Billionaire Undaunted: The Billionaire's Obsession ~ Zane Read online

  “It’s just protein filaments and dead cells, Ellie. It’s just hair,” he said in a husky voice.

  “I know.” She nodded tearfully. “It’s stupid to be upset about something so superficial. I think I’m just starting to realize how much everything is going to change, how much I have to take care of and how different things will be now. I don’t have a job or a home. It’s like life moved on without me, but I’m still here. Now I’m trapped someplace between existing and not. I’m not sure where I go from here.”

  Zane stood and scooped her up from the chair and carried her into her room and laid her gently on the bed. “You need to sleep. Don’t think so much. You’ll end up overwhelmed. Take one thing at a time. I can’t promise you that you’ll feel normal again tomorrow. But I promise I’ll do everything in my power to make you happy again.”

  “I don’t feel normal,” she told him breathlessly, panic beginning to set in.

  Zane kicked off his boots and climbed onto the big bed, gathering her up in his arms before answering, “You’ll feel normal again, Ell. I promise.”

  Zane’s words were comforting, but her memories began to swamp her. Every one of them was frightening. Still, she started to talk. “Sometimes he made me beg for whatever food and water he’d brought with him. I was so hungry and thirsty that I didn’t care if I begged. Depending on what mood he was in, sometimes it was worse than others. I always knew he’d beat me up, use me as a target for whatever anger he’d stored up while smiling at everyone else. He was evil, Zane, probably the most psychotic person I’ve ever met. I started to hate myself because I was so afraid, and that I gave in to everything he wanted just to get some scraps of food and water.”

  His arms tightened around her as he pulled her head against his chest. “Don’t,” he said roughly. “Don’t blame yourself for anything you did to survive. Being afraid in that situation is normal. I’m not a counselor, but even I know that when you’re a survivor, you do what you have to do. I fucking hate it that you ever had to be afraid, that the bastard ever laid a hand on you. If he wasn’t already dead, I’d kill him myself for what he did to you and to Chloe.”

  Ellie took deep breaths, helping her heartbeat to calm and her panic begin to recede. She’d lived through James’s captivity. Everything else was just hard work. “He was a sadistic bastard. Sociopathic. He would have eventually hurt Chloe even worse. Once I knew what he was, I was petrified that he’d actually kill her to get her money. I was so relieved to find out she didn’t marry him, and that he was dead.”

  “He didn’t just hurt her physically. He also crushed her pride and self-esteem. But she’s dealing with it. I like Walker. I think he’s good for her.”

  “I’m glad she’s happy,” Ellie shared.

  “You’ll be happy again someday, too,” Zane insisted, rubbing a comforting hand down her back. “It will take time.”

  “You said you didn’t see my car. I wonder what happened to it. He had to have hidden it or destroyed it.”

  “Don’t worry about your car, your job, or anything else right now. You need time to heal,” Zane grumbled. “We’ll go to town tomorrow and get you some of the things you need. You know the police are going to want to talk to you. The asshole might be dead, but they’re going to want your statement so they can close the case.”

  “I know,” she said stoically. “I hate talking about it, but I will.”

  “Don’t worry about anything except getting stronger. Pretty soon you’ll have Chloe back, and right now you have me.” His voice was stubbornly adamant.

  She relaxed, leaning against his strength. There was never really a time she’d depended on anyone. She was used to being the organizer, the caretaker, even from a very young age.

  For once, it was nice to have somebody to lean on.

  He shifted onto his back and pulled her partially across his body, keeping her head on his chest. Threading one hand through her hair, he rubbed her back with the other in a soothing, circular motion.

  “I’m tired,” she admitted, feeling so emotionally and physically drained that her eyes flickered closed.

  “Then sleep.”

  “I don’t want you to leave me,” she admitted, her tremulous tone vulnerable.

  She didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts and away from his comforting presence right now. Tomorrow, she would start growing stronger. But for right now, she needed him.

  “I’m not going anywhere, Ellie. I’ll be right here.”

  She sighed with relief and snuggled into the heat radiating from his body. “Thank you.”

  “Do you trust me?” Zane asked hoarsely.

  “Yes.”

  “Then sleep. Nobody will ever hurt you again,” he vowed.

  He sounded so serious that she smiled, feeling safe in his powerful embrace. When she finally drifted off a few minutes later, she fell almost immediately into a deep and dreamless slumber.

  When she woke up the next morning, feeling rested, Zane was gone. Ellie might have thought she’d imagined him or dreamed about him ever being there, comforting her in a tender way she’d never thought possible for Zane, but she knew she hadn’t dreamed up his presence.

  One deep whiff of her pillow filled her senses with his scent, proving that he’d been there in her bed, but had quietly left her to sleep.

  Rolling over on her back, she tried to clear his tantalizing essence from her lungs, stop her body from reacting to the fact that he’d been in her bed, that she’d wallowed in the security of having him close.

  I can’t start needing him this much!

  Her body and brain warred against each other as her core clenched with a primal need for the one man she’d ever really wanted.

  Sitting up in bed, she swiped the hair from her face and admitted that waking up without him there beside her made her miss him, and it scared the hell out of a woman who was used to being just fine alone.

