Close To Her Asian Billionaire

Her attacker grabbed her around the throat and pulled her to her feet. Carla tried to gasp for breath as someone leaned in, their foul breath wafting across her face.

“You should really mind your own business.” She heard a soft whisper against her ear. “Back off or you’ll end up like your apartment. Ripped to pieces.”

Then everything went dark.

*****

Jason was furious. Carla had lied to him. She had smiled at him and lied to him. She wasn’t what she claimed to be at all. He had asked his brother Edmund to check again but Edmund had insisted that he had already checked it twice and it didn’t change what he had found.

Carla Romaine was a lie.

Maybe everything they had shared together was a lie as well. Maybe her feelings were false. All so she could get close to Jason and get the dirt on him.

Now he was feeling cheated. The first woman he had begun to open up to and feel love for the first time in his life and she had betrayed him. He wondered what else she had lied about.

Jason was going to have it out with her, see how long she could live up to the lie. But when he went to her apartment and managed to get in and up to her floor she wouldn’t answer the door. He banged on the door with his fist.

“Carla? Carla, open up!”

But still nothing. Jason decided to check if her car was in the parking lot. He should’ve checked when he first arrived but he was too angry to think clearly.

Amazing what happened when you were thrown off your game.

Jason took the elevator down, still seething at how he had been cheated. But his thoughts on confronting Carla disappeared when the elevator doors opened and he saw Carla leaning against the wall. He stared at her bloody face, the cut eye and the ripped jacket. One sleeve had been pulled out of its seam at the shoulder and her left hand was bloody.

“Carla.” Jason hurried forward and grabbed at her as Carla tried to stand and swayed. “My God, what happened to you?”

“I had a run in with a few fists.” Carla winced and gingerly held her stomach. “And a few kicks.”

“It looks like more than a few.” Jason reached for her bag, which she was clutching against her chest. “Give me your key. I’ll get you in.”

“No!” Carla pulled away from him. “Don’t touch me.”

Jason stared. Something had happened to Carla; that much was evident. What wasn’t evident was why she was suddenly shunning his touch.

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

“You think?” Carla snapped.

Jason wasn’t in the mood to deal with her mood right now. Whether he liked it or not he loved this woman and she was hurt. He was going to make sure she was okay. Then she was going to do some explaining.

Snatching her bag away, Jason found the key card and opened the elevator doors. Pulling Carla in, they stood in stony silence as they rode up to Carla’s floor. Still dragging Carla along behind him, Jason unlocked her apartment and pushed her inside, following her in. Carla switched the lights on and went into the kitchen, putting her bag on the counter. Then she burrowed under the sink for the first aid kit.

Jason looked around the apartment with a frown. Something was different. For a moment he thought they were in the wrong apartment. Then he blinked and realized it was Carla’s apartment. It was just that everything inside had changed.

“What happened to your apartment? Wasn’t there different furniture here last time?”

“There was.” Carla banged the first aid kit down and opened it. “Until some of your goons tore the place up and destroyed everything I had when I was on that date with you in Boca Raton.”

“You what?” Jason swung around and stared at her. “Someone destroyed your apartment?” Then something she had said sunk in. “Hang on, why do you think I did it?”

“I don’t know.” Carla huffed, sending him a glare and she leaned on the counter with her hands. “Maybe because I was snooping around and would find out you were laundering money through your publishing house.”

“Excuse me? Laundering money?”

Jason thought he had entered an alternate dimension. Was Carla, his Carla, standing there accusing him of a crime he had never committed? This wasn’t real, surely?

“You heard me.” Carla snapped. “You’re doing business with Taga and you found out I was poking my nose in. So you told your goons to draw me out with a fake meeting and beat me up to make me back off. Or were they Taga’s goons?”

Jason couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was confused and angry all at once. He glared at her.

“You’re mad.”

“Am I?”

From her expression, Carla was furious. Whether it was at him or her Jason didn’t know. But they had their wires crossed somewhere and Jason was desperate for her to know that he had never done anything criminal in his life.

He narrowed his eyes, deciding to play what he knew.

“Who’s your client?” He demanded as he advanced on the counter, mirroring Carla’s stance as he leaned on it from the other side. “Agent Whitely? I know he’s investigating me for money laundering.”

“I was on this before Agent Whitely came on the scene.” Carla shot back.

“And you really think I’ve been engaging in criminal activity?”

“You’re hiding something.”

“Just like you with your private eye business?” Jason watched as Carla’s eyes widened in shock. “When were you going to tell me you’re a private investigator, Carla?”

*****

Carla was flummoxed. Jason knew what she was? She hadn’t been expecting him to find out at all; despite her popularity there were still a lot of people who didn’t know what she worked as. Jason had been one of those people.

Until now. Carla gulped.

“How did you find out about that?” She stammered.

“I did a background check on you.” Jason held up a hand before Carla could open her mouth. “It’s nothing on you. I do it on everyone. When you’re as high-profile as I am you can never be too careful. I also know that Joanie Oldham was the one who hired you.” His eyes narrowed. “You shouldn’t trust her, Carla. She fed you lies because she’s angry with me.”

“You fired her. I’m not surprised.”

“I fired her because she was a lousy editor and she was stalking me.”

Carla watched in stunned amazement as Jason sagged onto a stool and buried his face in his hands, the fight suddenly gone out of him. Her anger also dissipated. She wanted to go to him and comfort him but knew that Jason would push her away.

She waited as Jason took a deep breath and lowered his hands, not looking at her. He suddenly seemed dejected.