Read Billionaire On Fire: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Romance) Online
Authors: Claire Adams
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
As
soon as I got done with Leo, I called Alex.
Her phone rang and rang and then went to voicemail. I left her message asking
her to call me as soon as she could. I knew that I had to tell her about CSC
and the new contract before I let Leo know what I was going to do because once
he had the green light, there would be no going back.
I swung by the station to
switch out my clean uniforms with the dirty ones so I could drop them off at
the laundry. As I opened my locker, I overheard two guys from the other shift
talking on the other side.
"Have you gotten pushed
by Vangel yet?" Brian said.
"Yeah, he hit me up
yesterday before he left," Gavin replied. "That son-of-a-bitch is
gunning for Lieutenant hardcore."
"Did he threaten to
blackmail you?" Brian asked with a derisive laugh. "That asshole told
me he'd release my financial records publicly if I didn't."
"What an asshole,"
Gavin said. "He told me he's got my juvenile court record. I told him that
I was cited as a minor in possession of a six pack of MGD, so he was welcome to
do it."
"Yeah, my financials are
all about child support and mortgage," Brian laughed. "It's not
really scandalous gossip, but you know, it did make me wonder how in the hell
he got a hold of my information."
"I wondered that,
too," Gavin said. "And then I realized that we're living in a world
where everyone's information is available twenty-four-seven if you have the
money to pay for it. I told him to fuck off and get out of my face."
"You think he's got any
information on anyone that matters?" Brian asked.
"Beats me, but I guess
we'll know when Chief asks for votes to support his promotion," Gavin said
as he slammed his locker shut. "At that point, we should look into his
supporter's backgrounds and see if we can't wring out a little cash!"
"That's cold, man,"
Brian laughed as they walked out of the locker room and back to the kitchen.
"That son of a
bitch," I muttered under my breath as I gathered my dirty uniforms and
tossed them in the laundry bag I'd drop off.
Back in the truck, I decided
that this was a sign that I definitely needed to come clean -- to Alex and the
rest of the world.
CHAPTER
TWENTY
After
our
meeting with Professor Jackson, Liz and I went to anatomy lab where the cabal
of evil girls grinned with satisfaction over their plot to ruin both Liz and I.
Liz shot them a death stare from the moment we walked in while I focused on
trying to make sure we followed the lab instructions to a tee.
"Everything going all
right?" Robert asked as he circulated through the lab helping fix small
issues with scales and other equipment.
"Yes, fine," I said
brusquely as I sliced into a sample of tendon tissue we were studying.
"No, actually it's all
pretty shitty," Liz said cheerfully as she mounted her tissue on a slide
and stained it.
"What's wrong,
Baker?" Robert asked. "You look like you've done it right."
"Oh no, the lab is
peachy," Liz replied as she slipped the slide under the microscope and
adjusted the lenses. Raising her voice to a level loud enough to carry across
the room, she said, "It's that useless bitch over there, who doesn’t know
what she's talking about, that is causing all the problems."
"Are you talking to me,
Baker?" Violet asked in a bored tone. Jessica and Lydia looked up from
their microscopes and shook their heads at Liz before looking back at Violet
for approval.
"Not sure there's anyone
else in the room I'd call a bitch, so yes, I believe I am," Liz replied
with her eyes pressed to the microscope.
"Girls..." Robert
interrupted.
"Well, I'm not the one
they caught cheating, now am I?" Violet said smugly.
"No, you're not,"
Liz replied with a saccharine cheerfulness. "But you are the snitch who
falsely accused me and Alex of cheating, now aren't you?"
"Why would I do such a
terrible thing?" Violet said in a voice that matched Liz's fake
cheerfulness.
"I have no idea,"
Liz smiled. "Maybe it's because you're a miserable bitch who can't stand
to see anyone else succeed, or maybe it's because your mommy and daddy just
don't love you enough. Only your therapist knows for sure."
"You'd better watch what
you say, Baker," Violet said in a voice that seethed with rage as she
narrowed her eyes. "You're nothing, and people who are nothing have a way
of sinking to the bottom."
