Page 104 of The Billionaire Who Saved My Cat From The Mafia

On our return to the kitchen, I ask her, “You doing okay this morning?”

She nods.“I apologize for losing it like I did.”

“I think you needed to.”

She nods again, keeping her thoughts to herself—shocker.“The more I know about him the safer you’ll be.This is what I’m trained to do, Boots.Intelligence.But you got to give me some more to work with.”

“I understand,” she says, but when we reach the kitchen, she grabs my hand and looks up at me, her expression dire.“I will not tell you his name.I won’t speak it out loud.”

“Frankie—”

“The less you know about him the better.If you go poking around in his world, hewillnotice, and then everyone in your beautiful, wonderful family will be a target.But I’ll give you background, enough that you can figure out where the best place for me might be.Do we have a deal?”

I scrunch up my mouth.“You’re sure he’s part of the Russian mob?”

She laughs, looks up at the ceiling, then sighs.“Yeah.Real sure.”

I find an old box of Nilla wafers in the cabinet and we take our coffee out to the deck to watch the sunrise over the eastern mountains.I love to listen to the sounds of the wilderness waking up.

“Heaven,” she says.She sips her coffee, stretches out her sexy, bare legs on the chaise lounge, and glances up through the Aspens that frame my deck.“And that’s the opinion of acitygirl.I imagine this would be Nirvana for a country girl.”

“Summer and Phoebe seem to like it, and they’re as country as it gets.”

“And how about that woman?”

I knew it was coming.We might as well get it behind us.I look at her.

“You know,” she says.“The harpy in the driveway.”

I nearly spit out my coffee.I bang on my chest and get myself under control.“Man, I can’t believe I missed that opportunity!”

Frankie’s brows crinkle.“Opportunity for what?”

“Her name’sHarper.I’m not I’m not even joking.”

“Harper.Ugh.But it’s perfect for her,” Frankie says, chomping down on a cookie.

I’m impressed that she’s being so diplomatic, since she’s practically vibrating with curiosity.So I launch into it.

“We dated for two years.She became a hotshot captain in the Navy.And I was planning to propose.”

She glances over at me, crumbs falling on my Navy shirt.I adore this girl.“What happened?”

“I got arrested and she promptly dropped my sorry ass.She didn’t want my troubles to impact her career advancement.”

Frankie slaps her thigh.“See?Aren’t I the best judge of character?I knew she was a bitch when I first laid eyes on her!”She takes another bite of her cookie and shrugs.“I’m not as great when it comes to Russian criminals, I guess.So, does she hang around here a lot?Is she friends with your family still?”

“I hadn’t seen her since my arrest, and she showed up here unannounced a few days ago.She said she wanted to work for our tech firm, but I’m not sure what to believe.At first, I wondered if she’d come here to, you know, rat me out to my family.”

“And?”Frankie asks.“That wasn’t it?”

“I don’t know what to think.”

“Ohhhh,” Frankie says.“Armed Forces Barbie wants you back.”

“Maybe.”

She cocks her head to the side.“And you?You wantherback?I mean, if she were sitting here looking smokin’ hot in your T-shirt instead of me, would you want her back?”