Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 68743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Although there’d been a time Derek was more amenable to their mother’s needs and demands, after a broken engagement with a woman their mother had insisted was perfect for him, he’d taken a stand. Derek was his own man. Not that it stopped their mother from trying to manipulate him.
Nodding, Nikki followed him into the kitchen. In a daze, she made them coffee, finding the chore of doing something routine helpful in calming her nerves.
After she’d put milk and sugar on the table and joined him, they each doctored their morning brew.
Derek met her gaze. “The paparazzi are going to swarm outside the building soon, if they haven’t already. I’d like to get you out of here.”
Her stomach twisted at the thought. “And go where?”
Derek reached out and covered her hand with his. “I have an idea but you need to trust me. I’m going to talk to Asher,” he said of his close friend.
Asher Dare was a sexy, brooding man she barely knew, but she recalled making an awful impression on him when they’d met. She’d been seventeen, coming home from a rough photo shoot in Mexico, tired, miserable, and so ready to get home when a customs agent pulled her over thanks to a medication bottle found in her bag. Nobody believed she hadn’t bought the drugs herself, that she’d been set up. Flashes of being arrested had gone through her mind during the questioning, and panic had engulfed her.
By the time her father’s team had done their magic and gotten her out of there, she’d been sweaty, had had to pee for hours, and her mother’s yelling over the phone had upset her even more. Neither of her parents had picked her up after her ordeal. No doubt her mother had refused to come or let her father show his face – in case the media had caught on to the story. Her mother was the force behind the senator, and he caved to her demands.
Derek had picked her up and Asher had been with him. She admitted now that she’d been obnoxious and probably rude, but after what she’d been through, it was a miracle she hadn’t collapsed into a puddle on the floor. But Asher’s initial impression of her hadn’t been good a good one.
She sighed. “Why talk to Asher?” she asked her brother.
“He has an estate on Windermere Island. It’s off Eleuthera, near the Bahamas. You can lie low until something else takes over the news cycle. You’ll be safe and no one will think to look for you there.”
“Will you come with me?” she asked.
Derek squeezed her hand. “I wish I could, but I have a closing this week.”
“Oh, right.” Derek’s company, Blackout Media, was purchasing a start-up social media group he planned to incorporate into his conglomerate. She didn’t want to make him feel any worse, so she forced a small smile. “Okay. If you think that’s best.”
He nodded. “I do. If Asher agrees, I’ll be back to take you to his private jet. Can you pack while I’m gone?”
She hated the idea of going away alone right now. “Are you sure I need to leave?”
Derek rose and walked over, bracing an arm around her shoulder. “Would you rather stay in Manhattan until things die down and we figure out who did this?”
Her eyes filled again. The thought of staying in her home, where it had happened, was more terrifying. “No.”
He rose to his full height. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Meanwhile, you’re safe here. Not only did I put the fear of God into Preston at the desk downstairs, but I have a bodyguard hanging around incognito on the front sidewalk and another out back. Nobody’s getting into the building who doesn’t belong.”
They both knew her father ought to be the one to hire security for his daughter. He was the parent. It wasn’t Derek’s responsibility, but here he was, stepping up. As always. He’d been twelve when she was born and had been an amazing big brother. When her sleep issues kicked in, he’d been there, letting her use a sleeping bag in his room every time thunder and lightning struck or if she couldn’t get her brain to shut off. Even if she tossed and turned, Derek’s presence had always calmed her.
“Love you,” she said.
“Love you, too, peanut.”
He used the nickname he’d chosen as she was growing up and she groaned. “Don’t call me that.”
He reached out and tweaked her nose with his thumb and forefinger, another holdout from when she was a kid. “I’ll be back. Don’t let anyone in you don’t know.”
Nodding, she walked him to the door and locked up behind him.
* * *
After receiving a call from Derek Bettencourt, a business school buddy and good friend, Asher left a family barbecue early to meet him at Asher’s office. Derek’s younger sister, Nicolette, had gotten herself into another situation that required fixing. Compromising photos were splashed all over the internet, and Asher winced, knowing if it had been his sister, he’d want to kill someone. If Derek wanted to stash Nicolette at Asher’s island home until things blew over, that was fine with him.