Free Complete We (A Her Billionaires Novella #4) by Julia Kent Page B

curvaceous rapture. If Frank weren’t here, he’d ogle and admire.
    Protect and defend was more his approach in this instance.
    “Because you ignored my emails,” Frank said in a fake hurt voice. Oh, please , Dylan wanted to hiss, trying to catch Laura’s eye. The guy was a walking phony.
    She was looking at Frank so solemnly, chin down and eyes upturned, that he caught a glimpse of what she must have looked like as a chastened child.
    Oh, hell no. No way she was falling for Frank’s crap.
    “You wrote her an email for the first time in years and waited two days before barging into her life!” Protectiveness rose up in him like the swell of a tsunami, taking over half a mile of inland beach as it destroyed everything in its path. Laura had done nothing wrong. Not one fucking thing. And yet this guy was dismantling her, emotional brick by emotional brick, right before Dylan’s eyes.
    “I should have replied,” Laura said in a shaky voice.
    Frank’s eyes gleamed with victory, his mouth stretching into a facsimile of gentle caring. “You’ve been busy. I understand.”
    Dylan’s head exploded. “Get out .”
    “These two really are a pair,” Frank mumbled. Dylan had no idea what the hell that meant until Mike walked in the room, wet hair matching Laura’s, angry face matching what Dylan imagined he himself looked like.
    “I said the same words to him a short time ago,” Mike said quietly. Too quietly. Dylan’s alert level rose to flashing red. Mike was trying to say something without words, but all Dylan could sense was danger.
    Laura’s eyes jumped from Frank to Dylan to Mike, her emotions changing as she looked at each man. Then she said:
    “Frank, you really need to see this from our perspective. You emailed me, waited less than two days, appeared at my place of business and questioned my work associate, then you went to Mike’s workplace. Now you appear here, out of the blue, and you act as if you’re the injured party.” Laura took a slow, deep breath, eyes unwavering, staying on her uncle. Her voice shook. Her hands shook.
    But damn if her essence wasn’t ramrod straight. She was feeling the fear of saying what she needed to say and doing it anyway. Attagirl .
    Dylan caught Mike stand a little taller, dip his chin a little lower, and fixate on Frank, as Laura finished her words. He wanted to cheer for her.
    Frank’s next words, though, made everyone shake.
    “I do not see anything from your perspective, my dear, because your perspective is untenable.” He took two steps closer toward the door, then paused to make eye contact with each of them. “I learned about your… arrangement from a business associate who remembered hearing about your dating company on talk radio. When I put two and two together and realized that the Laura Michaels they discussed on the radio was my little Laura, I was appalled.”
    So that’s where this was going. Dylan didn’t hold back rolling his eyes. Mike joined him. Frank had stainless-steel balls to come in here with a morality play. It wasn’t just about the money.
    It was all about shaming them.
    Not gonna work, bud , Dylan thought. Never in a million years .
    “You think I came here for money,” Frank said with a jerk of his head toward Mike. “And you think I came here to scare you or creep you out,” he said to Laura with such an even tone that Dylan felt like this was quickly turning into the monologue in a bad B-movie.
    “But I came here because I am deeply concerned about the welfare of a poor, innocent child—” His eyes cut over to Jillian. “Who is the victim in this mess of a relationship you claim to have.”
    Of all the statements Frank could have made, this was the most incendiary he could possibly have spat out. The words whipped through the room like a wildfire on a windy day, igniting Mike, Dylan, and Laura.
    She sprinted across the room and swooped down on Jillian, scooping the baby into her arms. “Leave now,” she ordered. The