Falling from Grace: A Billionaire Romantic Suspense series (The Filth Monger Series Book 1) by Annabel Chant Page A

against the pillar. I watched them argue and, suddenly, it occurred to me why I’d despised Gav’s weakness so much. I was weak. I’d been letting people push me around ever since this whole Leo business had begun. First Max, then Leo. Even Kitty and Liv had argued over me, as if I wasn’t there, and now it was happening again. Jeez, I wasn’t even interested in these guys…not really.
    It was time I took charge. ‘Look, you can both get me one,’ I said. ‘You can both have me.’
    It didn’t come out quite how I meant it to, but it seemed to mollify them. They flashed each other a grin, then headed off to the bar, nudging each other as they went. Almost as soon as they’d gone, the band started up and I forgot all about them.

Eighteen
     
     
    ‘After you.’ I showed Rick into my office, which was on the upper floor of the castle, well away from the parts he was more used to patrolling. He’d been a good security guard over the years, and I was grieved that it had come to this, but he’d picked his path and there was nothing either of us could do now.
    He stood in front of my desk. He didn’t say anything. He thought he knew what this was about, I could tell, and it was about that in a way, but it was about so much else, too. It was essential I caught him off-guard.
    ‘You’ve always had a thing for prostitutes,’ I said. I had my back to him, and I was staring out the window at the avenue of lime trees. ‘I’ve never understood it myself.’
    ‘You either get it or you don’t,’ Rick said. ‘Sir. It’s the thrill of it.’
    ‘And yet you have a wife.’
    ‘Yes sir.’
    ‘And you claim to love her?’ I turned to him. He was standing at my desk, practically to attention.
    ‘You know I do, Sir.’
    ‘So how does that work, exactly?’
    He didn’t speak at once. He was shuffling from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable with how the interview was progressing. I didn’t push him. In fact, I ignored him for a few moments, while I took the things out of my pocket I’d brought with me for safe keeping. The tape of Fliss for the vaults…the letters. I was going to go through them after this, see what information I could glean.
    I looked up. ‘Well? How does your wife like the fact that you pay for sex?’
    Rick obviously thought he’d risk a joke. ‘Well, if I paid her Sir, she’d probably do it more often.’
    I didn’t crack a smile. ‘But it’s not her you pay.’
    ‘No.’
    He was squirming, and I pinned him with a look, wondering how I could get through to him. He was such a contradiction. I didn’t understand him at all. The irony was that he really did love his wife. More than most men I’d known. He adored her, and yet still he screwed around behind her back.
    ‘Look,’ he said, finally. ‘She doesn’t know, you know that. She’d leave me. Sir.’
    It was practically an appeal. I only stared back at him, unmoved. ‘So she doesn’t know about Charlotte, then?’
    As the implications of the question sunk in, Rick paled visibly. By the time he attempted a reply, he was ashen, and he could barely get the words out. ‘N…now, Sir. I didn’t know anything about that. I…I thought she was just another call-girl.’
    ‘But you passed her for security clearance?’
    ‘Yes, Sir.’
    ‘For both Dominion and the Castle itself?’
    ‘Y…yes, Sir.’ His eyes were downcast, but then he looked up, desperation in his eyes. ‘She said she’d tell Sandy,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t have that.’
    I shrugged. ‘You let it continue…let us all get sucked in,’ I said. ‘And you’ve still been using whores, knowing you could catch something and pass it on. What use are medical exams, if you go fucking around straight afterwards? Don’t you think about anything except your cock? You’ve put us all at risk and, last night, you disobeyed a direct order.’
    ‘I…’ He was wilting in front of me. He could see where this was going by now, and the fight had gone out of him. ‘I