Free At His Side: The Billionaire's Beck and Call, Part 9 by Delilah Fawkes Page B

crawl.
    “I
was always attracted to you, but...” I looked guiltily at Mr. Drake. “I didn’t
want to ruin my chances with him while I had a good thing going. Please, Lex.
Take me with you. We can be together now. Now that I know who the real man is.”
    “What?!”
Veronica’s pink lips were pulled back in a snarl. “First you take my Chasey and
now you’re making a play for him?” She turned to Lex, her barrel drifting away
from my chest. “Tell her to go to hell, baby!”
    But
Lex had a twinkle in his black eyes like all of his Christmases were coming
early, and I knew I had him.
    “I
want you, Lex,” I said, my voice breathy and high. “Please. You know how much
fun we can have together. It’ll be so good...”
    I
stepped closer, and Veronica practically bristled as she looked back and forth
between me and the man she’d planned to run away with. She turned the barrel on
him, and his eyes widened.
    “Tell
her, Lexy! Tell her! ”
    He
reached toward her, his eyes pleading. “C’mon, baby. Lower the gun. Don’t be
hysterical.”
    “Hysterical?!”
Veronica’s face reddened and she ground her high heel into the dock. “You tell
me   I’m all you ever wanted, that you can
love me better than Chasey ever could, and now you’re seriously considering
letting this gutter-trash-slut come with us?”
    “Baby,
it’s not like that...”
    “THEN
WHAT’S IT LIKE?”
    Lex’s
gaze shifted, and I could tell he was trying to think of something, anything,
to get him out of hot water and onto his yacht before things could get any
worse. And that was why neither he nor Veronica saw Mr. Drake lunge for the
gun.
    It
all happened so fast, that if I had blinked, I would have missed it. Chase
Drake’s hand closed around the barrel, twisting it out of Veronica’s fingers.
She screamed bloody murder, and Lex tried to scrabble up the ladder of his boat
when Mr. Drake shouted.
    “Hold
it right there! Drop to the dock, Lex!”
    Veronica
raised her claws like she was planning to scratch Chase’s face off, and that’s
when I leapt into action, tackling her onto the dock. She thrashed in my grip,
and I crushed her into the planks.
    The
wood thudded beneath me, and suddenly I realized it was the impact of several
pairs of boots approaching at a run.
    “Police!
Smith, get down on the ground!”
    Officers
in blue surrounded us, guns drawn. I raised my head just in time to see Lex
Smith getting dragged off his ladder like a kitten out of a tree, and grinned.
    Veronica
had frozen beneath my body, and now a police officer held a hand out to me. I
gripped it and let her pull me to my feet, smiling all the while as she cuffed
Veronica and recited her Miranda rights.
    I
looked over at Mr. Drake and saw him looking back at me, his face glowing with
pride.
    We’d
really done it. The employee pensions were safe, and so were we.
    “You’ll
never be anything but trash, Isabeau,” Lex yelled as two police officers
gripped his arms. “You’re nothing! You hear me?”
    “Wait
a second,” I said to the officers, and they paused, holding Lex still.
    I
walked up to him and leaned in close to whisper in his ear. “It must be hard,
being such a small, small man, living in the shadow of a giant.”
    My
knee shot out before the police could stop me, nailing him right in the balls.
He wheezed, his eyes filling with tears.
    “Who
knows? Maybe you’ll be the number one scumbag on your cell block. There’s
always something to hope for, Lex. Keep your head up.”
    I
heard one of the officers snicker as I walked away, my eyes locked on Chase
Drake.
    It
was finally over.

 
    ***

 
    I
sat wrapped in a thick blanket on Mr. Drake’s leather sofa, snuggled up next to
a roaring fire. He poured me a cup of brandy and handed it to me, the firelight
playing over his strong jaw and wavy hair, making me want to reach up and trace
the lines of his face, to run my fingertips over his lips. Instead, I sipped
the golden liquid, sighing as its