Wife Wanted (A Billionaire Bad Boy Romance)(53)

 

“Good, you better have enjoyed it,” she said as her phone buzzed in her purse.

 

She was running a few minutes behind. Why not a few more? She pulled it out to find Mitch on the other line. “Mitch, hey, I just got your note—”

 

“Phoebe! Are you still in your apartment?”

 

He sounded out of breath, almost scared. “Yeah, why? What’s wrong?”

 

“Listen, someone’s following me again. Since I left your place. I think it’s one of Yancey’s guys.”

 

Phoebe gripped the counter, shaking her head. She’d really thought Mitch had been exaggerating when he’d said Yancey had power. “What do you mean?”

 

“I mean, I think you’re being watched. I don’t think you should go through with your plan.”

 

“What am I supposed to do?”

 

“They know where you live, Phoebe. Things just got serious. If they break in and you’re home…” He trailed off, and Phoebe felt her stomach plummet to the floor. “Phoebe, you still there?”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here,” she whispered, then coughed to clear her throat. “What do I do?”

 

“Take the files and get rid of them,” he said. “If they break in and find nothing, they’ll leave you alone. It’s not worth it, Phoebe. Just forget you ever saw anything and go about your day as normal. Call me if you notice anyone following you.”

 

She nodded slowly as she dropped her purse and ran into her bedroom closet. “Ok, I’ll throw them in a dumpster.”

 

He told her he’d keep in touch throughout the day but to make sure she got rid of the files, no matter what. Phoebe hung up and went to her closet, opened the floor safe, and reached in a hand only to find that the files weren’t there.

 

“Ben… I showed them to Ben…” And then what? They’d wound up back in her bedroom, and the files had been left on the living room floor.

 

Did he take the files from her? But why? She closed the safe slowly and stood as footsteps rushed past her front door. She turned off her closet light and closed the door. Mitch had said the men had been following him since he’d left her apartment. What if some of them stayed behind?

 

Someone pounded on her door, and she clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her scream.

 

They were coming for her. And she didn’t have the files.

 

She was going to die.

 

Phoebe opened the closet again and pressed herself as far back into it as she could. Her cell lay on the floor at her feet, but before she could reach for it, she heard her front door burst open and footsteps rushed inside. Phoebe glanced around for anything she could use as a weapon, and her hand landed on a high-heeled shoe just as the steps rushed into her bedroom. She took a deep breath and counted to three before she charged out of the closet, shoe held as a weapon in her hand as she yelled.

 

“What the hell—” Charlotte screamed as she dove across the bed.

 

“Charlotte?”

 

“Who else, you psycho? Put that damn shoe down before you hurt someone!”

 

“Why do you keep breaking into my place!”

 

“I didn’t, I have a key,” she snapped. “Never mind. Why didn’t you answer your phone? I called you like seven times!”

 

“I was on the phone with someone,” Phoebe muttered as she sat down, waiting for her heart to stop pounding. She really needed to get her key back from her friend unless she was out of town. “What’s wrong?”

 

“Your mom,” Charlotte said in a rush. “She had a mild heart attack, but they stabilized her and she’s awake. Asking for you.”

 

Phoebe couldn’t breathe. This was it. Everything came to this moment. She grabbed her cell from the floor and her purse from the kitchen and rushed out her door after Charlotte, heading to the hospital to see her mother.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 19

 

 

 

It was mid-afternoon when Riley finally set down the files he’d taken from Anna and rubbed his eyes. Things were not going according to plan. This whole marry-in-two-months was starting to eat at him. Granted, it had only been two weeks, but he still wasn’t sure what was going on. Add that to the issues with the Chandler woman and Yancey, and he found himself floundering, trying to stay above the rising tide of whatever the hell was going on.

 

“Riley,” Linda said over the intercom, “your Aunt Bethany is on the phone for you.”

 

“Bethany…the ranch,” he muttered and told Linda to send the call through. He’d all but forgotten that he’d asked his aunts to check the place out and see if they could find anything left behind by his grandfather that might give him some clues.