Close To Her Asian Billionaire

Chapter 4

The incessant ringing broke into Carla’s deep sleep, vibrating around her head as it broke the silence. Carla rolled onto her back and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. A glance at her clock by the bed said it was just after two.

Whoever was calling had better be important. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with someone calling her up for a laugh or a cold call. However those buggers got mobile numbers and unlisted numbers she had no idea. One cold call had been an escort service calling her at half past three in the morning. Carla had given them a piece of her mind before hanging up on them.

She hoped it wasn’t one of them. The ID display was showing it was a private number, which was an indication it could be.

She was tempted to ignore it but had a feeling they would keep calling and even on vibrate she wouldn’t be able to get any sleep.

Carla reached for her phone and swiped it open, putting it on loudspeaker.

“Hello? Who is it?”

“Stay away from Jason.”

That had Carla awake immediately. It wasn’t a cold caller but it wasn’t a friend or colleague either. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled.

“I beg your pardon?”

“If you value your life, keep away from Jason.” The caller’s voice was raspy, probably disguised with a voice enhancer. “He’s going to get you killed.”

“How’s that?”

But then all Carla heard was the caller hanging up and then dead air.

Carla hung up her end and stared at her phone, wondering if she had dreamt that call. But after pinching herself and feeling the pain through the back of her arm, she knew she was awake.

Putting her phone down, she rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. Someone knew about her case and had decided it would be a clever idea to threaten her to back off. It wasn’t clever and it didn’t make Carla back off.

It just made her all the more curious. There was nothing like a little bit of zest in a case.

And Carla liked a bit of zest.

*****

After three hours trying to get back to sleep, Carla gave up. There wasn’t any point when her brain was turning over the phone call and why they were calling her now. Calling in the middle of the night was usually meant to put the one getting the call off-balance and then they would be on edge.

Carla was on edge. But not because she was scared. She was pissed off. Someone thought they could scare her off with a measly phone call. That and she had a confrontation to deal with that wasn’t going to be overly pleasant.

What possessed the damn man to attack them she had no idea. But Carla was determined to make sure she didn’t ruin the case for her.

After getting up, showering and dressing, Carla was out the door by ten to six. She drove through the city until she pulled up outside the designated address in Miami Shores, a quaint one-story condo. Carla knew from checking the records that the condo was rented at one-thousand dollars a month. How a publishing assistant, and a lower grade at that, could afford something like this monthly Carla had no idea.

That was suspicious in itself. But it could also be a simple explanation. She could have had an inheritance or rich parents. Carla wasn’t sure but made a mental note to ask Faye to check it out for her.

The sky was starting to tinge pink as the sun rose. Nobody stirred on the street as Carla climbed out and walked up the path to the front door. She pressed the doorbell three times. There was movement inside and after a while the door opened a crack. Joanie peered out through the gap. Her hair was rumpled from sleep and her eyes were half-open, her face free of makeup. She blinked in surprise.

“Miss Romaine. I wasn’t expecting a call this early. Couldn’t you have phoned at a reasonable hour?”

“Sorry, Miss Oldham, but it couldn’t wait and I was in the area.” Carla lied. She raised her eyebrows. “Do you mind if I come in?”

Joanie looked like she was about to argue but decided against it. Hiding a huge yawn behind her hand, she undid the door chain and opened the door, allowing Carla to step through. She moved into a lounge and open-plan kitchen. Everything was black and white and leather. It was all spick and span like no one lived here. Carla felt like she had stepped into a show home.

Joanie shut the door and turned to face her. She was wearing a silk kimono with a short hem that brushed near the top of her thighs. It opened a moment and Carla saw that she was wearing a barely-there white thong and nothing else. While it had been a warm night it hadn’t been that warm. But whatever floated her boat.

Joanie pulled her kimono together and tied the belt before rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Have you any news?”

“Not as such.” Carla paused, knowing that wouldn’t go down well. “I just wanted to ask you something.”

“Couldn’t it have waited until it was daytime?”

“I’m afraid not.” Carla watched Joanie closely. “Why did you attack me last night?”

Joanie blinked. She stared at Carla in stunned amazement.

“Excuse me?”

“Jason Liu and I were attacked last night out in the open. I was only given a shove but Jason was hit over the head with a cosh and was injured.” Carla stepped forward, noticing that Joanie stepped away and was not making eye contact. “And I saw the attacker running away. Tall, slim in tight-fitting clothes. No regular thug would wear tight-fitting clothes if they wanted to stay unidentified. That and the fact the running wasn’t normal running told me the attacker was a woman.” She raised her eyebrows as she folded her arms. “You’re the only one I know who would do something like that.”

“It could have been any one of the women who had been out with him.” Joanie protested. But Carla could see she was floundering now, she had been put in a corner. “They all get jealous.”

“I doubt it. They would’ve done it face to face. Plus they would’ve gone after me, not Jason.” Carla shook her head. “Are you willing to jeopardize my investigation to get your own back?”

For a moment she thought Joanie was going to argue that it wasn’t her. But Carla knew it was. It didn’t take a genius to put it together.

Joanie’s body sagged. She moved to one of the couches and sat on the edge, wrapping her arms around her middle.

“I wasn’t thinking straight.” She said timidly. “I was that angry with him.”

“And if he finds out it was you that beat him over the head then there could be criminal charges pressed against you and you’ll be arrested.”

Carla couldn’t believe the woman would be that stupid to get her own back when she knew Jason was already being investigated. She should tell Jason who it was and let him handle it with the police. But Joanie was her client and Carla had a duty to protect her. For now.