Page 53 of The Billionaire's Rival (Bad Boy Billionaires)

The detective turned to the uniformed officer. “Go on in and speak to the manager. Make sure everything’s settled, everyone’s calm, and they know there’s nothing more to worry about. The situation is under control.”

“What exactly do I say if they want to know why these men targeted the facility?”

The detective turned to Ford.

“They were under the impression one of the residents had a lot of valuables with her. They won’t be back.”

The officer looked from the detective to Ford. “You heard him, go on.” The young man jogged toward the front door of the facility.

“If you don’t need anything else from us, we’re going to go.” Ford said.

The man at Ford’s feet stirred. The detective pulled cuffs from his pocket and bent to close them around the man’s wrists. “I can find out anything else I need from Carter.”

“Thank you for your assistance.”

The man nodded. I hoped he was being well compensated for his actions.

“Let’s go.” Ford laid a hand between my shoulder blades. The unexpected contact made me jump. No matter that it was through two layers of clothing, his touch was warm and potent.

“Wait,” I said. “I need to tell Gran goodbye.”

“Okay. I’ll reset the alarm on the back door while you talk to her.”

We slipped back in the way we had come out. When I entered Gran’s room, she seemed less deeply asleep than before. The sound of sirens must have roused her a little. “Gran?”

She smiled but didn’t open her eyes. I squeezed her hand and felt the tiniest squeeze back.

“I love you. I’ll be back to see you soon.”

When I left the room, Ford was waiting for me in the hall. We walked out the front door, waving to the nurses at the front desk like nothing odd had occurred. Once we were seated in Ford’s car, I said, “Are we just going to act like none of that happened?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re not going to explain anything?”

“Surely you can see it’s better if I don’t.”

“I can’t believe you had the nerve to act like I was outrageous when I proposed a solution that was a little like bribery.”

Ford laughed. “A little? That was when we were following the letter of the law. As soon as you were threatened, that went out the window.”

From the way he looked at me when he said that I could almost believe he cared about something more than his own convenience and making sure this ended up the way Montgomery wanted it to. “Are we still going to lunch?”

Ford shook his head. “We’re going back to my house. I’m going to finish the sauce I was making last night. You’re going to work from there for the rest of the day. You may be working from there until this is settled.”

“And what the hell am I going to tell the senior partners about that?”

“Whatever it takes.”

I sighed.

“It’s obvious something went wrong today. I know you’ll need to visit your grandmother again, but we need to minimize your movements.”

“Ford, I need to know more about what’s going on. My client keeps calling, and I’m just having to say bullshit to her.”

“Isn’t that what you usually do with most of them?”

I started to deny it, but then I shrugged. “When it’s necessary.”

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