Billionaire Single Dad_A Billionaire Romance

by Claire Adams

  “You might not have a hacker that’s targeting your whole system. I think there is someone specifically targeting me.”

  “Someone is after you?”

  “Yes, there’s been a lot of strange things going on lately. Is there someone you can call to check if anyone else received a strange message? I suspect it was only you, and that it’s because you had contact with me.”

  “Yeah, my co-worker Tom is going to be back on Monday. I could have him take a look at it.”

  “I’d do that. There’s a lot I haven’t told you.”

  “Like, a lot about you? What do you mean? Is the message true? Are you doing something illegal?”

  I couldn’t stop asking him questions. They were coming to my mind faster than I could think through them. There was a secret Brandon had been keeping from me and I wanted to know what it was. My heart had already started to open up to him. I’d given in to all the things I said I would never give in to. This couldn’t all be some scam for him to cover up illegal activity; I knew it couldn’t be that. Or at least, I thought I knew.

  “No, I’m not doing anything illegal. I’ll tell you everything I know, but I warn you I don’t know all that much. I’m just as confused as you are.

  “My trading account had a red flag on it and there was a scary-looking guy who lied and pretended like he worked for the federal government. When I let him into the house, he threatened me and Josh and then left. My credit card was frozen, as well, but I thought that was unrelated, and now I just don’t know.”

  “Who would want to do this to you?” I asked as I tried to process everything.

  If someone was out to get me, I would think that I’d have some sort of idea who it was. Maybe I wouldn’t know the exact person, but I’d know if there were people I had made so angry they didn’t like me. Certainly, Brandon had to have some clue to who might put this much effort into ruining his life.

  “I don’t know for sure.”

  “What do you mean? How could you not know?” I yelled at him.

  I hadn’t yelled in years and it scared me how emotional I had gotten all of a sudden. This guy had won my heart – I couldn’t deny it – and now he was telling me there was at least one person on earth who hated him so dearly that they wanted to cause this kind of chaos in his life. That was scary to me.

  Hate and love were emotions that stayed tied together. It was hard for someone to hate strongly if they hadn’t loved the person previously, or loved someone involved in the situation. I remembered this tidbit from my psychology classes in college. Hate and love were connected, so it was a big deal that Brandon couldn’t tell me who he might have loved and hurt so badly that they would take this sort of revenge.

  “I tried to be an honest businessman who did deals that were good for myself and other companies. I can’t think of someone in that area who would be this angry to personally attack me.”

  “And, your private life? Have you hurt anyone recently?”

  Brandon laughed and turned back toward the shower in the bathroom without answering me. I followed him and stood there while he ran his hands through his hair and contemplated what he wanted to tell me.

  “I’ve hurt a lot of people. If I’m being honest with myself, I’m sure there are plenty of women who are angry with me. I honestly don’t know who would be this angry, though. I’m sorry, Delilah. I haven’t been the greatest of men over the last few years.”

  His eyes looked gloomy and dark as the memories of his past filled them. I knew that feeling, though. As much as I wanted to judge him for his past, I couldn’t judge a man who had acted just as I had since losing my husband. There were probably plenty of men from the last year who were angry with me. Certainly, I didn’t think they would sabotage my life, but women were much different creatures. A scorned woman wasn’t someone you ever wanted to deal with blindly.

  “I understand. Was there someone recently?”

  “I can’t remember. I’m not a good guy, Del. I’ve tried to show you the true and honest side of me, but there’s a dark side. I have a side without emotion. I have a selfish, hurtful side that women have loved and I have ignored them.”

  His emotions were surrounding him and I saw the panic growing in his eyes. He was a guy who liked to be in control and his life had slowly slipped away from him. Within only a few short years, he had gone from a happily married father with a booming business to a single man without a son and without a company to occupy his time.

  “Let’s get in,” I said softly.

  I slipped back out of my dress and climbed into the warm shower with Brandon. We didn’t talk, we didn’t have sex, we simply let the beat of the water wash away the sins of our pasts. We both had lived through things others could only think of as a nightmare. Yet Brandon and I survived the life we had. Whatever else was going on in his life, I wanted to be there for him, at least until I found out why this person was targeting him.

  His hands moved over my wet curves as if they were gliding over melted butter. I hadn’t lied when I said I liked the feel of his hands on my body: I sure did. No matter what else was going on with him, I had him there with me at that moment, and I decided I wasn’t ready to let him go. I wasn’t willing to give up my time with him yet.

  Water was meant to be erotic, I was convinced of it. What other substance could warm your entire body while making your skin shimmer and entice? I couldn’t think of anything else.

  “If you stay here another moment, I’m not going to be able to control myself.”

  “Then don’t,” I said boldly.

  He quickly flipped me around and held my wet body up against his as the water continued to pour down on us. His hands wrapped around me and he cupped a breast in each of them while his lips made their way unhurriedly down my neck. All the while, I felt his body throbbing and pressing up behind me.

