Filthy Rich Alpha - Virna DePaul Page 0,94

hit send, then waited until he got her reply.

I’ll think of all the ways you can make it up to me.

With a smile, he slipped the phone back into his pocket. Hell, what was the point in fighting it any longer? He was in love with Cara Michal.

But he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her that for the first time in a text.

“You first.”

He waved Mike into the elevator and pressed the number four. Above five, the elevator went express all the way to his penthouse.

“Thanks so much,” Mike said in a flat voice.

Was it because he was annoyed with the other man, or did Mike Gaunt’s voice sound more monotonous than ever?

Branden told himself to suck it up. Mike Gaunt had put in a lot of overtime on the investigation—he didn’t seem to have a personal life, or at least he never mentioned one—and his tenacious attention to the smallest details was invaluable.

The elevator rose and the numbers lit up. Two. Three.

He felt a sudden explosion of pain at the back of his head.

Felt the bone-jarring impact as he fell to the floor.

Felt a heart-stopping moment of fear for Cara.

Then felt nothing as he blacked out.

Cara had just poured two glasses of wine when she heard the penthouse door open and close. Footsteps came down the hallway. She smiled and called, “You’re early. I’m not ready yet.” Of course, he probably wouldn’t mind that she was barefoot and bare legged, her body concealed only by one of his big T-shirts. But she’d been planning on being completely naked and splayed out on his bed when he arrived. With a wineglass in each hand, she turned and walked into the living room, frowning when she saw Mike Gaunt.

Confusion flooded through her. “Mike? What are you doing here?”

Gaunt smiled. “I ran into Branden in the lobby. He’s on his way up. Howe let me in.”

“But why would he—wait a minute.” Cara stepped back. The confusion made way for something different. Something more instinctive. Concern. Worry. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“But I am.”

Fear. The cold sensation of dread ran up her spine, making the hairs on the back of her neck rise. Her eyes never left him even as she slowly edged toward the phone on a low table. “Get out.”

“I just got here. I’d like to look around.” The tension between them seemed to vibrate in the air. He covered the distance between them before she could lift the receiver. He grabbed the phone and unclipped the cord. One swift pull and the other end of it came out of the wall jack.

“What did you do to Howe?”

Gaunt shrugged. “He, unlike you, believed me when I said Branden had sent me up. Big mistake.” He wrapped the cord around his hand and advanced toward her, backing her into a corner.

Terror caused her body to tremble.

“I like it when you look at me like that,” he muttered. “You never have. In the office you always look right through me. And when I’ve followed you, watched you, you never saw me at all, did you, Cara?”

She swallowed hard. “You mean—the videos. You made those?”

“Yes. All three of them. I saw you fucking a while ago, just like you wanted me to see, but I didn’t record that. I couldn’t. So I’m going to have to record something else.”

She seized a bronze figurine on the bookcase behind her, clutching it like a weapon.

Mike advanced toward her, unafraid. She swung at him with it and lucked out, catching him on the temple.

Cara tried to dash past him but he stretched out his arms and caught her in a viselike embrace.

“No. Stay with me.”

She kicked and scratched at him, then bit him.

“Ahh, yes,” he hissed.

Oh, God. Her fighting was turning him on! She opened her mouth to scream and he clamped his hand over her mouth. He forced his leg between hers, crushing her bare foot under his heavy shoe to keep her off-balance and under his control.

She kept fighting.

“The fourth video will be the best of all,” he said.

Branden dragged himself up from all fours, using all his strength to hold on to the elevator railing. His battered brain still worked, enough to figure out what had happened.

Mike Gaunt had been behind everything that had happened. He was the only one who knew everything about everyone in the office, a classic loner steeped in hate who hid it well. Paranoid. Utterly twisted. And without a doubt, a killer. Branden had only been in his