Arrangement With A Billionaire (Bad Boy Billionaire Brothers #1) (29 page)

“Why the bathroom?”

“Because that’s always where horny drunk people go to have sex, okay?” Jane asked. “And you were home, so I couldn’t bring him here, and I didn’t know him, so I wasn’t about to get into his car and go to his place. For all I knew, he was a serial killer or something.”

But apparently that hadn’t stopped her friend from having a thing with him in the bathroom of some club. Isla kept this thought to herself for the sake of sparing her friendship.

“So then what happened?” Isla asked. “He obviously hasn’t seen you since.” Not if the way he reacted when he saw her was anything to go by.

“That’s just it,” Jane said, letting her forehead bang against the table. “He did.”

“He did? When?”

The next week. I wanted…I wanted to go to a different place the next week. I didn’t even want to go clubbing. To be honest, I was embarrassed, and I wanted to get some work done. I figured I just wouldn’t go back to that club and I’d never see him again. I went to the coffee shop and sat down to get some work done. I was just typing away when he said something to me. I looked up and there he was.”

“And there he was,” Isla said. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

Jane sat straight and shrugged. “It wasn’t. He was…so nice about everything. He didn’t make any jokes, or ask if I wanted to go into the bathroom with him. We laughed it off, blamed it on being drunk, and we hung out the rest of the night.”

“Again, this doesn’t sound bad at all. That sounds kind of sweet, actually.”

Jane called it a
cute meet
whenever her characters met up like that in any of her books. Granted, Isla didn’t think bathroom sex was ever involved in any of those scenarios, but it did seem kind of adorable with the way Jane described it.

Obviously this was leading somewhere bad. “What happened?”

“Nothing, at first,” Jane said. “I gave him my name and e-mail, and he gave me his, and then I Googled who he was.”

“You Googled him?”

“I write billionaire romances!” Jane snapped. “How am I supposed to face a guy who’s actually a billionaire? Christ, he’d probably think I was just using him for his money or something.”

“I think all billionaires have that suspicion of everyone.” Hell, the fact that Isla and Arturo were able to get along so well in the end was only because of the contract. There were no games; he knew she was there for her company and no other reason.

Jane snorted and leaned back in her chair. “Either way, I e-mailed him back and said it wasn’t going to work out. At first, I thought he was going to respect that, and maybe he did, but now, it seems like it’s different since he knows where I live and who my roommate is. As if that gives him permission to e-mail me every day.”

“It’s a free country,” Isla said, shrugging. She thought the entire thing was cute. “And if you didn’t want to read anything he sends, you could always just check the little box beside his e-mail and click delete. It’s not like you’re being forced to open and read his e-mails.”

“It’s still spamming.”

“Don’t be an e-mail baby. I hate those people.”

“Shut up.” Jane wadded up a napkin and tossed it at Isla’s head.

She ducked out of the way and couldn’t resist stabbing away at this sore point. “Poor Jane, getting love notes from a handsome billionaire and too overwhelmed to hit the delete key. Oh, precious, life is rough, isn’t it?”

“I hate you so much right now.”

Isla blew her friend a kiss.

“When are you going to tell your parents you have part of the company back?”

That question wiped the smile right off Isla’s face. “I don’t know.”

“Are they still asking to have dinner with you and Arturo again?”

“My mom is.”

Jane nodded. “You know, the sooner you rip that Band-Aid off, the better, right? I mean, you did all of this for them. They’re going to be happy that Arturo’s giving back at least some of the company.”

“They wouldn’t be if they ever found out what I did to get it.”

“And it’s going to be harder for you to keep that from them if you keep putting it off,” Jane said. “Call your parents, give them the good news, and then call Arturo’s lawyers. After the whirlwind of everything is over, another two or three weeks should’ve gone by, and then you can drop the bomb that you and Arturo broke up.”

“I know,” Isla said.

Jane eyed her a good while. “Are you still pretending because it feels good to think of yourself as his girlfriend?”

Isla looked up at Jane, shocked. That thought honestly had never occurred to her. “I…I don’t think so.”

She couldn’t even make herself believe that.

Jane pulled out her phone and slid it across the small table. “Give your mom a call. Let her know you got the company back. The sooner you cut this off for good, the better.”

