Everything had a perfectly reasonable explanation! “Okay,” was all that came out as she pushed herself up on shaky legs.
In the three months she’d worked at DevX Tech, she’d never once seen anyone called upstairs. For that matter, she’d never even seen the VP of IT on her floor, let alone personally asking employees to come up.
Maybe he’d just been walking by and seen the screen of the bimbo and on the spot decided she needed to go? But he couldn’t think she was really stupid enough to watch that crap in a cubicle!
Devereaux Billionaires Complete Series: Books 1-4 Page 17
