The Undercover Billionaire Page 13
His icy blue eyes flicked over her again. “There was no ransom demand. No nothing. And you said he didn’t touch you, so what the hell could he possibly want from you?”
There was something in the words that Olivia didn’t like, though she wasn’t sure what it was. Smoothing her hands over her skirt, she shook her head. “I don’t know. I really don’t. But I’m okay, I wasn’t hurt, and isn’t that the main thing?”
The cold, hard expression on his face didn’t change. “Someone took you from my house. My house, Olivia. I have the best security detail in Manhattan and yet whoever it was, was able to snatch you away without anyone seeing. I’m struggling to understand how that was possible without whoever it was having some kind of inside knowledge.”
Okay, so maybe her not being hurt wasn’t the main thing after all.
A familiar anger twisted inside her, but she made sure it didn’t show. “Maybe it was an ex-security staff member?” She tried to sound concerned. “I don’t know. I was drugged at the time so I’m afraid I can’t help.”
“You’re taking this extraordinarily well, I have to say.”
She clasped her hands together, her palms inexplicably damp. “I was terrified if you must know. But I’m safe now, so there’s no point getting all worked up.”
Her father’s eyes narrowed a moment, as if trying to work out whether she was telling the truth or not. Then he gave a grunt and glanced down at the floor. “I’m not taking this to the police. I’m going to investigate this myself, because no one kidnaps my daughter out of her goddamn bedroom. Anyway, security will be doubled and for the next couple of days, you’ll be staying here.”
Olivia squeezed her hands together. “Are you sure that’s necessary?” She normally had a security detail whenever she went out—her father made sure she was protected at all times—and she didn’t mind that. But not to go out at all? That seemed … excessive.
“Don’t question me,” Cesare snapped. “Your safety is of paramount importance and if I say you’re to remain here, then here you’ll remain, understand?”
Keeping her expression neutral, Olivia nodded, accepting his orders the way she normally did. There was no point arguing, not when he was in this kind of mood. He was rattled, that was obvious, and it was always best to tread carefully when he was rattled.
“Also,” Cesare went on, “I’m going to have a doctor check you out, to make sure you’re okay.”
Olivia frowned. “I don’t need a doctor, Dad. I told you, I’m fine. I wasn’t hurt.”
“Just say, yes, Olivia. I’m not the mood for an argument.”
“Yes, sure.” She tried to make her voice calm, because he liked it when she was calm. “No problem.”
The tension went out of his shoulders then and he looked at her, the cold expression fading from his eyes. “I was concerned for you.”
Her father wasn’t one for words of praise or encouragement, and he certainly never said “I love you.” But every so often, he’d let her know, in his own way, that he cared.
She smiled, warmth sitting in her chest, because she lapped up his praise whenever he chose to bestow it, like a hungry plant laps up sunlight. “I know you were.” She wanted to say more, but prolonging the moment tended to make her father irritated, so she left it at that.
He gave another grunt then looked at the floor again. “Yes, well, let’s leave this issue for the meantime. I need to talk to you about something else, Olivia.”
“Oh?”
“Daniel May called me a couple of days ago.”
The name sent a small electric shock down her back, Wolf’s voice suddenly in her head.
“He told me that he’d promised you to Daniel May.”
“I see.” She kept her tone measured. “What did he want?”
Her father lifted his head. “He wants to go on another date with you.”
Another electric shock, more intense this time.
Olivia fought to keep her expression neutral. “Really? I thought the last date I had with him was a complete failure.”
“Apparently not. He likes you. Very much. You remind him of his late wife.”
Cold nestled in her chest and she couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
“It’s more than that though,” her father went on, not waiting for her to speak anyway. “He’s an old-fashioned man and asked if I would give him leave to court you.”
This time she couldn’t stop the shock from leaking out. “Court me?” she repeated stupidly, staring at her father’s still-handsome face.
“Yes. Like I said, old-fashioned. But I like that he asked.” Cesare stared back at her. “What do you think?”
Olivia blinked, the shock reverberating through her, not processing what he was saying. “What do I think about what?”
“What do you think about him courting you? I know he’s older than you, but I have no objection. He’s a powerful man too. Rich. He’ll be able to look after you quite well.”
She blinked again, Wolf’s voice and what he’d told her echoing in her head. No, her father hadn’t promised her to Daniel. Daniel had asked for permission to court her and now her father was simply passing along some information. She didn’t have to see the man if she didn’t want to.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for that,” she said, pleased with how calm she sounded. “I’m quite happy being on my own at this stage.”
She thought he might shrug and that would be the end of it, but he didn’t. Instead he frowned, pinning her with that sharp, blue stare. “Yes, but you can’t be on your own all your life, Olivia. It’s lonely. Believe me, I know.”
Taken aback, because he didn’t normally share his feelings with her, Olivia could only blink yet again. “Dad, I know you—”
“I think you should say yes,” he interrupted. “You’ll need someone to protect you if anything happens to me, and May can do that quite well.”
She stared at him, bewildered. “But I don’t need protection.”
“Of course you do. You’re my daughter. You’ll always need protection.”
