Taking on the Billionaire Read online

  He was a challenge and Tess thrived on a challenge. She knew how to use her looks, her body and sexuality to get what she wanted. But she’d not pursued him, not taken that tack in her plan to get closer to him. He wanted her; she knew it. She wanted him; they both knew it. But she liked him and that feeling would not help her do what she needed to do. Those feelings would only lead to complications that she didn’t want or need.

  So, the fantasy of Adam taking her, rough and tumble on his immaculate desk, had never become a reality.

  A regret that had kept her up more than one night.

  Adam continued his pitch, oblivious to where her mind had wandered. “You can find people. You blew apart the maze of bureaucratic bullshit and found my sister and brother so I think you can find out who is trying to ruin this company.”

  Tess nodded toward the long leather sofa in his office. “This feels like a long story. Mind if I sit?”

  “Of course.”

  Tess took a seat, watching Adam prowl the perimeter of his office, pacing back and forth in front of the window as if he was imprisoned here in his high-end Silicon Valley prison. Maybe he was. Adam Redhawk had grown up with high expectations imposed on him and now he’d shouldered ones of his own making. When he spoke, it was controlled and even but she could hear the undercurrent of fury.

  “In eight weeks we are launching an app that will revolutionize the world.” Adam glanced at her, his eyebrows raised in question. “All of this is confidential in accordance with your previously signed agreement. You understand?”

  “Of course. You can count on my discretion,” she answered, not taking any offense at his question. Redhawk/Ling was a company that made dreams an actual reality and it was only natural that they would protect them like children.

  “This app will make it possible for any device to communicate and work together with any other device. You can interchange apps, programs, music, documents...the operating system will no longer matter.”

  Tess sat up a little straighter, her brain trying to wrap around this information. “This is going to make you rich.” She shook her head, laughing at the stupidity of her statement. “It is going to make you richer. Ridiculously rich.”

  “Justin says that that there is ‘fuck you money’ and that this will be ‘I can pay someone to fuck you money.’”

  “Justin would say that.” Tess chuckled, her mind turning the situation over in her mind. “So, someone is trying to steal information about the app?”

  Adam nodded, coming over to sit next to her on the couch. He had his sleeves rolled up and when he leaned on his knees, his forearms flexed in that sexy way that got her attention every time. He was in great shape. His muscles shifting underneath his impeccably tailored suits made her mind wander to speculation about what he looked like under all that fabric.

  Not that she had to leave it all up to her imagination. He’d been photographed when he’d raced in a triathlon last year. Miles and miles of taut, bronzed skin over muscles formed through years of running and hiking and competition. Her heart rate sped up and her palms itched to reach out and touch him again like she had just a few moments ago. That had been unexpected since she made it a point to avoid physical contact with Adam. But he’d looked so vulnerable, so lost that all the rules flew out the big floor-to-ceiling windows.

  Adam answered her question. “Someone is trying to ruin the launch. Not sure if they want to try and reverse engineer it or just steal our thunder. Either way, we cannot afford for that to happen. Justin and I have reinvested a significant portion of the company’s money into this app, so it has to work.”

  “Or you lose everything?”

  “Everything that counts. Besides our investment, we’d have to lay off people. These folks stood by us when we were just two crazy college dropouts working out of the back of a warehouse. I don’t want to let people down.” Adam shifted next to her, their knees brushing as he faced her head-on. His eyes were dark with the intensity of his emotions and he leaned in close enough for her to smell the exotic woodsy scent of his aftershave. “I need someone on this that I can trust, Tess. You’re smart and I know you can do this.”

  Tess tried not to cringe every time he mentioned the word trust. He really shouldn’t. He had no idea how much he shouldn’t. “I’m just a P.I. I’m a great P.I. but I don’t know anything about corporate espionage.”

  “I’m not worried about it. You’re a quick study and I don’t need you to know my business. You know people and what would make someone steal from me. That’s what I need.” Adam paused, before adding with a wink, “Besides, I know you, which means I don’t have to get to know anyone else.”

