Going in Deep (Billionaire Bad Boys 4)

If Billy showed up here again, Julian would make it clear the cops would be waiting if he tried to contact his sister in the future.

He glanced through the peephole, shocked to see Kendall standing there. She wore a pretty summer dress and sandals, but her expression was serious and she didn’t look happy.

His pulse ratcheted up a notch as he opened the door and they came face-to-face.

“Hi.” She bit down on her lower lip, sounding hesitant.

“Hi.”

“Can we talk?” she asked.

He nodded. “Come on in.”

She stepped inside as Steve barreled toward her, excited to see her after s

o long. She took the time to give him the loving attention the dog desired, and he knew how pathetic it was that he was jealous of an animal.

He closed the door behind them. “Let’s go into the family room. Alex is at the library.” So they were alone.

“How was your trip?” he asked after they’d chosen their seats, apart from each other.

It fucking killed him that they’d come to this, because of his past and nothing that he or she had done now.

She wrung her hands, then picked up a tech magazine he’d left on the table in front of the sofa, then placed it back down. “My weekend in Maryland with the dogs was productive. The poor things. They showed me pictures and some were in such bad shape. But they’re good now.”

She smiled but it seemed brittle, as if she was as uncomfortable as he felt at the moment. “But I don’t want to talk about work. I just came from Kade and Lexie’s—well, I dropped Waffles off at home first instead of dragging her all over Manhattan—and… God, I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Was your talk with Kade about my visit?” he asked. Because he could only imagine what Kade had to say about their encounter at his office last week.

She blinked in surprise. “You went to see him?”

Julian rose and walked around the room, pacing because he couldn’t sit still. “I guess he didn’t think it was important enough to mention to you.”

“No, he had other things on his mind,” she said bitterly. “Like the fact that he hired a private investigator to watch you.”

Julian spun around. “Excuse me?” So that’s how Kade opted to mind his own business and let Julian screw things up on his own?

She looked away, as if embarrassed and unable to meet his gaze. But he didn’t blame her for her brother-in-law’s behavior.

“Kade said he called one right after Lexie found us together. I’m furious, Julian. I mean, Lexie knew. My own sister knew and didn’t tell me.”

She rose to her feet, coming up beside him and placing a hand on his shoulder. He welcomed the contact, as innocuous as it happened to be.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I had no idea they’d go to such ridiculous, insulting lengths. They had no right to invade your privacy that way.”

She was correct about that. Anger and disbelief swirled inside him, along with a bone-deep weariness that he had a hunch wouldn’t go away for a long time. Nothing he did, said, or had become made a difference to his one-time friend.

Before he could think things through more, Kendall continued. “I’m so hurt. I told them to trust my judgment. That you’ve proven yourself to me, and by extension, that should be good enough for them.”

“But it wasn’t.”

“No,” she agreed.

And it never would be, he thought. Because if Kade was willing to go so far as to have him spied on, hoping to find something to use against him, he’d never accept him in Kendall’s life. The knife in his back might be deserved after what he’d done to Kade, but at this point, when was penance enough?

Kendall looked at him with sad eyes. “And the irony is they think they have something on you. Something that should convince me you’re toxic and I need to steer clear.”

He let out a harsh, disbelieving laugh since he’d been nothing but a choir boy in the short time since Lexie walked through Kendall’s door and Kade had him watched.