Stripped Bare (Vegas Billionaire 1)

“I’ll set up a meeting with Mr. Kramer and we’ll figure out if this is truly his game or hers. Do you think we can get Cordova on board?”

“There isn’t time; she wants an answer by the end of the day. Brandy wants all the social events, two date nights a week and a one-year engagement. Fuck.” I throw my pen onto my desk and sink back in my chair. I have depended on her father for a lot of money and for him to yank funding in the middle of my third project would derail everything.

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I can’t lose the investment or construction has to stop. I don’t have enough capital to keep the project going and no time to replace him and keep the money coming in to pay the workers.”

I stand and go to my windows. “This was the last project that I needed him for. If he pulls the plug, I lose everything.”

“Our only option is to meet with him,” Lamar says.

“I’m out of time.”

“Not necessarily. Don’t you have a conference or need to meet with designers? Is there something that could take you away from here until I can get Mr. Kramer into the office to meet? If you have a business meeting, Brandy can’t expect an answer right away.”

Shaking my head, I see visions of my tiny empire swirling down the drain all because of a woman. Take that back, two women. Brandy is jealous of Macey, as she should be. I never expected her to pull this, though.

“Can I be frank?”

“I’d prefer you to be Lamar, but if you want to be Frank, who am I to stop you?” I try to crack a joke, despite my pending doom. He laughs and I turn to lean against the windows. “By all means, the floor is yours.”

“Whether you want to admit it or not, Macey got to you. When you were with her, you were different, happier. Hell, you took a day off from work to spend with her and you never do shit like that.”

“What’s your point?”

“My point is, you had this woman with you for a week and when she left, you had me slip a phone into her bag. I’m willing to bet you haven’t even texted her yet but have tried repeatedly.”

I look away so he doesn’t know he’s right.

“Fucking go to her. Get the hell out of town and I’ll deal with Kramer. I’ll get Brady on board and make sure Kramer doesn’t back out.”

“It’s not that easy, Lamar.”

“Why?”

“She has a kid and I don’t know where she lives.”

“I know,” he says, catching me off guard.

“What do you mean, you know? How the fuck do you know something like this and not tell me?”

“It’s my job to know, Finn. It’s my job to protect you. After we picked her up at the club I ran a background check on her. I had to know if she was going to be a threat to you, either personally or professionally. I didn’t like your arrangement but I went with it because you were so damn adamant about helping her. So I did my job and found out about the girl.”

“Where’s the kid’s father?”

Lamar shrugs. “There isn’t one listed.”

“And are you watching her now?”

He looks away, confirming my suspicions.

“How?”

“Through her phone. I wanted to know what she was doing.”

“Why?” I ask, needing to know his motives.

“In case she needed her knight in shining armor.”

I’m thrown off my axis when Lamar refers to me as that. I never wanted to save her, only help. I sit back down and face him. He knows what Macey is doing. He knows where she lives. Where I have been a chicken shit and not reached out to her, he’s been keeping an eye on her.

“Is she okay?”

He nods. “Seems to be. She spends a lot of time at her apartment and she’s opened a bank account.”

“How much is in there?” What I really want to know is how much is left of the money I gave to her.

“Less than half. She paid for her apartment a year in advance, bought furniture and enrolled in school.”

“Does she work?” Please don’t tell me she went back to being a stripper.

“Waitress at a diner called Eddie’s.” As soon as he says the name I know exactly where it is, assuming she’s in Spokane. It makes sense that’s where she’d be, a single mom isn’t likely to pack up and move.

“I know that place,” I say as I process the information that Lamar has told me. If Macey knew, she’d slap me for invading her privacy. I’m not mad he’s done it, though, because it makes my next decision much easier.

“I think I need to go visit my dad.”

“Probably not a bad idea. I’ll take care of that. I’m assuming you want to leave as soon as possible?”