WIFE WANTED (A Billionaire Bad Boy Romance) (21 page)

“Phoebe, where are you? What’s wrong?”

“I’m on Fifth and Logan.”

“What are you doing all the way up there?”

“It’s a long story,” she whispered. “If you pick me up, promise you won’t ask questions.”

There was a long silence, and for a second, Phoebe thought he’d hung up. She heard the sound of keys jingling, then, “Get out of the rain. I’ll call you when I’m close.”

“Thank you, Mitch. I…just…thank you.”

“Now, Phoebe, I won’t ask what you’re doing up there, but you’re going to have to give me some answers. Like what the hell is going on.”

She nodded as she glanced around the street. “I will, promise.”

They both hung up, and she wondered what she should tell Mitch. The truth or more lies.

***

Phoebe had run out just as the storm hit, and it took everything Riley had not to chase after her and bring her back inside where it was dry. He hadn’t meant to attack her like that, but he’d just been so angry, listening to her blatantly lying to his face, trying to act like she didn’t know what he was talking about. As if she could keep lying to him and not get caught.

“What a joke,” he muttered as he poured a large glass of whiskey and plopped down on his couch, watching the lightning streak across the sky. “I hope you get drenched.” It was pathetic, really, but he was so torn apart he didn’t know which way was up. When Ben had shown him the file on her, he’d thought it was a joke. But it wasn’t. The woman he’d found a real connection with, who might be able to get him out of this inheritance mess, had been a fraud the whole time, possibly trying to bring down his company to help Yancey.

A knock sounded at his door, and Riley yelled at whoever it was to go away. A few seconds later, he heard a key turn in the lock.

“I just saw your girl getting picked up by Mitch Harper,” Ben said.

Riley sank deeper into the couch as he shot back the rest of the whiskey. Salt in the wound. Fine, that was just fine. If she was going to run from him and straight to Mitch…maybe they were actually dating, after all, and he’d just been part of their plans.

“Riley? You ok?”

“Need another drink,” he said and pushed himself up, walking right past Ben without saying another word. He grabbed the bottle, poured a glass full and was about to set it down when he decided it’d just be easier to take the bottle with him.

“So, you’re that good,” Ben said, sitting in the chair opposite. “Did you show her the file?”

“Yep, and she denied all of it—well, besides her name. But that would be stupid.” He laughed, already a bit drunk. He shot back another glass of whiskey, then poured a third, shot it back, and poured a fourth. That one, he stared at for a long time, the amber liquid shifting in his glass as thunder rumbled around them and the lights flickered.

“Hell of a storm out there,” Ben said lightly.

“Yeah, hell of a storm.”

Riley stared harder at the whiskey and saw a glimpse of Phoebe’s green eyes, so full of pain as he’d yelled at her. Regret maybe? And guilt, just a glimmer of it, but he’d seen it. He hadn’t wanted to yell. He was going to just ask her, flat out, why she lied, but he’d let his emotions get the better of him, and instead, he’d treated her no better than if Yancey had been standing in front of him.

“Riley? Maybe you’ve had enough to drink,” his friend said as he reached for the bottle.

But Riley gripped it tighter. “Either get a damn glass and drink with me or get the hell out.”

“I really don’t think it’s a good idea. You have that meeting tomorrow.”

“Ben, as my friend, I’m telling you to either drink or get out. I don’t care about tomorrow. Not anymore.” He heard his friend get up and make a call in the kitchen, probably to Linda. A sharp pang ran through his chest. He’d once had what Ben and Linda had with Meredith. And for a few brief days, he’d thought he’d found a spark of that feeling again with Phoebe. Just to have it all blow up in his face. He’d desperately wanted that again, to be needed, to be wanted by someone, and not because he was rich.

Phoebe had done that. Or at least acted the part.

But then she’d run off with Mitch Harper, hitman for the rich CEOs of the city.

