“Did you have someone up there?”

His tone indicated she had better not have had someone in her apartment. Worry for Andrii sent a shock wave of panic through her mind.

“I’m quite capable of making someone disappear,” he added.

He wasn’t joking with her. She kept her expression serene, with effort. She’d practiced the look a million times in her mirror after hearing those screams coming from somewhere in the complicated maze of secret rooms. Her eyes met his, and she made certain she had a look of inquiry.

“Alan.” She kept her voice gentle and sweet. Deliberately, she acted as if she didn’t understand. “That isn’t something you should say to me when I’m looking for the criminal stealing from you. I know he might deserve whatever he gets, but I can’t know about it. It wouldn’t be safe for you.”

He frowned and took a step closer to the desk. “What is it with you? I don’t like bitches as a rule. I have a hard time getting you out of my mind.”

Her heart continued to accelerate. Her mouth went dry. That wasn’t good. She’d begun to suspect he was looking for more than a working relationship, although he never dated anyone for more than a week or so. His women didn’t last.

“Perhaps you could refrain from referring to me as a bitch. I am not a dog, nor am I in heat. I’m your employee, and you’re skating very close to a pet peeve of mine.” She stuck her nose in the air and regarded him steadily with as much annoyance as she could muster.

What could have been a smile touched his mouth. “A pet peeve? Damn, woman, that’s it right there. That attitude you have. We can talk about that later. Right now, I want to know about the other night. Why you didn’t let me come upstairs.”

She sat back in her chair. He was expecting her to say she had company, and she feared if she admitted Andrii was there, Andrii would mysteriously disappear. She had to give him something or he would get angry. She decided on a partial truth. And she was going to give it to him without attitude because he seemed to like attitude. She didn’t want him thinking about her, let alone liking anything she did.

Her lashes fluttered, and she took a deep breath, letting him see it disturbed her to tell him. She wanted to give the impression of reluctance and a little bit of shame.

“I haven’t gotten over it.” That was the stark truth. She would never get over witnessing Quentin murder Janine and her niece and nephew. She would never get over the trauma of the three bullets tearing through her body. Still, she poured embarrassment into her tone.

His eyebrow lifted. “Gotten over what?”

Andrii would have known immediately without making her say it. Billows was that obtuse. Really? She wanted to get up and walk out. But then, she’d wanted out for years. She knew that wouldn’t happen with consent. Billows would threaten her and possibly kill her before he would allow her to quit.

“Quentin murdering my sister, niece and nephew. Shooting me three times, attempting to kill me.”

His eyes lost the blaze of anger. “You were still a kid.”

She decided to act as if she was powering through. She allowed her eyes to shimmer with tears before she dropped her gaze from his, as if hiding her shame. “I don’t feel safe when anyone’s in my personal space.” That was true, and she hoped he believed her. Everything she’d told him was the strict truth.

She caught at the drawstrings on her hoodie and twirled them nervously around her finger. “I don’t even invite women friends to my apartment. I’m not ready yet.” She wasn’t certain she would ever be.

She hadn’t invited Andrii, but once he was there with her, she hadn’t been afraid for her life, more for her heart. Fortunately, Billows dropped the idea of thinking someone was in her apartment.

“That makes sense, Azelie.” He seemed much more relaxed, the harshness and cruelty fading from his expression. “You aren’t going to get over something like that quickly.”

“It didn’t stop when I was in the hospital. There were so many reporters and cops forcing me to relive it over and over. I have nightmares. If someone came up to my apartment and could see where I keep everything, I would never be able to fall asleep.” That was true as well—with the exception of Andrii. She didn’t know why he was the exception when danger emanated from him. She felt physically safe, just not her heart. She desperately needed to guard her heart from him, but she knew it was impossible.

“You realize, working for me in the position that you do, adding someone else into the mix would be seriously dangerous for them.”

Billows stated it casually, as if it was a foregone conclusion that she would never date anyone.

She forced herself to meet his gaze. Again, he had a strange look in his eyes. This time he looked possessive. She had no idea what that was all about, but she didn’t like it.

“I’m far too busy to add anyone into my life.” She was. That was the truth as well.

