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  I agree with a short chin lift, then tug at my tie, yank the offending thing off, and toss it at my suitcase.

  Royce pours me another drink, picks up the hotel phone, and orders from room service. “Yeah, we’d like a couple of steaks, medium, with a side of potatoes and greens sent up, along with another bottle of scotch. Put it on our room. Thirty minutes? Great.”

  I kick off my shoes, and after hanging up the phone, Royce follows. He undoes his tie and the first two buttons on his collar, then folds his tie nicely and sets it on the table. He removes his jacket, folds it in half, and places it over the back of a chair. Once he’s more comfortable, he sits down on the large sofa in the suite’s living room, grabs the remote, and finds the latest baseball game. I bring my drink over to where he’s sitting and stretch out, phone in one hand, drink in the other. Silently, but in absolute solidarity, we watch baseball and wait to hear something back from either Wendy or Skyler.

  Two hours fly by and no news. I’ve texted Skyler and called. She’s not answering, but I do get a text from Tracey stating she is with Skyler and has some ideas.

  I groan when the baseball game ends late. It’s ten in the evening here, with no word from either female. I sigh and move around the room, needing to release some of this pent-up energy. A distraction right now would be nice—then I remember what happened earlier in the day. Since Royce is here keeping me company, there’s no reason not to dig into what went down at Renner Financial Services.

  “You gonna talk to me about what happened with Rochelle?” I lift a leg up on the couch and turn toward the big man.

  Royce shakes his head resolutely. “Nope.”

  I grind my teeth, trying to figure out a way to get him to open up. I know he’s miffed about her blowing him off. Any man would be. Then again, maybe he doesn’t want to talk about it because it proves I was right about her all along. He needs to get this out, for the sole reason of moving on.

  “Brother . . . you banged her, were about to do it again until I walked in, and then she dismissed your time together as a fling. Knowing you’re not a ‘hit it and quit it’ man, that had to burn you up inside. At least a little.”

  “Not really.” He attempts to lie, but I can hear the scratch of disappointment in his tone. “Who’s to say there still won’t be anything between us? We had something last night. It was intense, filled with passion, and felt as if it could last awhile if given half the chance.”

  He’s insane! The man still thinks he has a chance. “Roy, she’s not available to you. Not to mention she spent hours with me looking at suitable future husbands. She’s also eagerly anticipating the party we’re throwing at the end of the week where she can meet the top candidates. She’s probably going through their profiles now.”

  He shrugs and leans his bulk back against the couch, putting his feet up on the coffee table. “Don’t care. There was something there . . .”

  “Yeah! A whole lot of lust. Believe me when I say I know exactly what that looks like. I had it with Sophie. Now she’s one of my closest friends. But it’s nothing compared to what I feel for Skyler. She turns my insides into molten lava when I see her. The shit about butterflies in your stomach and stars in your eyes . . . yeah, that sums it up. I’m batshit crazy over the woman.”

  “You’re in love with her, man,” Royce says resolutely.

  “Yes!” I admit out loud for the first time since Kayla. I’m in love. Holy shit. “Fuck!” I brace my weight against the back of the couch and take several deep breaths.

  I’m in love with Skyler.

  Skyler freakin’ Paige.

  My dream girl.

  Mine. All mine.

  And she’s hurting. Dealing with this shit storm without me by her side. We can’t go on being this far apart from one another all the time. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but right now, I want to throat punch the guy who came up with that shit. I need her. I need to be there for her when life throws her a curveball and vice versa.

  “We need to get through this case, but in the meantime, you can’t be fucking around with the client. No more. I mean it.” The words leave my mouth, and I hardly recognize them. It’s the first time I’ve ever made a demand of one of my business partners. Suggestions, yes. Idea sharing? Absolutely.

  Demands? Never.

  “Say what? I think you better get off your high love horse and think about what you just said to me . . . part-ner.” He emphasizes the single word that means the world to all three of us. “I’m your partner, not your employee. And I am your brother . . . by choice. Don’t you dare try and tell me how I’m going to act with a woman I’m interested in. I would never intervene if a woman meant something to you.”

