Mine To Take (Nine Circles) by Jackie Ashenden Read Free Book Online

sure how to deal with him.
    “You want to save him? Your stepfather, I mean.”
    Honor met Gabriel’s dark gaze. “Yes,” she said flatly. The confession revealed another weakness but she knew dissembling wouldn’t work with this man.
    “Why?”
    “That definitely isn’t your business.”
    “If you want me to give you money, little girl, then it most certainly is my fucking business.”
    “Stop calling me that. I’m not a little girl.”
    “Aren’t you?” The look in his eyes was steady. As if he could see right down to her soul. “A little girl trying to save her daddy. Yeah, that’s what you are. And what do you think he’ll give you in return? A car? A house? A sparkly new dress?”
    The aura of danger coming off him had become even more intense though he hadn’t moved. Not even to pick up his beer.
    “I’m not sure what you find so offensive about it.” She put her hands in her lap so he wouldn’t see them shake. “But my motives should have nothing whatsoever to do with your decision regarding investing in Tremain Hotels.”
    “Then perhaps I won’t invest after all.” He reached out, picking up his beer. Taking a leisurely sip. “Perhaps I’ve found something better to do with my money.”
    Oh, crap. If she wasn’t careful, this opportunity might slip away and then she’d be left with nothing. Then Guy would be left with his business folding and her mother once more neck-deep in debt along with her husband.
    Along with herself. Wouldn’t that be a great reputation breaker? The hot-shot investor who bankrupted herself because of a bad business deal. An emotional investment.
    “Fine,” she said. “Guy Tremain was more of a father to me than my real father ever was. And now that he’s counting on me to help him get this off the ground, I’m not going to fail him. Does that clear things up a little for you?”
    Gabriel took another sip of his beer and put the glass down, leaning back against the red velvet of the seat. “In that case, count me in.”

 
    CHAPTER THREE
    Gabriel approached the door to Alex’s penthouse suite at the Second Circle and stopped. His friend’s Russian bodyguard was standing in front of it looking tall, impassive, and quite lethal in her black suit, her blond hair tied back in a severe ponytail.
    “I’m sorry, sir. You can’t go in. He’s busy,” she said before he could speak.
    “Busy? With what?”
    The Russian woman’s startling green eyes didn’t even flicker. “With whom.”
    Christ. So Alex had some bimbo he’d picked up from somewhere in there, did he? Well, too bad. Gabriel didn’t have the patience for it today. There were questions he needed answers to and he needed them now.
    After his meeting with Honor the night before, it had become imperative to find out more about the relationship between her and her stepfather. If Honor was one of the man’s weaknesses—and given her defensiveness toward the guy, he suspected she was—then he had to know about it.
    Alex had been very clear the night of the group’s meeting that he’d been keeping an eye on her, and if that was the case then he’d have information that Gabriel could use. Investing in Tremain Hotels was one thing, but that was just money. Honor wasn’t though. Honor was personal. And he wanted to make it personal.
    “Is that right?” Gabriel said. “Well, I don’t care who he’s got in there. I need to talk to him.”
    The bodyguard didn’t move, standing in front of the doorway, impassive as a plank of wood. “I’m sorry, sir,” she said again. “My orders are to let no one in.”
    “I’m not no one, sweetheart.”
    She opened her mouth, probably to reiterate her orders yet again, but at that point the door opened and a woman—a rather famous actress if he was correct—came out. She smiled at him as she put on her other stiletto, shaking back a tumble of blond hair. “Later, Alex, darling,” she called through the open doorway behind her and sauntered off down