  Several days later, Zane was working in his underground lab, trying to figure out when Ellie Winters had become so damn stubborn. She’d been a sweet teenager, but somewhere along the way, the woman had developed an ornery, independent streak that seemed never-ending.

  So I replaced some of her belongings: a cell phone, a laptop, new clothing with some help from Lara, and a few other things that she needs for everyday life. They’re just essentials.

  Zane didn’t think what he’d done was any big deal. But he’d made Ellie emotionally upset, and he wasn’t even certain why she’d been weeping when he gave her the everyday stuff. He hadn’t asked why she’d cried because it made him feel sick inside that he’d been the cause of her tears. All he wanted was for Ellie to be happy, and apparently she had been making progress despite her previous tearful reaction to his gifts…until today.

  Today was the day he’d realized just how obstinate Ellie could really be.

  She had literally set her foot down, stomping it in refusal, when he’d brought home the new vehicle he’d acquired for her, flat-out refusing to take something he’d bought for her. She claimed it was too expensive. When he’d mentioned that she’d only had liability insurance on her missing vehicle, and that her insurance company wasn’t going to pay anything to replace her piece of junk Blue Turtle, she’d glared at him and walked away.

  “It’s just a BMW. She acts like I went out and bought something really expensive. The Beemer was a reasonable choice, something solid and dependable. It’s not like I went out and blew a bunch of money on an exotic sports car,” Zane mumbled under his breath as he recreated some of the findings of one of his lead scientists at the lab, rechecking the results himself. “And it’s an SUV. It’s practical for Colorado. Plenty of people have one here.”

  Granted, he wanted to see some of Ellie’s old spirit revived. But pissing her off wasn’t exactly the way he’d wanted that to happen. Nevertheless, she was angry. But regardless of how stubborn
she was going to be, Zane decided she would be driving a dependable car, the one he’d purchased for her.

  After finishing his work, he input his verification into the lab computer and put away his supplies, wondering how he could get Ellie to accept the inevitable. She was going to use the SUV. He wanted her using a reliable vehicle. He didn’t want her buying another piece of crap like her last car. It had been too small, too old, too unreliable, and all of those things were unacceptable to him.

  He took off the disposable covering he was wearing over his clothing and then dumped his mask and gloves into the hazardous materials container he kept near the door.

  Zane could admit he was disorganized, but only with anything outside of his lab. Here, he was meticulous. Here, it mattered to him. Working with potentially dangerous organisms didn’t leave room for mistakes.

  He washed his hands and dried them before he stood in front of the steel doors and used his fingerprint scanner to make the double doors swoosh open. As he walked down the hallway and up the stairs that led to the house, he contemplated his options.

  Let Ellie have her way and return the BMW? Nope. Not gonna happen. She needs a safe vehicle.

  Convince Ellie to take it? Probably unlikely. Though, Zane admitted she’d looked pretty mulishly insistent over not accepting his gift. He realized that he liked that look on her. It was preferable to seeing her weep, but it wasn’t going to stop him from making sure she was driving dependable transportation.

  Get Chloe to help him convince her? A possibility, but Chloe isn’t home yet, and she doesn’t even know Ellie is still alive.

  Throw Ellie over his shoulder and toss her into the car? Yep. That idea had merit since he’d been feeling like a damn protective caveman since the minute Ellie disappeared.

  Now that he’d found her, the urge to make sure Ellie was safe was almost overwhelming, a compulsive, raw instinct that he was barely managing to control.

  Get it together. You’ll scare her off. Hell, I’m scaring myself.

  Zane considered himself a reasonable, rational, logical guy. He made decisions based on data and realistic facts. Lately, he wasn’t reacting with his normal levelheadedness; he was giving in to emotions and compulsions he couldn’t seem to control. He’d never experienced those types of feelings before, and it confounded him that with Ellie, he sometimes couldn’t control his own words or behavior.

  For some reason, Ellie had always been a woman he wanted to know better but ended up avoiding because he’d considered her off-limits in the past. However, it hadn’t stopped him from asking about her when he talked to Chloe. He’d almost blown it in the hospital, letting Ellie know that, little by little, he’d gotten to know her preferences by encouraging Chloe to talk about her best friend. Zane knew Ellie’s favorite was Asian food because Chloe had mentioned it. She’d also told him that she was sending Ellie her favorite chocolates for a birthday surprise a few years ago. Zane had asked what kind, and he still remembered exactly what company made the confections.

  He activated the metal door to the garage hallway by using the fingerprint scanner again, and then pushed the doorway open, a hidden door that wasn’t really detectable from inside the house unless one was really looking.

  He strode down the hallway, but stopped short when he heard Ellie’s voice. He could see her at the kitchen table with her laptop, her eyes glued to the screen as she spoke.

  It took him a moment to realize what she was doing. She’d been having a video chat.

  The counseling sessions!

  He’d known Ellie was going to use her new laptop for sessions with a psychologist in England, but he hadn’t known they were starting today. Of course, he and Ellie hadn’t really had a chance to have a civil conversation this morning before he’d retreated to his lab.

