The Screwup: A Billionaire Fake Fiancée Romance (The Holbrook Cousins Saga Book 2)

by Alina Jacobs

  "Allie?"

  "No, my name is Carli," she shouted back over the music. "Let's dance!" She led him onto the dance floor.

  As he matched the rhythm of her body, he felt her run her hands over his chest and back.

  "I just got out of the military," he told her.

  "I'd really like to give you a welcome-home present," she said in his ear and kissed his neck. Then she flipped her hair back, exposing her tattoos, and gave him a sexy look.

  Her hair needed to be a little messier, and that was the wrong size tattoo, he thought. He looked around. The music was starting to hurt his head. Maybe he needed a different scene.

  "Maybe another time," he said. He paid for another round for the girls, closed out his tab, and left.

  "You're home early," Grant said to him.

  "Yeah. Too old for the club. I just wasn't feeling it."

  "You should probably go to, like, an upscale bar or a lounge or something," Grant said, playfully wrestling him into a light choke hold. "You know. Something for old people."

  21

  Allie

  Allie arrived in New York City late the Sunday evening before the internship was scheduled to start. She found the apartment building from the internet ad. She was going to sublet a room. The apartment building was old and looked kind of terrifying in the dark.

  Allie had never lived in a large city. She grew up in a rural area, and Les DesChamps wasn’t a big town, either. There was the military base, the bars, the college, and a Walmart.

  After driving around the block, Allie found an on-street parking spot. She took a deep breath then walked up to the building.

  A man walking by stopped and said to her, "You new here?"

  Suspicious, she nodded.

  "Street cleaning is tomorrow afternoon, so you need to move your car by then."

  "Okay, thanks," she mumbled and buzzed the apartment number for the unit she was looking at. The door clicked unlocked, and she walked up the stairs to the apartment.

  The lights that weren't completely shattered flickered as she walked up the narrow staircase. She shuddered as a cockroach skittered across the floor. This was a far cry from the Holbrook estate.

  When she finally reached the fifth floor, Arnold, the owner of the apartment, was standing in the doorway, waiting for her. He had a large gut, and he was wearing boxers, a robe, and nothing else. She sagged. He wasn't like the shirtless marines she was used to.

  "So you're the new tenant?" he asked. "It’s five dollars a night. You sleep on the couch. I sleep on the bed. Or you can sleep on the bed with me." He gave her a leer.

  It’s only a semester, she told herself as she looked around the small, dark studio apartment. There was a small kitchenette that was covered in grime in one corner. The bathtub was right next to it. On the far wall was one small single window that was papered over with newspaper.

  "Do you need a shower?" Arnold asked.

  "No, thanks," she lied.

  You can handle this, she told herself. You’ve had worse.

  She decided to risk not unpacking her car. She didn’t want to have her stuff in the apartment and be trapped. She barely slept that night. She heard the man moaning and the telltale noise of him jerking off. She gritted her teeth and pulled out her phone.

  Once I meet the other interns, maybe someone will need a roommate, she thought. She had looked at prices for places to rent. She frowned and did the mental math. Could she swing a better place? She wasn’t sure.

  Holbrook wasn’t paying all that much. Even if she found a roommate or three or four, rent would still be a significant portion of her budget.

  She missed North Carolina.

  The next morning after she woke up, Allie checked on her car. Nothing had been stolen, thankfully. She pulled out her work outfit, ran back upstairs to the apartment, changed, and then grabbed Margot.

  "What am I going to do with you?" she said to the dog.

  "Leave her here," Arnold replied. He was eating some sort of goopy breakfast sandwich. She didn't want to know what it was.

  "Where else are you going to leave her?" he said, grinning at her and reaching for Margot. In the meager daylight, she could see his teeth were yellow, and a few were gray.

  "She’s not exactly my dog," she said, snatching Margot back. "She’s my, um, ex-boyfriend's dog. He’s a marine, and he will be very unhappy if anything happens to her."

