How to Lasso a Billionaire

by Katharine Sadler

  She fisted her hands in her lap. Had Max always been like this? So willing to make excuses rather than admit he'd screwed up? "Right," she said, unable to hold back. "Because you've been so much a part of Addy's life not being in jail."

  Anger flashed in his eyes. "I've done my best."

  She glared at him, her tea long cold, his food barely touched. "Just tell me what happened, Max. The truth."

  "I knew Jude had a thing for you. He asked me about you all the time, and he'd had some big man-to-man talk with me about how he wanted to date you." He glanced at her and he must not have liked what he saw, because he raised his hands. "I was desperate, Bri. I told him I'd stolen the money for you. We'd talked the week before this all went down and you'd been complaining about not having a car on campus and lugging groceries back to your apartment. So, I told him we'd used the money to buy you a car."

  She crossed her arms over her chest. "That's it. One and a half million dollars for a car?"

  He stared down at the table. "I might have also told him you needed a nicer apartment and that you'd lost your sports scholarship and needed cash to pay for your last year and a half of college."

  She pressed a hand to her chest to make sure her heart wasn't literally pounding out of it. "You never considered how that might affect me? How that might affect my relationship with Jude?"

  His expression went hard, his jaw tight, but regret lurked in his eyes. "I had to convince him you were deep in it or he would have gone to the police."

  "It didn't hurt that you'd also managed to make me look selfish, greedy, and lazy as extra incentive he'd never speak to me again. You didn't want us together, didn't want us to find out you'd been lying to both of us." Realization dawned. "Is that why you're in Vegas? Were you trying to keep us apart?"

  He rolled his eyes. "I'm in Vegas because I got a lead on a decent job. I figured you two would figure everything out as soon as you told me you were working for him. I'm surprised it took you this long." He rubbed a hand through his hair. "Honestly, Bri, the guy's no good for you. He was twenty-two, living in Vegas and all he ever did was work. It was like he was trying to prove something."

  She snorted. "And that's such a terrible thing?"

  His shoulders dropped and he met her gaze, his own open. "I knew how he felt about you, Bri. The guy had been in love with you since we were kids, but he never made a move. He was never going to make a move, and you deserved better. You deserved a guy who'd do any and everything to be with you, to put you first above money and status and work. Jude was never going to be that guy."

  He sounded sincere, but she doubted those thoughts had been his first when he'd been caught. He'd saved himself at her expense and that hurt, even more than it pissed her off. "At least he didn't walk away from his kid."

  He flinched. He rolled his shoulders and stared at the ceiling, his jaw working. When he lowered his face to look at her, his expression had gone blank. "I didn't walk away, Bri. I was led away in handcuffs."

  She leaned back, disgusted. "You just said Jude didn't call the police."

  "He didn't. After Addy was born and Lizzy left, I had to figure out some way to support us, to pay off Addy's medical bills and buy a nice house. I took whatever work I could find. Not all of it was legal."

  She studied his face, the blue eyes and lean lines so familiar, though he looked wearier than she'd ever seen him. "How did we not know? Why didn't you tell us?"

  He laughed, a hard, dry grunt of a laugh. "Hey, Mom, Bri, I know you already think I'm a loser because I lost my big casino dream, but I'm sure you'll understand when I tell you I'm going to be in prison for the first three years of Addy's life."

  Bri found it suddenly hard to breathe. "Three years?"

  He shrugged, and glanced away. "I got out after sixteen months for good behavior, but I was banned from going anywhere near the internet or a computer for a year. I'd already been gone so long Addy wouldn't remember me, and I didn't want to see her again until I had some sort of steady job, some sort of real way to provide for her."

  "She wouldn't have cared," she said, her eyes burning. "She loves you. Mom and I, we love you, Max. No matter what you've done or where you've been."

  His eyes went a bit glassy and he swallowed hard. "You would have wanted an ex-con around? Just another mouth to feed with no good way to contribute? You would want the guy who fucked up your chances with Jude in your life?"