  I leaned into him as my breathing quickened, and I used my body to urge him forward. The thrusting motion of my hips backward allowed him permission to take me, and he soon pressed my hands forward onto the bench as he thrust from behind.

  The quick motions and full movements had us both screaming in pleasure within moments. My body felt the tension dissolve, and I gave in to the pleasure without concern for what I sounded like or looked like. I wanted to feel him inside of me; I didn’t want to make love to him, I didn’t want to spend hours touching and enticing each other. Instead, the unbridled thrusting of his desire was the perfect remedy for what I needed from Brandon in that moment.

  “Damn, I love this shower,” I laughed as he pulled me back up toward him.

  “Me, too; it was a big selling point.”

  His hands moved through my hair as I leaned back and let the warm water beat down on me. I explored his body with my hands and grabbed the soap as we lathered each other up. I’d never felt comfortable in the shower with someone before. Even with my late husband, it had always been awkward for me, but I didn’t care about awkward as I stood there with Brandon. We just washed up and then wrapped ourselves in towels as we made our way back out to the warmth of his bedroom.

  “I do think I should head into the office and see if there is anything I need to do. I can’t afford to lose my job.”

  The reality of my situation was still there. No matter how much fun I was having with Brandon, and even if I knew the message had not been sent from him, I needed my job. To keep my job, I had to ensure that no other accounts were affected.

  “I understand. Is there anything I can help with?”

  “Figure out why this person would come through the Dating the Rich app to get to you. That would be very helpful.”

  “I’m on it,” he laughed. “I’ll let you know if I figure anything out.”

  “Have you met anyone else off the site?” I hated to ask, but it seemed like a logical connection if he was being targeted through it.

  “No, I’ve answered some messages through there, but I hadn’t set up a date with anyone except you. Del, ask me anything – I wil
l answer you truthfully I promise.”

  “Where did you meet women at before you joined the dating site?”

  “At bars and the usual spots like that.”

  “All right, I’ll see what I can find out. I suggest you think back through the women you’ve had in your life and see which one has a broken heart. Hatred like this comes from love. Whoever is targeting you is close to you in some way – maybe a friend, ex-lover, or some other person that has a stake in the game. People don’t just come after a person so intimately unless there is something in it for them.”

  “Okay,” he said quietly. “I just don’t want you to worry about it too much. Get your work stuff in order and I’ll handle the rest. And if you get anymore messages from the dating app, it is not me. I am going to delete the account right away.”

  “I’ll talk to you later,” I said as I gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “Call me tomorrow and we can talk about what we were able to find out. I don’t want to be worried about you all week long.”

  He grabbed me and held on like he wasn’t going to let me go. I was perfectly fine with it. Being needed by someone other than my son was a feeling that had evaded me for years, yet it flashed through me like a familiar love I welcomed and felt at home with.

  “I’ll see you sometime this week, won’t I?”

  “Call me and we can make some plans, but take care of yourself and this mess. I can’t have you getting arrested for all this illegal activity you’re doing,” I joked.

  Brandon walked me downstairs and waited with me while he called an Uber to pick me up. He had offered to drive me to the office, but I was fine with the car coming to get me. There was a lot running through my head and I needed to step away from Brandon before I was going to get it all straight.

  “I’ll call you. Take care of yourself, and please let me know if you get any other weird messages. I’m worried that someone out there has the capacity to cause some real harm in my life and actually get me arrested.”

  “Okay, will do,” I said and climbed into the Uber as said my goodbyes.

  While the car pulled away, I replayed his last words to me in my head.

  People who didn’t commit illegal acts weren’t afraid of getting arrested. I know that was the case for me. Even if someone was after me, or hated me, I never would think that I could get arrested because I didn’t commit crimes. My gut said there was more to this story, and I didn’t like it one bit.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Brandon

  “I’m one hundred percent certain that someone is after me, and it isn’t the SEC.”

  I had been reluctant to think that all the things that had been happening to me were on purpose; that just wasn’t the type of person I was. I gave people the benefit of the doubt for as long as possible before I gave in and started to think the worst of them.

  Over the years, I’d had weird things happen before, and they were mostly chalked up to coincidences and other very lame reasons. Most people around me thought the worst of situations and I had paid them to think that way. My executives at my company had to always be planning for the worst and preparing for how they would handle things. Their preparation made it easier for me to look for the positives in situations, which was my job as the CEO.

  Now things were different, though, and this was personal. Someone was clearly attacking me personally and possibly going after my financial accounts, as well. As much as I hated to think the worst, that message directed at Del had me thinking all sorts of crazy things.

  “I’ve had my friend looking into things and he’s not finding much – which is both a good thing and a bad thing, I guess. He said there is no investigation into you, at least none that he could find.” Josh looked disappointed at the revelation.

  “So, what does this all mean?”

  “It means that you’ve pissed someone off who’s capable of some serious shit.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Either you really aren’t under investigation and that was a real life bad guy who showed up at your door, or you are under investigation and it’s under some sort of clearance.”

