Page 209 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 2
I’d have to question him another time. “Thanks for driving.”
“Always,” he said with a smile.
There was the friendly face of Ian I’d grown to love. I opened up the door and stepped out before he could do something silly like open the door for me. I was capable of opening doors myself. I walked into our apartment building, waved to the concierge, and stepped onto the elevator.
The doors dinged and I stepped off. I looked down the hall at the security door. I wondered whether it was Briggs or Porter who was watching us tonight. One of them was certainly in for a treat.
I opened up our door. “James, I’m home!” I dropped my keys on the kitchen counter.
There was no response.
“James?”
No response.
We must have beat them back. Which was good because that meant that James was driving carefully. I eyed the fridge. It was super tempting to have some watermelon. Or a pickle. Oh, or both. I was just about to grab the handle to the fridge when I thought I heard a noise upstairs.
I froze. “James?” I whispered this time.
No response. But I hadn’t really expected one. He wasn’t home yet. It must have just been my imagination playing tricks on me.
But then I heard another sound. Almost like a banging noise. I grabbed a knife out of the knife block. I have no idea why. I barely liked cutting up raw chicken. There was no way I was about to stab an intruder. But I still found myself tiptoeing toward the stairs.
“Penny?”
I screamed at the top of my lungs and spun around.
Briggs was standing there with his hands out, like he was worried about what I was doing with a knife.
“Briggs?”
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I heard a noise.”
“So you grabbed a knife instead of calling me?” He stepped forward and grabbed it out of my hand. He opened his mouth and then closed it, like he knew whatever had been about to come out was inappropriate. He was probably wondering what the hell I’d been thinking.
But I hadn’t been. I was just scared. “I’m sorry, I heard a noise upstairs. And James isn’t back yet.”
“Well, please call me next time, okay?” He looked a little calmer now.
“Can you go check?”
He smiled down at me. Like I was a silly kid asking him to check under my bed for monsters. “It’s just Matt and Tanner.”
“What?”
“Yeah, they came to set something up.”
“Set what up?” I swear I stopped breathing.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged and put the knife back in the knife block.
But I knew what they were doing.Good God, no! No!Matt and Tanner were setting up the sex altar.Why?Why on earth would James do this to me? I’d never be able to face either of them again. But…maybe I was early enough to stop them. Maybe they hadn’t seen what they were about to set up yet.
“Um…if you’ll excuse me.” I was about to hurry up the stairs, but Matt and Tanner had just appeared at the top of them. Looking like they’d just finished a hard project.
Tanner ran his fingers through his long hair that had gotten sweaty on his forehead. And he was wearing a fucking construction belt!
