Page 31 of The Billionaire's Housekeeper

Did he know?

Did he find out about her?

Abbi wished it didn’t have to come down to this. After all they’d been through in the past month and now this?

She drew in a deep breath. “Y-you found out about…?”

“Yes.” His tone was acid and burned through her.

Abbi’s heart pounded hard and fast in her chest. She felt her throat constrict.

The pain of the anger and hurt in his eyes was far too overwhelming for her senses. How awful this must look. How terrible.

She was busted.

Yes, Chase had told her a great lie about his identity but she told him an even greater lie, didn’t she? But she couldn’t help it. She had no choice in the matter. Still, the look in his eyes told her that he’d never forgive her, either.

It was true then, showing mercy to others, even if they’ve hurt you, could ease your own pain and grant you mercy when you needed it. No one was perfect. She wasn’t forgiving of him and now how could she expect him to be forgiving of her?

“Chase, I…”

“I can’t believe it,” he growled. His voice raised a notch and caused Abbi to shudder.

He paced by the fireplace in her suite, running his hand through his luscious dark mane.

“Chase…I…” don’t know what to say that could possibly make my deception seem better. Abbi collapsed on the bed, sitting with her elbows resting on her knees and her palms on her face. “I’m so s-sorry, Chase. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t mean for this to…”

“Damn it, Abbi. I trusted you. How could you do this to me? To the hotel? So that’s why from day one you were so concerned about my job and how my superiors were treating me. That’s why you kept a journal, documenting every damn thing that happened around here. That’s why you kept asking me about my work hours…”

“I know. It was very underhanded, Chase. But I beg of you, please let me explain.”

“Explain what?” He threw the papers on the bed beside her. “There’s nothing to explain, Abbi. I want you and your ex out of here now or I’ll call the cops for trespassing.”

“But it’s…n-not trespassing.”

“Oh, it isn’t, is it? So that’s what you both scheme to do? Make sure that you’re not quite breaking the law so that you can sneak in at hotels to try to bring down the establishments.”

“No,” she said quietly, feeling defeated. “Please let me explain.”

“Explain what? You’re not even a housekeeper. You’re a goddamn undercover hotel inspector!”

The words caused Abbi to flinch.

Chapter 21

Emotion choked Abbi’s throat. For a moment, she couldn’t even answer Chase. She couldn’t bring herself to meet his dark, sexy gaze. She knew there’d be pain in his eyes. He was right.

By all counts he was right. She was a fraud—an even bigger fraud than he’d been with her about his identity.

“I…I’m so sorry, Chase,” she said, almost breathless, anxiety and nerves getting the best of her. “But it’s not what it seems.”

“What do you mean, it’s not what it seems? Well, are you or aren’t you?”

“Yes, I’m an undercover hotel inspector.”

“Damn it!” he said, clenching his jaw. “I knew it. You were planted here to set me up. To try to find things wrong with the hotel.”

“No! I mean, well, not quite. I…” she broke off, drawing in a deep breath. She had to try to throttle the pounding of her heartbeat in her throat so she could speak again but it was so darn hard. “Chase…”

“I thought undercover hotel inspectors show up as fake guests, not fake employees. How did you manage that one? Isn’t that unethical?”

“Chase, the truth is, I really was a housekeeper. I mean, I am trained as a housekeeper. I have a college degree but I’m trying to start my own bed and breakfast so that’s why I took entry-level jobs in this field. But I ended up with a huge student loan debt and other debts after my parents were killed. I ended up taking care of my younger sister, Louisa.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Clearly Chase was too riled up, and for good reason, to even care about her situation. But she had to tell him the truth. The whole truth. All of it.

“Everything.”

“Everything?”

“I’m not the monster you’re making me out to be.”

“Oh, really now? Yesterday, you made me out to be a monster when you found out I’m the owner.”

“Precisely. I was angry with you and angry with me. Here I was sent to investigate the owner but then I didn’t know you were the owner. I thought you were a worker like-”

“What? Like you?” he asked, his sexy brow raised a fraction.

“Chase, I am a blue-collar worker. I’d registered with the Elite Agency years ago to make ends meet. I figured I could get my foot in the door of hospitality by making beds and doing various housekeeping jobs. I got my sister a job with the Elite Agency, too. Then we were both assigned to work at a hotel in Toronto. Everything was good, so I thought. But then my sister was assigned to clean a room and found some illegal equipment in one of the suites, and well, the guest found out she knew because he had surveillance in his room and tried to frame my sister for trying to rob him.”

“What?”

“Yes. And then she’d apparently left the door ajar and someone snuck in and took about $20,000 in cash that he’d left in his suitcase.”

“Twenty-thousand dollars?”

“Twenty-thousand dollars,” Abbi confirmed softly.

“Let me guess. That guest was Eduardo.”

“Yes. You’re right. He used that against us. He said he wouldn’t press charges if we worked for him. I agreed and I thought that was the end of it. Then…well, we dated. I thought he was so charming back then. Then I found out he already had a family. He was living with someone in Mexico. He travelled a lot and was living a double life. Just like my father before his death.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Chase said, his tone softened only a fraction but she could still see the look of anger flash in those dark eyes of his.

“Then what happened?”

“Well, I threatened to break it off. I was planning on going back to regular housekeeping and waitressing relying on the tips until I get my debts paid off, but he’d convinced me to do this one last assignment for his little company on the side. I had no idea one of his clients was this Jake Jackson guy you’d confronted at the dining lounge that day when you had to leave my cabin in the morning at breakfast.”

“That’s probably who put him up to it,” Chase growled, rubbing his stubble.

“I don’t know. He just instructed me to work for him on the side—as usual. He told me that while I’m cleaning the rooms here, I should investigate and see what I can find out, then document everything. Just like in my other inspection jobs, only Eduardo liked me to only note the negative stuff I see. That was one sign that it wasn’t something I wanted to do. How would I feel if someone only documented stuff going wrong and ignore all the good points about me or my business? I told him it was nefarious, but he shrugged it off and reminded me of the deal we had. And all I kept thinking about was my little sister having her future ruined. But then I realized that he was doing shady activities and was going around rigging things to set you up. I had no idea that’s what he was about.”

“How could you not have known?”

“Easy. I trusted him. I thought it was just simple agency. I just thought his company simply sent workers to go undercover to rate hotel practices but it turns out he’s involved in some underworld crap hired by rival hotels and such to sabotage their competitors. I wanted nothing to do with it.” She squeezed her eyes shut in emotional pain. She would never want to hurt anyone like that, especially Chase.

“So yes, I took this assignment here originally to investigate the Belmont Ranch Resort undercover as a worker and that would have been my last assignment with him. I really wanted to work here so…” She pulled out her diary. “See here,” she said, flipping open the pages. “I’ve been documenting only good things, Chad. I mean, Chase.”

Chase reluctantly took the diary from her, his gaze still on hers.

He flipped through pages and pages of notes about the safety of the facility, the staff, the environment and…the stargazing perk that all visitors at the resort had a chance to do. Nothing nefarious there. She’d even documented the wonderful horseback riding trips and nature trail walks. A lump climbed in his throat. She even noted the day when he’d helped Lucky, the Border Collie puppy from the oak tree. She’d written “the employees are super helpful…the maintenance guy climbed a tree to help the puppy of a guest…” Emotion climbed in his throat.

She really was telling the truth, wasn’t she? Abbi hadn’t set out to mess with him, or his hotel.

“But when I met you as Chad. I…” her voice choked off with emotion again. This was too great for her. The first man she’d ever really fallen head over heels in love with and this whole situation turned out to be one great mess. Chase would never forgive her.

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