Banking Her: A Billionaire Bad Boys Novella (Book 2.5) (Bad Boy Billionaires) by Max Monroe Page B

this nagging feeling that has my brain racing with thoughts that Thatch is up to something.” I looked away and pretended to swallow down emotion before meeting her now concerned eyes. I forced my eyes to go theatrically wide. “You don’t think he’s…” I feigned shock and covered my mouth with my hand. “God, I can’t even say the words,” I muttered for dramatic effect.
    Before she could offer the reassurance that rested on her lips, I covered my mouth with my hand and did my very best impression of Rose when Jack lets go of her hand during Titanic. “Sorry,” I whispered and scrunched my eyes together to stave off the fake tears. I covered my mouth with my hand again and shook my head back and forth. “I just can’t shake this feeling that something awful is going on.”
    Of course, I knew my fiancé wasn’t cheating on me. That might sound naïve to most, but I knew Thatch. I knew him, and I trusted him implicitly. He’d never given me any reason to doubt that trust.
    Plus, he knew that him cheating on me would lead to a homicide situation. He might be one big-ass motherfluffer, but I’d find a shovel and a hole big enough—and if I couldn’t, I’d train as a blacksmith and a gravesite attendant and make them.
    Georgia’s eyes went wide with panic. “Stop thinking like that. There’s no way he would… Thatch loves you. No way would he do anything to jeopardize that. You guys are in love—you’re having a baby. Yeah, he’s definitely not doing what you’re thinking he’s doing,” she rambled.
    And there it was, ladies and gentleman. Georgia had just hit a nine on the meter. Only a few more fake tears and she’d be handing me the key to Thatchora’s box of lies.
    “Yeah, but Jay Z loved Beyoncé and look what happened to them. He cheated on her. And no one thought Britney would cheat on Justin. I mean, they wore matching denim outfits, for frankfurter’s sake!”
    “Just trust me. He’s not fucking around.” She tried to calm me down, but she sounded so helpless, so upset…so very close to telling me what was going on.
    I feigned hysteria and buried my face in my hands. “What am I going to do? I’m pregnant, and my fiancé is having a relationship with another woman!”
    “Kline,” she whispered, “I’m telling her.”
    “Wait. Ben—” he started to interrupt, but she was already set in her decision.
    “He’s here.”
    “—ny.” Kline’s shoulders sagged in defeat.
    I lifted my head from my hands. “What do you mean, he’s here?”
    Georgia looked at Kline for a little reassurance.
    He gestured toward me. “Well, fuck. No going back now, Benny.”
    “What was I supposed to do?” she asked with a hand on her hip.
    “Realize that Cassie is a really good actress.”
    Georgia turned and looked at me. Her eyes interrogated my no longer distraught face. Her concerned expression turned to a glare within seconds. “How can you be so evil yet growing my sweet little baby godson inside your belly at the same time?”
    I shrugged. “It’s a gift.”
    “You’re an asshole.”
    I covered my belly with both hands. “Hey, watch your fluffing language. My kid can hear you.”
    She just stared back at me and then shouted toward my stomach. “Your mother is an asshole!”
    That made me laugh, and Georgia flipped me off…with both hands.
    “All right, just go ahead and spill it, G. Why is Thatch here? And if he’s here, where in the heck is he?”
    “I’m not telling you anything else.”
    “Oh, c’mon. Don’t be like that.”
    She shook her head and, surprisingly, stood her ground. “Nope. Not happening. Figure it out on your own.”
    I looked between her and Kline a few times before realizing I knew plenty of ways to figure out what was going on. Thatch might be a world-class prankster, but I knew all of his cards. Every. Single. One.
    “Oh, don’t worry, sweet cheeks, I will.” I winked and turned in the other direction. As I strode back down the hallway, I