The Billionaire’s Rebellious Lover (The Maxfield Brothers Series Book 2) (8 page)

Daisy rubbed her wrist, and Gabe almost felt guilty when he saw the red marks. “I was talking to your father about it, and he suggested that I bring the matter up with the senator. I kept things polite until he become rude and obscene. You’re lucky I didn’t slap the fat bastard.”

He shook his head angrily. “We’re leaving.”

“What? We haven’t even been here an hour.”

“Exactly. We haven’t even been here an hour, and you’ve already caused a scene. I should have known that you’d pull something like this. Put you in a pretty dress and you’re still…” Gabe bit his tongue in an effort not to finish the sentence. Daisy’s eyes widened, and he could see the hurt in them. He’d gone too far, and they both knew it.

Without a word, she turned and headed for the exit. Gabe watched helplessly as her shoulders slumped. What the hell was wrong with him? Why had he lashed out at her like that? She hadn’t said anything to Massey that wasn’t either known to be true or at least widely suspected.

“She’s fiery. She reminds me of your mother when we first met.” Duncan said as he materialized to Gabe’s left. “I like her.”

“You would,” Gabe muttered. “A few years ago, you would have tossed her out on her ass for pulling a stunt like this. You know you only sent her after Massey because you hate the man.”

“It should give you pause that you’re acting like I would have done a few years ago. You’ve always thought that Stephen took after me. I guess you haven’t looked in the mirror recently. Be careful, Gabe. Don’t get so twisted up in the reputation of this company that you fail to see what’s right in front of you.”

“Stop!” Gabe snapped. “That is Nathan’s ex-girlfriend. She’s only here because she’s still in love with him. You heard her gushing over him. I wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot pole. And the sooner I can get the two of them together, the sooner I can clean up this mess.”

His father chuckled. “You think she’s in love with Nathan? I never took you for an idiot, boy.” Duncan shook his head and moved away, melting into the crowd. Gabe turned abruptly and left. He was consumed with an odd mix of anger and guilt, and it was all because of Daisy.

It was getting harder and harder to pretend that he was doing this because Angie had ordered him to. He followed Daisy out and found her waiting for the valet to pull up with the car. She shivered, and he put his coat around her shoulders. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

She stared straight ahead and didn’t say a word to him.

A
s soon as
Gabe pulled up at her apartment, Daisy reached for the door handle. Immediately, he reached over and grabbed her arm. “Daisy, please wait,” he pleaded.

“What?” she snapped angrily, shaking him off.

He took a deep breath. “I need to walk you to your door. I don’t want you to storm off in anger.”

“Really?” she said “Fine. Whatever.” She stalked towards the building, and he followed her past the busted security lights and into her building. They made their way up the staircase in silence until they finally reached her door. Without even thinking, he reached out and touched the small of her back. “Daisy,” he said helplessly. He had no idea what to say to fix things between them.

She tensed under his touch. “Look, we both know this evening was a disaster. It was obvious that you were concerned about how our partnership could jeopardize the reputation of Duncan Enterprises. You thought that if you covered me with money and glitter, you’d be able to put a positive spin on this whole thing. I know what we’re doing is convoluted at best. I work for an organization that is renowned for its radical actions. I dated your brother. Duncan Enterprises isn’t known for compromise. Maybe if you had told me that upfront, this whole stupid charade would have gone down a little better. Instead, you pretended as if you did all this for my benefit. I thought tonight was about making connections, and when I tried to do that, you threw a fit.” She turned and stared at him. “What did you expect me to do tonight? Hang on to your arm and simper like an idiot? That’s not the kind of woman I am.”

Gabe studied her. She wasn’t completely wrong, but there was an aspect about tonight that he hadn’t mentioned. The truth was that he had been looking forward to tonight because he wanted to show her off. She was beautiful, and he wanted to spend a pleasant evening with her discussing something other than business. But he just hadn’t been able to come out and tell her that until now.

“You’re right,” he said finally. “I should have been upfront with you. But if I even push a little, you push back twice as hard. I was concerned that if I came out and stated that this was about the company’s reputation, you would have taken great pleasure in shredding it into a million pieces. Your reputation…”

“Stop!” Daisy said and held up her hand. “You’re basing everything that you know about my life on whatever you remember hearing from Nathan. I can’t even begin to tell you how unfair that is. Everything I said back then about Duncan Enterprises when I was with Nathan was because of Nathan. You, Stephen and your father treated him like nothing. He felt so ignored by everyone. I thought if he took a personal stand against the company and tried to show you guys how passionate he was about what he believed in, you would finally listen to him. And I’d have back the man that I fell in love with.”