He shot back the whiskey again and started to pour another glass when Ben set his down on the table. “Linda says if you’re hungover tomorrow, she’s not covering your sorry ass.”

“I think I’m allowed a bit of leniency here.”

“She’s under the impression that you yelled at the poor girl.”
Riley didn’t reply. He figured Linda would understand why he was in such a rotten mood. He was a nice guy, rarely lost his temper, yet here he was, drowning his sorrows in a bottle of whiskey because of how he’d acted. His grandfather would’ve smacked him upside the head if he was alive. Riley rubbed the side of his head, as if he could feel that smack already.

“She yelled back,” he said weakly.

“Really? That’s your reply? Damn Riley, what—are you ten?”

“She stole from me, Ben, lied about who she was.”

“Yeah, well, maybe she had good reason.”

Riley stared at him through drunken, narrowed eyes. “What are you doing? Defending her?”

“I’m just saying, even though we found out all that stuff about her, the few times we met, I never got that evil corporate spy vibe.”

“So she’s a damn good actress.”

“Or parts of her story were true,” Ben started to say, but Riley threw a pillow from the couch at him. “Fine, believe what you want. Just pass the damn bottle. I won’t let you be hungover by yourself tomorrow. That’d just be an embarrassment.”

Too bad that was what Riley was going to be facing in the days to come. With Phoebe out of the picture, he was back to square one on the marriage issue and his time was running out. A month and two weeks left. He guessed he’d be back on that damn website tomorrow, trying to find a woman who didn’t laugh like a damned hyena or try to maul him to death. He slid a glance at Ben. Maybe a fake gay marriage would count? But nah, Ben would never go for that, and he was pretty sure Linda would kill him if he even mentioned the idea.

Sometime around midnight, Ben passed out, snoring in the chair, empty glass hanging from his hand. Riley was right behind him. He thought the liquor would’ve quelled his dreams. Instead, all he saw were Phoebe’s green eyes filled with heartbreak as she’d run out of his place and into the driving rain, getting into the car with a man who had red eyes and horns.

An alarm shrieked somewhere in the penthouse, and Riley rolled off the couch, smacking his head on the floor, his arm catching on the coffee table. “Shit…Ben… Ben, wake up, damn it!”

“Huh? Wha…what time is it?”

“We’re late, that’s what time it is.” He groaned as he got up, holding his head.

It was almost nine o’clock. The meeting with his client was at nine thirty. He really hoped Linda had been kidding about not covering his ass today because he was going to need a miracle to save this new business deal. Otherwise, he’d watch them walk out the door and straight into Yancey’s pocket.

Chapter 21

Phoebe made it through the rest of the week on autopilot. She barely talked to Charlotte about what happened, unable to even mention that her pirate had actually been Riley Marston. Her friend had found out, of course, and been upset Phoebe had let him go…until she’d finally broken down one night and told her everything that happened.

“He did what?” she’d screamed, grabbing her car keys.

“Charlotte, where are you going?”

“I’m going to kick his ass, that’s what! No one does this to my friend.”

“Really, I’m fine. It’s probably for the best anyway.” It had taken a while, but she’d managed to calm Charlotte down enough to stop her from getting arrested for assaulting Riley.

For a few days, she didn’t hear from Mitch and honestly didn’t expect to until one day, there was a voicemail on her cell, asking her to meet him in the park. The sun was shining on Thursday when Phoebe headed there, between all the skyscrapers and screeching car horns. Flowers were in full bloom and buds were bursting to life on the ash and cherry trees. The sweet scent made her smile, as did the warm sun shining down on her face. She really should try to get out of the office more.

She found a bench in the center of the park and sat down to wait. There were many people out walking—old men with canes, runners, teens walking in clusters, and a few couples here and there, holding hands and exchanging quiet kisses and laughter. Phoebe reached a hand up to her chest and forced herself to breathe. She would get over it, she had to. There was no option to stand still and hope for the best. If she was ever to take back control of her life, it was now. She leaned back and closed her eyes, soaking up the warmth of the sun and letting it fill her with hope that things would get better. Phoebe felt herself relaxing and started to doze off when someone said her name.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” Mitch said as he grinned and sat down beside her.

