Wife Wanted (A Billionaire Bad Boy Romance)(44)

 

Or at least most of it. He was trying to trust her, she could tell by everything he was telling her, but he was still keeping something from her. The question was how big it was. Would it affect her too much in the end? But the end of what?

 

She was hiding a few things from him as well, but she forgot all about them as she listened to him talk. His voice was gentle, and he smiled as he told her about the type of man his grandfather had been. Strong, honest, a hard worker who had built a company from the ground up. That was the man he strived to be like.

 

“What type of company?” she asked.

 

He hesitated for just a second before he said, “Cyber Vault, Inc.”

 

Phoebe pulled back from him slightly. “You work for that huge company? Wait, your grandfather built that company?”

 

“Not exactly,” he said but his lips twitched. “He helped the man that built it, and in turn, when he passed, I took his place. I’m a bit higher up in the company but still just a tech monkey. Don’t have the amount of pull my grandfather did with the CEO, but I’m pretty happy with where I’m at.”

 

“That’s interesting. Guess that’s why I saw you at Yancey’s company the other day.”

 

“Yeah, my boss sent me to find out some information about a merger for us that almost fell through.”

 

Phoebe tapped her fingers on her leg as she sat up and debated what to tell him. She knew Yancey was up to something that concerned research that she had never seen before, or at least not that she remembered. She’d only been there a few years, long enough to know what had already been archived by the person before her. Did this have something to do with what was going on? Whatever that was? Mitch had said she needed to find someone she trusted to tell her findings to.

 

“Anna? What’s wrong? You look a bit agitated. Mad I work for your competitor?” he teased.

 

“No I just…there’s something I need to show you, and I think it has to do with this merger of yours. Just hang on a second.” She stood, completely forgetting she was naked, and watched Riley swallow hard as something else grew even harder. She winked at him, said maybe later, and dashed back into her bedroom for the files.

 

Her phone, still off, sat on her nightstand, and she thought she should at least check to see if Charlotte called. Not that she wanted the sudden dose of reality of what awaited her outside of this room, but she needed to know what was going on. The second she turned it on, she got twelve notifications of missed calls and three texts. The messages were from Charlotte saying her mom was fine and wanting to know how her date went. The phone calls were all from Mitch.

 

He only left a couple of voicemails, and she listened to them quickly, peeking down the hall at Ben. He still lounged on the floor, flipping through something. Her photo album? She grinned until she remembered what pictures were in there. Spring break vacation when she and Charlotte did their craziest stunts and partied. The only time Phoebe ever really let loose.

 

She felt her whole body start to flush with embarrassment until Mitch’s voice filled her ear.

 

“Just checking in. Tried calling you a few times. Wanted to make sure everything was all right. Maybe we can make plans to meet up Sunday for dinner? Call me back.”

 

She moved onto the next one, still from him, saying pretty much the same thing. But it was the last message that made her hand grip the phone. “Listen, just want to make sure you’re all right. After finding all those weird files the other day, I started to do some digging of my own and I think we might need to leave this alone. There was some guy following me today—looked a bit rough around the edges. Just text me or something, let me know you’re fine. I might just swing by so I know you’re good.”

 

Swing by? Oh no, he couldn’t swing by while she had Ben here. She was pretty sure that would piss him off and ruin whatever deal they might be on their way to making to save her mom. She texted him back quickly, saying she was fine, just stuck at home sick. It was a lame-ass excuse, but hopefully, it would keep him from knocking on her door sometime today. Considering how late it was, there was no reason for him to be out. She hadn’t even noticed the time passing, but it was nearing midnight. Had they been sitting there talking that long?

 

It brought a smile to her face, being able to be so close to someone for this stretch of time. Almost like a real relationship. She waited until Mitch texted her back, then set her phone back down and went into her closet. Beneath all of her shoes was a tiny floor safe her parents had made her install when she’d first moved in all those years ago. She hadn’t had anything in it for the longest time, not until she got the files from the archives room. The ones Yancey had been messing with.