As those final words hit home, Gabe stiffened. “The man you fell in love with?” he said softly.

“Nathan was brilliant early on in our relationship. We had the same beliefs and were passionate about the same causes, but even after I fell in love with him; it became clear that the cause was the only thing our relationship was built on. When he started to lose belief in the cause, our relationship slipped. I knew I was losing him, and I thought that pressuring him to take a stand against his father’s company was the only way to save us. I’d like to say that Duncan Enterprises was why I lost him to begin with, but we were over long before that. Nathan is a nice guy who doesn’t want to hurt anyone,” she said bitterly. “But the point is, my drastic actions over Duncan Enterprises then had nothing to do with the company. Our partnership right now has nothing to do with Nathan. Restore Eden has a global contact network, and I want nothing more than to tap into that and make a difference. And if I can do that while changing Restore Eden’s reputation of being aggressive and radical, then I’ll have it made. Duncan Enterprises is my way of doing that, but I can’t do it unless you trust me.”

Gabe inhaled slowly. He could hear the pain in her voice, and he didn’t know whether he had caused it or if talking about Nathan still hurt her. Slowly, he met her gaze, and in that moment, the world stilled. She looked so vulnerable and so hopeful, and for one crazy moment, he thought he saw a spark of desire in her eyes. In a moment of insanity, he leaned closer towards her as his hand fell to her hip. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to slip his tongue inside and taste her. He wanted to make her moan until all thoughts of the party tonight were banished from her head.

Her lips parted as though she knew what he was thinking, and he stilled. What was wrong with him? This was Nathan’s ex-girlfriend. Immediately he jerked his hand back off her and leaned back. He looked away from her gaze. “I apologize for embarrassing you this evening. I’ll try to do better in the future,” he said as he cleared his throat.

Daisy’s eyes widened in surprise. After a second, she muttered, “Right,” and she turned and slid the key into the lock. “I’ll see you later, Gabe. I’ll make sure the dress gets returned to you.”

“Keep it,” he said hoarsely. “It looks good on you.”

She opened her mouth, and for a moment, he thought she would protest. Instead, she shrugged and opened the door. “Goodnight, Gabe.”

“Goodnight, Daisy.” When the door shut, he leaned softly against it. Confusing thoughts swirled around him. How had things gotten so out of hand in only a few days? He was a master of control, yet right now, it seemed like he had no control at all. Part of him wanted to bust down the door and sweep her off her feet, and part of him wanted to walk away and hand her over to someone else.

His head was a complete mess, and he had no idea how to fix any of this.

Walking slowly down the stairs and out of the building, his thoughts were so preoccupied with Daisy that he didn’t even see the men until it was too late. Pain exploded through him as someone landed a solid punch to his stomach. As his breath left him, he crumpled over, but he saw the next one coming. Pushing away the pain, he blocked the blow and swung his fist up. It connected with something solid, and someone moaned in pain. But it wasn’t enough. There were three of them. No, make that four. And Gabe couldn’t block all of their blows. And when something solid connected to his back, he fell to the ground and groaned. As he turned his head and looked up, he saw hooded men standing over him. One was swinging a baseball bat.

“Let this be a lesson to you,” one growled. “We are everywhere, and we will never stop until you people start listening to us. Next time, we’ll leave you with more than a few bruises.”

They took off, and Gabe gritted his teeth as he pushed himself off the sidewalk to stand unsteadily on his feet. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone, only to discover it had been busted in the attack.

This attack was the work of Restore Eden. It had to be. Nothing else made any sense; no one else had any reason to do this to him. And either Daisy was completely wrong about her group, or…

…she was behind this whole thing.

D
aisy peeled
off her first ever evening gown and stood in front of the mirror. The woman staring back at her was beautiful, but she was a stranger. Curls and glitter. That wasn’t her. Never in her life had she felt the need to change who she was or what she believed to impress someone, but at the beginning of this evening, she’d hoped more than anything that Gabe would actually see her.

Oh, he had looked at her all right. And he’d seen something that he didn’t like.

“Hells bells,” she muttered as she grabbed the washcloth and began to scrub off her make-up. When her fresh shiny face stared back at her, she combed her fingers through the carefully arranged curls and ripped out the pins. When she’d put her hair in the familiar braid, and slipped into her pajamas, she finally felt like she could breathe a sigh of relief. The beautiful dress was crumpled on the floor. Contemplating leaving it there, she found she couldn’t do it and picked it up. Holding it to her, she placed it back on the hanger and hung it up. Gabe wanted someone who wore dresses like this. He wanted someone who oozed glamour and flirted politely with bureaucrats, and didn’t berate them for being hypocritical.