"Baker! Metzler!
Enough!" Robert yelled. "I'll not have this nonsense in my lab. If
you're going to fight, I'm going to call the program director and have her come
down here to talk with you."
"She started it,"
Violet whined. "She's always so angry and mean."
"Shut up, Violet,"
Liz and I said in unison.
"I do not want to hear
another word out of any of you for the rest of the lab," Robert said as he
shuffled papers on his desk. "I've had enough of these stupid petty
squabbles. Grow up!"
"But..." Violet
protested.
"I'm not kidding,
Metzler," Robert said sticking to his guns. "I've had enough. Shut up
and do your work. Not another word, unless it directly relates to the lesson in
front of you."
I looked over at Liz and
found her wearing a grin that stretched from ear to ear as she evaluated the
slide and made notes.
#
After
lab, Liz and I grabbed lunch from a food cart
and took it back to my apartment. Liz dropped her coat at the door and headed
for the couch where she collapsed in a heap and promptly fell asleep before she
could eat her lunch.
I thought about waking her
up, but since we had a few hours before we were due at the hospital, I decided
to let her sleep. I watched her for a while and thought about how pale and thin
she looked, but then we'd been out of the sun for nearly five months, so we
were all pale. And the nursing program was stressful for everyone. How many of
us hadn't either lost or gained weight?
I ate my lunch and decided not to get too worked up about things.
There was a message on my
phone from Cam asking me to call him as soon as I could, so I dialed his number
and waited for him to pick up. I got his voicemail and left a message telling
him I'd be home for a few hours before heading to the hospital if he wanted to
talk to me.
I sat down at my desk and
went over my practice exam trying to figure out why Professor Jackson would
have accused Liz and me of cheating. We'd never cheated, not this time and
never before this. I got up and went to Liz's bag and dug through it to find
her test. I laid the tests side by side and began going over each question and
answer.
It took me an hour to get
through the entire exam, but by the time I was finished, I could see why we'd
been accused of cheating -- it appeared that Liz had copied my exam in its
entirety. I was shocked. I'd never known Liz to do anything dishonest, and I
couldn't imagine why she would have done this. She had a photographic memory and
had never needed to do much more than read the materials. I thought about
waking her up, but as I studied her, for the first time, I could see that my
friend had a problem.
"Liz, wake up," I
said as I gently shook her. "Wake up, Liz. We need to talk."
"Huh? What?" Liz
mumbled as she surfaced from beneath the blanket I'd covered her with.
"What's up, Alex? Is it time to go?"
"Liz, sit up and talk to
me," I said as I pulled her arm. "We have to talk."
"Um, okay," she
said sleepily rubbing her eyes. "About what?"
"This," I said
holding up our exam papers. "What happened? Why does your exam look
exactly like mine?"
"Maybe because we're
study buddies?" she said sitting up and looking very awake. "Where
did you get that?"
"Your bag," I said
as I tossed the two exams on her lap and stared at her. "Explain why your
exam looks exactly like mine."
"Dunno," she
shrugged. "Luck or coincidence?"
"Liz, I'm not kidding
around here," I said in a hurt tone. "This might cost us our degrees.
What happened?"
"I'm telling you, Alex,
it's a coincidence!" she shouted as she threw the papers at me. "God,
you don't even believe me! I didn't do anything wrong!"
"I just have a hard time
believing that this is a coincidence," I said as she pushed herself up off
of the couch and started pacing the room. "Tell me what's going on, Liz!
Why did you cheat?"
"Why did I cheat? Why
did I cheat?" she shouted. "For the last fucking time, Alex, I didn't
cheat!"
"Fine," I said in
very businesslike tone. "Then what's going on with you, Liz? Why are you
wavering between lucid and out of it? Why are you so thin and pale? What is
going on?"
"What the fuck?"
Liz said as she stopped pacing and stared at me. "Not you, too. Jesus. I
told you I don't have a drug problem, Alex. I'm not using drugs. I've been sick
lately. I don't know what's wrong, I just haven't felt well."
