The Billionaire’s Betrayal Page 5

  “Okay,” Joi said. “What did you want to talk about?”

  “Where to start? Okay, first of all, I met the guy I won at the Avenue A fundraiser. We had a drink just a few hours ago.”

  Her eyes widened. Already, she was missing the single girl life. Such as it was.

  “Tell me…was he a total douche? You know those guys are always douches...” Her face was clearly hoping for a horror story.

  I dug into the hummus the waiter had brought to our table. “Honestly…he wasn’t bad.” It actually was disappointing he wasn’t a jerk. Those guys made better date stories.

  Joi frowned. “Wait. What? They’re always douches. Who else besides a conceited jackass would think they’re hot enough to have people bid on them in public?”

  “I know, right? I totally agree. But he was pretty cool, asked me some questions about myself, seemed smart and hardworking…”

  She gave me her best exasperated look. I knew it well. “C’mon. You know what I’m interested in. What the hell did he look like? Spill it!” she demanded.

  I hesitated to torment her further, and then leaned forward conspiratorially. “He was about the most freaking handsome guy I’ve ever seen up close and personal. Thick black hair, a little on the long side, square chin with a dimple in the middle, dark, dark eyes with lashes to kill for.”

  Joi practically jumped out of her seat.

  “And even in my heels, I had to look up at him.” I demonstrated by craning my neck. “He must have been six-four.”

  She fell back in her chair, mouth open. Maybe she shouldn’t have been getting married after all.

  “Wow. Who woulda thought? Well, you’ll have to see him again. That’s all there is to it.” She gave one of those “done deal” waves of her hand. Easy for her to say. She’d been with Jack since college and their getting married had been a foregone conclusion since then. She had no idea, really, how to date or what it was like.

  “Yeah well, that’s not gonna happen. I’m way too busy with the company.” I looked around for the waiter. I was starving. And I wanted to ignore the speech I knew she was about to give me.

  “Oh, that’s bullshit, and you know it. Everyone has time for a date now and then,” she snapped.

  Why were people who were in relationship always so pushy about making sure everyone else was paired off? It was as if being single was a disease.

  “He did ask me to dinner, which I thought was very nice. But I returned to work instead.” The waiter came with my shish tawook. I grabbed my fork so fast I think I scared him.

  Joi stared. “Are you crazy? Why the hell didn’t you go?”

  “Just didn’t want to. I mean, I’m sure he’s a jerk.” I shrugged. But on the other hand, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had sex. Maybe there would be a benefit to having won an auction date.

  “But you just said…” She shook her head and picked up her fork, resigned to my stubbornness. We’d been friends so long she knew not to waste her breath. I never did anything until I was damn good and ready.

  She dropped it. “Okay, okay. I give up. So what else is going on?”

  I had to tell her. It had been eating at me for days.

  “You know Simon, right?” Of course she did. She tried to talk me out of marrying him way back when. I should have listened.

  “Ugh. Why aren’t you divorced yet?” She couldn’t stand him, and thought he was no good from the beginning. But what could I say? I had been nearly broke, and ten grand had seemed like all the money in the world at the time.

  “I should be divorced by now. But, he’s turned out to be a major asshole.” I sipped my wine. I wasn’t doing any more work today. Who was I kidding?

  I continued. “He wants his ten grand back and is threatening to expose me if I don’t pay him. And make the divorce difficult.” I put my fork down, my stomach soured at the thought of him.

  Her forkful of food stopped mid-air. “What? How can he do that? He’d just expose himself. He’d be deported.” She leaned toward me for emphasis. “He knows that, doesn’t he? Or is he really that stupid? And how can he keep you from getting divorced?”

  I nodded. “He has got to know that, and yet he’s still trying to shake me down. He knows I won’t let anything get in the way of the company’s success. As for the divorce, I guess he could just make it really hard.”

  The color drained from her face, and she looked like she’d lost her appetite, too. I hated that she, the company, and our team could be affected by a bad decision I’d made years earlier.