  He leaned against the wall and froze, not wanting to interrupt her, and shamelessly listening in on her conversation.

  Unfortunately for him, they seemed to be wrapping things up.

  Ellie sighed as she appeared to reply to the therapist. “Thank you, Natalie. It helped a lot to talk about how I feel. I know it’s very late there for you, but I’m glad you agreed to help me.”

  Zane watched as Ellie said good-bye and confirmed another appointment in a few days. She closed the laptop with a pensive look on her face.

  She needs to talk; she needs support.

  He clenched his fists as he cursed himself for not knowing how to really talk to her. He wanted to be there, wanted to be her sounding board. He just wasn’t sure exactly how to be what she needed right now.

  He knew a very big part of Ellie wanted to just forget what had happened to her, just like he wished he could do. But it wasn’t healthy for her to keep denying that she’d been traumatized by her seven-month ordeal. She’d never really heal if she stuffed it away inside her and never pulled it out and dealt with her emotions.

  He moved into the kitchen and sat down across from her. “Do you want to talk about it? How did it go?” He hoped like hell she’d gotten over her anger from earlier that morning. He didn’t want her to shut him out, even though he didn’t have a fucking clue what to say.

  She shook her head, but started to talk anyway. “Natalie thinks I have post-traumatic stress.”

  Zane raised an eyebrow. “What do you think?” He didn’t know much about mental health, but he was personally willing to bet that most people who had endured what Ellie had been through were bound to suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

  “I suppose I probably do. I can’t hear a noise that reminds me of my time as James’s prisoner without getting nervous and scared. Sometimes I get flashbacks. That’s why I’d rather not acknowledge it at all. But it haunts me. My life is a mess because of what happened. I feel like I’ve lost my independence, my entire life because of what happened. And I’m still afraid of what’s going to happen to me.”

  “Not a fucking thing is going to happen to you, Ellie. You’re home with people who care about you in this town. You’re not dependent just because you need some help from friends right now. You’ve been through too much to deal with this alone,” he told her reasonably. “Take the help I’m offering you. Your life will slowly return to normal. You just need time.”

  Zane could literally feel her desperation and sorrow, and it nailed him in the chest like a knife. He wanted to make everything all better for Ellie, but he felt so damn powerless. He couldn’t take away her memories or the damage that fucking James had inflicted on her emotionally.

  She trained her sapphire eyes on him as she answered, “That’s just it. I’ve never not been able to take care of myself. Things aren’t as bad as I thought they would be. Somebody has been taking care of my bills, and I have an enormous amount of money in the bank. It has to be Chloe, and I’m going to need to talk to her about it.”

  “It wasn’t Chloe,” he confessed. “It was me. I paid your bills, and I put money into your checking to cover any bills that might be on auto-pay.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “Why?”

  Zane clenched his fists on the table. “Because I was never going to admit that you weren’t coming back, and I wanted your life to be as close to normal as possible when we found you. Since you weren’t here to deal with things, I did it for you. That’s what friends do, right?”

  He wasn’t about to tell her that he’d needed to take care of her personal life, that he’d needed to do those things to convince himself that she would be back. In a way, it had been therapeutic for him, a way of convincing himself that Ellie wasn’t dead. Chloe had been dealing with enough troubles of her own, and he hadn’t wanted his sister to take care of Ellie’s personal responsibilities. He’d wanted to do it himself.

  She was silent for a few moments before she answered solemnly. “Thank you. But I’m going to have to pay you back when I get a job.”

  “You don’t need a damn job
right now. You just need to focus on getting well,” he told her gruffly.

  “I need to find a job, Zane. I can’t handle this. I can’t not want to feel normal again. For me, that means making a living.” She put her face into her hands in a gesture of defeat.

  Zane’s heart fell to his feet. He hated seeing her this way. He wasn’t used to it. Ellie was a capable, anally organized, cheerful type of woman. Seeing her all but destroyed was killing him.

  “Then work for me, Ellie,” he offered before he could even think about his words. “I need you. Look around this house and you’ll understand why. I need a personal assistant I can trust, and that’s hard to find. I need an organizer for things inside and outside of work.”

  She moved her hands to look at him curiously. “Don’t you have an assistant?”

  “No. The last one I had almost sold company secrets to one of my competitors. Luckily, we caught him in time. I haven’t trusted anyone enough since then, and it happened a few years ago. We have secretaries at varying levels of security at the lab, but most of them don’t have access to personal documents or research results.”

  She frowned. “Somebody who worked for you tried to betray you?”

  It hadn’t been the first time, and definitely wouldn’t be the last, but Ellie didn’t understand what people were willing to do for millions or billions of dollars. “I know you think I’m paranoid because everything is on tight security here, but when I’m home, I have a lot of information with me—research results and projects that some of our competitors would want for all the wrong reasons. It has to be secured.”

  “There has to be a ton of people who are more qualified to work for you. I don’t have a college education,” she argued. “I don’t know anything about biotechnology.”

  He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I just have to have someone I trust, someone to help me stay organized outside of the lab. I have faith in you, Ellie. If anyone can get me organized, it’s you.”