Training Her Curves - Dallas (A BBW Billionaire Domination and Submission Romance) (9 page)

Swiping a thumb across my bottom lip to erase a drop of coffee, I felt the rough brush of facial hair. I hadn't shaved since the morning before Alexa disappeared. My appetite had disappeared and so had my ability to sleep.

I hated to admit it, but I wasn't handling Alexa leaving me even half as well as Dylan had dealt with Jo-Jo vanishing two months before. Of course, the two women were markedly different. Marjolein had a support network of family and friends. Alexa had practically been on her own since the day she was born. And only one of the women traveled under a fake ID with rabid packs of paparazzi stalking the airports in search of her.

"So you concede you're an idiot," Marjolein poked after I fell silent.

I drew a slow breath in, doubtful that confession really was good for the soul but knowing that the sooner I answered Jo-Jo's questions, the sooner I would have her back at her computer running down any leads Mishka needed help on.

"From day one," I began, "I leveraged Alexa's obvious vulnerability. I did so without knowing its source. The only thing I knew -- the only fact that mattered -- was my desire to have her. So I broke my first rule, then my second, and so on until there were no rules I hadn't broken with her."

Pausing, I wrapped my shaking hand around the mug of coffee and took a slow sip while I gathered my thoughts.

"I did all that because I'm a selfish bastard who loves her and couldn't imagine being without her. After those sacks of shit showed up the first time, I realized I couldn't keep her safe if I continued breaking my rules -- like exploiting her vulnerabilities. That's why I pulled back when she wanted me to draw closer."

"So instead you had Alexa thinking you didn't want her..." Dissatisfied with my reasoning, Jo-Jo stole my mug from me once more. "Damn, Jake, I love you, but that was the wrong fucking move. You should have explained why."

"How?" I asked, frustration heating my voice. "She doesn't believe a damn thing I say anymore."

Without answering me, Marjolein left the room. Two months ago, her response would have surprised me, but the Kehoe brothers had been losing women left and right recently. I had lost Alexa by renewing my commitment to my rules. Dylan had pushed Jo-Jo away after finally breaking his ultimate rule -- experienced subs only.

Marjolein returned with a bag of food from the nearby sandwich shop and two bottles of juice. Shoving my computer out of the way, she pulled out a foot long sub and placed it in front of me. "I sent Mishka to grab some lunch for all of us. You're going to eat and then you're taking a nap."

I shook my head. "Not hungry and I'll sleep after I find her."

"Do that and you won't have the brain cells to get her back." She pushed the sandwich closer to me then twisted off the cap to my juice.

I felt like a two year old stuck in time out. Except, instead of wanting my mommy, I wanted my baby -- my Alexa.

Catching Jo-Jo's hard stare, I tore off the end of the sub and shoved it in my mouth. I chewed slowly, the lack of sleep unexpectedly slamming through my body until I had to prop my elbows on the chair before I sagged to the floor. I swallowed, took a swig of juice and pointed the top of the bottle at Jo-Jo.

"You're really becoming unmanageable, baby girl."

She had a mouthful of juice, half of it shot through her nose. She stole my napkin to clean her face then threw the tissue at me.

"That's what Dylan said. Just like him, you need to deal with it because I will keep giving you shit until you finish eating and lie down, eyes shut, for at least an hour. After that, you can bust your fine ass all you want."

"I told you," I said, popping the last bit of sandwich into my mouth and talking around it. "I'll sleep after I find her."

"Done, little brother."

I looked over my shoulder as Dylan came into the room, stopping just inside the doorway. He looked at Marjolein, his gaze narrowing with a fresh challenge. "Give us the room, cupcake."

Face reddening, she rolled her lips then pushed her chair away from the table. She stood, her hand falling briefly on my shoulder to squeeze. Dylan didn't budge as she approached. She had to brush past him, his gaze locked first on her face then her round bottom as she walked away flipping him off.

Unmanageable but cute as a button.

My legs and hands bounced with the urge to charge across the room and grab him by the throat, throttling him until he told me what he had discovered. But I knew my brother too well to capitulate to mere force. He had sent Marjolein out because he wanted something from me.

I leaned back in my chair, my thumbs hooking my belt loops to keep from strangling him. "You're never going to get past Miami if you keep pissing her off."

A smirk tugged at one side of his mouth. He pulled his phone from his pocket and flashed it at me. "You sound like a man who doesn't want what I'm offering."

Tilting my head, I checked which of his two phones he held. If it was the Nokia, I didn't need his cooperation. His little cupcake could pull any piece of mail or text message off the company server in under a minute.

Too bad for me, it was his personal phone.

I shrugged, knowing there was more than one way to get at his source. "Tell me, how many laws did you break to get this information you want to sell me?"

"None." Looking like a cat surrounded by canaries, he smiled. "I did a reverse charge on her primary bank account -- a big one."

Rage brought me to my feet. I slammed my fist against the table, my laptop bouncing from the impact. "You stupid bastard. You think cutting off her funds helps me?"

"I do when she has to switch the source she's drawing money from." He yanked a chair from the table and shoved it in front of him to block my advance.

Smart move because I wanted to rip the smug from his face.

"Her bank couldn't handle the hundred thousand a month hitting her account, so Joey arranged for a second account -- with Chicago Third Trust."

I let the information sink in. We owned the bank, used it for financing.

I returned to my chair, more than ready to deal. Dylan had her last known location and the time she had been there. With the right palm greased, I already knew she had purchased a plane ticket to Chicago and even passed through security.

But she didn't board the flight.

