Page 40 of All In

“Are you OK? Did he hurt you?”

Carla squeezed her hand. “He didn’t hurt me. He tricked me. I got a call from someone I thought was in Memphis’ office saying you wanted company because he had to focus on work and couldn’t give you very much attention. They offered to put me on a private jet and fly me in. Of course, I said yes but when I landed these two assholes were waiting on me.”

Rylee nodded. “Have they given you any clue what their endgame is?”

Carla pointed at Jeremy. “That one is batshit crazy. I think the driver is just here for whatever he’s being paid.”

Rylee had to agree with her assessment of Jeremy, but he still had to have some kind of reason for doing all this aside from being mentally unstable right?

As they pulled onto a side street, a siren sounded behind them. After a few seconds, it became obvious that an officer was trying to pull them over.Thank fuck,Rylee thought.

“What should I do?” the driver asked as he rolled down the street.

“Maybe you ran a light back there. Just pull over,” he finally said after a beat.

The driver eased over and parked on the side of the road. She watched out of a sideview mirror as the officer walked toward them. As he approached, another car came to a screeching halt behind the squad car. Rylee’s heart skipped a beat when Memphis jumped out. The officer drew his weapon and for a split-second Rylee was afraid he meant to aim it at Memphis. Instead, he trained it on the SUV as he approached the driver’s side where the window was already down.

“Step out of the car please,” the officer said before speaking into his radio to ask for immediate backup.

Jeremy flashed a confused look and asked if there was a problem, but he wasn’t having it.

“I said, step out of the car now.”

“He has a gun,” Rylee yelled as two more police cars approached.

Beside her, Carla made a gagging sound and when Rylee looked at her, she was bent over puking into the floorboard.

There was a burst of commotion as four officers surrounded the car with guns drawn demanding that Jeremy and the driver step out. Rylee was worried it was going to be a standoff as she gently rubbed Carla’s back and watched Memphis fight the urge to rip Jeremy out of the car. But after a minute that felt like it lasted hours, Jeremy’s shoulders sagged in defeat and he pushed open his door along with the driver. The men were both cuffed, and officers opened the back doors to help Rylee and Carla out.

When they were both standing on the side of the road, Carla threw her arms around Rylee and squeezed her tight then she jumped back. “Oh God. I’m sorry. I’m probably getting vomit on you.”

Rylee giggled at the absurdity of the moment. “How long have you been sick?” she asked.

“Since yesterday. At first I thought it was a hangover, but now I’m thinking I must have picked up a stomach bug or we ate bad food.”

Rylee gave a little shake of her head. “You don’t even know how happy I am to hear that. I’ve been sick too and for a minute I thought I was pregnant.”

A hand came to rest on her shoulder, and she turned to find Memphis standing there.

He pulled her into his arms, and she fell apart.

“You ever scare the hell out of me like that again I’m blistering your ass, Ace,” he said, his voice husky with emotion.

She nodded against him as she let her tears fall into his shirt and he stroked her hair.

Her breakdown could only last a minute because the police were ready to ask her questions. Rylee had a lot of questions of her own that were going to have to wait. But she was safe, Carla was safe, Memphis was safe. That was the important thing.

It was several hours before she was able to be alone with Memphis again.

Carla was in a guest bedroom in his Phoenix mansion, and the two of them were snuggled in his bed where he’d just fucked her.

“So, is he just mentally unstable or did he have an actual plan to take over your company by sending you to prison?”

Memphis kissed her softly. “I suspect it’s a mixture of both. I’ve got a friend, Lance, who is going over all my tech for me and I reached out to Everett Miller again. He really did think he could get away with his scam without getting caught. Jeremy just figured out what he was doing and while he advised me against the deal, he was in Andrew’s ear talking him into going behind my back. Kimberly called because she remembered thinking it was odd that my attorney was coming over for late night drinks in the weeks leading up to everything going south. That’s not the kind of relationship Andrew ever had with Jeremy in the past.”

Rylee snuggled closer and traced her finger down his bare chest.

“So, are we in the clear now? Or is there still a chance you’ll go to prison?”

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