Home > Billion Dollar Enemy(6)

Billion Dollar Enemy(6)
Author: L.A. Pepper

For one hot second, I wanted him to be the bad guy I always said he was. I wanted him to push me to do something I wouldn’t otherwise do. I wanted him.

Then, I realized I could trust him. Because he wouldn’t do anything I didn’t want him to. He wouldn’t push me. And a bolt of disappointment replaced all that sexual tension. I wanted him, but he was too much of a jerk for me to ever go after him. And he was too nice of a guy to ever push me. Well if that wasn’t a terrible pickle to be stuck in? No, it wasn’t. It was just me trying to scratch an itch. I was being ridiculous. The real pickle was that woman with the abusive husband. She had problems. And Jack was the answer.

“Okay, it’s a deal. I owe you a favor to be redeemed at a later date.”

He made a sound halfway between a hum and a laugh. “Oh, I’m looking forward to redeeming it.”

My breath left my body. Did he just wink at me? I squinted at him and he laughed. “Relax, Mr Magoo. When do we need to take her upstate? Now? I’m ready now.” I nodded. He told the bartender to put my water on his tab, even though I had my own tab at Duke’s, then he stood up and tucked my hand into the crook of his arm.

“What’s this about?” I asked, confused.

“No ulterior motives. I just don’t want you to trip over a chair on my watch. When are your eyes going to be better?”

I relaxed and let him guide me out of the bar. “I don’t know. They said the next day for most people, but it could be as long as three or four days.”

“So, our whole road trip you’ll be dependent upon me.”

I frowned. “Don’t get any funny ideas.”

“None of my ideas will be funny, don’t worry.”

“You are so odd.” What was odd was how he wasn’t such a jackass. I didn’t quite know how to handle it. I wondered if maybe part of our problem all these years wasn’t him, but rather maybe I expected him to be a jackass and had my hackles up. I didn’t like this concept because it meant that I was the asshole, at least part of the time, and it wasn’t him.

“Here we are,” he said, stopping me around the corner.

“What is this?” I asked, incredulous.

“That, my friend, is a car.” He pulled me closer by the elbow. “No, seriously, how bad are your eyes right now? Are you like, completely blind?”

“No!” Everything was just blurry and hard to focus on. “I know that’s a car, but are you seriously thinking about taking a road trip in this?” His car was a tiny, fast, glossy, dark green BMW convertible sports car. “Where are we going to put the carseat, let alone the woman we’re taking up state?”

“Oh.” He stopped and stared at the car, and the dumbfounded look on his face was hysterical. I’m glad I had enough of my eyesight to see that. “I didn’t even think. My Land Rover is out in The Hamptons. I guess I could get grandmother to lend me one of her cars . . .”

I had to laugh. He looked so bewildered. He was trying to be . . . I don’t know, helpful or gallant. He thought his fancy little sports car would be his white horse. “Never mind, we’ll borrow Elisabeth’s Prius.”

“She won’t mind?”

“No. She’s away with Duke right now. I have her keys for an emergency. I’ll text her and tell her I’m taking it . . . or you’re taking it, anyway. She won’t mind at all. It’s all for the greater good.

“Okay then, Prius it is.” He sounded disgusted. “Just a minute.” He went to his car and popped the trunk, grabbing a dark brown bag before locking it up. I was squinting again, trying to figure out what he was getting. He held it up. “It’s my go-bag. I never know when I’ll get an opportunity for a photo shoot. I went one too many times without necessities, so now I’m prepared.”

“I never thought of you as a guy who thinks ahead.”

He shrugged. “I didn’t used to be. But I learned. Where’s this Prius?”

I took him to the garage where Lissie kept her car, and he stood there, shocked.

“What the hell is this?”

I blinked and squinted. “That, my friend, is a car.”

“Ha ha, very funny. I mean, why is it lime green? And how could my stepsister, a billionaire heiress, want to have such a tiny, weird, screamingly ugly car?”

I held my laughter and dangled the keys from my fingers. “Believe it or not, the lime color is more environmentally friendly. It keeps the car cooler so less need for air conditioning. It’s got great gas mileage, too.”

He snorted. “It figures Lissie would be so ostentatiously green. ‘Look at me; I love the environment.’” His mock Lissie voice didn’t sound at all like her. But he opened up the small trunk and stowed his go-bag before coming around the side to guide me to the passenger door.

My terrible secret was that my sight was beginning to get better and wasn’t nearly as blurry as it had been, but I was coming to enjoy his caretaking and his closeness, also. I liked the way his bicep felt under my hand when he tucked it there. I liked the way he leaned in and made sure I was okay. I liked him opening the door for me.

This was horrible. This was shaking my world to its foundations. Because I did not like Jack Hamilton. Jack Hamilton was a terrible person who was careless and unconcerned with the world and dismissive of women.

But this Jack Hamilton did not seem to be the Jack Hamilton I knew seven years ago. This Jack Hamilton seemed to be a good guy, who was dropping his entire life to help me help a woman neither of us knew, just to be of service.

I didn’t like to think of it. Better to be all business. “The trip takes five hours straight through. I’ve already put together a cooler full of snacks so we can minimize stops. If we leave right away, we can be there by dinnertime. And my mom will make it worthwhile.”

He nodded. “That’s a plan. Then we can turn around, to come back and be home just after midnight.”

“You-you want to drive straight through, up and back? That’s a lot of driving; won’t that be hard on you?”

He shook his head. “If something is worth it, I’ll make sure I do it right. I can power through this. It needs to be done. My momentary discomfort can be overlooked.”

Somehow, my eye surgery was affecting my lungs. I couldn’t seem to get enough air in them. And my heartbeat, which was racing wildly. If I convinced myself it was the eye surgery, then I wouldn’t reach out and run my hand up his arm to his shoulder to feel the swell and tension of his muscles. Instead, I nodded and tucked my knees into the car as he closed the door for me.

I was very careful not to move in my seat as Jack got in the drivers side and drove us to my apartment to pick up the woman we were taking to safety. He cursed and muttered at the ugly, efficient car the whole way.

 

 

Chapter Four: Jack

 

 

We made it all the way up to the Adirondacks to the Sky-Jones’ weird little house in the mountains, all handmade with raw wood, a geodesic dome, greenhouses, and solar panels. The most surprising thing was that we made it without a hitch. The woman’s husband never found us and engaged us in a high-speed chase, which wouldn’t have happened because that stupid car struggled to get above 75 mph. No one had an emotional breakdown in the back seat—in fact, the woman, Maria, slept most of the way, and the baby, after waking up to be nursed at a rest stop a couple of times, did too. We narrowly avoided one disaster after my brief conversation with her while I was holding the baby for five seconds, when I had the ridiculous urge to adopt them both and buy them an apartment to make sure no one ever hurt them again. But that nonsense settled down once they went back to sleep, and I could focus all my attention on the passenger sitting next to me for the long drive.

Hot Books
» House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)
» A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire
» From Blood and Ash (Blood And Ash #1)
» A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime
» Deviant King (Royal Elite #1)
» Den of Vipers
» House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2)
» The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air #
» Sweet Temptation
» The Sweetest Oblivion (Made #1)
» Chasing Cassandra (The Ravenels #6)
» Wreck & Ruin
» Steel Princess (Royal Elite #2)
» Twisted Hate (Twisted #3)
» The Play (Briar U Book 3)