  "I would have wanted my brother in my life. You've always pissed me off and driven me crazy from time to time. We'd have gotten past it."

  "Really? You ready to forgive me for throwing you under the bus with Jude?"

  She studied him, the dust on his t-shirt and in his hair from a Saturday morning spent on a construction site, the tight muscles he'd grown on what was once a lanky body. She couldn't imagine what he'd lived through in prison and then being an ex-con trying to keep down a job, but it was obvious he hadn't been sitting on the couch doing nothing while she and Maureen struggled. "Honestly? I have no idea. Right now, I don't have the luxury of thinking about that. I'm in love with Jude, but I have no shot of a future with him, Max. I won't walk away from Addy and Mom, not unless you're there to take care of them. I need to know you'll step up, and that you won't kick me out of your life if I'm with Jude."

  He sighed heavily. "If you love him and he's treating you right, Bri, I'm not going to get between the two of you. As for seeing Addy and Mom... Look, I just need a few more months. Just let me get stable in this job and put some money aside, maybe get a place for us, and I'll step up, Bri. I promise."

  He looked and sounded sincere, but Bri had heard similar promises from him too many times before to think anything would change. And she needed things to change. She didn't want to have to walk away from Jude, wasn't sure she'd survive it, but she'd do it for Addy and for Maureen. "Addy and Mom don't need anything but you, Max. The longer you keep putting off seeing them, the harder it will be."

  He scoffed. "And where would we all live, Bri? How would we eat? I get that you're in love and hoping everything will come out roses and unicorns, but that's not real fucking life."

  His words hurt, even though they didn't surprise her. She'd known walking into the bistro what a long shot this was. "Right. Well, you just let me know when you're ready to stop feeling sorry for yourself and act like a fucking father, okay, Max? I'll just keep putting my life on hold until you're ready. Does that work for you?"

  His expression softened. "I'm sorry, Bri. I'm sorry I can't be the brother you want. I'm sorry I can't be the father Addy needs. I'm sorry I'm a shitty asshole of a human being."

  She stared him down, wondering if he was manipulating her, but he looked truly miserable. "You're not a shitty person, Max. The brother I know is a good person, a person who talks a lot of shit and isn't very good about considering the consequences of his actions, but a genuinely good person who can be an amazing father if he would just make the effort to yank his head out of his own ass."

  "You don't know me anymore, Bri. I'm not the person I was four years ago."

  She stood, because she was far to angry and bitter with him to be the support or the comfort he obviously needed. "No matter what's happened, I know my brother's still in there. Just don't put off trying to find him so long that you miss out on Addy's whole life."

  He grabbed her hand before she could walk away. "For what it's worth, I didn't think it would hurt you if Jude blamed you for me stealing from him. I didn't think you felt anything for him." He shook his head, his hair flopping over one eye. "I was so pissed at him. It's stupid, but I felt like the money I'd stolen was rightfully mine and he didn't have any right to be so angry about me stealing. I honestly felt he was throwing away our partnership and our friendship over money, and I didn't want him anywhere near you."

  "And you would have said anything to avoid jail." Her throat was tight, her eyes stinging.

  His grip on her hand tightened. "I know you have no reason to believe me, but I'm going to make
it up to you, Bri. I'm going to do better."

  She pulled her hand free and wrapped her arms around herself. "I hope you do, Max. I hope you do better for me and Mom and, especially, for Addy."

  He dropped his gaze to the table and pushed to his feet. "I should get back to work."

  She watched her brother walk away, wondering how it was possible that she didn't really know him at all anymore.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  On the elevator to Jude's room at the casino, she remembered things she'd let herself forget. Max and Jude had been growing apart long before the big fallout. Max had said negative things about Jude more and more often. He'd felt Jude was too conservative with the money they'd made on their gambling app, thought Jude didn't know how to have fun. Max was a free spirit at heart and, though Jude wasn't closed off to experience by any means, it was in his nature to be careful, to think things through.

