Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (124 page)

“Oh, no,” Nicole said.
 
“He did something terrible to her, didn’t
he?”

Red looked at his phone as if it might
speak up and tell him more.
 
“I
really don’t know.
 
I can’t imagine
what he could have done, but I have a pretty bad feeling right now.”

“I can’t sit still.
 
Should we call the police?”

“No.
 
Let’s hang tight and wait and see if and when she comes back, how she’s
doing.
 
We can talk to her and find
out exactly what happened.
 
Okay?”

“Okay.
 
But if he hurt her in any way—“

“Then we’ll make sure he doesn’t get away
with it.”

“Promise me, Red.”

“Nicole, of course I promise you.
 
I’d never let him hurt one of your
friends.
 
Your friends are my
friends now.”

“Good.”
 
She tried to smile but her face couldn’t
make the expression right now. She was just too worried.

They spent the next couple of hours
trying to distract themselves; watching bad sitcoms on TV, ordering food from a
nearby Chinese restaurant, talking about the baby.
 
As much as Nicole wanted to try and be
happy and think positive thoughts, she was way too anxious.
 
She’d been starving and yet when the food
arrived, she found she couldn’t even eat any.

And then it happened.

There were footsteps on the
stairs—clomping, loud stomps.
 

“I think she’s coming home,” Nicole said,
and both she and Red stood up, anxiously awaiting her arrival.

Nicole tried to psych herself up.
 
Just remember, if she’s hurt in some
way—or even just threatened—she’s going to need you to be calm and
rational, Nicole reminded herself.

The keys rattled in the lock and then the
door opened.

Danielle stood before them, and they were
both stunned into utter silence.

“What’s going on, guys?” she said,
grinning from ear to ear.

It didn’t even look like Danielle, Nicole
thought.
 
First of all, she was
tan—really, really tan.
 
She
was wearing a low-cut sundress, Prada sunglasses (the label was evident on the
frame), and her hair was newly styled into a combination of braids that made
her look like she’d come there from another country.

Hustling in with her bags (she had lots
and lots of bags somehow), Danielle was as cheerful as Nicole could remember
ever seeing her.

Red and Nicole exchanged looks.
 
Had she somehow been brain washed and
returned home a Stepford Girl?
   

“I just got so tired climbing all those
steps with these bags.
 
Sorry I
didn’t hug you both,” she said, putting her stuff down right in the middle of
the living room and then hugging Red like he was her long lost brother.
 

“Last time we met you weren’t nearly this
friendly,” he said, eyebrows raised as he met Nicole’s confused gaze.

Nicole just shook her head.
 
“Uh—Danielle—where the heck
have you been?
 
I called you like a
dozen times.”

Danielle broke off her hug and came
towards Nicole with open arms.
 
“Oh
my god, sweetie.
 
I’m sorry.
 
Were you worried about me?”

“Yeah, I was.”
 
But Danielle was already crushing Nicole
in the tightest hug she’d ever received.
 
She could smell a strong scent of perfume and hair product as her friend
embraced her.

“Like I said—sorry.
 
I meant to try and call you but the
whole thing’s just been such a whirlwind.”

“What whole thing?
 
I’m sort of lost,” Nicole said, suddenly
going from feeling confused and anxious to annoyed in record time.

“Well, I’m not even sure where to start.”

Red folded his arms.
 
“Why not start at how you ended up going
to The Cayman Islands with Kane Wright?”

“Oh my god!
 
How did you know?
 
Did Kane tell you?” Danielle asked,
giddy.

“Just a wild guess.”

“Please tell me you didn’t,” Nicole
said.
 
Her stomach felt sick and
this time it wasn’t morning sickness.

Danielle perched her Prada sunglasses
atop her newly braided hair and looked at both of them.
 
“I didn’t want to go with him at
first.
 
I thought he was a total
jerk.”
 

“He is a total jerk,” Nicole replied.

Danielle’s lips pursed and she seemed to
be trying to bite back a nasty retort.
 
“I understand,” she said, her voice shaking just enough to betray her
emotion, “that you and Red have a lot of reasons to feel hostile towards
Kane.
 
But you don’t know him.”

“I hate to tell you this, Danielle.
 
But you don’t know him either.
 
Did he sweep you off your feet, buy you
expensive things, stroke your ego?” Nicole asked her.
 
“None of those things are difficult for
a man like Kane.
 
Spending money is
no different than breathing air for him.”

“It’s not about the money, Nicole.
 
And you, of all people, should know
better than to make it into that.”

“I’m sorry.
 
I just can’t figure out what
happened.
 
When I left, you wanted
nothing to do with the guy.
 
And
then—“

“Then I spent some time with him,”
Danielle said.
 
“And I don’t really
feel like justifying myself to you right now.
 
Excuse me, I should put all this stuff
in my room and then I need to get some rest.
 
Kane’s coming to pick me up later on for
dinner.”

Danielle collected her
bags—although she could only barely carry them all at once—and
walked into her room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Red looked at Nicole.
 
“Did that really just happen?”

Nicole sighed.
 
“Shit.”

“Well, as long as she’s happy, right?”

“Yeah.”
 