  "Understood," Arnold said.

  Allie felt sick, but she had no choice. She set Margot down in her dog bed. The place probably has bedbugs, she thought, feeling herself itch.

  She marched down the stairs and climbed into her car. She knew she should take transit, but she had to park her car somewhere. Holbrook had parking—she had checked on her phone. Their deck was expensive, though. She wouldn’t be able to pay for parking and move into a better place. While sitting in traffic, she looked on her phone for potential bartending jobs.

  "I hate New York City," she growled. After being honked at and almost colliding with a bus, white knuckled and sweating from the stress, she finally drove into the parking deck at the Holbrook Enterprises tower. She took a ticket, parked, and tried to brush off as much of the dog hair as she could.

  She inspected herself in the car's side mirror.

  "I wish I had been able to shower," she muttered as she walked into the lobby

  "Can we help you?" said the fresh-faced receptionist.

  "I’m here for an internship."

  "Yes, upstairs," she said, pointing to a sign. "Twentieth floor. You can’t miss it!"

  Allie thanked her and found her way to the room. There were several other well-dressed young people in there.

  "Food!" she said to herself and headed to the snack table.

  "The granola is pretty good," said one girl who was standing there, eating.

  "Oh yeah? Thanks. I guess I’ll try some," Allie replied, reaching for a bowl.

  "I’m Liz Davenport," said the girl. She was pretty, with nice makeup.

  Allie introduced herself then asked, "So what are you here for?"

  "Risk management in logistics and operations," Liz said. "I used to work as a consultant, but then I decided to do my MBA at Stanford, and now I’m back on the East Coast."

  "I see," Allie said. She saw that she was not in the same league as Liz and these people—that was clear.

  "What are you here for?" the young woman said, following her to a table.

  "Auditing and risk management," Allie replied.

  Maybe you could see if she needs a roommate, Allie thought to herself.

  "Where are you living?" Allie asked. "It sure is hard to find a place to live in this city."

  "Oh," the girl said with a self-conscious laugh, "my family has a condo nearby, so I’m just living there."

  "That’s convenient," Allie replied, hoping her envy didn't show on her face. She almost wanted to cry, thinking about where she was living.

  "How about you?" Liz asked.

  "Downtown," Allie said vaguely. "There’s not a lot of parking there, though."

  "You brought your car?" Liz asked.

  "Yeah, I don’t know what I’m going to do with it," Allie said. "I guess I could sell it."

  "You can’t leave it with your parents?"

  "No," she said. Allie didn’t want to go into why she had no contact with her mother.

  A woman came into the room and stood in front of the group of interns.

  More people had trickled in as Allie talked to Liz, and it looked as if there were over a hundred people in the room.

  "Welcome to the Holbrook Enterprises internship program," the woman said. "I’m Monique, and if you follow me to the auditorium, we'll start the orientation."

  She briefly wondered if she would see Carter but squashed down the desire and followed Liz to the auditorium.

  22

  Carter

  Monday morning arrived too soon for Carter. He woke up and tried to pep talk himself into having a better attit
ude about the internship. Allie usually sent him a picture of Margot, but he hadn't had a message from her in a few days. He checked his phone, but there was nothing.

  After dressing in his new suit, Carter stepped into the elevator with Grant and Kate. Kate was looking up at Grant adoringly. They were so in love. He was jealous of their relationship and how perfect they seemed together.

  "Find a room," he said as Grant kissed his wife.

  His cousin smirked at him. "Jealous?"

  "I really need to find my own place."

  "You know your parents don’t want you on your own right now," Grant told him. "You need to have someone to watch over you."

  "Why? I’m an adult," Carter complained.

  "Just in case," Kate said.

  "In case of what?" Carter asked, daring them to say it. "Just because Grant was borderline suicidal when he came back from the military doesn’t mean I am."

  "We don’t want to lose you," Grant said.