But for one moment at her door, she could have sworn that he was going to kiss her. She’d been ready for it. She’d been ready for him. Oh, how she had been ready!

Her heart pounded now thinking about it. The more she thought about his hands on her, and the more she thought about the look in his eyes, the more aroused she became. She wasn’t just attracted to Gabe Maxfield. Every cell in her body craved him.

“What the hell is wrong with me?” she muttered. She’d never felt this way with Nathan. She’d never felt this way about anyone.

The sound of her phone ringing startled her. Hoping that it was Gabe, she scrambled towards it. It wasn’t. The caller ID showed her what was probably the last name she wanted to see right now. “What do you want, Jordan?” she demanded.

“Your picture is all over the Internet. Tell me Daisy, are you looking to bring Duncan Enterprises down, or are you looking to jump into bed with those bastards?” Jordan snarled in disgust.

“Can it, Jordan. It was a political event, which afforded me the opportunity to make some contacts. And I thought you’d be proud of the fact that Gabe got me kicked me out after I confronted Senator Massey. Apparently, I didn’t handle the situation very well.”

“You almost sound disappointed. Afraid your precious Gabe is going to find you out?”

“Find what out? What the hell are you talking about?”

“You’re supposed to be using him to get to the heart of the company. Find the evidence we can take to the media,” Jordan snapped. “Or have you conveniently forgotten the plan?”

Horrified, Daisy tugged at her braid. “What are you talking about? That was not the plan. We’re working with Duncan Enterprises to make changes we can all agree with. There was never any talk about using anyone.”

“You are so naive, Daisy. Step up your game, or we’ll step it up for you.” The line went dead, and Daisy gasped. Never had she heard Jordan sound so angry. Immediately, she Googled ‘Gabe Maxfield’. The first picture to pop up was the one where she and Gabe were walking into the function together. Christ, she was looking at him like a starry-eyed, lovesick co-ed. No wonder Jordan had hit the roof. While Daisy had always denied that Jordan had any feelings for her, she was beginning to suspect that he’d like to take things further if she gave him the least little bit of encouragement.

He was reacting out of jealousy. He would never actually go through with the threats. He knew what they had agreed.

The phone rang again, and Daisy nearly dropped it. She exhaled a relieved breath when she saw that it was Angie. She probably wanted to apologize for Gabe’s actions tonight. “Hi Angie,” Daisy said as she tried to sound cheerful.

“I need you at Gabe’s apartment. Now,” Angie said tensely.

Gabe’s apartment? “Why?” Daisy asked warily.

“Someone attacked him. And he’s saying it’s your group that did it.” Daisy’s heart sank as the phone went dead.

What did Jordan do?

She grabbed some mismatching sneakers, her keys and rushed for the door.

Her beat-up and rusted car looked completely out of place amongst the streamlined expensive cars in Gabe’s parking lot. A few people heading to their cars gave her concerned looks, but she ignored them. As always, she had to slam her car door as hard as possible before she could lock it.

“Like someone would actually steal this piece of shit,” she muttered, “I should be so lucky.” She hurried to the building entrance, tried to get in and found it locked. “Of course. They can’t simply let people walk in off the streets.”

She pulled out her phone and called Angie. “I’m here, but I have to be buzzed in.” She glanced around and rolled her eyes. “And if you don’t hurry, someone is probably going to call the police.”

The door buzzed and unlocked. Daisy hauled the door open and hurried inside. Inside the elevator, she began to pace. Part of her didn’t want to believe that Jordan would hurt Gabe, but somehow she knew that it was a possibility, and knew that she would never forgive herself if he had. But she took heart. If Gabe were seriously hurt, he’d be at the hospital. He wouldn’t be at home. That made her feel better, and when the elevator doors opened, she felt a little calmer.

The front door of Gabe’s condo was directly across from the elevator. Daisy checked the address from her phone again and raised her eyebrows. It shouldn’t surprise her that Gabe had the only apartment at the top. His family was worth billions. Obviously, he would have a penthouse. Why would she expect anything different?

“It must be nice not to hear your neighbors screwing all the time,” she muttered under her breath. When she was nervous, she talked to herself. She really needed to get a hold on that.

Tugging at her pink pajama top, she knocked rapidly on the door. Angie opened it and shook her head. “Please tell me that Gabe is wrong,” was the first thing out of her mouth.

“I certainly want to,” Daisy said as she pushed past her. Going through to the kitchen, she found Gabe there, shirtless, as he tried to twist himself round to press some gauze to an open wound on his side. She took one look at his gorgeous body, and then all she could see were the cuts and bruises that had formed. “Gabe,” she breathed, as she raced forward to grab the gauze. “Stop twisting like that. What if your ribs are broken or cracked? Why aren’t you at the hospital?”