Nicole didn’t know what to say or
think.
 
She was conflicted.
 
On the one hand, she was judging
Danielle in much the same way others had judged her about Red.
 
On the other hand, she actually knew
Kane Wright, she knew him enough to be fairly certain he wasn’t a good
person.
 
And regardless, he’d done
too much to hurt the father of her child.

“Do you want to get out of here, come
home with me tonight?” Red asked her.

“I don’t know.
 
I’m worried about her.
 
I still want to make sure she’s really
okay.”

“Babe, she’s okay.
 
Liking a jerky guy isn’t a federal
offense, last I checked.”

“The thing is, I feel totally responsible.
 
If it wasn’t for me—“

“You didn’t do anything wrong,
Nicole.”
 
He came over and wrapped
his arms around her.
 
Then he kissed
her full on the lips.

Instantly, she felt better.
 
Her entire body relaxed.
 
She rested her head against his
chest.
 
“What about that money you
wired?
 
Is he just going to keep
it?”

Red sighed.
 
“I have no idea, but we can deal with it
later.
 
Come home with me.”

Nicole shook her head.
 
“I need to talk to Danielle a little
more and try and make sure she’s really okay.
 
And I should probably apologize for
treating her the way I did.”

“You did nothing wrong.”

“Also…I want to get up early and head
into work.
 
I’m giving my notice
tomorrow.”

Red pulled back and looked her in the
eye.
 
“Why are you giving notice?”

“Well, you said we’re starting that new
company.
 
I don’t want to work for
your chief rival.”

He smiled.
 
“I’d love to have you come and work with
me.
 
My first employee!”

Red picked her up and twirled her around,
making sure to put her down gently, so as not to hurt her sore ankle.

“I love you,” she told him, kissing him.

Their mouths molded around each other,
their tongues intertwined.
 
She put
a hand up and felt his rugged, bristly new whiskers.
 
Even now she was horny for him.
 
She wanted him to pick her up and fuck
her against the wall.

But then they broke off their kiss.
 
“I should go home,” he said, checking
his phone.
 
“You and Danielle won’t
resolve anything with me lounging around here, and I need to get back and do
some paperwork.”

“Okay,” Nicole said, missing him already.
 
“Drive safe, though.
 
Seriously, don’t drive above the speed
limit.”

“When you’ve handed in your notice
tomorrow, call me.
 
I’ll meet you in
the city,” he told her, heading toward the door.

“Okay.”
 
She smiled, tugging on his shirt as he
left.
 
“You know how amazing you
are, right?” she asked.

Red grinned, stopping and looking at
her.
 
“Baby, I got nothing on you.”

***

“Knock, knock,” Nicole said, standing
outside Danielle’s door.

“Come in,” she called back.

Nicole opened the door and put a smile on
her face.
 
Danielle was lying in bed
on her laptop, typing rapid-fire.
 
She looked up at Nicole and tried to smile in return, but it was obvious
her heart wasn’t in it.

“Listen, I want to apologize to you for
how I reacted when you first came in,” Nicole said, holding the doorknob and
twisting it in her hand nervously.
 
“I just was so worried about you these last two days when I couldn’t get
in touch with you…”

Danielle put her laptop to the side.
 
“I’m sorry that I didn’t think to leave
you a message.
 
It just all happened
so fast and you kind of disappeared yourself.”

Nicole laughed.
 
“Talk about pot meeting kettle.
 
I did the same thing as what I was
frustrated with you about, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, kinda sorta.”
 

 
laughed too.
 
“And it’s like the tenth time you
disappeared on me without telling me what was going on.”

“Shit.
 
I’m really a big dummy,” Nicole
said.
 
“Forgive me?”

“Of course.”

“So…it went well with Kane?” Nicole
said.
 

“I feel weird telling you about it.
 
I mean, I want to shout it from the
rooftops, but with all the baggage between you guys and Kane, I don’t know if
you want to hear me gush about him.”

“Gush away,” Nicole said, forcing levity
to her voice that she totally didn’t feel in reality.

“Seriously?” Danielle said.

“Absolutely,” Nicole replied.
 
She came over and sat at the foot of the
bed.

Danielle scooted up and leaned
forward.
 
“Nicole, I’m totally
freaking out.
 
I don’t know if I can
really say it out loud.
 
But I want
so badly to tell you!”

“Tell me,” Nicole said again.
 
“I want to hear everything.”

“Well, maybe you should take a look at me
and tell me if you notice anything different.”

“Of course, I noticed your Prada shades
and your cool new hairdo right off the bat,” she said.
 
“But I guess there’s more—“

And that’s when she looked down and saw
Danielle’s hands.
 
Not her
hands.
 
Her left ring finger, to be
precise.
 
How had she not seen that
huge, glittering rock on her roommate’s finger?
 

But there wasn’t just a diamond ring on
that finger.
 
There was also a white
gold diamond encrusted wedding band underneath the engagement ring.

Danielle watched Nicole with wide, joyous
eyes.
 
“Now you see?” she squealed,
holding her finger up and wiggling it front of Nicole’s face.
 
“Nicole, I’m married!
 
I’m Misses Kane Wright!”