  “Roy . . . I’m sorry. I . . . She’s not for you.” It’s a lame statement if I ever heard one, but I’m at a loss to figure out how to get through to him.

  “What? Now that you’re in love with your woman, have found your one in seven billion, you think you’re the expert on love? The love guru or some shit? Let’s not forget the last woman you loved jacked you over with your best friend. I’d never jack you over like they did. I’m not him. I’m also intelligent enough and capable enough to make my own fuckin’ decision about who I choose to be with and who I don’t. You hear me . . . brother?”

  “Roy, she may have taken you for a ride, but the woman is in love with someone else . . .”

  His head jerks back. “Now you’re making shit up.”

  I shake my head furiously and stand up. “No, I’m not.”

  “Who?”

  “Keehan.”

  “The black Clark Kent?”

  I roll my eyes, because even though we’re having a heated conversation, I made the same comparison he did. “Yeah.”

  “Shee-it. She doesn’t have eyes for him. He may have them for her, but she didn’t so much as blink when he put his hands on her the other day in support. She patted his hand like he was a good friend and nothing more.”

  I disagree and make it known. “She didn’t act that way when I showed her pictures of other guys. One in particular looked like him, and she was all over it like white on rice. She’s pushed the idea of them so far out in left field, it’s never surfaced as an option, but if it’s thrown in front of her face, I believe she’ll bite.”

  Royce gets up off the couch, walks over to his shoes, and sits on the chair to put them on. “I don’t see it. Rochelle is a strong woman. She needs a strong man by her side. Someone who can bear some of the burdens for her.”

  I shake my head. “No. She needs a man who can stand by her side and be there to lean on when things get tough, someone who will help lift her up, not take the spotlight from her. Mark my words, Royce, she wants a submissive male. Someone who lives to be with her, whose every decision is based on how to make her happiest. Keehan is that man. He has already devoted his entire life to her. She needs to open her eyes and see what’s in front of her face. It’s time for Rochelle to want what she already has.”

  “This is ridiculous. You’re shooting out in left field, and I’m warning you . . . there’s something between Chellie and me, and I’m going to find out what it is.”

  I sigh and place my hands on my hips. “I’m afraid you’re sorely mistaken, and the last thing I want is to see you get hurt.”

  Royce’s eyes are sparkling with white-hot fire, and he raises a finger to me. “You need to trust that I know what’s right for me.”

  “I can’t do that when I know she’s all kinds of wrong for you. I’m going to continue with the contract and find her the right man for her. Mark my words, Roy . . . it’s not you.”

  “Well, I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree now, won’t we. And may the best man win.” He positively sneers his venom.

  I raise my hands and let them fall to my sides in defeat. “It’s not a game!” I holler, and race for the door in time to see his long strides eating up the hallway alongside his ire.

  “No, it’s not.” This time he points at h
is chest, puffed up with pride. “It’s my fuckin’ life. Stay out of it!” he roars, then shoves his key card into the door of the suite at the end of the hall and disappears inside.

  “Fuck!” I grumble as my phone buzzes on the coffee table.

  I stalk over to it and see “Peaches” on the screen.

  “Sky?”

  “No, it’s Tracey.” Her best friend’s voice comes through the connection.

  “Where’s Sky?” My heart is pounding a million beats a minute. Between my fight with Royce and the anxiety over what’s happening with my woman, I’m a goddamned mess.

  “Sleeping. My phone died from all the calls I made while she watched her movie and drank a few glasses of beer.”

  “Is she okay?” I rub at my temples and close my eyes tightly, rivers of anger washing over my skin. I wish I were in her bed, holding her protectively in my arms where nothing could harm her.

  “No. Johan means business. His lawyer already called me with an offer.”

  Knife straight to the gut. “An offer? Like he’s selling something to the highest bidder?” I scowl. “What’s his offer?”