  "It's your fault Danielle came back in the first place," Carter snapped. "If you hadn't joined forces with her to land that Ethiopian mining contract, she wouldn't have come after Kate."

  Grant jerked back like Carter had slapped him.

  "Carter," Kate admonished.

  Grant held up a hand. "He’s right. It was my fault. You were almost killed because of my hubris. And that is why, Carter, you are doing the internship and staying under the watchful eye of your family. We don’t want another repeat of the situation with Danielle."

  "Or Alan," Carter muttered because he was feeling mean-spirited.

  Kate's old professor, Alan, had stalked her for months then teamed up with Danielle and her contractor, Luigi, to kidnap Kate and Grant for money. Carter’s father had killed Danielle and her lackeys.

  Carter knew these were sore points for Kate and Grant, and the car ride to the Holbrook Enterprises headquarters was tense. When they walked into the lobby, Carter looked around.

  "You all updated it," he said, impressed. "It looks nice!"

  "Yes," Kate said, "it's been a couple of years since you've been here. We recently renovated."

  The lobby was bright and welcoming, with warm woods and contemporary chandeliers adding interesting elements to the high ceiling.

  "I'm going to be making a speech to your group later on today," Grant told him.

  "Well, la-di-dah, Mr. Big Shot Vice President is coming to impart some knowledge to the peons."

  "Cheer up, cuz!" Grant said, playfully shoving Carter, then walked off with Kate to do whatever important tasks he had lined up for the day.

  Carter checked his phone. Still no message from Allie.

  He was almost late for breakfast, and he hurried to the meeting room. When he walked into the large space, there were about a hundred people in suits, milling around. Carter didn’t feel like interacting, so he grabbed a breakfast sandwich, slunk over to a corner, and slumped against the wall. From his vantage point, he surveyed the room. The women were being fake friendly to one another while the men were blatantly trying to one-up each other.

  He turned his gaze back to the women. They were all pretty and well-heeled, except for one girl. She looked uncomfortable in her low heels. Her hair was pulled up into a severe military-style bun, and he could see a familiar tattoo peeking from under her blazer collar.

  "Allie?" He was so confused. Was it just his imagination, or was she really here?

  Before he could go confront her, a Holbrook representative ushered him toward the auditorium.

  He followed the stream of people to the enormous auditorium a few floors down in the tower.

  "Everyone take your seats," said a woman walking onto the stage.

  Carter sat down behind the girl he thought was Allie. He thought about it for a moment then leaned forward and blew on her neck. The girl jumped and whipped around in her seat.

  "Carter," Allie said, staring at him.

  Carter grinned and opened his mouth to ask her why she was there, but the presentation was starting, and Allie turned back around to face the stage.

  "Welcome to the internship program," said the woman. "We’re so glad to have you at Holbrook Enterprises. This is the internship program we run both in house and in collaboration with several universities around the country. We want you to learn the skills you need to succeed, but we also want you to know that we will hire all of you, none of you, or somewhere in between depending on your performance. This is a big recruiting tool for us. So do your best. We also want to see innovative thinking. For part of this internship, you will be in teams to come up with some cutting-edge solutions to problems at Holbrook Enterprises."

  Carter couldn't pay attention to the rest of the presentation. His thoughts were consumed with Allie. How was she in this internship program? How long had she been in New York City? Why hadn't she told him any of this?

  Maybe she didn't tell you because she doesn't actually like you, he thought. He frowned; he didn't want that to be true. Surely he hadn't imagined it that they had had a connection. She would send him pictures of her and the dog, and she'd slept with him, in her apartment, in her bed. That had to count for something, right?

  Monique dismissed them for a break. Before he could talk to Allie, she had already hurried out of her row while Carter was waiting for the guys next to him to move.

  "Hey, man," said one of the guys, "I'm Vance. This is Digby."

  He stuck out his hand, and Carter shook it absently. He needed to talk to Allie.

