by Nana Malone
Tempting the Heiress
Nana Malone
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Thank You
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About Nana Malone
One
Jax…
She knew…
The one thing I hadn’t been able to tell her. The one lie I’d told.
It was a pretty big lie.
I knew how betrayed she’d felt by fuckface. I knew, but I’d still lied.
For the job.
I never should have touched her.
There was no making her listen. She handed me my magazine and whirled to hoof it back in the house.
I had to make a decision; Attempt to stop her or continue.
Shit.
Ariel needed to know. Just how much did I tell her? And how much would she be able to figure out on her own?
I climbed back in the driver's seat, my heart hammering.
Talk about fucking things up.
My conscience was having a field day. I’d known how this would end, and I’d still fucked up in all manner of places. I hadn’t been able to keep my hands off of her. I hadn’t closed my damn door or made sure shit was locked up tight.
I’d been in a hurry this morning. Mayzie had been impatient.
You spent half your prep time eating pussy.
Fuck. Yeah, that too. There was no excuse for this morning other than I wanted to make her hum. It had been a deliberate choice, and now she was walking away.
If I'd have just closed the drawer or brought the damn toy downstairs… I must have left it in my room on my way to get Mayzie for some reason.
Or your brain was too addled from boning the client.
Shit.
It would be useless going after her, so I made my choice. Let her go. I’d fucked up. It was time to right the goal train. My goal was to get back in the Guard. I needed to try to make that happen. It didn’t matter how much my heart squeezed. Chasing after Neela was only going to hurt her more. As I drove past the security gate, I called Ariel.
"I see you, Jax. I’ll wait five minutes and then go up."
"We have a problem."
Ariel’s voice went tense, alert. "What?"
"She knows."
There was a beat of silence. "What?" It sounded more like an expletive.
"Yeah, she found one of my gun magazines in my room."
"Holy shit."
"I know. She's pretty pissed off. But she didn't stop me from taking Mayzie."
“What the ever-loving fuck? Did you say something dumb, do something dumb before she found it?"
If you mean did I bone her senseless and give her enough orgasms to make her actually physically pass out, then yes.
I skirted the truth. "She feels betrayed, Ariel. We both know she didn’t want security."
"Son of a bitch."
"That’s basically what I said with more colorful language. We should have told her."
"Now is not the time."
"I know. But it might have been easier. Now she feels betrayed. I don't know if she's going to let you in."
“Shit. I’m on my way in. Let’s fucking hope I’m able to talk her down."
"If you think you can. Either way, she might not let me back in the house."
"Well, she let you leave with the baby, so that can only be a good sign."
"I know, but still. She probably wasn't even thinking about Mayzie at the time."
"Maybe, maybe not. I'll test it out. Okay, stay on plan. Go to the park as usual. I'll go see her."
"Roger that."
"I'll find a way to fix it. I always do." She hung up before I had a chance to ask any more questions.
I glanced into the back seat. "Mayzie, what are we going to do with your mom?"
Mayzie, cute as she was, unhelpfully blew me a raspberry. After all, she wasn't the one who screwed up. I was. And right about now, I needed a miracle to fix it.
Ariel…
This was the last thing I wanted to deal with. This was fucked on an epic scale. Now I had to deal with a pissed-off client who wasn't even our actual client.
Jax was right, we should have told her. But technically Bipps was the client, not her. So, we were doing exactly as we were told, but she might start to make our jobs a lot more difficult.
I drove up to the security gate, ready to force my way in there if I had to. But I was allowed in, no problem.
I parked the car and jogged up the stairs to the house. When I knocked, no one came for a moment. Was she deliberately not answering? Would I have to break into the place I was meant to protect?
It had been a while since I’d picked a lock, but I could manage it if I had to.
Or, you can relax. She might be in the back.
When Neela finally opened the door, she glowered at me. "You know, I should have trusted my instincts. No way in hell were you guys nannies."
"Your instincts probably told you exactly what we are, but people believe what they need to. I'm so sorry you were caught up in this."
"Who the hell are you people? I trusted you. I trusted him… with my child.”
"Look, let's take this conversation inside."
"No. We will not take this conversation inside. We will have this conversation right the hell here."
I shuffled on my feet. Fantastic. Just freaking fantastic. I could remind her that she wasn’t actually in charge here, but it would be better for my man inside and for everybody else if I could diffuse the situation.
"Okay, I get it. You're pissed off. You should be pissed off. We lied to you. There's no other way around that. But know that we were doing it to protect you. And most importantly, to protect Mayzie.
"How? By keeping me in the dark? I had a man watching my baby who had no business watching a baby."
I leveled my gaze on her. "Are you saying Jax wasn't good with Mayzie?"