  “Fifty million and the problem goes away,” she states flatly with zero emotion.

  He wants $50 million.

  “Jesus Christ! She’s not going to pay that, is she? Does she even have that much money?” I muse absentmindedly, not realizing I’ve said it out loud.

  “Parker, she’s the highest-paid actress in Hollywood and has been for the last few years. Of course she has the money. Her last film alone netted her that much.”

  My entire body feels heavy, and I sink down into the nearest armchair and rub furious circles over my temples to ease the pounding in my head. “Oh,” I say lamely. I guess it never dawned on me how loaded my girlfriend is. Not that I care. I love her, not her millions.

  “The lawyer is pulling together the agreement. We’re going to see about meeting up with them next week.”

  “She’s going to meet with the bastard?”

  “It was part of the agreement. Sky’s choice. She wants to look him in the eyes.”

  I run my hand through my hair and clench my teeth, practically spitting through them when I respond. “This is fucked up, Tracey. Can’t you or one of her lawyers get her out of it?”

  She sighs deeply. “I don’t think so. The pictures are real. Sky confirms it. They are in his possession to do with what he wants.”

  “But she says she didn’t agree to them.” I slam my closed fist on the tabletop nearest me. The light flickers at the onslaught, and Roy’s empty whiskey glass rattles, almost falling over.

  “She agreed to be gagged. She agreed to be blindfolded and tied up. Now that the pictures could hurt her, she’s saying she didn’t agree to those. It’s hearsay. We don’t want this taken to a judge and have a media storm of the century on our hands. If she pays the money, we get the pictures back.”

  “And the book?”

  “I don’t know. At this time, they’re negotiating for use of the pictures. He doesn’t want to agree to a full NDA. We may have to offer more to secure his silence.”

  I close my eyes and let the powerful punch of this information hit me fully. Pain oozes from my heart through my veins and out every pore. Disgust coats my nerve endings as I tighten my hands and try my damnedest to control the urge to go ballistic and destroy this hotel room in a blind rage.

  I want to hurt him.

  I want to smash his face in so many times he’ll never model again.

  I want him dead.

  I’ve never wanted a person dead before. Never had enough hate in my heart to wish death upon someone. Even Kayla. Sure, I might wish her an STD, or a punishment equally fair to how she broke my heart, but never death.

  I wish Johan Karr would fall off the face of the earth and never be heard from again. Disappear so he will never be able to hurt the woman I love, or anyone else for that matter, again.

  Those tears she shed over him on our call tonight were torturous enough. Now to find out she’s going to pay this pig $50 million for pictures he wasn’t supposed to have taken and another whatever amount to keep him from lying through his teeth in a tell-all book? It’s not right. The world cannot possibly be this lopsided in doling out justice.

  “Parker . . . Parker, are you there? Did you hear me?”

  I shake off the image of Johan, handcuffed behind his back, being led into a jail cell wearing an orange jumpsuit. If only . . .

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m here.” I clear my throat and take a deep breath.

  “I said, I’m going to have her call you tomorrow, but I’ll be here with her. I won’t leave her side.”

  “Thank you, Tracey. You’re a good friend.”

  “After all that’s happened . . . I’m trying to be. Sky deserves to be happy, and she’s changed since she met you. She’s different. There’s a lightness in her steps, an excitement in her eyes all the time. Especially when she’s talking to you or about you. I haven’t seen her this happy since before her parents died. You’ve done that for her.”

  “Yeah, well, she’s opened my eyes to a lot of new things too.” One being falling in love. Not something I ever had a hope of finding again, but I wouldn’t admit that to Sky’s friend. No, those truths are all for my girl. “Take care of her.”

  “I will. When are you planning to come home? I know she mentioned something about a baseball game. Was all giddy about going to one with you. Would likely take her mind off this garbage, if only for a few hours.”