"Then let's make an
appointment to have you get checked out, Liz," I pleaded. "If you're
not using drugs or drinking, we need to find out what's wrong."
"No, I'm fine!" she
shouted. "I'm just tired and stressed and the last thing I need is you, of
all people, getting on my case about what it is I need to do! If you don't
believe me, then I guess I should just say fuck it!"
"I do believe you,
Liz," I said trying to calm her down but she was having none of it.
"I just want to understand what's going on! Aside from the fact that I'm
worried about you, this is starting to affect me, too!"
"Oh yes, and we
certainly wouldn't want to affect the perfect princess and her straight A
grades, now would we?" Liz shot back in a mocking tone as she pulled on
her shoes and grabbed her coat.
"Liz, stop!" I
pleaded. "Let's get some help and find out what's wrong!"
"Screw you,
Pierce," she said as she grabbed her backpack from the coffee table and
headed out the door. She yanked the door open and then turned toward me,
"I thought you were my friend."
"I am," I said as
the tears welled up, but she'd already slammed the door behind her and my words
hung in the empty space left between us.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
I
needed to see Alex, that much I knew for
certain. I wanted to explain my mysterious departure and I wanted to find a way
to get her to stay in my life. I knew after hearing her clipped message that
she was pissed at me for disappearing, and I didn't blame her.
I listened to her voicemail message and knew
things were not looking good for me.
"Cam, it's Alex. I'm
returning your call. If you want to talk to me, then find me at the hospital
tonight. I'll be there from ten until ten tomorrow morning. I'm sure there will
be some window of time in which we can discuss what happened last night. If I
don't see you, then I guess we'll figure out another time. Take care."
I dropped my uniforms off at
the cleaners and went home. Alex's message had made it very clear that I had a
lot of explaining to do, and I didn't blame her a bit for being mad. Alex
wouldn't be at work for a few more hours, so I changed into my sweats and
sneakers and took Tesla for a long run.
As I ran, I thought about
what I was going to tell Alex. I knew there was a good chance that she was
going to dump me as soon as I told her who I was and how I made my money, but I
also knew that there was no way I was going to be able to keep a secret from
her once I told Leo that we would accept Metzler's conditions for the contract.
I also thought about Quinn.
As painful as it had been to hear it, Leo was right. Quinn would have been
highly disappointed to learn that I'd shut myself off from almost everything.
She'd have scolded me for being so closed-minded and afraid of change, but I
hadn't been ready to let anyone else in.
"We're going to have to
open up and let go of the idea that we can control it all, girl," I huffed
as Tesla and I ran. She ran a little ahead of me and then dropped back to match
my stride as I talked to her. "I'm not sure how this is going to go,
though. I don't know if Alex will like how our life works."
Tesla let out a short woof as
she ran and then picked up the pace as she spotted a baby rabbit moving around
under some bushes. She took off like a flash and yanked hard on the leash.
"Tesla! Stop!" I
yelled as the baby rabbit sped off under the bush. I caught up to her a few
seconds later and stopped to catch my breath as she nosed around the bush.
"Let it go, girl. It's a baby."
"Woof!" she replied
as she sat down and stared at the dense cover waiting for the baby bunny to
reappear. I yanked on her leash and urged her to get moving again, and after a
few tugs, she gave up her vigil and ran with me.
"You're hopeless, you
know?" I laughed as we pounded the pavement and headed for home. Back at
the house, I fed Tesla before showering and making my own dinner. It was still
early, so I decided to stop by O'Neil's and have a beer before I went to find
Alex.
"Hey, Cam, it's been
awhile!" Billy called as he grabbed a bottle of Fat Tire and held it up
with a questioning look.
"Nah, give me a Blue
Moon tonight," I said shaking my head. "I gotta keep my wits about
me."
"You negotiating
something?" Billy asked half-seriously.
"Something like
that," I grinned.
"Must be a woman,"
he observed as he poured me a draft and stuck an orange slice on the edge of
the glass.
"How'd you know?" I
laughed.