She frowned, deep furrows forming on her brow. "That's not what I'm saying. But he's hardly qualified."
Ah, so this was a Jax problem. She was pissed he’d lied to her. I watched her closely. That wasn’t anger I was seeing. It was hurt. Fabulous. She’d decided she liked the guy, which could work for us or really, really work against us.
"He's better qualified than anyone else. He has medic training and hordes of nieces and nephews he helped raise. You’ve seen him with her yourself. He actually loves that little girl."
"Oh yeah, and he's carrying a gun around her, for what?" she sputtered.
"Listen. I know this is a shock, but Mr. Bipps was quite insistent that you have security."
At the mention of Bipps, she crossed her arms. "Here's the thing you don’t realize; Mayzie’s mine now. My responsibility. It's my right to choose how she gets raised. Mr. Bipps had no right to call you."
I was about to burst that bubble. "Be that as it may, he still called us. He’s the executor. You’re the guardian. You handle the day to day, but he is in charge of the big picture. He believes she’s in danger. And given the note you received and the attempted kidnapping, don't you see that you need us?"
She glowered at me. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that yo
u know about the note."
"Of course not. Jax works for me."
Her brow lifted then. As though she hadn't expected that. "Whatever arrangement you guys have, I don't care. I don't care who works for whom or who was following whose orders. I do not care. You people lied to me."
"And I get that. You're pissed off, and you should be. For what it's worth, Jax was begging to tell you the truth. The orders were not to."
She narrowed her gaze at me as if trying to ascertain the truth of my statement. "That does not make any of this better."
"I didn’t imagine it would. But it's still the truth."
"For weeks. You guys have been here for weeks."
"And we've been hunting down leads. At least now that you know you can help us. Because, we’re here for Mayzie. But we’re also here for you. To protect you."
She shook her head. "How is this my life?"
"I wish I knew. I wish the most important thing to you was where to party tonight. I wish your life could be all Mommy and Me and baby yoga or whatever. But it can't be. Not right now. As soon as we find out who's targeting you, you can have your life back. You’ll never have to see us again."
"I'm going to hold you to that."
For a long tense moment, we stood at stand-off positions; her in the doorway, me trying to figure out the best way past her without hurting her. But as it turned out, none of that was necessary. She stepped aside and let me in. Now all I had to do was hope she’d do the same for Jax.
"I know you're angry. You can call Mr. Bipps. He did hire us."
She frowned. "But I researched you. The testimonials. The reviews."
Oh boy. "All faked. I'm pretty good with a computer."
"Jesus Christ. You weren't even real. Is any of this real?"
"Yes. How Jax feels about that baby is real. And he is damn good with her, you have to admit that. He's here to protect the both of you."
She scowled then and muttered under her breath, "Yeah, but who's going to protect me from him?"
Two
Neela…
I was done. Tired and done, and I’d had bloody enough.
My whole life since my father died, people had made decisions for me, and never in my best interest. I wasn't going to let that happen anymore.
Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?
I scowled into my rearview mirror. I could see the SUV following me. It only made me more determined. I knew who they worked for, so I was going straight to the source.
Jax still had Mayzie out, which was fine. As angry as I was at him, Ariel was right. He was good with Mayzie. And, as he was a bodyguard, he would make sure nothing happened to her. But why couldn't anyone see that the things I worried about were along the lines of was she healthy, was she eating enough, and not, is someone going to shoot her? I didn’t run some drug cartel. I ran a small business. No one cared about me.
Or maybe Ariel is right, and this isn't about you at all. Maybe it's about Mayzie.
If that was the truth, then we really were screwed. Who the hell in their right mind would come after a baby?
I kept thinking back to my initial conversation with Mr. Bipps. He insinuated that there were people who would want to kidnap that little girl.
Which to me had seemed ridiculous. But it was a distinct possibility. I couldn't ignore that anymore. Someone had tried to grab me off the street.
Maybe it wasn't about you at all. Maybe it was about Mayzie.
If that was the case, what was the note about?
The only person who could give me answers was about a half mile ahead. And he was going to give me some damn answers if it killed him.
I swung the car into a parking spot haphazardly, not caring that the car took up the only two spots available. Whoever the hell Ariel had in the SUV, they could find somewhere else to park and walk.
Maybe I was being a little childish, but I was done. I'd run out of fucks to give, and I was taking no prisoners. I yanked the heavy glass door open and marched in, startling the receptionist. "Ms. Wellbrook, Mr. Bipps isn't expecting—"
I didn't let her finish. I just kept marching right past her and barged right into Bipps's office. The poor man was trying to eat a sandwich, but screw that. He’d ruined my day, so the very least I could do was damn well ruin his lunch.
