His to Hold: A Billionaire Romance (His to Have Book 2) (3 page)

“What happened?” I ask.

“I forgot to turn in a final project. It was a checkerboard that never turned out right. Still, I got screwed on the grade if you ask me,” Blake says. He’s grinning.

I give him a light tap on the arm. “I mean with you and your sister.”

“I’ll get to that after. Let me get through the rest of this first,” he says. “I got a scholarship to Columbia. I managed to graduate in three years, and I enrolled in grad school. By that point, I had become Blake Bennett. I even had a driver’s license. There was no turning back. I got a summer internship at Carlisle Capital and managed to get a hired as an associate out of grad school.”

“So what was the problem?” I ask.

“I thought I had made it. I thought the past was buried and I could move on, but somehow, someone figured out my secret along the way. I wasn’t moved up the ranks because I was so special. I was promoted again and again to be the fall guy. They knew I had lied about who I was, and someone saw it as an opportunity to cash out without getting caught.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know,” Blake says. “I still don’t know. Someone at your father’s company. Potentially several people high up at your father’s company. It could have included him, too. I guess no one thought I’d be smart enough to figure it out, but I did, and when I tried to get to the bottom of it, I found out that there was all kinds of abuse going on within the company. They were screwing their investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.”

“Why didn’t you go public?”

Blake pauses and looks at me for a second, like there’s something he wants to say but can’t. “Well, the easiest answer is that I didn’t want to call attention to myself. I wasn’t exactly being honest. I was working there under a false name. There’s a reason they chose me to take the blame. But also, not everyone was crooked, and a lot of people had a lot of money invested with us. If I had gone public, it would have brought the whole thing crashing down. After my final attempt to fix things failed, I pulled together all the evidence I could and I took it with me. I also took my entire client base. I had a noncompete, but they didn’t dare come after me.”

“Why come after you now?”

“The company imploded. The regulators have been combing through the books, and they know something’s wrong. They need someone to blame. Why not go after the original fall guy? My success after only bolsters their case.”

“Why not go to the FBI, then? Ben could help you.”

“Ben might, but what about his boss and his boss’s boss? If I went to them, I’d have to tell them the truth about who I am.”

“Why not tell them?” I ask.

“Because it’s not my secret to tell,” he says.

His sister
. What the hell happened to her that Blake won’t even hint at it? I look at him, confused as hell, and I wait for him to give some kind of explanation.

“Do you really want to know?” he asks. Blake reaches over the bed and grabs my clothes off the floor. He tosses them to me. “Get dressed and I’ll bring you to hear the rest of the story.”

CHAPTER 5

CATHERINE

Save for Alex, the bar is empty when we get there. It’s early afternoon, and she’s wiping down glasses and stacking them for the night ahead. “Look who it is,” she says as she sees us standing in the doorway. “You look like hell, little brother. What’s going on? Do you need a little hair of the dog?” I look at her long blond hair and try to imagine it cut short and dyed any other color.

“Hey, we need to talk somewhere private,” Blake says.

“We’re the only ones here,” Alex says.

“I mean really private,” Blake replies. “Is there anyone in the back who could overhear us?”

Alex grabs a ring of keys from under the bar and tosses it to Blake. “A couple of guys in the back. Lock up and I’ll send them off to go pick up some supplies. What is it?”

“Grab something to drink, and we’ll meet you in the back.”

“What is this about?” Alex asks. I can see the worry in her eyes, but she also seems a little bit annoyed. “Did you get her pregnant?”

“No, I did not get her pregnant,” Blake says. I hear him lock the front door. “This is about why we’re in New York.”

“You’re kidding, right?” she says.

“No. I need you to tell Cat everything. I need you to tell her about
him
.”

“Christ, Blake, I thought we were done with this,” she says. She turns and grabs a bottle off of the back of the bar. “Give me a minute to make sure we’re completely alone.” She disappears into the back room. When she comes back, the bottle has noticeably less liquor in it.

“Do you really think this is a good idea?” Alex says. “We agreed that we were done with this forever.”

“The FBI came to my apartment last weekend. They tore the place apart.”

