Breaching the Billionaire: Alethea's Redemption (Book 6) (Legacy Collection) (29 page)

Marc waved a finger in a circle and then pointed to Sliver. Men from both sides moved in. Sliver dropped the remote and tried to run, but there was nowhere to go. They pulled his arms behind him and raised him up onto his tiptoes. With a grimace, Marc watched a wet area spread down the man’s cargo pants.

Sliver said, “This isn’t over. It’ll never be over. Even prisons have Internet—and something beautiful called parole.”

Marc leaned in and snarled, “Oh, how cute. You think we called the police? I almost feel bad for you. You’ll soon wish you had rigged this place. You don’t fuck with a man’s family. You don’t threaten his children.”

Sliver went to say something else but Marc instructed someone to stuff something in his mouth. Whatever he had to say, there wasn’t a man there who wanted to hear it.

He was half hauled, half carried to the roof of the building. Jake took one look at his soiled pants and said, “Do we have to use my helicopter?”

Dominic glared at his friend. “I’ll buy you a new one.”

Jake shook his head sadly. “This one has good memories, but whatever. I guess we have to do what we have to do.”

Sliver was pushed into the helicopter.

As they watched him being taken away, Jake said, “I feel like we should say something to him.”

“What the hell would we say?” Dominic growled.

Jake shrugged. “I don’t know. In the movies there is always a parting remark. Maybe you should punch him or something.”

Dominic raised an eyebrow and shook his head. “I wouldn’t be able to stop, and I told Abby I don’t kill people.”

Nodding in understanding, Jake asked, “So, what are you going to do with him? We can’t take this to the police.”

“I called Rachid. I told him we were
overnighting a package to him. He said Najriad has a wonderful penal system. There is a plane gassed and ready to take Sliver there now. He’s going to the same place Rachid sent his brother’s shooter.”

Jake frowned pensively. “I can’t imagine that man is still alive.”

Dominic shrugged. “Plausible deniability. What happens in Najriad stays in Najriad.” He nodded at the pilot and they backed away from the wind of the rotors.

Once the roof was quiet again, Jake said, “I don’t think you have to worry about Abby with this one. She’ll be glad it’s over.”

Dominic closed his eyes for a moment. When they opened, they were shiny with emotion. He turned to Marc and held out his hand. “Thank you, Marc. I owe you for this. You tell me what you need and I’ll make it happen.”

Out of the corner of his eye Marc saw a blur of red hair rush him. He braced himself, but still had to take a stabilizing step back when Alethea launched herself at him, wrapping her legs around his waist and kissing him wildly. For a few moments Marc forgot where he was and simply savored the shared passion. Finally he broke from the kiss, not putting Alethea down, and said to Dominic, “I’m taking a short vacation. You won’t hear from me for a couple of days. I’ll write up a report when I come back. Mind if I borrow one of your toys?”

Dominic and Jake exchanged a look and Jake shrugged. “At least he asks.”

“Fine,” Dominic said gruffly. “Call Marie, but I don’t want to know the details.”

A siren in the distance warned that someone might have seen the commotion and called the police. Dominic and Jake left the roof with the rest of their security.

Marc and Alethea stayed for one more long kiss, leaving at the last moment before the police arrived.
Hand in hand they bolted down the stairs, out of the building, and to a town car and driver he had waiting near the rear exit.

Once inside the vehicle, Marc took out his phone and Alethea stopped him by laying a hand over his phone. “Don’t call Marie.”

“She’s the gatekeeper to his three-hundred-ninety-foot yacht. Have you ever seen it? We could take it out to his private island or wherever you want to go.”

“It doesn’t feel right.”

His stomach clenched painfully. In the thick of the danger, had she spoken hastily of feelings she didn’t really have for him? He’d seen that in the thick of war. People clung to each other while fighting for survival, but that bond was situational and often didn’t hold up in the calm that followed. All he knew for sure was the depth of his love for her. If she needed more time, he could give her that. It wouldn’t be easy, but her happiness was what mattered to him. “Which are you uncomfortable with? The yacht, or running off with me?”