  “Can you just pay him?” she asked quietly.

  “That was my thought, too. Just get him the hell out of my hair. But one, I don’t have an extra ten grand. I’ve sunk every penny I have into this business. You know that. And two”—I slapped my hand on the table, causing our wine to slosh—“why the hell should I? He got his citizenship. It was a fair exchange.”

  I shook my head. “I never should have broken the law. I’m paying for it now. I should have listened to you.”

  “Well, yes you should always listen to me. But you didn’t,” she said. “Why do you think he’s coming after you now, instead of just getting the divorce underway?”

  I shook my head. “He seems to think I’m making big bucks or something. Little does he know I’ve maxed out my line of credit and that we’re one mistake away from shutting our doors.”

  “Little does he know we’re also one investor away from massive success,” she offered. And she was right.

  But we’d been down that road many times, gotten our hopes up, only to have investors back out at the last minute for a variety of reasons—they had found a better investment or had just plain changed their minds. The first few times it had happened, I was devastated. I finally learned, however, it was just business. If they didn’t see the value in Mommy Knows, someone else eventually would.

  But the fact that Simon was even thinking about undermining all that I’d worked for made me crazy with rage.

  Along with our check, the waiter brought us some juicy, sticky baklava for dessert. But I could only play with mine, peeling off the thin layers of pastry until my plate was a thick mess of honey and ground pistachios.

  Kind of how I viewed my life at that moment. A big, gooey mess.

  Chapter 10

  Brodie

  I’ll be damned.

  My auction date, Nara, had actually beaten me at my own game. I’d seen the text from her assistant when we’d been out for drinks, and it was clear the whole “emergency” thing was a set up. She’d needed an escape hatch in case I turned out to be a dud. I can’t blame someone for planning for the worst, but damn. A true first.

  I still couldn’t believe I’d fallen for my own trick.

  On the way to work that morning, I got a call from Trudy. The band that had rented all the top floor penthouses had party number one underway—so named because they never left it at just one party—and there were naked girls running around the halls. They’d been up all night long.

  I was normally inclined to let them do what they wanted to on their rented floors out of sight of other guests, but it seemed one of the girls had given a bellman delivering food a blowjob in front of an audience. One of the maids had seen it and ratted him out. Personally, I didn’t care about the kid getting his dick sucked as long as everyone involved was a consenting adult. But when a party went beyond the confines of its rented space, I had to step in and make sure no one ended up naked in front of other guests, especially ones who were inclined to call the cops.

  Sometimes, I felt like a babysitter for rich, grown-up kids. But those overgrown brats spent a lot of money at my hotel, and they attracted people who spent even more.

  Can’t live with them. Can’t live without them.

  Accompanied by two of our beefiest hotel security men, I headed up to the penthouse to pay a visit to our latest rowdy guests. After letting them know they needed to keep the party contained, everyone seemed happy. ’Course, the presenc
e of the security guys helped keep the negotiations friendly. Hell, one of the guys from the band even offered me a line of coke. I didn’t take it—I’m not into that stuff—but I took that as a sign of skillful diplomacy. Everybody won.

  As I returned to my office, Trudy said, “Brodie, one of the front desk girls was just up here looking for you.”

  “What?” Needless to say, front desk staff did not spend much time in the management offices. “What did she want?”

  Trudy raised an eyebrow and gave me one of those I wasn’t born yesterday looks. Shit, did she know about the blowjobs? “I don’t know what she was doing up here, Brodie. And I don’t think I want to know.”

  Um. Busted?

  “Yeah, well. We’ve flirted.” If you want to call it that…

  “Do you want to see her and find out what she wants? I’ll call her up here.” She had her hands on her hips. She was all about the no-nonsense.

  “Yeah, sure.”

  Might as well get it over with.