“Forgive me for being rude, but you start seeing this girl, and then the FBI shows up at your house, and you think we should suddenly tell her everything?”

“We can trust her,” Blake says.

“No,” Alex replies. “You guys should go.”

“She saved me. They were going to find the key to the loft. They would have found it, but she hid it from them. If she had gotten caught, she could have gone to jail. Then they would have had everything. They would have found you. She’s the only reason why we’re here right now. And she’s not some girl, Alex. I’m asking you to tell her.”

“Sorry,” Alex says. Her tone is flat, and I can tell she’s still skeptical about this whole thing. “How much of this do I have to tell?”

“Only what you’re comfortable telling,” Blake says.

“When Blake was in high school, I worked as a waitress at a yacht club. There were lots of rich and powerful men who were regulars at the club. One of them took a liking to me. He was married, but I didn’t know it at first. He gave me expensive gifts and would ask me to join him on his yacht.” She rubs her hand over her temple. “God, this is so embarrassing, but you have to understand I was young and dumb, and he seemed like he really cared about me.”

“He didn’t,” Blake says.

Alex laughs. “Well, he cared about having control over me. We started seeing each other. At first everything was good. He was charming and funny, and he knew so much. I was in awe of him. Christ, I can’t believe I’m saying this with my brother around, but the guy was good in bed. He was too good. And he liked things rough.”

“Oh, you don’t have to—” I start to say, but Alex cuts me off.

“No, if you want to know what happened, you have to know the truth. He liked to throw me around when we slept together. He got off on it. One day, I came home with a bruised cheek and a sprained wrist. Blake was furious. He said he was going to kill whoever did it to me. I told him I fell down at work.

“Afterward, Jacob, well, I guess you know his name now, Jacob was so apologetic and sweet. I really thought that maybe it was a mistake. He paid for the lease on a better apartment so I could be closer to work, and Blake could be closer to school. It was a townhouse, and had two levels and a big-screen TV, and all kinds of stupid stuff that impressed me at the time.”

“It was just the two of you?” I ask.

“Our parents were never in the picture,” Blake says. “We were raised by my grandmother. She passed away the year before that. She left us a little bit of money, but Alex insisted on saving it for me to go to college. Of course, by the time I was ready for college, we didn’t have access to it anymore. It worked out well enough, I guess.”

“Things with Jacob got more serious that winter,” Alex continues. “He talked about leaving his wife for me. He said I was his muse, his singular passion in life. Soon, the apartment wasn’t enough. He wanted me to move into a house on his block and he wanted to send Blake off to boarding school. He offered to pay for it all, too, but Blake wouldn’t listen to a second of it.”

“I knew something was wrong,” Blake says. “Alex had always been outgoing, protective, funny, everything you could ask for in an older sister and friend, but she was becoming quiet and reserved. She wouldn’t talk to me about things.”

“I had decided I would put up with it long enough for Blake to get away to college. Then I would end things with Jacob, but even that wasn’t soon enough. One night, when Blake was supposed to be staying over a friend’s house, Jacob came over…”

“It’s okay, Alex, you don’t have to talk about this part,” Blake says. He leans over the bar and holds his sister’s hand.

“Jacob raped me,” she says. “He was drunk, and he forced himself on me when I didn’t want it, and I tried to fight back, and he beat me. He tried to force me into the bedroom and gave up at the top of the stairs. I can still see the stupid pink carpet soaking up my blood from when he punched me in the mouth.”

I feel like someone has punched me in the gut, like the world has tilted on its axis. “Oh my God,” I say. “I’m so sorry.” And I am sorry, sorry that it happened, and sorry that I’m forcing her to dredge up these painful memories because I won’t trust Blake.

“It’s okay,” Alex says. “Sometimes I think that if that night hadn’t happened, if Blake hadn’t forgotten a book and come back in the middle of it, I’d either still be with Jacob, or I’d be dead.”

“I had no idea. You don’t have to say another word,” I say. I turn to Blake. “That’s why you left?”

Alex snorts. “That was just the start. Jacob was forty at the time. He was in peak physical condition. I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop him. He also owned half of the town and had the police bought and paid for. He used to brag about it. I knew there was nothing I could do. Then, as Jacob was finishing up, Blake came home.”