  “I forgot—you don’t like people.”

  “Not as a rule, no.” Adam shrugged, pulled a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket and held it out to her. “Justin and I wrote down a list of people who we think are worth looking into. It should get you started.”

  Tess ignored the way he assumed she would be taking the case and took the paper, opening it to read the names written down. Her heart kicked up a beat when she read the first one, convinced that the universe was sending her a signal.

  “Franklin Thornton? He’s at the top of your list?”

  Adam nodded, his eyes narrowed in suspicion and anger. It was no secret that there was no love lost between Adam and his adoptive father.

  “Franklin would love to see Redhawk/Ling crash like the Hindenburg. He also has the juice to make it worth someone’s time to sell our asses out.” Adam reached out and grabbed a cup of coffee, took a sip and grimaced before putting down the mug. “Franklin is always at the top of the list. That’s not paranoia. It’s just business to him and it is what he does. Putting me in my place is the cherry on top of the goddamn sundae.”

  Tess was very much aware of how Franklin Thornton ate people up and spit them out. She knew the way that he trashed people’s dreams, destroyed their hope and betrayed their trust. She knew what happened to people who ended up on the shit end of Franklin Thornton; they ended up broken, insane with grief and oblivious to the two daughters that needed them to be their dad.

  Franklin Thornton ruined people but he also created enemies.

  He’d created Tess Lynch and she’d spent the last ten years looking for the perfect chance to get close to him and bring him down. And it didn’t matter if she had to go through the man sitting next to her to get to him; she was going to get him.

  There was only one answer to Adam’s question.

  “I’ll need an office here, access to security files and IT support.”

  Three

  The files were everywhere.

  Adam tried not to twitch at the absolute shitshow his office had become. Stacks of folders were scattered across the table, three laptops were open with spreadsheets covering all of the screens. And coffee cups and empty food containers littered the coffee table and piled up in the trashcan.

  Adam didn’t want to be the guy who was bothered by the disorder and chaos but he was one hundred percent that guy.

  Justin was not.

  “How did we end up with so many weirdos working here?” Justin asked, lounging back with his size twelve Converse Chucks kicked up on the coffee table. He held a folder in his hands, reading over the reports Tess had compiled on the most likely employees of Redhawk/Ling. “What the hell is LARP-ing? Is that the costume thing? The Comic-Con stuff?”

  “It’s live-action-role-playing.” Tess strolled by him and nudged his feet to the floor, shooting Adam a secret smile. “It’s what you would have been doing if you’d actually had the guts to get out from behind the computer screen in your parents’ basement and go out and meet real girls.”

  Justin sat up straight and looked absolutely offended. “I was not in my parents’ basement. I had a computer in my room.” He motioned to Adam. “Do I have to put up with this?”

  Tess sc
offed. “If you yuck on somebody else’s yum, you get what you get.”

  Adam snorted and grabbed the file from Justin. “Yeah, Justin, stop yucking on—” he read the name off the folder “—Bryan Lane’s yum.”

  “He’s not our guy anyway,” Tess interjected, plucking the file from Adam’s hand.

  Their fingers brushed; their eyes locked on each other and everything else in the room disappeared. He stared at her, zeroing in on the way her body swayed into his. He knew how it was; gravity had nothing on the pull of Tess Lynch.

  “How do you know?” Justin inquired, sifting through the stack of files and trying to pretend like he wasn’t staring at the two of them. “What are you looking for? What does a traitor look like?”

  Tess’s gaze lingered on his for a moment longer and then she transferred all her attention to Justin. Adam felt the loss as a physical pang, deep in his gut. And if he zoomed in closely on his emotions, he’d acknowledge that jealousy was in the mix too. But he wasn’t zooming in on anything except the task at hand, right now.