“That’s all right. Haven’t been sleeping well.”

“Understandable.”

“Listen, Mitch, you don’t have to do this, you know. I haven’t even told you what happened last week and there’s so much going on… I…I won’t blame you for walking away.”

He smiled gently and reached out to take her hand. “Why would I do that?”

“I…well, why wouldn’t you?”

“Phoebe, it’s not like we were exclusive,” he told her. “Whatever happened or didn’t happen, it’s none of my business. All I care about right now is you. I don’t like seeing you hurt.”

She swallowed hard and felt her sinking heart start to flutter just a bit. “You don’t?”

“No. Now, from how I see it, you are still in need of money to help with your mom’s surgery, and I find myself growing extremely fond of you. So, Phoebe Baron, would you do me the honor of being my official girlfriend?”

His question made her gasp, and she couldn’t breathe. No, he hadn’t proposed, but the way he said it, so sincere and full of caring, Phoebe was at a loss for words. All she could do was nod, and when he leaned in to kiss her, she embraced him. There was a spark, but no fireworks. Nothing compared to what she still dreamed about with Riley.

Let it go, girl. You can’t have everything
, she told herself as Mitch stood and offered her his arm.
Take what you can get for now. You never know. You could learn to love the guy
.

They made their way back to the office. Sadly, she had to return to her job where Diane Chandler was still watching over her, but not as intently as before. After what happened with the files, Phoebe had backed off, kept her head down, and gone about her day as usual. The last thing she wanted was any more attention. She’d already heard a few people at the office talking about how they’d seen her with Riley Marston. Those were questions she did not want to answer any time soon.

They reached her office, and she sighed. “Well, I guess I’ll talk to you later then.”

Mitch took her hand and kissed the back of it. “I’ll cook you dinner. Tomorrow night? Pick you up around six?”

Phoebe smiled. “Sounds like a date to me.”

***

Mitch watched Phoebe sit down at her desk before the door closed, and he headed back to the elevator, the smile dropping from his face. Phoebe might be out of the game, but he wasn’t. Yancey was still paying him to run interference, and the money that should have been transferred was not in his account. He did not work for people who did not pay.

He reached the top floor and stalked across to Yancey’s office, ignoring everyone else who stopped to stare at him. He didn’t even stop when Yancey’s assistant called out to him but headed straight inside. “Well then,” he said when he opened the door to find Diane and Yancey going at it on the desk. “Is this a bad time?”

Diane cursed and ducked down, hiding herself as Yancey yanked his pants up. “What the hell are you doing here? You don’t just barge into my office!”

“You didn’t pay me,” Mitch said, leaning against the closed door.

“Of course I did. It went in this morning.”

“No, actually, it didn’t. Don’t try to play games with me, William…you will lose. Where is my money?”

“Can’t you come back later?” Diane shrieked as she struggled to pull her top back on.

“No. I rather like it when my clients are off balance. Money, William. Now.”

He grunted as he finally got his pants re-situated and walked across the room to a small safe tucked away under the drinks cart. “This is not how gentlemen do business.”

“Never said I was a gentleman.”

“Why are you still paying him, anyway?” Diane snapped. “I thought that Baron woman was out of the picture. You said she no longer had the files, and I haven’t seen her snooping around at all.”

“Do you want her to go after Riley again?” Mitch said, as much as it pained him. He knew how attracted she’d been to the guy. Part of him was cold to such emotions, but he wasn’t a complete monster. Phoebe had really liked Riley, and he’d broken her heart. “By all means, I can disappear, and when she’s no longer distracted by me or Riley realizes I’m out of the picture…you tell me what you think might happen.”