Page 50 of Seduced By the Billionaire
Ronan was pacing in front of the bedroom window, already dressed—jeans and a blue button-down that probably brought out his eyes. He wasn’t looking at her now, though, and the tension in his shoulders, the hard line of his jaw, made her hackles rise.
“No, I can’t ask them. They fucking fired me!”
This she understood, and her chest clenched. He’d… lost his job? Because of her?
Juliette swung her legs to the floor, the silky top sheet brushing over her shins as it slipped off the bed. He glanced back over his shoulder when she bent to retrieve it.
“I’ll call you back.”
“Who was that?” she asked, wrapping the sheet around her naked shoulders.
“Charles. My brother.”
She hadn’t even known he had a brother until now.
That’s because you don’t really know him, Juliette. Your first conversation ever was three days ago. Three.
“Who’s too smart?” she asked, but even as she said it, she knew. The killer.
They might not know who he was, but the sentiment was always the same—he was always too smart. Or too brutal. Too sneaky. And it all added up to the same thing: Daniel won. Every single time.
Ronan paused, and something in his eyes made her legs go weak—for once, not in a good way. He closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her back, pulling her against his chest.
Shit. Definitely bad news. But at least her mother was okay… right? Mom’s okay, she’s okay, she’s okay. It was a thin comfort, but over the last six years, it had often been the only comfort she had. And she’d have to cling to it extra hard today. Soon, she’d have to say goodbye to New York, to Jennifer Crandall—to Ronan. For good.
“I’m making a donation to the Nebraska governor’s campaign and another to the Ravenbrook Sheriff’s Department,” he said into her hair. “They need new equipment, new cars. And I think they’ll do most anything to make that happen, especially once they find out that their sheriff is a murderous piece of shit.”
She felt the color drain from her face, heat vanishing into cold nothingness. Her chest was encased in ice. He knows. Oh, god, he knows everything.
Was he going to handcuff her, take her in? Even if he didn’t arrest her, he couldn’t exactly let a dead woman run off again, not when she had warrants out for her arrest.
Juliette backed away as if she might outrun him wearing only this sheet, him in jeans and sneakers. What was she going to do now? How was she going to protect her mother? She should have left already—she should have left last night. She should have left the day Jason died. Fuck.
But mingling with her panic was a white-hot fury deep in her belly. She’d warned him. Begged him not to look into her.
What other option did you give him, Juliette? Let the killer go? You didn’t actually think he’d frame Waylon for it, did you?
“Whatever you do with me… you have to help my mom. Just the fact that you put his name into the system?—”
He raised his hands in a calm down gesture that made her want to punch him in the dick. Why didn’t he understand how fucking serious this was? This was life or death for the only family she had.
“Your mother is fine—I sent private security. They’re discreet, ex-military, but Daniel’s here, anyway. He won’t know she’s being watched. Also… I didn’t put him into the system.”
He stepped closer, and when she backed away again, he paused beside the bed. “There’s no way he can get through the encryption on my laptop. Right now, my brother is working the angles in Ravenbrook, setting things in motion so I can have that bastard replaced—sheriffs are appointed there, not elected. No matter what happens here, he’s out of law enforcement. But no one there will know that until I have him in cuffs.”
“You can’t be sure of that. He has access to all of the?—”
“I’m Charles O’Connor’s son, part owner of O’Connor Media Enterprises. There’s no way he infiltrated them. It’s a multi-billion-dollar corporation, and they don’t take orders from any branch of government, let alone a sheriff from shit-nowhere Nebraska.” He caught her eye, then said, “Sorry. Maybe Nebraska is nice. But that fucker is going to get what’s coming to him.”
She blinked. Had he said… billions? “I… You’re a… But your last name is Duffy, right?”
“Bastard son. I told you, I have family money, and I also have more resources than he could ever dream of. He doesn’t know I’m looking at him—doesn’t know that any of us are looking at him. But I’m going to take him down with or without your help.”
She swallowed hard. “He’s killed men for less. He’s killed other cops.”
He closed the distance between them in one long stride and took her face in his hands. This time, she made no move to back away.
“I’m going to catch him,” he said.