  "Carter Holbrook."

  "I know," Vance said with a smile. "The big dog around here."

  "That's not me. That's my cousin."

  "Still. You like to party, right?" Vance said.

  Carter gave him a quizzical look.

  "I saw you in the news." Vance showed him the picture on his phone. There was Carter, leaving the club last night.

  "Holbrook Heir Hits the Town," screamed the headline above the picture.

  "We're all going out tonight."

  "Oh, ok."

  "You should come with us," Vance pressed. "You need wingmen."

  "Yeah, I guess." Carter craned his neck to see over Vance's head, but he couldn't see Allie.

  "So you'll come?" Vance asked.

  "Sure, sure. If you'll excuse me, I need to talk to someone."

  23

  Allie

  When Carter appeared behind her, Allie was shocked. What was he doing in an internship program? His family owned the company—surely they would just give him a job. What was he doing here?

  She looked straight ahead for the duration of the presentation then hurried out after Liz when Monique dismissed them for a twenty-minute break.

  "I need a glass of water," Liz said, heading to a table laden with coffee, tea, and fruit-infused ice water.

  Allie wanted to go off by herself and just think. She was so tired and frazzled, and now here was Carter, appearing where she hadn't expected him. But she didn't want to make a bad first impression to Liz or any of the moneyed, well-educated people in the internship program, so she stood next to her new friend in the line, pretending to be calm.

  "Hi there," Carter said, coming up behind them.

  Liz squealed, jumped, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

  "I'm so glad you're back," she said. "I’m sorry I missed your party. My brother went, though. Eric said you were a free man now. I didn’t think I’d see you here in the internship program."

  "Are you and Allie friends?" Carter asked Liz.

  She giggled and said, "Not yet, but we will be, right, Allie? How do you know each other?"

  "Marines. How’s Margot? We share custody of a dog," he explained to Liz.

  "A dog? Oh, that reminds me," Liz said. "Brandy's wedding…"

  Carter looked as if he was listening intently. Allie grimaced then turned and walked away. She did not want to be near the two of them as they prattled on about their perfect lives.

  She heard someone run up behind her.

  "Allie, wa
it. I wanted to talk to you."

  "About what?" she said, rubbing her eyes. She was so tired. She needed more coffee.

  "Why are you mad? I mean, I know why you’re mad." Carter looked around then pulled her into a breakout room for small group meetings off of the hallway.

  "Look, I know I embarrassed you and lied—"

  "I’m not mad," she said. "You paid me. That was what we agreed upon."

  "Okay, so are we friends?"

  "Sure, whatever," she said to him.

  He leaned in and kissed her.

  "I missed you," he murmured.

  It thrilled her to hear him say that.

  You're just tired, she scolded herself. There's no way Carter feels anything remotely serious toward you.

  "You don’t even know me," she told him as he looked at her intently.

  "No, but you know me, better than anyone else does, even my family, it feels like. You make me feel like a real person."

  "We can’t do this Carter," she said. "You know I don’t sleep with customers."

  He smirked. "But you did. Maybe it wasn’t that great, but I'll bring my A game next time!"

  She smiled in spite of herself.

  "Let’s be friends," he said, resting his hands on her waist, "and potentially with benefits?"

  "Potentially not," she said, pushing him away, and opened the door.

  "Carter Holbrook!" someone said.

  She slipped away to the bathroom while Carter’s attention was diverted.

  After several more presentations and the distribution of their login information and access cards, Monique took them on a tour of the tower.

  It was a tall, thin building with the various amenities stacked on top of each other.

  "Instead of a central service core," Monique explained, "the bathrooms and circulation are to the side. This lets the building take advantage of natural daylight on three sides for one large floor plan with unobstructed views." Allie was impressed with the tower. Just like the Holbrook estate, the Holbrook Enterprises headquarters was well decorated and gave off the impression of understated wealth.