  And, by the time Jude would have found out Max had been stealing, maybe for Max it had been about more than impressing Lizzie? Maybe he'd been tired of following Jude's lead on their finances, or maybe he'd become disillusioned with their shared dream? Even as real and honest as Max had been with her, she suspected there was still so much he wasn't telling her and that his flippant attitude was hiding deeper hurts.

  Of course, that had always been Max's way, to make a joke when things got too real, too close to the heart.

  When she knocked and Jude didn't answer, she let herself into his room. It felt a bit stalkerish, but she needed to see him, and she didn't want to take a chance of missing him. She probably shouldn't have snuck out while he was in the shower, or ignored his texts all morning, but she'd needed to know if a future between them might be possible. She hadn't wanted to face him again until she'd be able to tell him how she felt without the inevitable end to their relationship looming over them.

  Unfortunately, she was no closer to believing she'd ever get to a place in her life where she would be free to love him. Not that she didn't think he'd accept Addy and Maureen, but that she was in no kind of financial situation for moving them all to Vegas, so she and Jude could keep dating. Long distance might work, but only if there was a guaranteed end date to the arrangement.

  Not to mention that Maureen hated Jude as passionately as Bri once had and, as much as she wanted her mother to accept Jude, she wouldn't betray Max by telling Maureen the truth. Not when what Bri wanted more than anything was Max back in Addy and Maureen's lives.

  She didn't have any answers, but Jude had told her he loved her, and she needed to tell him what was going on, to be honest with him about everything.

  Pulling out her phone, she texted him to apologize for vanishing and to let him know she was at his place. She stared at her phone for several long moments, like she could make him respond with the power of her mind.

  Nothing.

  With nothing better to do, she slid under the covers, yawning, and flipped through her phone, looking for a distraction, something to make the waiting go more quickly. She hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, since she and Jude had done a very good job of making up for lost time and Jude had seemed determined to give her as many orgasms in one night as she might have had in their three weeks of dating if sex had been on the table.

  She knew she couldn't focus on a book with her thoughts zooming around her head a million miles a moment, and there was nothing in the news or on social media with the power to distract her.

  She scanned Isla's plan to lasso a billionaire and smiled. What would Isla think if she knew the billionaire Bri wanted to catch was Jude?

  She scrolled down Isla's plan, remembering everything she and Jude had done together, the sweet stuff and the fun stuff. The decadence and luxury of it all had been amazing, but she knew it was the small moments she'd remember most. Jude's smile, the heat in his eyes when he kissed her. But also the way he held her hand like it was a habit, even at the start, the way he laughed at stupid, slap-stick humor, the way he noticed what she liked and never complained about acting like a tourist in his own city.

  She'd almost missed out on all those moments, so caught up in an anger, a story, that was false. She'd almost missed seeing him, missed loving him.

  The next item on Isla's list made her laugh. Holding onto the billionaire - getting real, but not too real. Isla had created beneath the heading a list of ways to let the billionaire believe he was seeing the real you while you sucked in your belly and hid that one weird mole.

  The list made her laugh, but her sadness didn't abate. The final item on Isla's list: When to walk away and when to stay? made her wonder if Isla had known which billionaire Bri might find. She'd never mentioned her crush on Jude to Isla. They'd long ago made a pact to never let boys come between them and she'd been sure any kind of interest in Jude on her part would be just the problem they'd always tried to avoid. Beneath the list, Isla had typed: Babe, if I knew the answer to that one, I wouldn't still be single.

  Bri wrapped her arms around her knees and pulled them tight to her chest. She missed her best friend. She needed to break their pact and talk to Isla about Jude, because she had no idea what to do next. She yawned and snuggled down farther beneath the covers. She'd call Isla after her nap. Sleep would clear her head, and everything would make more sense when she woke up.

  She drifted off with her phone gripped tight in her hand.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Jude rubbed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, staring at the computer screen but no longer able to focus on it. Work had served as a decent distraction for most of the morning, but he could no longer focus. He couldn't stop wondering why the hell Brianne had run out on him that morning.