Isla stared down at the phone.

Jane grabbed up her papers and her coffee. “I’ll give you some privacy.”

Isla didn’t want her friend to leave. She didn’t want to have to make this call.

Jane was right. Isla didn’t want to do it because it allowed her to pretend, and pretending wasn’t healthy. It wasn’t going to help her put the past behind her.

She pulled the phone toward herself and called her mom. The fact that her mother’s number was already programmed in as a contact made it easy. The thing that also made it easy was that Arturo’s number was not in Jane’s phone, so it wasn’t like Isla had to worry about being tempted to give him a call.

T
he conversation had gone better
than expected. Her mother had been deliriously happy, and her father had seemed glad as well, though he’d shocked Isla by hinting that she keep in Arturo’s good books in order to get the rest of the company back, or more of it so the King family would be considered the primary owners and have more control.

Forty-nine percent to fifty-one still meant that Arturo had all the power over the company, but it was something.

There was no word yet from her grandfather, though Isla’s mother had insisted he was happy. Isla kind of thought he was pissed off and too proud over the entire thing to say much at all.

He’d eventually come around.

She hoped.

Two weeks later, she told her parents she and Arturo had a falling out. Her mother had been saddened, and her father had worried Arturo would take back the nearly 50 percent of the company he’d given her.

She had to assure him the breakup hadn’t been that bad.

And it hadn’t been. Not really. Isla even slowly started to sketch out her jewelry designs and put together her pieces for sale on the floor of one of the main shops.

She hadn’t expected to feel the level of refreshing relief that had washed over her when she’d walked through the doors of Baciami Boutique for the first time in years.

Maybe it had just been the air conditioning, but she felt like she’d come home when she walked in. Her mother had nearly cried and dabbed at her eyes, and her dad kept looking around at the walls and nodding.

Her brother, Matt, had even told her the fighting had slowed down, though there were still messages from divorce lawyers on the phone.

Isla had been stupid and childish to think that getting this place back would stop her parents from separating. A business wouldn’t undo all the stress and anger brought on by years of fighting.

At least they were being civil when they weren’t in public. If they did divorce, then they could work at being friends.

And fine, she was still holding out hope for their marriage, but the point was that things weren’t as gloomy as they’d been at the start of all of this. The dark cloud over the King family had turned into something closer to a light grey with hints of sunshine. Manageable.

Isla was able to laugh and joke with the staff as she set up her jewelry and folded lacy panties and lingerie on polished wooden tables, spritzing them with the latest floral perfumes for added effect.

Business boomed quickly, and after a few weeks, even her grandfather stopped being so bitter about only owning 49 percent of his baby.

Isla started thinking of Arturo with less and less sadness in her heart, probably because she focused more of her time on her sketches and work.

She had been sitting at her favorite café, enjoying a ridiculously expensive iced coffee while sketching out more designs for her jewelry brand when a body plopped into the seat across from her.

She jumped and nearly sent her colored pencils rolling off the tiny table. Sebastian reached out and stopped them from falling off, smiling softly as he handed her the pencils.

“Hi.”

Isla took them cautiously. “Hi.”

He was just sitting there, right across from her in the trendy little chair on the other side of her circular glass table, as if there was nothing weird about that at all

Isla looked around, but didn’t see Orlando or Silvio, and no one else sitting around her seemed to think anything was out of place.

She didn’t know why looking at him would make her think that Arturo was around. It wasn’t like Sebastian would suddenly not be the black sheep of the family within a few weeks, and Arturo was clearly nowhere to be found.

That disappointment pierced her deep. She’d thought she was over him. Apparently not.

Sebastian cleared his throat. “I can see my presence here bothers you.”

Isla flipped shut her sketchbook and stuck her colored pencils in her case. “It’s a free country. You can sit wherever you want.”

“Uh-huh, look, I wanted to talk to you,” Sebastian said, leaning over the tiny table, his hands clenched together. “You don’t have to stick around if you don’t want, but I have something to say to you.”

Curiosity rose up inside her, as though it was a physical thing within her that wanted out, that wouldn’t be contained. “Okay, what did you want to say?”

