Page 85 of The Millionaire's Mechanic

The man’s head jerked. “You’re going to pay me to confess?”

Rainer’s smile was so sharp it could draw blood. “Think of it as the plea deal of the century.”

“You’re a cold-blooded bastard, aren’t you?” Mack’s eyes closed. “Poor Georgia has no idea what she’s getting herself into.”

Rainer ignored that. Georgia knew exactly who he was. She might not approve, but she would eventually understand he’d done what he thought was best, for everyone.

“A million dollars for every year you spend in jail. Five sounds like a nice round number, doesn’t it?”

Mack’s breath caught. “You can do that—get me five years?”

“I can strongly suggest,” Rainer said honestly. “But if you get paroled after twelve months, you get two million. That’s our minimum.”

“I can do five,” Mack said quickly.

“Up to you.” Rainer shrugged. “But don’t get ideas about misbehaving to pad your sentence. Being a model prisoner is part of the deal.”

He stood, pouring a glass of water from the jug at the bedside table. He handed it to the younger man. “And there are other strings. These rules apply before, during, and after you serve your sentence. Violate the terms of our agreement, and it all goes away.”

Mack’s brow creased. “After? You mean meeting with my parole officer and all that shit?”

“I mean you stay away from me and Georgia and whatever kids we have—unless she wants to see you.”

Mack’s face curdled. “You’re really going to marry her? That wasn’t a joke?”

“No, it wasn’t a fucking joke.” Rainer scowled. “And stop fucking interrupting me. Once you get out of jail, you won’t come around. You’re going to be the uncle who sends cards on birthdays and Christmas, but who does not come around to Sunday dinner—ever.”

Rainer waved a hand in front of his face. “And whatever the hell went down between you and Ephraim, you fix it sooner than later—even if you have to do it from the other side of one of those plastic visitor’s windows at your prison.”

“Fuck, you are a control freak,” Mack muttered, avoiding his eyes. But then he sighed and feigned nonchalance. “But you may as well tell him where I am. Maybe he can come see me before the cops take me away.”

Rainer got to his feet. “I’ll do that. In the meantime, don’t speak to the cops. My lawyer will be by soon, along with Stewart Powell, my head of security. You’ll tell them both all you know, and they’ll prepare your statement, which we’ll hand over to the authorities. I’ll be contacting the district attorney’s office later this morning to work out your deal.”

CHAPTERFORTY-ONE

The pieces of the puzzle finally began to come together after Mack began to cooperate.

Somehow, Rainer stayed on top of the fast-developing story while managing to fuss over Georgia enough for her to complain that he was driving her crazy. But she said it with a smile, holding onto his arm as she drifted off to sleep for the fifth time that day.

The idea to kidnap Rainer for ransom had come from Mack. He’d said it as a joke, told in passing to Mitch and Samantha on the day Rainer bought an electric blue Ferrari from Elite nearly two years ago.

Samantha had been the one to sell him that car. She’d closed the deal, subtly offering herself as a bonus when Rainer signed along the dotted line. But he hadn’t taken her up on the offer.

But before the Elaine incident, being hit on had been a near-daily occurrence. And Sam wasn’t his type. So, he’d passed on her offer as politely as he could. It wasn’t personal.

“I don’t even remember that,” Rainer later confessed when he filled George in on the details.

She scoffed. “I’m not surprised. According to the tabloids, you were ass deep in random pussy back then.”

“Ew. Phrasing,” he said, defending himself. “I may have tried to do the ‘work hard, play hard’ thing, but I wasn’t indiscriminate. I’ll have you know I was always very choosy when it came to the female company I kept.”

“Hmm,” she sniffed. “Well, apparently, Samantha took your rejection personally.”

That was an understatement. Sam treated her client roster like a personal dating service and experience phenomenal success doing so.

One of the married ones had even offered to leave his wife for her, so when Rainer rejected her, the woman built the moment into a mountain of a grudge—Mack’s joking words about ransoming him the foundation.

According to Mack, that was also around the time he and Sam first slept together. Georgia had moved out of his place earlier that month, and had finally broken things off for good the week before. The pair found solace in each other, though neither would admit that. And, as time went on, they kept sleeping together despite the fact both continued to pursue other people.

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