The Billionaire's Revenge: Billionaire Brothers Billionaire Bachelors (Tycoon Billionaires Book 3) by Julie Farrell Read Free Book Online Page A

direction?” She winced. “For the team?”
    He leaned towards her. “I can give you some tricks of the trade and a lead – how’s that?”
    “Okay. Yes please – that would be... thank you.”
    He scratched his head. “Alright. You heard of the soap star Pierre Dupont?”
    “Umm… He’s in that thing about cops working undercover, right?”
    “Right, well, he’s a good-looking guy; popular with the ladies you’d think, huh?”
    “I suppose so.”
    “ And he’s married. So I’ve got a feeling he might be in some trouble.”
    “What kind of trouble?”
    Gerald smothered her with contempt. “That’s for you to find out, Ellie.”
    “Can’t you give me a clue?”
    “No, because I’ve no idea what secrets he’s guarding. But he’s sure to have some, huh? So you just go ahead and send him a little message – you know, tell him you’ve discovered his dirty secret; tell him you want to meet up and discuss it. And if he meets up with you, you know he’s got something to hide. And you know he’ll be desperate to do anything to stop the world from finding out.”
    Eleanor’s sense of reality imploded. “Frame him?”
    He scoffed. “If that’s what you wanna call it.” Gerald grinned proudly. “Hey, I’ll bet you’ve never heard the term ‘blagging’, huh?”
    “Don’t think so.”
    “Well, that’s what we call what I’ve just described. We pretend we’ve got some info on the target and ‘blag’ our way into getting them to confess. It’s something we all swear by. You understand what I’m saying, don’t you?”
    “I do, yeah. Blagging. Right.”
    “But it’s not the same as lying, okay, because you are actually reporting the truth.”
    “The truth…” she nodded slowly.
    “Although if you do get really desperate, you can always just write something scandalous and add his name in after. Sometimes I do that. Write the quotes before I’ve got my story, then match them up with the guilty target. And bribery has its place, of course. You know, drop in on our competitors and see if they’re in the mood to receive a nice envelope full of cash in exchange for their top story. You’ve got to do whatever you can to get that front page. That’s the most important thing I can say to you.”
    Eleanor was speechless. There didn’t seem to be any investigating going on here at all. It was all bribery, corruption, and lies. But – of course – things would be different at the broadsheet. The sensible newspaper. Wouldn’t they?
    Gerald drummed his fingers on the table. “Oh, just one more little tip – you’ll like this: if you need any medical information about a celebrity, just call up their hospital and pretend to be a specialist. They usually give it out over the phone. And then you can contact the celebrity in question and ask them if they’d like you to publish that info, or would they prefer it if you suppress it in exchange for some other gossip. Genius, huh? People are dumb. I love it. I’ve got some of my best stories that way.”
    Eleanor cleared her throat. “Er, isn’t that blackmail?”
    “Bless you, Eleanor. Welcome to the world of tabloid journalism. Now I suggest you get on with that story. As I said, if you don’t come up with the goods, you’re out.”

Chapter Six
     
    Joseph gripped the steering wheel of his four-by-four and cruised through the damp cold night. His freedom and privacy had been severely constricted since he’d been thrust into the public sphere, and there were only two places he could ever really be alone now: in his apartment or while driving. He listened as the wipers rocked mechanically to and fro, slicing up time like a heartbeat and sluicing the heavy downpour off the tinted windshield. It was peaceful in here; quiet and snug – a warm bubble of sanity against the crazy world outside. He sighed. He was heading over to see his brothers Adam and Dylan for a game of poker, and they planned to link up with their oldest brother Ivan on