  “They look like you and me and Estelle,” she said, mentioning Adam’s long-time and highly beloved personal assistant. “Or that beautiful boy at the corner coffee shop with all of the tattoos.”

  “Felix. His name is Felix.” Adam spoke without thinking, waving off the extended, curious looks from Tess and Justin. “He takes the time to remember my name and my order. I remember his.”

  “Okay, yes, Felix,” Tess agreed. “It would be great if they walked around with a big T on their chest or a mustache to twirl like a villain. But, they don’t. So, you have to look for an area of exploitation, usually debt, sex or family. It will be a miracle if the IT guys found evidence on the company computers. I’d be shocked if someone was so dumb or brazen. So, I need to look deeper.”

  “File by file,” Adam observed.

  “Person by person,” Tess answered, pointing to the stacks on the table. “But I’ll find them, whoever they are.”

  Estelle Conway appeared in the doorway, her expression wary. She glanced back over her shoulder, angling her wheelchair across the opening and effectively blocking whoever was behind her. “Mr. Thornton is here to see you, Mr. Redhawk.”

  Adam went rigid while Justin shot into movement. There was a flurry of arms and legs and thunderous muttering as he rose from the couch in a cascade of paper and folders and advanced toward Estelle.

  “What the fuck does he want?” Justin asked, his typically smooth voice ragged with anger.

  “I want to fucking talk to Adam.” Franklin Thornton answered as he pushed past Estelle and barreled through the door, jamming Estelle’s chair into the door frame with a metallic thud and bang. His voice was calm and even, in contrast to his physical aggression and demanding movements.

  He was a handsome man, his tall frame still broad in the shoulders with a power that hinted at his college football player past. But one look in his eyes told you the truth behind his money and power. It wasn’t that he was fouled by hatred or rage. Franklin Thornton was dead inside. He didn’t care enough about the people around him to worry about hurting them; you couldn’t harm a thing, an object. Adam had learned early that his adoption had had its reasons and none of them involved him or his welfare. He was around because he was useful to Franklin and nothing more. Everything was that complicated and that simple with his adoptive father.

  “Mr. Redhawk, I’m sorry,” Estelle began to apologize for what she clearly thought was her failure for this man barging his way into the office.

  Adam wasn’t having it.

  He stepped forward and stood in front of Franklin, using his own bulk to block any further progress into the office, any progress toward the work they were doing in here. Adam didn’t raise his voice; he’d learned early and often to keep complete control of his reactions, to deny his opponent the opposing show of force they tried to incite.

  “Franklin, you need to apologize to Estelle.”

  He was ignored as he expected, the other man’s lips curling into a grin. “Hello, Adam. You’ve been ignoring my calls.”

  “If I’d known that answering would have prevented you from showing up here today, I would have...” He considered his options. “I still wouldn’t have answered.” Adam crossed his arms over his chest and dug in. “Apologize to Estelle. Now. I’m not asking.”

  Franklin considered him, his gaze never leaving Adam’s face. “I apologize.”

  It was as good as he was going to get. Adam nodded at Estelle, his smile communicating his own apology. He waited until she’d left before he turned back towards Franklin, dropping the smile entirely.

  “Whatever you’re here for, the answer is ‘no,’ ‘none of your business,’ and ‘get out.’”

  “All of the above,” Justin added.

  “That too,” Adam agreed.

  “Cute.” Franklin sneered. “I’m here to find out why you have a redhead with big tits asking questions about me.”

  Franklin’s tone was ambivalent but the words hit Adam like a sledgehammer and it took most of his will to not react physically to his words. However, the spark of interest in his adoptive father’s eyes told him that he wasn’t holding his poker face as well as he usually did. A guttural sound of outrage behind him communicated that Tess wasn’t maintaining her cool either. Franklin’s eyes slid from Adam’s face to look beyond him, to where Tess was standing.

  His eyes raked over her before he spoke. “Well, they weren’t wrong about the tits.”