He eyed her for a second. “That’s it? You’ll just listen? Just like that?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” she asked, and then realized why he would think that.

He was so used to being the antagonist that he’d probably also gotten used to getting shut down.

Sebastian gazed distrustfully at her.

Isla shook her head and waved it off. “Never mind, what did you want to say?”

He nodded and laced his fingers together. “To be honest, I wanted to apologize.” He made some gesture toward her with his hand. “I realized what had been going on with you and Arturo, and that had to be hard. I’m sorry if I made things more difficult.”

Isla just sat there. She couldn’t move, her body tense and her thoughts a whirlwind of panic. “What did you hear?”

Sebastian sat back, raising his hands a little. “I won’t say it out loud. I don’t want to embarrass you, but I, ah, heard that you split up, and then with the business—”

“It’s not what you think it is,” Isla said quickly.

“Isla, that family uses people; I get how that feels. I really do, and I’m sorry you got so tied up in everything, but I’m glad you got out.”

She rubbed her hands over her face. This was such a nightmare. She groaned. “Okay, look, you seem to think I was tricked into doing something I didn’t want to here, I wasn’t.”

“Arturo didn’t—?” Sebastian stopped and looked around, as though making sure no one was listening, then leaned forward again. “He didn’t make you sign a contract stating you would sleep with him?”

She felt the heat drain out of her face. Her voice came out in a barely audible whisper. “How did you find out about that?”

He raised his hands again. “It doesn’t matter, and I swear that will stay with me. I just feel bad because when I saw you with him that first time, I knew what you were with him for, but I didn’t realize he was forcing you.” His mouth twisted into an ugly line. “I honestly didn’t think he’d go that far.”

Isla didn’t understand a thing, and she felt like now was the only time she would ever get the chance to know what was happening. “I can understand why you would hate your father—”

“Biological father,” Sebastian corrected.

“What he did to you wasn’t right. I would never argue with you on that, but I don’t understand why you hate your brothers so much. I get why you would think what you do about me, but in the end, I wasn’t there because he forced me to be. I only saw good things in Arturo. And Orlando and Silvio,” she added.

Sebastian stared at her. He blinked a couple of times before he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. His defenses were coming back up, and Isla was worried he would get up and walk away, thinking her to be just some useless slut who had been using Arturo as much as he had been using her.

But then Sebastian surprised her. “All right, fine,” he said. “I hate them because they’re spineless. I don’t hate Orlando, not really. He had it worse than I did, and that’s saying a lot.”

She didn’t understand, and it must’ve been clear on her face when Sebastian continued. “Right, of course. You know, for the short amount of time I lived with them, I still lived with them longer than you did. I saw shit in that house that would make you sick.”

Isla swallowed. She didn’t want to know. Not really, but at the same time, she did want to know. Everything about Arturo, his family, and that house enticed the twisted side of her curiosity. “Like what?”

Sebastian shrugged. “Like their bitch of a mother grabbing at Orlando’s ears and pulling on his hair until he bled, slapping him around while they stood there and didn’t do anything. She died the same year I showed up, but I still lived there with them for a couple of months before it happened.”

Isla’s heart lurched, and she thought of Orlando’s sweet face, imagined him as a child, being treated like that.

“I guess she hated him for being her husband’s little bastard. How many times do you think I watched my new brothers run to his rescue whenever that cunt decided to slash her brand new manicure down his skin?” Sebastian made an O with his hand. “Zero.”

“I…I didn’t know that,” Isla said, feeling sick.

She shook her head, banishing that ill feeling. “But wait, that doesn’t make any sense. Orlando’s a grown man now. He wouldn’t hang out with them if they were mistreating him.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes and shook his head, like even thinking about it disgusted him. “Who knows why he sticks around. I don’t think it’s for the money. We all got a payout when Vincenzio was put away, so that can’t be it. Maybe he’s just scared of being alone, or so used to being around them that he’s brainwashed. I don’t fucking know.”

Isla scratched the side of her neck. “Did she…did she ever hurt you?”

Sebastian smiled. It was the sort of smile that could only look more sinister if he happened to be holding a cigarette in his hand, which he wasn’t because it was a no-smoking zone. “She tried a couple of times. See this scar?” He pointed down the side of his throat.