  When he'd stepped out of the shower to find her gone, he'd been so certain he'd never see her again. He'd felt it last night, her pulling away from him. He'd gone too fast, told her loved her too soon. He'd pushed her away, just when she'd finally opened up to him. The idea that she might be done with him, that what they'd had would end . . . It damn near killed him.

  His phone pinged and he immediately straightened, alert and awash with relief. Brianne wanted to talk to him.

  He raced up to his room, only to find Brianne in his bed, fully dressed and fast asleep. He wanted to wake her and demand answers, but he wasn't going to risk scaring her away again. She needed her rest and, when she woke up, he'd let her know that she could have all the time she needed to decide if she wanted to take their relationship to the next level.

  With light steps, he walked over to the bed. She smiled slightly in her sleep, her cheeks pink, her hair a messy halo around her head. Damn, she was beautiful. He didn't know how he'd been so lucky to have her walk back into his life, but he'd be eternally grateful to Isla for bringing her back to him. Now, he just had to convince Brianne to stay, to let him love her.

  He pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek and slipped her cell phone from her hand. He carried it to the couch and stretched to put it on the coffee table. The screen was lit. His fat thumb must have hit the power button as he carried it.

  The word billionaire caught his eye. He knew better than to snoop, but he couldn't resist a closer look, wondering what she'd been looking at when she'd fallen asleep.

  He scanned the list on the screen, his vision going red, his heart thudding like a stone in his chest. She'd had a plan? A plan to catch him or a plan to catch any billionaire? A way to make sure she had all the luxuries she could ever want? Anger made it hard to breathe and all he could read were the headings, the bare outline of the plan was bad enough. He couldn't stand to look closer to see the details of her seduction laid out.

  He grunted as pain hit him hard in the gut fast on the heels of his anger. In the back of his mind, a voice whispered for him to take a breath, to give her a chance to explain, but another voice overrode it. A voice that called him an idiot for trusting her, the same voice that had warned him to stay away from her.

  "Jude?" His name in her sleepy, sweet voice forced him to pause and take that b
reath he should have taken right away.

  He smiled, forcing himself to focus on her face, on her sweet, open, honest face. She wasn't some gold digger going after him with a plan. She was Brianne Mason, the amazing woman he'd grown up with, the woman who drove him out of his mind with desire and love. The woman who'd brought light and laughter and warmth back to his lonely life. The woman he'd be an idiot to ever willingly walk away from. He held up the phone. "How to lasso a billionaire cowboy?"

  Her cheeks reddened and her eyes widened, but she didn't look scared, just embarrassed. "Isla wrote most of it. Please don't judge me. It was just for fun."

  He scanned the plan, taking his time, really reading it. It was beyond obvious that it was a joke and he hated himself more than a little for thinking, even for a moment, that Brianne might have been using him. "Isla isn't nearly as funny as she thinks she is," he said.

  Bri snorted. "She wanted me to have some fun while I was in Vegas. The list is mostly a joke, but she honestly hoped I'd have a whirlwind romance." She bit her lower lip. "Hopefully, she won't hate me when she finds out my whirlwind romance was with you."

  She looked up and met his gaze and the hot, hard knot of panic in his chest loosened just a bit. It didn't matter where Brianne had gone or why she'd run out, it just mattered that she'd come back and she was looking at him like he was the only man in her world. "She might be a bit jealous that you prefer me to her, but she'll probably get over it." He bit his tongue not to suggest that Isla would be thrilled to call Brianne her sister. If Brianne got spooked by a simple, I love you, she'd definitely freak out over talk of marriage.

  Bri frowned. "Jude, I--"

  In his hand her phone released a shrill ring. He looked down to see her mother's name flash on the screen and, as much as he wanted to ignore the call and hear what Brianne had been about to say, he understood how important Brianne's family was to her. "It's your mom," he said, handing her the phone.