Studying Billows’ hard expression, she suddenly was terrified for Andrii. She would have to convince him she was too busy or not interested. But she wanted at least one night with him. Just one. It would have to last her a long, long time. She wasn’t going to take chances with his life. Billows was a criminal, and by his own admission, he was willing to kill people.

That made her think of the woman who had screamed. Billows could say he was watching a movie all he wanted, but she didn’t believe it. She hadn’t believed his explanation then, and she didn’t believe it now. If anything, she was more certain than ever that he had hurt someone while she was working in her office.

She refused to put Andrii in danger, not even if he was her one chance for a perfect relationship, or as perfect as one could get with both people having issues. She wasn’t going to take all the blame. She knew she was screwed up after what Quentin had done. Her parents had started her down a road of mistrust and her brother-in-law pushed her over the edge. But she saw things in Andrii’s eyes when he wasn’t guarding himself. Bad things. He definitely had issues, so no, she wasn’t going to shoulder all the blame for being the only one screwed up.

“It’s good you don’t want to put anyone else in danger, but I think it’s time you had someone looking after you.”

Her heart jumped, began to race. She worked at breathing normally, at settling her pulse. She had to handle this just right. “I’m quite capable of looking after myself, Alan. I’ve been doing it since Quentin took my entire family from me.”

“That’s not quite true,” Billows disagreed. “I’ve been looking after you, making sure you’re safe when you go running around that park in the evening. I’m going to put a stop to some of the things you do that are dangerous. You don’t seem to have any real concept of self-preservation.”

Her brows drew together. “You’re my boss, Alan. You’re not my partner. No one tells me what I can or can’t do.”

“That’s about to change.” He made it a statement.

She didn’t pretend to misunderstand his meaning. “Getting into a relationship with your boss is always a bad idea. When things go south, and they always do, you no longer have a job.” She used her primmest, snippiest voice.

Billows burst out laughing. His reaction was totally unexpected, and for the first time, she could see why so many women were attracted to him.

“Right there is why we’re going to have a relationship.”

She’d forgotten he liked attitude. Mostly, she was amenable and preferred pleasing those she cared about, but she had no trouble expressing her opinion when she didn’t like something or thought the other person was wrong. Being in a relationship with Alan Billows was so wrong.

“We are not. I’m not risking my job, and you have a bad reputation with women. I’m sorry to say this, Alan, but you’re never with a woman for more than five minutes. Gorgeous women. Models. Actresses. You date celebrities and heiresses. I’m none of those things. They couldn’t keep your wandering eye from straying, so there would be zero chance that I would keep your attention.”

“We’ll see.”

“We won’t see,” she corrected firmly. “You need to let me get to work. This isn’t going to be easy. If someone has begun to siphon money from your accounts…”

His dark scowl was back. “They took it. All of it. Drained the accounts. This isn’t a little siphoning off of the profits. This isn’t one of my business associates deciding to steal from me, skimming from the top. This is blatant, finding my hidden accounts and wiping them clean.”

Azelie sat very still, her mind racing. No one should have been able to find his concealed accounts. They were buried under so many layers and companies, it would be a miracle for someone, even the Feds, to find them and identify that they were Billows’.

“Alan, if they wiped out every one of your hidden accounts, they targeted you specifically. Do you have enemies? Someone who would want to destroy you and your businesses?”

He shrugged. “No one gets where I am without stepping on people. The answer would be yes, I have multiple enemies.”

“Ones capable of hiring someone elite with a computer?”

“Yes,” Billows said. “Strange thing is, they didn’t touch my legal business accounts, only the ones where I stash the money from illegal businesses.”

She dropped her forehead into her palm. “I’m not elite on a computer, Alan. I am with numbers, but not with tracing someone that good. We should find someone to help us.” Deliberately, she aligned herself with him in the hopes he wouldn’t go ballistic on her and insist she could find the culprit. She could not. Whoever had done such a thing was far, far better than she was on a computer.

She dared to raise her gaze to Billows’ face. He was beyond an ordinary storm and had gone straight to a level-five hurricane. His face was flushed, eyes dark and scary, and he was actually gritting his teeth.

“That’s bullshit.”

Azelie knew she had to make him understand, even if it meant his wrath would descend directly on her head. She feared it already had with the way he was looking at her.