The Billionaire’s Valiant Rescue by Nic Saint Read Free Book Online Page A

located on the outskirts of Paris. He had also discovered a single message received.
    ‘Take V to Rue Notaire 55. Welcome committee fueled and ready.’
    Not far from that same cell phone tower there was indeed a Rue Notaire . French police had been notified, but a search of the premises had revealed little. The house was abandoned, home to occasional squatters and derelicts.
    If V had been held there, there were no traces of her keepers or her presence.
    “V. Could be Veronique. Or Valerie. I like Valerie.” She took a sip from her jasmine tea as she gazed out the window across Brussels by morning. Sheer curtains were billowing in the breeze. Jack had opened the window a crack to let some fresh air in.
    A persistent smog enveloped the city, accompanied by a light drizzle. Normal for this time of year, Jack had assured her. It was, after all, only March. Too early for spring.
    Somehow she associated herself with a warmer clime. Perhaps she was a native of the South of France?
    “Could also be Virginie,” suggested Jack.
    She almost choked on her tea. “I don’t think I’m a virgin, Jack. Not from the way I...”
    She bit her tongue before revealing too much about herself.
    He fixed her with a sultry stare. “I know. I don’t think you’re a Virginie, either.”
    She pursed her lips, amused by the way the morning had turned out. She liked Jack more and more, and not merely physically. He was fun to be around, and obviously very intelligent. And caring. The way he was determined to look after her had touched her heart. And other parts of her anatomy...
    “You know what? Why don’t we fly to Paris? I’ll ask my dad to lend us the jet. That way we can make the trip undetected, and once we’re there, we simply vanish in the crowd.”
    “You have a private jet?”
    “Well, not me. My dad.”
    “Your family must be rich.”
    “We’re doing okay.”
    She grinned. Judging from what she’d seen, and from Bill Rattner’s opinions on the Carter family, that was quite the understatement. “All right. Let’s take the jet and fly to Paris.”
    He held up a finger. “On one condition.”
    “What’s that?”
    “No hanky-panky on the plane.”
    She gave a bemused snort. “Oh?”
    “Dad is a bit of a prude. And contrary to what you might have been led to believe, even pilots on private jets have a tendency to blab.”
    She eyed him from across the breakfast table, and slowly let the tip of her tongue slide along her lips. “Are you sure you’ll be able to control yourself? Jack?”
    His eyes shot sheets of flame back at her, hot enough to singe the tips of her blond tresses.
    “I can if you can. V.”
    She laughed, enjoying the light banter and sexual innuendo. The danger she’d faced the day before and that morning seemed far away and she had Jack to thank for it.
    “I like you, Jack Carter,” she said softly.
    He grinned, never taking his eyes off her. “Same here. There’s just one thing I’m afraid of.”
    A twinge of fear crept back into her consciousness. “What’s that?”
    “That we’ll discover you’re some princess from a faraway land whose father has already promised your hand in marriage to a handsome prince.”
    She laughed at the notion of her being a princess. “Right. Me. A princess. Dream on, prince charming.”
    He chuckled amusedly and shrugged. “Who knows what we’ll find in the City of Light?”
    She turned her gaze to the window again, staring out at the Brussels skyline, the gray business city that never slept. Jack was right. There was no telling what they would find at the end of the rabbit hole. What awful or wonderful truths awaited them.
    She was simply glad that Jack would be there to face them with her.

Chapter 12

    “I knew she’d get away from you, you witless lug.”
    Rainer glared at the woman he’d come to know as the scourge of his life, but didn’t retort. The simple truth was that Jeannine was right. She had predicted the girl’s escape, and when finally