Isla leaned closer. It was there, but she wouldn’t have noticed it had he not pointed it out.

“She always liked getting her nails done.”

“I’m so sorry,” Isla replied, feeling sick in her stomach again.

So it wasn’t just about his parents’ funerals. It was about being thrown into a new house and feeling alone as he and a new younger brother were abused.

That had to be why he was nicer to Orlando, or at least somewhat civil. He must’ve thought they shared a sort of kinship.

“God, I need a cigarette,” Sebastian said.

So her guess had been spot on. He was a smoker.

He continued. “She never got me a whole lot. I was bigger, knew how to get out of her path, but then one day—” he clenched his mouth and jaw “—I couldn’t take it anymore. She wasn’t hitting me or anything, it wasn’t like she had the chance to do that too often, but I could hear the sound of her palm slapping Orlando’s face. Like a crack in the air. And him, good boy that he was, just took it. He’d even started to get bigger, was taller than she was by then, but he still never laid a finger on her, which proves he is a better man than I am, even at that age.”

Isla’s eyes widened. “You didn’t…?”

“I ran over and slapped her back, yeah. Stop looking at me like that, she had it coming. Fucking child abuser hiding behind the fact that she was a woman and expecting no one to defend themselves.”

Isla suddenly had a whole lot more respect for his self control, considering that time she’d slapped him in Arturo’s house. He certainly didn’t hit her back. The situation must have really been extreme when he lashed out at Arturo’s mother, and Isla felt guilty, and sorry, for everything he’d been through.

He continued, unaware of her thoughts or her pity. “You should’ve seen the look on her face when I did it. Eyes wide and completely in shock. Of course, she immediately started to cry, couldn’t take what she’d been dishing out that entire time. She ran out of the room like I was the big bad wolf, and guess who immediately ran in to teach me a lesson for hitting their beloved mother?”

“I guess there’s only two people you could be talking about,” she replied with dread.

Arturo and Silvio.

Sebastian nodded. “Broke my nose and popped some of my teeth out between the both of them. I think they would’ve done worse if Orlando and the staff hadn’t yanked them off. Can you tell I wasn’t too broken up when Vincenzio killed her?”

He was smiling again, as if it was a happy memory.

Isla shivered, then swallowed. “I’m…I’m really sorry. For everything.”

Sebastian sighed. “Don’t apologize. You literally did nothing wrong. Fuck, I came here because I heard what Arturo had done. This wasn’t supposed to be about me.”

Isla bit her lips together. “Arturo has a scar on his side. Did he…was it from the fight?”

Sebastian frowned at her, then his eyes widened as he realized what she was asking. “What? Christ, no. How the hell would I have…” he trailed off, looking away as though trying to collect himself. He shook his head.

“Sorry,” Isla said quickly. “I’ve just seen it and—”

“He got that from Vincenzio, all right?”

Isla’s eyes widened.

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Wasn’t there for it. All I know was that it happened right before the old bastard was arrested. I think Arturo confronted him about his mother. I’m not exactly on the best terms with my brothers so I don’t know all the details.”

Sebastian didn’t need to give her any. Isla’s imagination was running wild already, and the things she thought of were horrifying.

She then thought of the cameras Arturo had installed in his house. They just popped into her head, and after she’d almost forgotten about them. Was that why they were there? Had he installed them after the attack? As a precaution after what his father had done?

It seemed a little paranoid, but Arturo could be the overly careful type. The contract she’d signed was proof enough of that.

She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised by any of this, the cameras, the lightning of the house, or Arturo’s scar.

A man who would kill his wife to save some money would probably attack his son, try to kill him, to keep from going to prison if Arturo finally lost it one day and confronted him about his involvement.

Sebastian shook his head. He looked tired. “This is so fucked. I can’t believe we’re talking about this.”

Isla couldn’t believe it either. She looked at Sebastian. She really looked at him, and she was convinced that the person she saw was not violent, was not a monster, and was not even remotely bad.

He was just kind of mean and angry sometimes, mostly at his brothers, at his past, at all of it. Hell, he had every right to be angry. The fact that he was still able to lash out at Arturo and Silvio meant his brothers were still inviting him around. They wanted to make amends.