The Billionaire’s Valentine Vixen by Wyatt, Dani (electric book reader .TXT) 📕

as she starts the car moving forward, but instead I do the exact opposite, running towards them. There’s a squeal of brakes and the car stops just in front of my legs, and I pound on the hood putting two distinct dents in the metal as pain bolts up my arms.

“Alice, talk to me!”

“Leave me alone!”

“No. Get out here. Right fucking now.”

I’m not fucking playing, and luckily for her she gets it. The back door of the car opens just as the bouncer is heading my way, but she waves him off. I flash him a deadly stare as she steps out, her face runny with tears and smeared make-up.

“Why did you lie?” I demand, not sure if I’m angrier about her lying to me or about her letting those assholes see her in that skimpy costume. “After everything we said about telling the truth. After you promised. What the fuck, Alice?”

“What the fuck? Really? What are you doing in a strip club? Business meeting my ass.”

“You could have told me.” I seethe ignoring her anger with me.

“You think I like working here? I don’t. But some people don’t have big houses with swimming pools and fancy cars and trust funds to buy the moon. Things are easy for you. You don’t have to wonder about how the next bill is going to get paid.”

“Neither do you!” I shout, my temples pounding. “I’ll give you whatever you need!”

A humorless chuckle chokes from her throat. “You have no idea what my world is like. I’ll be on my way, you can go back in and guy whatever you’d like. Or whoever you’d like .”

“Show me,” I tell her.

“Show you what?” Anger narrows her eyes.

“Show me what your world is like. Tell me what the problems are. We’ll solve them together because that’s who we are from now on. A team. A couple. You and me. I don’t care if we have to sleep on a twin bed in a cabin the size of a garden shed, so long as it’s you, me and Linnie together, that’s all I need. You want me to give all my money to charity? Just say the word. We’ll struggle, if that’s what you want, but I will always provide for you because that’s who I am.”

Silence.

Who knew that the parking lot to a private club could be this quiet? Just the hum of the Honda’s engine and the whistle of a breeze through a few trees swirls in the cold air. I stare at Alice as she starts to shiver, and I’m on her in a moment, wrapping my arms around her, pulling her into my warmth.

“I mean it, Alice. I’m here for you. Now. Forever. Tell me what you need and it’s yours.”

She looks up at me with tears in her eyes, and her voice is shaky when she says: “My sister—”

“Alice!” The voice comes from the idling car, but I throw the woman an admonishing glance and she falls silent.

“Finish what you were saying, your sister, what?”

“This is my sister, Lydia. That guy with the scar? That’s Popcorn. Lydia owes him and a few of his friends money. I’ve been working here to pay for my room at college, but I’ve also been helping Lydia to pay off her debts, otherwise I would have quit. I was supposed to meet someone here to sell something tonight my grandmother left to me, but he never showed. I was going to use the money to pay off the debts, then quit. You wouldn’t have known if you hadn’t come here. And, why are you here?” She frowns. “Did you follow me? Why are you grinning?”

“Sorry, it’s just…it’s me.”

“What’s you?”

“I’m the person that wants to buy the brooch. It’s a family heirloom. That’s the only reason I’m here.”

“Really?”

I don’t notice the bouncer until he clears his throat standing about ten feet away. “It’s true, Al, he’s the guy that asked for you.”

I nod. “Alice, how much money do you need?”

“A lot. The offer you made on the brooch was only just going to cover it.”

“Do you trust me?”

She nods.

“Then let’s go sort this mess out.”

11 – Alice

“How much?” Roan demands again, as Popcorn eyes him. He’s sporting a growing black eye around his blind white eye and there’s tissue paper stuffed in his nose so that when he speaks it sounds like he has a cold.

“Get the fuck out of my club, before my bouncers throw you out.”

“How much does Lydia owe you?”

“Unless you have seventy-two thousand on you right now, there’s nothing you can do for Lydia. Three options, either she pays up, Alice—”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” Roan says with a growl, leaning over the desk, right in Popcorn’s oily face, “because you only have one good eye, and I’d hate to have to give you a matching set.”

“Ropa, get this guy out of here.”

Ropa takes a step back, folding his arms over his chest. “Didn’t I tell you I quit? Sorry. I quit. He’s offered me more as Alice’s private bodyguard.”

Popcorn’s face screws up and he raises his voice. “Vi—”

His voice is cut off as Roan grabs him around the throat, lifting him clean out of his chair and thrusting him back into the wall behind his desk. Roan growls.

“Seventy-two thousand is more than you deserve, asshole. I’m guessing you’re going to offer me a discount for settling up right here and now and not killing you. Am I right?”

Popcorn nods, his good eye focused on Roan. When he speaks, his voice comes out as a squeak. “Seventy thousand.”

Roan laughs and I see Popcorn’s face go blue as he squeezes tighter. “Sorry, you’re stuttering. It sounded like you said seventy thousand, but I know that’s not what you meant.”

“Fift—twenty thousand,” Popcorn stutters, and Roan looks around at the three of us standing behind him. “That sound agreeable?”

Lydia clings onto my arm, whispering, “I can’t afford that.” But I slip my hand in hers and squeeze, nodding, finally knowing that