“Oh no,” I say. “Blake killed him, didn’t he?” I feel the color drain from my face.

“No,” Blake says. “I should have, though.”

“Blake beat the hell out of him. I was trying to cover myself up, and I was shouting at him to stop, trying to tell him that he didn’t know what he was doing.”

“So you’re wanted for assault?” I ask. “That’s what all of this is about?”

“No,” Blake says. “There were no charges filed. We kept checking the newspaper online, waiting to see if anything came of it. It was reported two weeks later as a home invasion. Jacob claimed he was inspecting a rental property when he was assaulted by three armed men. He said two of the men wore masks, but he gave a detailed description of the third.”

“Let me guess, Blake.”

“Yeah. When Blake hit him, Jacob’s eyes lit up. I remember him saying he was going to kill Blake, that he was going to kill Blake and then he was going to kill me. He shouted it over and over again as Blake beat the hell out of him. He said he was going to throw Blake down the flight of stairs. Jacob still had his pants around his ankles. Instead of knocking Blake down the stairs, he tumbled and fell. I can still hear the sound his skull made when it smashed against the floor. We thought he was dead.”

“Blake was the one who grabbed me new clothes from the bedroom and packed a bag. By that point, Jacob was moaning at the bottom of the stairs. He had regained consciousness, and he was slurring something about Blake and jail and stabbing before he passed out again.”

“We left him there, lying on the floor. Blake wanted to bring me to the hospital, but I wouldn’t let him. I stole Jacob’s wallet and keys. He had twelve hundred dollars in cash in his car. We ditched the car in Atlanta and took the first bus we could get north. We spent a night at a hotel in DC. I remembered a friend who had moved to New York. I called him and told him we were in trouble. Two days later, we moved into the loft.”

“And now we’re here,” I say.

“And now we’re here,” Alex replies.

“Why not just say what happened?” I ask. “You wouldn’t have to hide anymore.”

“We’re not hiding,” Alex says. “We aren’t those people anymore. Blake was a kid, and I was too young to think anything through. It’s in the past, and it needs to stay there.”

“What happened to Jacob?”

“He never got over it,” Blake says. “From what I’ve learned, we’ve turned into an obsession of his. So far nothing’s come of it, but he’s still looking. I doubt he’d recognize me if he saw me on the street, but he’d probably recognize Alex. I’m not interested in finding out. I’m not coming forward about your father’s company, and I’m not putting anyone else in harm’s way.”

“At least let me talk to Ben,” I say. “You haven’t done anything wrong.”

“It doesn’t matter what I’ve done,” Blake replies.

There’s a loud knock on the door. “As fun as this trip down memory lane has been, let’s wrap this up,” Alex says. She pours herself a drink and downs it fast. She turns to Blake. “Should I worry?”

“No, everything is under control,” Blake says. “No one is coming after you.”

We sit there at the bar as a few people make their way in. Alex greets them with smiles and jokes. Just looking at her, I feel like the most selfish and stupid person alive. At my age, she started her life over and raised Blake. She had been through worse than I could ever imagine. And Blake, I think he’d rather die than betray his sister’s trust. That’s family, that’s love. I don’t know what I’d do for my family. I don’t know what they’d do for me.

“You with me, Cat?” Blake asks. “How about we grab a drink and disappear into a dark corner for a while.”

“Funny, I thought we already had disappeared into a dark corner, one called Brooklyn.”

“We have to make sacrifices for the people you care about, Cat,” he says. “I know you want to get back to Manhattan, but it’s not like we’re in Nebraska here. Just be strong. We’ll make it through this.”

He doesn’t know how right he is
. I have to suck it up and be strong. I need to make sacrifices, even if Blake will hate me for it. I have to do what’s right. I have to go behind his back. It’s the only way to protect him.

I pull out my phone and start texting.
Meet me at The Bird. Come alone.
I press send, and I watch Blake pace back and forth across the room. I don’t want to hide anything from him, but it’s not like he’s telling me everything either. He doesn’t want my help. I know that. I set my phone to silent right before Ben’s reply comes in.

Just tell me when, and I’ll be there.