  Not five minutes later, Sonya—that was her name, right?—walked into my office. Damn, that hotel uniform looked good on her—snug enough to show of her great breasts, but tasteful enough for its purpose.

  “Hi, Mr. Harcourt.” She blushed. Poor thing was nervous. Funny, she was all confidence when my dick was in her mouth.

  “You can call me Brodie, like I told you. What can I do for you today?” I smiled to put her at ease.

  She looked down. I wasn’t sure if the bashfulness was an act or the real thing. If I’d been open to playing, I could have had some real fun with it.

  She was shifting around on her feet, and she kept looking at me, then looking away. “Mr. Har—I mean Brodie, I was wondering if…I mean…you know, we could um, get together again?” She continued to avoid my gaze.

  Her request was endearing. Seriously. And I considered it. I really did.

  But I leaned forward, placing my elbows on the desk.

  “Sonya, I enjoyed our playing. I did. You are a beautiful girl.” Now she was looking at me. “But I, um, am seeing someone. I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

  Shit. Did I really just say that?

  * * *

  An hour later, Trudy came in with my mail. “How’d your meeting go?”

  “Huh? What meeting?” I asked, looking up from the reports I was reviewing.

  “With the front desk girl.”

  There was an undeniable smirk on her face.

  “She had a question.” I took the stack of mail she’d opened. “Thanks for the mail, Trudy.”

  She rolled her eyes and shut the door behind herself.

  A strange invoice caught my attention. On close examination, I saw it was a bill for fifteen thousand dollars from a law firm I’d never heard of called Levin, Ross. It said:

  Services rendered for dissolution of HWE Enterprises

  What?

  Dissolution of HWE…?

  The partnership of Harcourt, Wooten, and Evershire…?

  My business partners were dissolving our partnership…?

  What. The. Fuck.

  I dialed the number on the invoice.

  “Levin, Ross. Pam speaking. You’ve reached accounting.” A keyboard clicked in the background.

  “Hello Pam. This is Brodie Harcourt from HWE Enterprises. I just received an invoice from your firm that I need some more information about.”

  More typing. “Certainly, Mr. Harcourt. Let me pull up your account right now. HWE Enterprises did you say? Here we go. Looks like you met with one our attorneys from our business law practice, about…here it is, a month ago.”

  “Are you sure? Could you check?”

  “Of course. Let me dig in deeper.” More clicking on the keyboard. “Oh, I see what happened here. The meeting was with Mr. Steven Evershire and Mr. Hardy Wooten. I see your name is here on the partnership documents. I guess that’s why the invoice ended up with you. Should we have sent the bill to a different address, Mr. Harcourt?”

  “No, not at all. I just, um, needed my memory jogged. Thank you for the info.”

  Unbelievable.

  Steve and Hardy had engaged a law firm. Without me. About the dissolution of our partnership. The one I busted my ass for, day in and day out. The one I built the best hotel in New York for.

  No wonder they wouldn’t talk to me about expanding to the West Coast.

  They were trying to get rid of me.

  * * *

  I dialed my attorney, the one who’d represented me when everything went south with my father. His secretary knew me and sensed the urgency of my tone. She patched me right through.

  “Brodie! Good to hear from you,” my attorney said.

  “Joe, I need to ask you something,” I said.

  “Sure, let me have it.”

  I took a deep breath and described the invoice and my call to Levin, Ross.

  “Whoa. You really stumbled into some shit. If you each own thirty-three percent of the company, the other two can band together and either offer to buy you out or dissolve the company, and then immediately create a new one you are not part of. They can’t take away your shares, but they can take away your job.”

  “Holy shit. Now that I’ve got the hotel on solid footing, the fuckers want me out.” Throwing my chair out the tenth floor window would have felt good right about then.

  My dad screwed these guys over royally. I wasn’t proud of it. But I’d been working my tail off to pay them back and then some.

  “Brodie, do you want me to reach out to their attorney to see what’s going on?” he asked.