“Involving Marie,” Alethea said, and looked away. “The ladies and I didn’t exactly part on good terms. It’s time for me to admit that Lil and I are living very different lives now. I don’t fit into hers any more than she wants to be a part of mine. I didn’t want to see it, but maybe it’s time to let that friendship go.”

Marc hugged her to his side. He felt her pain and sought the words that would show her how wrong she was. “After today, I’m sure those women would forgive you anything. You saved Stephan and very likely the lives of whoever was next on his list. They’ll love you.”

Alethea shook her head. “No, they’ll be grateful. They may even be nice to me for a short time because of this, but then we’ll go right back to where we were before. Because at the end of the day, they can’t accept me as I am. I can continue to fight with them, or I can accept the reality of the situation and focus on those who do.” She laid a hand on his cheek and brought his mouth down to hers. “You.”

Her kiss held a sweet desperation that tore as his heart. Who wouldn’t want to be the center of this woman’s universe? Not sharing her was tempting, but she wouldn’t be happy if she walked away from the people who had become her family. “You sure about the yacht?”

She smiled, a mix of love and sadness in her eyes. “Don’t you have any toys of your own?”

“Of course, but nothing as impressive.”

“I’m not with you for the size of your . . . um . . . boat,” she teased.

“I have a better idea where to take you.” When she pulled back a bit cautiously, he laughed. “If you keep looking at me like that, we won’t make it out of the back of this car, and I want to show you my place up on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts. It’s not fancy—no underwater bedroom—but it has a private beach, and we could make love to the sound of the waves crashing in the background.”

“That sounds perfect,” Alethea said, then murmured against his lips, “Although that dividing window is tinted, and it’s a thirty-minute drive back to my place.”

Hauling her onto his lap, Marc growled, “I love the way you think.”

A plan was forming in his head for a surprise for her when they returned from Massachusetts, but for now, all he could think about was how she felt against him. He wasn’t one who usually employed a private driver, but he could now see the perks of having one.

Abby met Dominic halfway down the stairs of their house and flew into his arms. “You’re back!”

He hugged her to him and buried his face in her hair. “It’s over.” The deep kiss they shared melted away her fear. For a moment she forgot everything beyond the feel of his lips on hers and the strength in the arms that held her to him. Relief came with a release of emotion, and she started crying even as their kiss continued.

With a hand on either side of her face, he broke off the kiss and wiped away her tears gently with his thumbs. “Don’t, Abby. It’s done. He’ll never bother us again.”

She searched his face desperately. “Are you sure?”

He nodded.

“Jake?”

Dominic looked over his shoulder and Abby stood on her tiptoes to do the same. She laughed when she saw Jake and Lil in a similar embrace a few steps below them. Jake was reassuring her sister between kisses.

Abby looked up into Dominic’s loving eyes again. “Alethea? Marc? Are they both okay? Stephan is inside with Nicole. He said he left as soon as he knew you had Sliver. He said no one was hurt. Was he right?”

Lil overheard her question and added one of her own. “Why didn’t Alethea come back with you?”

From the open door behind them, Marie called out, “Come on in, ladies—let your men catch their breath so they can fill us all in.”

Lil’s voice went up a few octaves when she asked, “She’s okay, right? If something happened to her, just say it.”

Jake kissed her on the forehead. “She’s fine,” he said, and smiled down at his worried fiancée. “She and Marc wanted some time alone.”

Abby cocked her head to the side at the revelation. “Alethea and Marc? Really?”

Dominic frowned. “I thought you ladies told each other everything.”

“We used to,” Lil said, so sadly, that Abby elbowed Dominic to stop him from inquiring further.