"There's only two things
you stay sober to negotiate," he replied. "Women and speeding
tickets."
"Is that right,
Billy?" I laughed harder as I sipped my beer and looked around the place.
There were a few tables full of tourists and the bar was lined with regulars
who all waved at me and then turned their attention back to the hockey game on
the big screen behind the bar.
"So, who's the
woman?" Billy asked as he ran a sink full of hot water and began washing
bar glasses.
"Her name's Alex,"
I said knowing that I could tell Billy anything and my secrets would stay safe
with him. He was like the Fort Knox of firefighter confessions. "She's a
nursing student over at the college and is doing her internship at
General."
"I see," Billy
nodded. "How you feeling about that?"
"Honestly, mixed
up," I said as I ran my finger down the side of my beer glass leaving a
line in the perspiration. "I'm not sure how I should feel."
"She know about
Quinn?" he asked as he dunked a glass into the suds, scrubbed with his rag
and then plunged the glass into the rinse water.
"Yeah, she's fine with
it," I nodded.
"She know about the
other business?" Billy asked. I'd told him about CSC one drunken evening
when I was worried that I wouldn't be able to come up with the cash to keep it
going. Billy had suggested that I find a few partners, but I'd blown off the
idea once I'd gotten the life insurance check. I hadn't wanted to keep any of
the money, but Leo had convinced me that I needed to invest it, even if I
wasn't going to spend it myself. Billy had seconded Leo's advice, so I'd done
it.
"No, but I'm going to
tell her tonight," I said. "Leo's landed a big client and we're going
to have to go public with the ownership to keep the contract."
"How do you feel about
that?" Billy asked as one of the regulars signaled for another drink.
"Be right back."
I used the time to think
about how I really felt about all of this. I was angry that I was being forced
to show myself and become the focus of attention again. I'd had enough of it to
last a lifetime after Quinn had died, but now I wondered if I hadn't gotten to
deep into my own need for privacy.
"I think I'm okay with
it," I said when Billy returned from delivering the drink. "I think
it's good for me to let go of the past and start to live in the present now.
And maybe the attention on CSC will be a good thing for me and Leo."
"Sounds like a good
attitude," Billy said with a knowing smile. "It's good to see you
branching out."
"It feels good to start
to live again," I nodded.
"Women will do that to
you," Billy grinned. "You sure you're ready for that?"
"Yeah, I'm sure," I
said as Billy reached across the bar and slapped my shoulder.
I sat and shot the breeze
with him for another hour before I realized that Alex had started her shift at
the hospital and I needed to see her.
#
I
parked on a side street and walked in through
the emergency entrance. A receptionist looked at me and held up a clipboard
full of forms before she realized who I was. She buzzed me through to the ER
and I went in search of Alex.
"She's down in the stock
room in the basement," the shift nurse said. "She should be back up
in a few minutes."
"I'll go find her, if
that's okay," I said as I turned toward the freight elevator.
"Suit yourself,"
the charge nurse shrugged. "Tell her we need more 4x4 bandages as
well."
I saluted her as I hit the
button and waited for the elevator to take me to the basement. It was dark
downstairs and I wasn't sure which way the supply room was until I saw a light
at the end of the hallway to the right.
"Alex? You down
here?" I called as I walked toward the light.
"Over here!" she
called as I continued down the hallway and found her standing on top of a
ladder trying to reach a large box on top of a cabinet. I could see that she
was precariously perched on the top step, so I moved to the ladder and held it
steady. I couldn't help but stare at her round bottom and remember the way it
had felt in my hands the night before. She looked down and caught me staring
and smiled as she said, "Thanks."
"Toss the box
down," I said after she'd found what she was looking for. "I'll catch
it."
"No, it's fine,"
she said primly as she navigated her way down the steps holding the box. Once
she was back on the ground, she looked up at me and said, "So, you had
something you wanted to say?"
There was something about
Alex's face that brought down all of my defenses. She stood looking up at me
expectantly as I searched for the right words to say.