  “Not yet, Joe. Not yet. I’m gonna think on this for now. Figure out my next move.”

  Joe was silent for a moment. “All right, my friend. Keep me posted. And don’t do anything without speaking to me first. Please.”

  Chapter 11

  Nara

  “Hey, Nara, can I come in?”

  Without waiting for an answer, Michael, the company’s accounting guy, invited himself into my cube. He took the seat opposite my desk, like everyone did.

  “What’s up?” I’d been immersed in our software development schedule. Talking about money was about the last thing I was interested in at that moment. Although seeing him made my heart speed up. Just a smidge. His close-cropped blond hair and beard made him cute but rugged. The kind of guy you want to take home to mom. And yeah, I’ll admit it—we’d kissed before. And other things. But that had been a while ago.

  “I’m fine, Nara, thank you for asking.”

  Oops. I held up my hands in a gesture of surrender. “Sorry, Michael. I was in the middle of the dev schedule.”

  He leaned forward. “I wanted to go over the payroll with you. But first, I thought I’d tell you how hot you look today.”

  Oh, cripes.

  “Michael.” I stood to look over the cubicle wall, to ensure no one was close enough to have heard him and lowered my voice. “Not in the office, okay?”

  As I sat back down, I realized his gaze was wandering all over me.

  Was he really in here to talk about payroll? The folder on his lap just sat there, unopened.

  “Hey.” He lowered his voice, too. “When can we go out again?”

  Okay. Now I knew what this was about.

  “I don’t know. I’m pretty busy, and you know Joi’s wedding is coming up, and I’m the maid of honor.” Sure, we’d messed around a couple times in the past after a few too many drinks. But I didn’t see myself dating someone like him and he probably didn’t see himself dating me, either. He just wanted to get his rocks off.

  “Why don’t we go to the wedding as dates?” he asked with a smarmy grin. He’d been invited just like everyone in the office had. But I didn’t need a date.

  “Let’s just meet there. I’ll save you a dance, okay?”

  His back stiffened, and he huffed a laugh. “You don’t have to patronize me. You didn’t seem to mind spending time together when I was licking your pussy, did you?”

  Asshole.

>   “Jesus, Michael,” I hissed. “Shut up!”

  Mimi stuck her head around the corner of my cube wall. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you were in a meeting. I’ll come back.” She turned to leave.

  “Wait, Mimi. What’s up?” Maybe she could help me get rid of him.

  She glanced at her watch. “It’s almost time for the dev meeting. Folks are gathering in the conference room.”

  “Right!” I popped up from my desk. “Was there anything else you needed, Michael? Could we finish the payroll stuff later?”

  He smirked, clearly undone at having been rebuffed. For heaven’s sake. New York was full of women. Go find another.

  Michael glared at me and filed out, followed by Mimi.

  “Be there in a sec,” I called after them.

  I reached for my buzzing phone.

  Well, I’ll be darned. It was a text from Brodie.

  you free for a drink?

  Hmmm. I’d have to give that one some thought. I hustled to the conference room.

  * * *

  The development meeting went about as well as it always did, which meant not well at all. The two head developers—the guys who worked tirelessly to make the Mommy Knows app come to life in line with my vision for it—hated each other. I didn’t know why. And I didn’t care why. All I wanted was for the app to be ready for the next round of beta-testing moms. We’d been experiencing some “false positives” where the app was notifying users of a dirty diaper when it was still clean. That was bad. Really bad.

  When I had filled out those high school aptitude tests, I never suspected I’d be thinking about pee and poop all day long.

  I turned to look at my ringing phone. It was Simon. I imagined for a sec blowing off the asshole, but he was unpredictable, and I didn’t want to mess with him. Especially while I was trying to get him to divorce me. I ran back to my desk.

  “Hello.” I hated being civil to him.

  “Nara, darling! How’s my little wifey doing?” Best friends we were, yup.

  “What’s up, Simon?” There went the sour stomach churn. Again.