"Ms. Wellbrook, I didn't expect you."
"A security team?"
He was mid-stand as he was coming around to greet me, but I was pretty sure the vibe I was putting off was, 'Sit your ass down.'
He did sit. "How did you find out?"
"That's not the point. The point is I was very clear and specific, I did not want security. You might act old and doddering, but I get the impression you're quite sharp, so I know you must have heard me."
"I did hear you." He steepled his fingers and sat back. "I also know that you were naive in your request."
"Naive? What the hell is wrong with you people? My whole life, Willa, her parents, asshole Dick, and now you have attempted to tell me what I should be doing, how I should be doing it... One day, one of you assholes is going to have to let me live my life."
He inhaled a long breath and released it. "Ms. Wellbrook, Neela, I'm sorry that this was necessary. But I believe that there is a clear and present danger toward Mayzie and perhaps even yourself."
"You control her money and what would be best for her finances, but you do not control me."
He sighed. "You're correct. I do not control you. But as executor of Willa’s estate, I do control where that money gets spent. Which covers housing, child care, schooling for Mayzie..."
"You're going to wield that like a weapon, aren't you? Newsflash, I've dealt with worse. Jane MacKenzie was the worst of the worst. She knew how to wield manipulation like a finely-honed weapon. You are an amateur compared to her."
He sighed again. "Ms. Wellbrook, I'm not trying to wield any weapons. I'm trying to keep that baby safe and to keep you safe by extension."
"By sticking an armed guard on her?"
"I'm sorry that had to happen, and I'm sorry that it was done without your consent. But it was necessary."
"Who exactly do you think is after her?"
"It could be anyone. As we discussed, Miss MacKenzie didn't make the best associations."
"She's dead. You can tell me. I can call the police."
His dark, narrowed gaze pinned me to my seat. "And tell them what exactly?” He sat back again. “Have you been through her financial records yet?"
"Yes. They are pristine."
"Yes, they do appear pristine. Who do you know that runs a small business that has the cleanest books ever? You run a small business. I know for a fact that your business is on the up-and-up. How pristine are your books?"
I shifted in my seat. "There's always at least an invoice missing. There’s always someone who hasn't paid. There's always something that's a little off."
He nodded. "Exactly. I'm sure by now you have noticed there is some missing inventory."
I frowned, my gut knotting tighter. "Yes, there have been some calls."
He gave me a sharp nod. "I don't know exactly what Willa was into, but I know that for a young woman who dealt mostly in avant-garde art, she had a lot of revenue coming in. A revenue she was happy to pay taxes on. But there is also revenue that I might not even be tracing for her. She would buy property in cash. She traveled a lot extensively to other places in the islands. I know the Cayman's were her favorite. I know she likes to go to Switzerland."
"You're saying Willa was laundering money?"
"Amongst other things. It's not how I run a business. But with the sheer amount of money she was bringing in, I had to ask questions. And when I did, she stopped bringing me that kind of business. No more real estate deals in her daughter’s name. I think she maybe has another lawyer somewhere. But she did let me handle things about the estate, and everything is in Mayzie's name. When I say everything is in Mayzie's name, I'm not kidding. Everything is in Mayzie's name. From
the house to the cars. That kid has more things on her credit report than you do. Luckily, she's never defaulted. And she's probably not even out of diapers.”
The breath came whooshing out of my chest. "Oh my God, Willa, what have you done?"
Mr. Bipps nodded slowly. "I'm sorry. I know that you probably feel like I forced this on you."
"You did force this on me. I don't want this. I don't want these people following me around. I certainly don't want guns around Mayzie."
"I understand. But I can't let Mayzie go unprotected. I assume you found out because someone told you?"
"No, I found a gun magazine."
His brow furrowed. "I heard Ms. Scott and her people were the best. Did they make a mistake?"
This was the place, the crossroads, the place where I could choose to toss Ariel and her team under the bus or let them run their little business. I had the power to do that, and even though there was an evil part of me that wanted to do it, there was no way I could. I knew how hard it was running a business. I knew how hard it was making things work. "I was snooping. They never seemed like nannies to me. That's how I found the magazine."
"Well then, it seems I underestimated you."
"Yeah, you can say that again."
"Look, I'll make you a deal. As soon as we find out how serious the threat is against Mayzie or you, then you can have your life back. Any decisions after that would be made between the two of us for Mayzie."
I narrowed my gaze at him. "This is my I-know-better face."
"Well, you will just have to trust me."
"Unfortunately, I've learned not to trust a damn soul. I need to look after myself."
"Maybe, but maybe you'll see that this team is exactly what you need."