“Marie’s right. Let’s talk about this inside,” Abby said and wasn’t surprised when Dominic appeared to have no idea what he’d said wrong. As they walked in, she whispered to him, “Things have been rocky between Lil and Alethea lately.” As they crossed the foyer, Abby stopped suddenly.
I’m blaming someone else for something that’s at least partly my fault.
She took Dominic’s hand in hers and looked up into the eyes of the man she knew would love her no matter what she confessed to him. “And I haven’t helped the situation. I couldn’t let go of old insecurities. I wanted Lil to choose me over Alethea. She risked her life today for us, all of us. How petty am I that it took all that for me to forgive her for doing nothing more than loving Lil?”

Dominic raised her hand to his lips and kissed the inside of her wrist. “Before you bestow sainthood on her, wasn’t Alethea the one who told Lil that curfews were made to be challenged?”

“Yes.”

“Did you, or did you not, tell me that she was the one who encouraged Lil to take your car out the night she totaled it—a car you’d just paid off?”

Some of Abby’s tension dissolved and she started to laugh. Memories that used to be painful were now humorous when relived in the arms of her loving husband. “Oh yeah, that was her. Lil wanted to get her license, but I didn’t have the money to add her to my insurance so I asked her to wait one more year. Alethea thought taking the car would change my mind.” And in that humor she found the strength to face the heart of her problem with Alethea. “The more I tried to protect Lil, the more Alethea encouraged her to challenge me.”

“So you were both wrong,” Dominic proclaimed and smiled with encouragement. “You can fix this. Someone once told me that all you have to do to stop being an asshole is to remember that every word you say, every action you take, defines you. Was that you who said it, or Jake?”

Turning slowly, Abby put both hands on her hips and said quietly, “Did you just call me an asshole?”

Jake’s deep laugh boomed through the room. “Back away, Dominic. Don’t say another word. Run for flowers.”

Lil stepped in with advice where few would dare to tread. “Abby, I’m sure what Dominic was trying to say was . . .”

Marie followed suit, hoping to smooth the situation over, “It’s been an emotional day for everyone . . .”

Abby put up a hand to silence them. She stood before her husband, glaring up at him, and demanded, “No, I want to know what he meant. He’s a big boy. He can speak for himself.”

Dominic hauled her to him, and right in front of everyone said, “You were wrong about Alethea, Abby. You held a grudge too long. You’re flawed just like the rest of us, and I love you more every day because of it. I wouldn’t change a thing about you, Abby. No, you’re not perfect, and you don’t have to be, because you’re perfect for me.”

With a sniff, she threw her arms around Dominic’s neck and kissed him.

Standing beside Lil, Jake said sarcastically, “She let him off too easy.”

Lil laughed at him, and with a hug said, “I think it was sweet.”

He raised one eyebrow doubtfully. “And if I told you that you had flaws?”

“You’d sleep on the couch for a week,” Lil said, but hopped onto her tiptoes to kiss him impishly.

He deepened the kiss, reminding her of all the reasons why that would be a difficult stand for either of them to take.

Clearing her throat loudly behind them, Marie said, “Nicole and Stephan are waiting for all of you in the atrium.”

Reluctantly, the two couples separated and followed her down the hall. Rosella met them with little Judy in her arms as Colby toddled along next to her, holding onto her leg. Nicole was seated on the couch beside Stephan.

They both stood as the others entered the room. Dominic approached his sister and her fiancé. “Stephan . . .”

Abby put a hand on her husband’s arm in caution. “Dominic, are you sure now is the time?”

Nicole took a defensive stance between them, but Stephan gently pulled her back beside him. “You don’t need to protect me, Nicole. I know that I’m ultimately responsible for what happened today. Without me, Sliver would have never gotten as close as he did.”

Shaking, Nicole glared at her brother. “That’s not true. He used you, but if it hadn’t been you he would have used someone else. I won’t let Dominic pin all the blame on you—”

“Enough, Nicole.” Dominic’s voice boomed through the otherwise silent room.

Stephan straightened to his full height. In a soft but deadly tone, he said, “I don’t care if she is your sister. The next words you say to her in that tone will be your last.”