Billionaires Dollar Series

Ethan’s face grows flushed with irritation, his voice rising an octave. “Stop using your childhood friend for a fake engagement and I might!”

My hand tightens around Liam’s sleeve. Cool it. “I’m not being used,” I say. “He’s faking for me, too.”

Ethan’s eyes swing to mine. He opens his mouth, but whatever he’s about to say is cut short by a gravelly voice to our left.

“Well,” Albert Walker says. “This has been very illuminating.”

Cole Porter stands next to him, his face a thundercloud. They must have walked up to join the conversation, only to find the brothers too engrossed to notice.

“Mr. Walker,” Liam says. His voice is instantly calm again, like water over slippery rocks. “It’s nice to see you again.”

The older man simply nods, like something has just been confirmed. My hand falls from Liam’s.

I want to sink through the ground.

“Yes,” he says. “I imagine it is.”

Then he turns, leaving all of us behind. Liam starts to follow him, but a raised hand from Cole stops him. “Let me.”

“No, I need to explain.”

“He won’t want to hear it.”

The two of them disappear down a shaded path in the garden, following the man who’d opened his country cabin for us. I want to wrap my arms around myself in guilt. I’d had dinner at his table and cooked food with his wife.

“None of this is your fault,” Ethan mutters. “It’s all Liam’s. What the hell was he thinking?”

My words slip out of me before I can consider them. “He wanted to land you three the biggest investment deal of the decade.”

“Sure, but there are limits.” Ethan shakes his head. “I’m so sorry he dragged you into this. He was always good at that, dragging you into whatever game he had invented, and you ending up with a broken finger.”

My heart smarts at that. “I invented plenty of games too.”

“You did.” Ethan’s lips curve into a reluctant smile, like he’s remembering those days in Fairfield, when the hedge between our two houses had a well-trodden path through it. I wonder what the memories look like from his viewpoint. “You were always a good influence on him.”

“I agreed to this too. The whole fake engagement.” My eyes land on the diamond on my finger, the ludicrously expensive ring.

Liam’s ring.

“About that. Why did you?”

There are a ton of answers. I thought rubbing a new relationship in my ex’s face would make me feel better.

But no. It hasn’t-and it’s not why I continued.

“Because he asked me to,” I say simply. “And because it was fun, at a time when I really, really needed it.”

“I can understand that. More than you know, I think.” We smile at each other for a moment. “For what it’s worth,” he adds, “he couldn’t have picked a better woman to fake propose to.”

My surprised laughter breaks the tension. Liam turns the corner, a scowl on his face.

“I’ll give you two some space.” Ethan steps to the side, retreating into the throng of people-but not before he gives his brother a warning look.

I can practically see Liam chafe under its weight.

“Did you speak to him?”

He shakes his head. “Walker had already made it to his car. I’m going to talk to him tomorrow, make it clear that he can pull out of the contract if he wishes.”

“You’d do that?”

“Of course I would.” He glances past my shoulder, before his hand shoots out and closes over my wrist. He pulls me around the house, toward the secluded area next to the kitchen door.

My words pour out. “I’m sorry he found out. Sorry about your deal.”

Liam nods tightly, releasing my arm to pace. There’s a quiet fury in his form. “Not your fault.”

“I’m still sorry. I know how much it meant to you.”

His hands tighten at his sides. “Yeah.”

“But it’s just one deal. There’ll be others, right? And you’re still one of the best investors on the West Coast. And the East Coast, probably.”

Liam snorts, a short, derisive sound. “It was never about the money.”

“I thought it was always about the money.”Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

He runs a hand through his hair, the movement jerky. “The most prestigious deal in a decade, and it’s just… Fuck.”

“Why are you so angry?”

“Angry? Angry would be nothing. No, I’m… I don’t even know what I am.” He shakes his head, eyes fixed somewhere far, far away. “I have to be better. I have to prove that I’m better than…”

“Better than Ethan?”

“Yes,” he growls. “Nick and Cole might trust me to manage their capital because of my record, but most think it’s just because of my last name.”

I wet my lips. “And this deal would have proven…?”

“That I can find investment opportunities where others can’t.”

“This all goes back to Ethan.” I shake my head, staring at Liam. “Far back.”

“My whole life, I’ve heard how skilled he is. How talented, how brilliant. I can’t invent technology, but I can make money, so that’s what I do.”

“Regardless of what it costs you?” A sinking suspicion settles in my stomach. “What will you say to Albert?”

He braces his hands on a low stone wall. “I don’t know yet. I’ll have to figure it out, play it off his tone.”