I tracked her next two locations, a taxi from the airport to one of the downtown resorts, from which she hopped another cab, this one to the train station. More grease and a few more laws broken by the train station manager scanning the morning's print outs gave me two more potential destinations -- Memphis and New Orleans. The guy lost his nerve when it came to accessing the computer files that would show which train she might have actually boarded.

Lucky for me, the convenience store owner across the street had no legal restrictions on letting Mishka scroll through the images on his security camera. Just like the airport, she had left the building after buying her tickets and headed east -- on foot.

That's where the trail went dead. For all I knew, she still had a friend in Dallas, someone she had called and who had picked her up within blocks of the train station.

I rubbed my palms against my jeans. "Is she still in Dallas?"

He took a seat across from me, his hands folded atop the table. I had seen him take that position a hundred times or more during business negotiations.

Alexa's safety wasn't up for negotiation.

Just one small problem -- Dylan was the only Kehoe on the bank's board of directors. Otherwise, he wouldn't have divulged his source. While he could legally review Alexa's account, I could not.

The airport, the train station -- those indiscretions might land me in jail. Didn't matter. But, mess with the bank and I could bring down the company's entire infrastructure. Tens of thousands of employees could find themselves out of a job, at least temporarily. But, for those living on the edge, it only took a few weeks before their financial house of cards collapsed.

I wasn't ready to break that law -- not yet.

"I haven't slept in a day and a half," I growled. "Just tell me what the hell you want."

He pulled his phone out again and pressed the power button. "I give you this, you stop interfering with me on issues with Marjolein and Riona."

"Riona's off limits. But if you want a little more rope to hang yourself with Jo-Jo..." I stopped and opened up about an inch and a half of space between my thumb and index finger, exactly how much I was willing to yield. "Well, it's your funeral."

Dylan just stared at me, waiting for all the anxiety and doubt inside me to reach critical mass. My brother could write the definitive source on negotiating his opponent's total surrender. I had only seen him bested once and that was shortly after our father had died and we discovered just how much money the old man had siphoned out of the company and bank accounts over the years.

We had pooled our money to rebuild the company, but Dylan was the one with the knowledge to do so. Riona had been a kid still and I was little more than a jock. So the money had been from all of us, but the magic had been all Dylan's. You couldn't beat him in business, especially when he had all the leverage.

My gaze dropped to the phone before I locked eyes with him again. "I need Alexa back."

"And I need Marjolein," he answered, his gaze unblinking, almost reptilian.

I jabbed my finger at the closed door. "She's in the next fucking room, safe..."

My fury dissipated. I rubbed my hands against my bristly cheeks, the coarse hairs scratching at skin that had grown too soft since I left the football field. I leaned against the chair back, my hands returning to the table's, arms slightly apart and palms up.

"Is this really where we're at, you and me -- after all these years?"

He blinked, just once. "She's safe. I have a guy on her."

A knock landed on the studio door.

The tension pushing down on my shoulders shifted to Dylan's. He knew he had a small window of opportunity to drag a concession from me. Like all information, his would age or become available from another source -- whoever was knocking on the door, for example.

"Come in," I called.

The door pushed inward. One look at Marjolein's face and I knew nothing had changed in the last few minutes. Mishka hadn't worked some miracle, Alexa hadn't called Marjolein, and
Trash TV
hadn't posted a fresh picture of Alexa online with some noticeable landmark in the background.

I still needed Dylan's information.

"We're not done yet, Jo-Jo." Out of ideas, I shut my laptop.

Marjolein slowly crossed the room, her attention on Dylan even though he seemed intent on not acknowledging her presence. She stopped beside him, her arms folded across her breasts in a tense hug. His head tilted slightly in her direction, and he blinked again.

His leverage suddenly neutralized, he pushed an icon on his phone and slide the device across the table.

Alexa, in a bus, a scarf hiding her glorious mane of red hair and an arid, dusty land visible through the windows. All the photo showed me was that Alexa hadn't gone east.

"I told you that your pretty little firecracker is safe, didn't I?"

"Where is she, Dylan?" Marjolein asked. "You can't know and not tell us."

His lips rolled and then a line of sweat beaded across the middle of his forehead.

Half a second later, he caved.

He really was in love with Jo-Jo.

"The jet lifts off for Phoenix in..." he paused, glanced at his wrist and continued. "Forty five minutes. There's a car and driver waiting for you there to intercept her at the bus station. If she gets off before then, my guy will tail her and report back."

I jumped to my feet, my gaze casting around for my briefcase as I scooped up the laptop. Finding it, I shoved the MacBook inside. Jo-Jo had grabbed my jacket and she slid it on over my shoulders. I patted around the pockets for my phone and wallet.

Finding them, I threw my arms around Marjolein for a short, tight hug. I kissed her cheek, the skin wet from a few quiet tears that she had shed after Dylan had revealed Alexa's location. Relief, I guessed, but maybe it had cost her more than I could understand to put herself in front of my brother to coerce his answer.

"Thank you, baby girl." I kissed her again, completely ignoring that Dylan had done anything for me. That was only natural considering that he had tracked down Alexa for his own benefit.

"I'll get a call out to you when I find her," I assured Marjolein.

With that, I was gone.

********************

Checking my watch at the first bounce of the plane's wheels on the Phoenix runway, I cursed my brother for his power play and then the massive dust storm that had forced the pilot to re-route to Albuquerque so we could sit on the tarmac for two hours.

To make matter's worse, the state's severe weather alert for the dust storm had gone out to more than a quarter of the four million plus residents in the valley, overwhelming a few of the cell phone carriers -- including the service used by the only eyes I had on the ground.