Olivia thought about pointing out that he hadn’t protected her very well the previous night when Wolf had stolen into her room and kidnapped her, but she decided that wouldn’t go down very well. “Then beef up my security. Or better yet, I’ll beef up my own security. Daniel doesn’t have anything to do with this.”
Her father’s frown only deepened. “It’s a good business move. You and Daniel, I mean.”
The cold thing in her chest got colder. Doubt. Because her father had never shown any interest in her love life or lack of it before. Oh, she knew what was expected of her in terms of being a de Santis daughter, and he’d told her once that he expected her to act with dignity when it came to members of the opposite sex, which was code for “you’re not allowed boyfriends unless I say.” Which had been fine since the only man she’d ever even conceivably wanted like that had been Wolf.
But for him to suddenly be persistent about Daniel May? It didn’t quite make sense.
Unless Wolf was telling the truth.
She shook her head to get rid of the thought. Best to let her father know right now that she wouldn’t be going on any more dates with Daniel May.
“I like Daniel, believe me.” She met her father’s gaze steadily. “But I’m sorry. I have no interest in him as anything more than a friend.”
Cesare said nothing for a long moment, but she didn’t miss the burn of an icy blue flame in his eyes. “Think about it,” he said, and this time she heard something that sounded an awful lot like a warning in his voice. “There are lots of advantages to an alliance with May.”
“But Dad, I—”
“Like I said, think about it.” He glanced down at his watch. “We’ll talk more about this later. Right now, I have a meeting and you have a couple of issues I’d like you to take care of for me. The details are on your desk.”
Olivia knew better than to push, so she simply shut her mouth and nodded.
But the cold kernel of doubt in her chest didn’t go away.
It got colder.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Wolf felt his phone buzz in his pocket, but he ignored it. He knew who it was going to be. Van yet again. He’d had quite a few phone calls from his oldest brother the past two days, and he’d ignored all of them. No doubt Lucas would join in too, at some point. Or considering the look on his face when Wolf had pulled the trigger on the asshole who’d been threatening Grace Riley, maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he’d be too busy fussing around after her. Fussing, aka banging.
Wolf shifted against the window frame, keeping his attention on the old stone mansion across the street. The de Santis mansion.
He’d been watching it for the past two days now from the safety of an empty apartment he’d discovered on his initial casing of the area before he’d kidnapped Olivia. Getting inside the apartment had been relatively easy and so far no one had discovered him.
Which was good, because he hadn’t discovered much about Olivia’s situation since he’d gotten here. She hadn’t left the house, not once, at least not that he’d seen—and since he’d kept the place under pretty heavy surveillance, he’d seen quite a bit.
So, it either meant she wasn’t there at all, or that she was hiding in case he came after her. And since she didn’t have anywhere else to go, he’d bet the Tate billions that she was hiding. Smart girl.
Or else de Santis isn’t letting her leave.
Yeah, there was that. She’d been kidnapped from under her father’s nose and he’d hate that. He’d want to make sure it wouldn’t happen again, so it was conceivable that he’d want to keep Olivia close.
And that was the other weird thing.
Wolf had expected to see some evidence that de Santis was mobilizing to find him, since he’d assumed Olivia would have told her father all about Wolf and his plans to take down the de Santis empire. Making him number one on de Santis’s shit list.
But he’d seen no signs of any such activity in the past two days. There had been no contact from de Santis either, and that was weird because the guy really liked making threats, especially to the people he was going to hurt.
So either de Santis was planning to go after Wolf on the quiet, playing his cards close to his vest, or he didn’t know it had been Wolf who’d taken his daughter. Which would mean Olivia hadn’t told him.
He couldn’t work out why she hadn’t, couldn’t think of one single reason. Yet he didn’t know how else to explain the lack of activity at the mansion.
There was one way to check for certain, though it came at the risk of giving away his position.
Wolf slid his phone out of his pocket and stared down at the screen. Yeah, fifty million missed calls from Van, plus at least twenty all-caps texts. None from Lucas. He should let his brothers know he was okay, but he didn’t want to have any more depressing conversations about his duty as a director of Tate Oil and Gas. In fact if he never heard about that ever again it would be too soon.
He had plans. And they didn’t include any fucking directorship.
Punching in the number he’d memorized, he waited for it to be answered, his heart beating oddly fast.
He had complicated feelings about de Santis, always had. Even before the bombshell of his father’s letter telling him de Santis was likely to have been the one who’d murdered him. But there had been times when the man had been supportive in his odd, cold way.
Wolf bad been under no illusions it was because de Santis actually liked him. No, it was only because Wolf was a Tate, a chance of a strike at his old enemy. So it didn’t matter that de Santis had finally found out the truth, that Wolf had been playing him all along. He certainly didn’t care about the old prick, not when his intention was to put a bullet in his brain.
But his heartbeat still wouldn’t settle as the phone rang, and when the old man’s voice came down the line, demanding to know who was calling him, Wolf at first couldn’t bring himself to say anything.
“Who is this?” de Santis asked again, his cold voice sharp. “How did you get this number?”
“It’s me,” Wolf finally forced out and braced himself.
