Page 68 of Rosabel and the Billionaire Beast

They’d raved when they’d realized I’d brought a girl to Arkansas with me. Even more so when they’d found out it was Rosabel.

Both she and Nicole gave me all kinds of flak about how much I talked about her, but I didn’t mention her that much. Not really. Not if I could help it.

Even so, it was enough that they noticed. And like everyone else, they suspected something was up between Rosabel and me. I’d sworn them to secrecy when I’d asked them to come here. I’d practically begged them not to say a word about what theythoughtwas going on to her.

She got enough of that back at the office. She didn’t need it here, too.

But they didn’t know the danger Rosabel was in. I wasn’t going to tell them that part of things.

I couldn’t walk away from this, not before I found out what Eudora was doing here and why she’d disappeared. Eudora’s disappearance had thrown Maddox and Adelie completely after Addie’s grandma had gone missing and her friends had suggested that Eudora had had something to do with it.

“I’m Rosabel Astor,” Rosie said, beating me before I could decide what to do. “How do you know each other?”

I was ready to beat it. I wanted nothing more to do with this woman, not after the chaos that had come into my life because of her sons and The Pact they’d instated. A pledge I’d signed too stupidly and readily.

“She’s no one.”

Eudora gave me a derisive glance, but she recovered quickly and rolled her eyes.

“That’s gratitude for you,” Eudora said. “After all those times I cleaned up after you boys?”

Rosabel’s smile grew. “She cleaned up after you?”

“She owned the fraternity house I lived in during college at The University of Chicago,” I grumbled.

“The one Hawk, Maddox, and Adrian all went to?”

Eudora let out an amused coo. “Oh, you know my boys?”

Rosabel’s smile stretched. Clearly, she was being hoodwinked by this old lady’s charms, undoubtedly because Eudora’s reaction to me was so much warmer than my own mother’s had been.

“Yourboys?”

Eudora’s eyes glimmered with interest. She took Rosabel’s hand and shook it. “Eudora Wilson. Is this your girlfriend, Mr. Hawthorne?”

“I’m his assistant,” Rosabel said. “And this is the most exquisite house I’ve ever seen.”

Eudora beamed. “Would you like to see inside?”

Hard pass.

“We’re leaving,” I said at the same time Rose said, “We’d love to.”

Oh, no. No, no, no, this wasnothappening. I’d brought Rosabel to Arkansas to keep her AWAY from the insanity, not have her fall in WITH it.

The two of them stopped to look at me as though I were insane.

I had a bad feeling about this. The worst feeling, actually. I pictured Eudora leading Rosabel inside like one of those freaky movies where unsuspecting victims went somewhere they shouldn’t and never came out again.

Which was completely ridiculous. This was Eudora. What was she going to do to Rosabel?

This only brought me back to the reason I’d come in the first place. Right. I wanted to buy this house. I supposed I should at least mention that.

It was entirely possible that I was being paranoid for no reason.

“Actually, I’d like to discuss why we’re here,” I said, trying to keep this strictly business.

Even so, I couldn’t help the questions creating a tornado in my mind. Was Eudora still in line with Ulrich? Did she know he’d kidnapped an old friend of hers and had recently escaped a jail sentence for it?

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