  “Shut your mouth,” Adam warned, facing off with Franklin with a shove to his chest before Adam turned and walked toward the fuming Tess.

  Now he knew what she looked like when she was pissed and it was so not the right time for him to linger on the fact that she was gorgeous. Anger raised the pink in her cheeks and made her eyes flash a poisonous green.

  He never wanted to kiss her more than he did right this instant.

  He never wanted to keep Franklin away from someone more than he did in this instant.

  “Tess,” he murmured as he reached out and grabbed her hand. She tensed, attempting to get him to let her go as she peered over his shoulder, the venom shooting out of her glare like a laser. If it had been leveled at anyone other than Franklin Thornton her opponent would be cowering in a corner, but Adam guessed that Franklin was giving as good as he got. Letting these two at each other would be a very bad idea. He tugged her in closer and leaned down to murmur, his voice pitched low and edged with a warning that he wasn’t going to argue about this. “Don’t.”

  At his demand, she stopped resisting him, her eyes snapping to meet his with the sizzling impact of a lightning bolt hitting too close to the mark. Tess wanted to fight. Her reaction was visceral, a tremble of tension that ran up and down her body and hitched her breath with every inhale. Adam slid his hand around her wrist, letting his fingers soothe her with the gentlest touch against her rapidly fluttering pulse point. Franklin got him riled too, pushed buttons he didn’t even know he had, but her reaction was strange, more than just anger over his words, and prompted a million questions in his mind. Questions that would wait until later. Right now, he wanted to put as much distance between Franklin and Tess as he could manage.

  “Tess, go make sure that Estelle is okay,” he asked. She hesitated, her refusal poised on the edge of the tensed hard line of her lips. “Please, baby, just do this.”

  The unexpected endearment shocked him as it slid past his lips and she was now utterly focused on him. He would have bet money that the world had ground to a damn halt except for the electric current running between the two of them. Tess didn’t look angry, didn’t look like she objected, her expression was more shocked pleasure and sharp interest than anything else and he wondered what her reaction would be if he tugged her even closer and tasted her mouth. Only the knowledge that Franklin was watching, a viper in his house, kept him from acting
on the impulse.

  “Please.”

  His one-word plea broke the spell and spurred her into action. He took in the stiffening of her muscles and the quizzical, lingering glance aimed at him. Then she was gone with a nod and a determined stride past Franklin and out the door. She didn’t even spare his adoptive father a glance, but she didn’t shrink away, either. Proud and defiant. The Tess he knew and wanted way too much.

  “So, who is she, Adam? You’re not screwing your help now these days, are you?” Franklin tsked and shook his head. “That doesn’t seem like you at all.”

  Adam took two long strides and then he was toe-to-toe with the man who’d given him a roof and an education but never any affection or acceptance. “Don’t ever talk about her like that again.”

  “So, who is she? What is she doing for you? Why is she asking questions about me?”

  “Are you worried about what she’ll find out?” Adam replied.

  “That’s not an answer to my question,” Franklin insisted.

  “That’s all you’re going to get so you can leave. I’ll have a member of my security staff walk you out,” Adam said, nodding toward the burly man in a dark suit now standing in his office doorway.

  Franklin followed the path of his attention and glanced over his shoulder, the smirk on his mouth more amused than angry when he turned back.

  “No need. I got the answers I wanted anyway.” Franklin swept his eyes over the rest of the office, his gaze taking in all of the papers and files. “This office is a mess. No wonder your company is in trouble.”

  Adam didn’t flinch at the icy coldness in Franklin’s tone. He was used to him bashing his business, his skill, his ambition, and he was well versed in not giving him the satisfaction of knowing that it pissed him off.

  And it infuriated him that the rejection by this man still hurt a little.

  Not enough to get him to become the man Franklin wanted him to be but enough to keep him from giving up from his dreams. From giving up and letting down the people who believed in him. He had a lot of people depending on him and he wasn’t going to let them down.