“Christ,” de Santis muttered. “About time you called. I need an update on your progress with those plans.”
Wolf turned his back to the wall and leaned fully back against it, conscious of an intense rush of relief sweeping through him. So, Olivia hadn’t told her father it had been him who’d kidnapped her, or warned him that Wolf was coming for him. His secret was safe. Thank fuck. Unless de Santis was pretending, but no, Wolf couldn’t detect anything other than mild annoyance in the man’s tone.
“They’re progressing,” he said. “May take a little longer than planned, though.” The plans were a mission de Santis had given him, hoping Wolf would retrieve them from Noah’s private records. The original title deeds to the two Wyoming ranches that his father and de Santis had bought as young men, back when they’d still been the best of friends. Before his father had changed the boundaries on his ranch to include the oil strike that had initially been on de Santis land.
Yeah, Noah had told him all about that way back when and had sworn Wolf to secrecy about it. He’d told Wolf he’d done it so he could create something special, something worthwhile. A legacy he could hand on to his sons.
Cesare had never wanted a family, not the way Noah had, and so Noah had told himself Cesare didn’t need all that oil, not if it was only ever going to be just him.
Wolf understood that his father had been wrong, but he’d excused him. It had happened years ago and there was nothing to be done about it now. But if there were indeed plans in existence that would prove that Noah altered those boundaries, then Wolf was quite happy to find them.
Then he’d destroy them.
Finding them had been his primary mission from de Santis, and since Noah’s death, de Santis had become more insistent that Wolf locate them. Probably because all his other schemes for taking back what was rightfully his kept falling apart.
“I don’t want it to take longer, I want them as soon as you can find them,” de Santis said flatly.
“Yeah, well, I would, but my incentive isn’t what it was. Know what I’m saying?”
There was a silence. “If this is about Olivia again, I’m sorry, but my hands are tied. May wants her and I need him on our side. He can make life very difficult for us.”
Meaning the illegal-arms sideline that de Santis had going on.
Wolf grimaced, not liking the way de Santis kept saying “us,” like he was involved in it too. Because he wasn’t, even though de Santis had tried to draw him into it on a number of occasions. Wolf had always refused. He would never be a traitor to his country or to the men of his team. His loyalty was to them and to his family, that was all.
Everything else came second. Everything.
“Yeah, and you can stop saying ‘us,’” Wolf said. “I’m not part of that shit.”
“Your loss. That doesn’t change the fact that I promised her to May.”
Wolf’s jaw hardened. “She’s not your property, Cesare. You can’t give her away like a piece of furniture.”
“Don’t presume to tell me about my relationship with my daughter, Wolf. You know nothing about it. She’s perfectly happy with May if that’s what you’re worried about. And that’s the end of the subject.”
Wolf bit back the urge to tell de Santis that no, Olivia wasn’t “perfectly happy” with May, and no, it fucking wasn’t the end of the subject. Instead he said, “Then you’ll have to wait for your fucking plans then, won’t you?” and before the other man could say anything, he disconnected the call.
“Christ,” he murmured to the empty apartment. So de Santis was hell-bent on giving Olivia to May. Not that it was going to change his own plans. Hell, if anything, it only made him even more certain that taking her back was his only option.
/> Sliding his phone back into his pocket, he turned back to the window
Then went still.
The front door of the mansion had opened and a couple of bodyguards came out, flanking a small woman wearing a form-fitting blue dress, her dark brown hair neat and shining down her back. Olivia.
Fucking finally.
Something surged in him and he wasn’t sure what it was, maybe relief that she was okay. But no, it wasn’t quite that. There was another element to the feeling that made his blood start to pump a little harder. But he didn’t want to examine that too closely, so he didn’t.
A limo waited at the curb, but Wolf didn’t wait to see her get into it, he was already moving for the door.
Time to get kidnap mission 2.0 underway.
* * *
“Dammit. I told them I wasn’t to be disturbed.” Daniel flashed Olivia a polite smile as his phone buzzed yet again. “I really need to take this. Would you mind?”
She gave him the same polite smile back. “No, it’s fine. Go ahead.”
Not that he was listening to her anyway, since he’d already started to reach for the phone before she’d even opened her mouth.
As he answered, half turning in his chair so he faced away from her, she sat back and smoothed the napkin over her knees to give her hands something to do.
It was the middle of the day and the swanky restaurant Daniel had taken her to for lunch was full of people. It was one of Manhattan’s more exclusive lunch spots, with big skylights over the dining area that let in lots of winter sunlight. The room was full of the buzz of voices and the clink of cutlery, and she could see a few famous faces dotted here and there among the crowd.
Daniel had brought her here to impress her. She knew that because he kept mentioning how difficult it was to get a table since it was so popular, but luckily he knew the maître d’ so it was no problem for him to get a booking.
Like that sort of thing had mattered to her.
Olivia reached for her glass of iced water and took a sip.
She hadn’t wanted to go to lunch with Daniel. In fact, it had been pretty much the last thing she felt like doing, but her father had insisted, telling her to give May a chance. She could, of course, say no and he would never force her into doing anything she didn’t want to do, but if she could do this one thing for him, then he would appreciate it.