Page 36 of The Billionaire's Rival (Bad Boy Billionaires)

“And then he made it very clear that there wasn’t.” Why did he have to bring that up? And why was I letting myself wonder—hope?—that I’d been right all along?

Carter looked at Miles. “No matter what else is going on, Jasper is being threatened. It’s time to tell Ford everything.”

I glared at Miles. “What the fuck have you done?”

“He hasn’t done anything to Jasper,” Carter said. “I would’ve put a stop to that, but he hasn’t told you everything about the reason for the lawsuit.”

“You don’t have to talk about me like I’m not here,” Miles snapped.

Anger made my face feel like it was one fire. “You better tell me what’s going on. Right now.”

“I don’t want the warehouse for myself. A friend asked me to make an offer on it. He got word that a group owing loyalty to a Colombian cartel wanted to use it for their own illegal imports.”

“What friend?”

“You know him.” I thought for a moment, then realized I did. This friend was involved in a lot of shady business, though it usually seemed to be for a good cause.

“You just took his word for it?”

“No. I respect him, but I also had Carter look into it.”

“And?”

“This group is not only pushing Lisa Jenkins to keep the warehouse. They’re buying up other properties nearby, and I’m going to make sure they don’t get a stronghold here.”

“And you didn’t think it was important to tell me any of that?”

“I didn’t think you’d like it, and I was hoping to keep you out of it.”

“Now Jasper’s in danger, and it’s our fucking fault.”

Miles sighed. “I did offer to handle this another way.”

“I told you I agreed with Ford on that,” Carter said. “You’ve been walking the line too often.”

“Would you have made a different choice if I’d told you more details?” Miles asked me.

I considered that. “Maybe not at first, but now…. Those men won’t hesitate to kill Jasper if they think he’s not going to win for them.”

“My men are keeping an eye on him.”

“So it is you watching him apartment?”

Carter shook his head. “The men he saw aren’t ours.”

“You knew he was being followed, and you acted like—”

“Ford, I’m sorry.”

I stared at Miles in shock. He almost never apologized.

“If I’d known Jasper was involved, I might have made different choices.”

I nodded. “Thank you. What happens now? We need to tell Jay something. Even with protection from us, he’s still in danger.”

Miles shook his head. “It’s better if he doesn’t know any details.”

“So what are we going to do? Are you actually going to take this suit to court? Men like that won’t hesitate to kill Ms. Jenkins or Jay or anyone else if they get in the way.”

---