"Alex, I have to tell
you something," I began. She looked so lovely. I couldn't stop myself from
reaching out and gently stroking her cheek. "I...I...I..." The next
thing I knew, I was leaning forward wrapping my arms around her to pull her to
me so I could kiss her.
Alex's body stiffened in my
arms, but her lips softened as she kissed me back. My hands roamed her body
desperately seeking a way to get under her scrubs to touch her skin, and when I
found it I sighed into her lips and kissed her harder.
I untied her bottoms and let
them slide to the floor as my fingers slipped between her legs and stroked the
damp fabric. There was something that made me need to please her. I needed to
feel her moving under my hands, being aroused by me and reaching a climax
because I gave it to her. I didn't understand the need driving me I just acted
on it.
Alex moaned softly into my
mouth as I slipped my fingers under the fabric and dipped them into the warm
wetness. Her inner lips were so soft and slippery, I knew she'd been thinking
about me long before I'd shown up. I played in the wetness, tracing a slow,
deliberate path from top to bottom over and over again as she moaned and pushed
her hips forward to meet my hand. I spent a long time stroking the outer edges
of her entrance so that when I finally pushed two fingers up inside of her, she
cried out with relief.
I took my time finding the
soft spot on her inner walls, and when I did, I stroked it as I pushed my thumb
against her clit and applied pressure. Alex writhed in my arms as I kept my
mouth pressed to hers. I needed this, and I knew she did too. I increased the
tempo of my rhythm as I felt her moving closer to a climax. I stroked and
pressed until she was crying out begging me to take her over the edge.
I watched as the waves began
to engulf her, and when the full force of her orgasm hit, I pulled back and
watched the beautiful expression on her face as she found release through my
hand. I held her until I heard her breathing return to normal, and then I
slowly withdrew my hand and bent down to pull her scrubs up over her hips and
tie them again.
"What was that?"
she asked looking up at me with a mildly dazed expression. "What do you do
to me?"
"Alex, I wasn't planning
that," I said suddenly aware of how all of this would seem if I spilled my
secret after that. She was going to think I was using sex to manipulate her. My
heart dropped as I realized that I'd just spoiled my chance to tell her the
whole truth. "I'm sorry."
"You've got to be
kidding me," she said. "That was amazing, but if that's not why you
came here, why did you?"
"I wanted to tell you
something," I said. "You make me want to do things I haven't done in
a long time. You make me feel things I've never felt before and I want to be
around you all the time."
"I know the
feeling," Alex said as the color rose in her cheeks. "I feel the same
way."
"I just wanted you to
know that I want you in my life," I said. "I know it hasn't been that
long, but there's something special about you and I don't want to lose
it."
"And that's what you ran
away from last night?" she asked. I inhaled deeply knowing that now was my
chance to spill it all. I needed to tell her about the company and the money
because it was going to come out whether I liked it or not. Either Metzler was
going to get his way or Victor was going to divulge my secrets. I had to tell
Alex before it all came crashing down.
"Yeah, that's what I
wanted to tell you, but was afraid to say," I said kicking myself for
chickening out.
"It's okay, you
know," she smiled. "I'm scared, too. Maybe if we talk to each other
honestly about it, we'll be able to work it out."
Unable to reply to her
because I was burning with the shame of hanging on to a secret, I simply
nodded. Alex threw her arms around my neck and pulled me down to kiss her, and
in that kiss I could feel hope returning. It was a hope that I thought I'd lost
the day that Quinn died.
I wrapped my arms around her
waist and kissed her back. I knew I was going to have to tell her about CSC,
but right now was not the right time.
"I want you to come to
my place and meet Tesla," I said as I held her close to me. "Can I
pick you up on Friday morning after I get off shift? Will you be here?"
"No, I'll be in class,
but I don't have to work Friday night," she smiled.
"I'll pick you up at
your place at six," I said as I cupped her cheek. "I'm going to cook
for you, so bring your appetite."
"Oh, wow, a guy who
fights fires, is kind to animals, makes my pulse race and cooks, too?" she
grinned as she feigned swooning. "Be still my beating heart!"