  Josh had a point, and it was exactly what I had been thinking. I’d been replaying my last few relationships, thinking about the women who I might have wronged and even thinking about the business partnerships I’d been part of. Nothing came to my mind. Was it possible I was so out of touch that I actually didn’t even realize who I had hurt? It was looking more and more like that was the case.

  I only trusted Josh and a few other very close people in my life. It shouldn’t be too hard to find who was doing these things because I kept my circle of friends rather close and didn’t let new people in very often.

  Many of the wealthy, young guys I knew did a horrible job of keeping their lifestyle quiet. They were throwing parties every weekend and buying bottles of champagne when they went to the clubs. I wasn’t like that. I didn’t live my life like that.

  Whether I was poor like I had been growing up, or rich like I was now, I liked my semi-quiet lifestyle and wasn’t too flashy about it. Yes, sometimes I went out with the guys and got a VIP room and splurged, but I wasn’t being plastered across the tabloids like the others, and I was pretty damn proud of that.

  “Del said something to me that made a lot of sense. Whoever is doing this has some seriously hurt feelings and that means it has to be a woman I’ve had a relationship with. There’s not a dude out there who would go to this level of trouble if I pissed him off. Guys are much more likely to just punch me in the face.”

  “What about a guy who was with the girl you hurt?”

  “Like a new boyfriend? Why would any self-respecting guy bother? No, it’s got to be a woman. Maybe she’s capable of manipulating a man into doing what she wants him to, but it’s a woman behind all of this.”

  “What about your ex-wife?” he asked.

  It was a reasonable question, but Josh didn’t know Rose like I knew her. She and I got along much better now that we were divorced than we ever got along while married. Rose didn’t have anything to be upset with me about, either; we had decided to separate mutually. Sure, she was hurt and angry because our dreams of a happily ever after life ended, but it was so long before that I couldn’t imagine that she would still be angry enough to mess with my life.

  Rose and I had been separated for several years by this point; it didn’t seem likely that she would suddenly start trying to chase after me or cause trouble in my life. My gut was saying the person causing issues was highly skilled in computers, and that wasn’t Rose – she could barely log into her cell phone without help.

  “No way. We get along fine. I don’t see a reason for it.”

  “How about that you sold your company for over a billion dollars and didn’t give her any of it? If I was an ex-wife, I’d be pretty pissed off that my husband sold his company only a few years after our divorce and didn’t give me any of that money. She supported you when you were poor and then you waited until the divorce to run off with all the money,” Josh said dramatically as he waved his hands around and pretended to be an upset ex-wife.

  “No, that’s not what happened. I was still running my company when we divorced. I hadn’t even imagined I would sell the company. She’s not angry about that. Anyways, she’s getting remarried soon, so there’s nothing to worry about with her.”

  “I don’t know, man. That new guy of hers seems shady to me. I definitely don’t think he works for the government. He reminds me a lot more of that thick-necked thug who showed up here than of a professional who has a government job.”

  “She said he does undercover work. Who am I to argue about what he does? I don’t really care, as long as he treats her right. I don’t like the guy, but he doesn’t seem interested in revenge.”

  “And, you don’t think an ass wipe like him couldn’t cook all of this up to get back at you? I’ve seen guys do some pretty crazy things for the women they love.”

  “Josh, there’s no point in
it. There has to be a strong motivation, and as much as I don’t like Carlos, there’s nothing between the two of us. He is moving on with my ex-wife and I’m happy for them. What purpose would any of this have for him? I just don’t see it.

  “I think we need to look up that girl Kimberly I picked up last month. She tried calling me at least a dozen times after my night with her. You should have heard the nasty voicemail messages she left.”

  “A one-night stand isn’t going to go to this sort of trouble for you, though, dude. I mean, you might be a good catch, but would she really freak out this much?”

  “There could be others. I’ve pissed off a lot of girls, I’m sure. They hide it well and not many go to the trouble of leaving nasty voicemails, but I know there are some angry women out there.”

  The truth was, I knew there were some hurt feelings in my relationships recently. I didn’t want to think about how I’d hurt these girls, but if I was being honest with myself, I knew I had. Some of the women I’d brought home would talk about going on dates with me in the future, they’d laugh about how their family would freak out if they met me; I ignored all that talk. When our night of fun was over, I moved on and expected that eventually they would, as well. I stayed oblivious to the knowledge of how any of the women actually moved on. I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to feel bad.

  “Okay, I’m going to get my buddy working on it some more. Did you end up going to the police or your lawyer?”

  “Nope, I think we need to handle this. It’s sounding like scare tactics and no actual threats. I’m not too worried about it.”

  It was a lie.

  I was worried about all that was going on, not because I cared if someone hated me, but I cared that they had contacted Delilah. She was the only good thing that had happened in my life in a very long time, and I wasn’t going to let whoever was behind all of this get between what she and I were building. When they contacted Del, that was the last straw. I wasn’t going to hold anything back; I was coming after them.

  “Let me call him and see if he can just come over and talk to us. I think you and he can work together and figure out what the best next step is. He’s been around some crazy shit as a private investigator; he knows a lot and nothing really surprises him.”