Page 21 of Her Billionaire Hero
I couldn’t help it any longer. She looked so worn down for some reason. Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, I pulled her close to me. “Come on, let’s sit down and you can unload that heaviness on me.”
Moving with me, she smiled as she looked up at me. “You’re a good friend.”
Yeah, but I want to be more than just your friend.
“Yep.” I pulled her down to sit next to me on the sofa.
After taking another long-ass drink, she sighed. “Okay, so the first thing that’s bothering me is that my mother might be dead.”
“Holy shit!” I put my beer bottle down on the coffee table then took hers and did the same before taking her hands in mine. “Sloan, thatissome heavy shit.”
“I know.” Her hands shook as I held them a little tighter to help calm her down as her eyes turned glassy. “I’ve always told myself that she just ran off to be with some man. I hated her for how she left me and my father. And now that she might not have left us at all—at least not by her own choice—I don’t know how I can live with myself for being so angry with her all these years.”
She’d told me that her mother hadn’t been in the picture for a long time, but nothing more than that. “How are you doing with this news?”
Leaning her head on my shoulder, she whimpered, “I don’t know, Baldwyn. I really have no idea how I’m feeling at all. I’m numb. And finding out that she might be dead—murdered—isn’t all of it either.”
“Murdered?” This was getting even crazier. “How’d you find this out?”
“The police contacted my father. He came in from Greece to deal with this whole thing. He didn’t want me to have to do it.” Slipping her hand into mine, she clung to it as if it were a lifeline. “But I did have to go down to the police station, and they took a sample to see if my DNA matches with the remains they found. And I’m hoping that it doesn’t match at all.”
“Thatwouldbe good.” Her hand felt good in mine and I rubbed the backs of her knuckles with my thumb. “I’m here for you, Sloan. Any way you need me, you got me, girl.” But she had said there was more. “What else is bothering you?”
“The body—or what was left of it—was hidden underneath a thin layer of concrete, made to look like a patio at the back of a building in South Austin. A building that my ex-husband once owned. The police think the murder occurred during the time Preston owned the building.” She squeezed my hand as she pulled her head off my shoulder to look at me. “He and my mother were having an affair when she went missing. He was put through the ringer by the cops back then. And now that a female body has shown up that appears to be around the age my mother was when she went missing, and found on property that used to belong to Preston, the authorities have no choice but to look Preston’s way once again.”
“And they’re right to.”I knew that man was horrible!“Wait.” It hit me like a brick. “He and your mom had an affair?”
“Yep.” She pulled her hand from mine, then picked up the beer and took another drink before setting it back down. “I didn’t know about it until after we were married. My father knew. How he didn’t let me in on that is a real mystery. I mean, Dad has his reasons, not that I truly understand him wanting to stay out of my love life though.”
“So, your father knew about the affair.” I was lost. “Before or after your mom disappeared?”
“After.” She placed her hand on my thigh, absently moving it back and forth and sending sparks zipping up my leg, ending in the one organ that I’d tried not to let notice the woman. “Preston told Dad that Mom had never told him that she had a husband or a kid. Preston was as devastated as my father was, from what they both say.”
“If that’s true, yeah, I could see Preston being as upset as your father. But how do you know that’s true?” I didn’t trust the prick at all. “Without your mother’s word, all you have is Preston’s. So, you can’t take what he says about the affair as the truth. Of course he’d want to cover his ass where your father is concerned. A husband who’s just found out that his wife was cheating usually wants to beat the hell out of someone.”
“Dad isn’t a fighter.” She laughed lightly. “Neither is Preston. And that’s why I don’t think he could’ve killed my mother or whoever that woman is whose body they found. He’s not a violent person. The remains of the dead woman show that her neck was broken, and her body dismembered.” A shudder shook her body.
Grabbing her, I held her tightly against my chest. “I’m here, Sloan. You don’t have to go through any of this alone.” It was awful to think that not only might her mother have been the victim of a horrible murder, but at the hands of the man Sloan had married. It was all too much for her to handle alone. Kissing the top of her head, I wanted to be sure she knew how I felt. “You come to me for anything. I don’t want you going through any of this on your own.”
Running her hands up and down my arms, she whispered, “You’re wonderful, Baldwyn. I’m so lucky to have you in my life.”
Thinking about the word life had me thinking about how hers might be in danger. Pulling back, I held her by the shoulders. “Sloan, you have to stay away from your ex. You know that, right?”
“He didn’t do it,” she said, rolling her eyes. “He’s not capable of such a vile and violent act. I know that man.”
“That was before he met you. Hell, you had to have been a kid when this happened.” Time could soften a person who’d once been violent.
“I was twelve when Mom went missing. Six years later, I met Preston when my father brought him home one evening.”
“So, your dad introduced you to the man who’d had an affair with his wife?” This just kept getting more and more insane.
“He didn’t bring him home to introduce us.” She frowned as if growing annoyed with me. “Really, Baldwyn. Anyway, Preston and Dad went into a business venture together, and he brought him over because of something he wanted Preston to see on his personal computer.”
“Do you look like your mom?” I had to ask.Who wouldn’t ask?
Chewing on her lower lip, she gave the answer away without saying the actual words. “Well, I was still younger than my mother when the two of them had met. So, technically, no I didn’t look exactly like my mother—not at that time. I was thinner back then.” She gestured to her boobs. “These hadn’t filled out all the way either.”
“How old was Preston when you met him?”