“I don’t need a damn hospital,” he growled. She met his gaze and flushed. He was angry. Of course, he was angry. Why wouldn’t he be?

“What happened?”

“I was attacked in your parking lot after I dropped you off. There are other ways to get my attention, Daisy.”

She gasped and stepped back. “You really think I had something to do with this? My apartment complex is not exactly in the nicest or most law-abiding area, Gabe. People get mugged there all the time.”

“Do all the muggers in your apartment complex warn their victims that they won’t stop until people like me listen? And then fail to rob me of anything?”

Daisy stepped towards him and shook her head. “Gabe, I’m sorry. I swear that I didn’t have anything to do with this. I wouldn’t. Surely you can’t really believe…” She took a deep breath. “You should call the police.”

Gabe reached out and tipped her chin with his finger. “You are Restore Eden. If I call the police, you’ll be in the crossfire.”

She was confused. Did he really think that she had a hand in his attack or did he worry about how she would look? “Your safety is more important than Restore Eden’s reputation.”

“Police and reputation aside,” Angie interrupted, “maybe we could talk about what happens next. Daisy, I need to know how far your group is willing to go to get what they want. I will not allow my employees’ lives to be placed in danger.”

“I’ll talk to my people. This will not happen again,” Daisy vowed.

“Fine. Gabe, I would really urge you to call the police, but if you aren’t going to do that, then I need you to figure out our next move. I think maybe we are done with Restore Eden, I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

Gabe gave Angie a steely look. “This was your idea, remember?”

“Sure. When I thought she was here for Nathan and that this was some extravagant, over-the-top gesture of love.”

Daisy turned and stared at her. “I’m sorry, you thought
what
?”

Angie put up her hands in apology. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to manipulate everyone. I wanted Nathan to be happy. Daisy, you know Restore Eden. I know you want to think that they’re turning over a new leaf, but you have to see the truth. If we don’t call the police and we break our agreement with Restore Eden, they’ll tear us apart in the media. But we can’t continue working with them if people are only going to get hurt. What do we do?”

“I’ll figure something out,” Daisy promised. “There has to be another explanation.”

Staring at her, Angie nodded. “Nathan trusts you, so I’ll trust you.” She glanced at the clock. “I have a shareholder meeting in a few hours, but I’ll talk to you afterward, to try to come up with a plan. Gabe, if you’re not going to the hospital, then you’re going to stay here and heal. Don’t even think of coming to the meeting.” She smiled softly, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. Daisy felt her stomach twist into knots as Angie left.

Alone with Gabe, Daisy put her hands on her hips. “Did you agree to let me get involved with Duncan Enterprises because you thought I wanted to win back Nathan?”

“Really? I was beaten by four men, and this is what you want to focus on?” he grumbled.

Daisy fought the urge to smile at his sullen response. Was he really wanting sympathy? “I really didn’t want to focus on that part,” she finally said, tugging on her braid in annoyance. “Hells bells, you are going to have so many bruises. Gabe, you should go to the doctor. Please.”

Gabe rolled his eyes and reached for his shirt. “All a doctor is going to do is offer to give me pain medication, which I won’t take. So let’s talk about our next move. I don’t actually think your plan is going to work. You simply telling Jordan how unhappy you are that he attacked your ex’s brother is not going to do the trick.”

“My ex’s brother? Is that how you see yourself?” she asked angrily as she folded her arms “Are you actually planning on implementing any of the ideas that I’ve had about the company, or are you coddling me until Nathan comes to his senses and decides he’s still madly in love with me? Did you even listen to one word I said all this time?”

“We were talking about your plan.”

“Really? Because I thought that, we were talking about Nathan. That’s what all this seems to be about.”

“Do you want to talk about Nathan?”

“No. I don’t want to talk about Nathan!”

“Then stop,” Gabe said angrily. “Let’s talk instead about what you are planning on doing about Jordan. I imagine that if you offer to sleep with him, he’ll do just about anything that you want.”

She narrowed her eyes and stared at him. “I’m sorry that you were attacked, but there’s no reason to be so brutal to me. I trusted my group, and I will handle this.”

His features softened. “You’re right,” he said tiredly. “You’ll handle it. I’m going to grab a few hours of sleep so I can prepare myself for how shitty I’m going to feel in the morning.”

As he collapsed on the couch, she reached over to pull the blanket off the back and cover him. “I have no doubt that you’re still going to get up at the crack of dawn,” she whispered. He didn’t stir, and she knew that he was already asleep. A bruise stood out along his jawline, and she felt her own jaw clench in sympathy.

She had a few choice words for Jordan.