  I smile at the idea of enjoying a baseball game with my woman. Eating hot dogs, yelling at umpires, kissing for the kiss cam, sharing something I love with someone I love. Nothing sounds better.

  “Not sure when I’ll be home. Hopefully in a few more days. However, if Sky needs me, I’ll head out and leave Roy to handle the rest of the job.” Usually what I said would be accurate, but this time, I don’t mean it. I’ll have to call in Bo. Royce is 100 percent off his rocker on this one and can’t see the forest through the trees. Maybe I should call Bo, get his opinion on what to do in the meantime.

  “All right, well, it’s close to two in the morning here. I need to get some shut-eye if I’m going to be any use to Sky in the morning.”

  “Thanks again, Tracey. For being there when I can’t.”

  “Parker, I don’t want to be rude when I say this, but she was mine first. She’ll always be mine in some way.” Her voice takes on a twinge of humor, but I can’t help reading through it to the fact that she considers Sky more important than just a friend.

  “I know you’re her family, Tracey. And I know you feel responsible for not doing more when she lost her will to act and you thought you pushed her to her breaking point. I think you learned a little more of what was most important during the experience. Now you’re stronger for it. And besides, if it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have met the love of my life.”

  Tracey gasps. “I knew it. You’re in love with my best friend.”

  “Not going to answer one way or another, because the first time I tell my woman I love her will not be through her best friend. Got it?”

  “Loud and clear. Lips sealed. But, Parker?”

  I sigh. “Yes, Tracey.”

  “You hurt her, and I’ll kill you. She’s been hurt enough by people claiming to love her, and she’s about to undergo a new battle with another one. She wouldn’t survive being hurt by you. Especially now.”

  I close my eyes and let the statement seep deep into my bones. “I know, and I don’t intend on hurting her. Have her call me in the morning, okay?”

  “Sure will. Good night.”

  “Good night, Tracey.”

  With the end of this shit day, I pull off my clothes and fall into bed. Hopefully Wendy will provide more information about what this Johan character is up to. There has to be a reason he’s going after his ex for such a large sum of money. None of it makes sense. He leaves her alone for two years and then—whammo—decides to threaten her reputat
ion and livelihood? Why did he wait a couple of years? It would have made more sense to go after her when they were still linked. Now, it seems desperate.

  A man doesn’t go after a woman from his past unless he’s being backed into a corner.

  It makes me wonder, Who’s doing the pushing, and what do they have on him?

  6

  To: Peaches

  From: Parker Ellis

  You okay? Call me when you’re free.

  I pinch my lips and read the text again. I’ve already tried to call once with no answer. She probably woke up and jetted to the set. I know they’re close to wrapping this film, and the director was going to do as many reshoots as possible with the little time they had allotted. Still, it doesn’t calm the worry swirling around my mind like a vortex, sucking up all the energy in its wake.

  A twisting sensation fills my gut as I make my way into Renner Financial Services. As much as I want to be on the next plane to New York, there’s still a job to be done. Before I left the hotel, I checked Royce’s room. He didn’t answer, leading me to believe he’d already left for RFS.

  As I make my way to Rochelle’s office, my phone buzzes.

  I stop in my tracks and grin at the display. I have no idea how she did it, but at some point, Wendy accessed my phone and changed her name in my directory from her given name to the title of her choosing. The smile on my face also digs into my heart, making me feel a moment’s reprieve from the heaviness of the past twenty-four hours.

  From: World’s Greatest Assistant

  To: Parker Ellis

  Compiling information. Was at it all night. Will have more tonight. Lots more. Someone has been a very bad boy . . .

  I read and reread the text. A bad boy. That could mean anything, but knowing Wendy, she means Johan Karr has some skeletons in his closet, and she’s unearthing them. I smile, knowing whatever she’s found could very well help my woman not have to pay a red cent. God willing.

  Pushing through the door to Rochelle’s office, I spy her sitting at her desk, head back, laughing openly at something Royce must have said. A smug grin sits on his face as I enter the fray.