Page 109 of Billionaire Unbroken - Asher
“Gideon?” I said angrily. “What in the fuck are you doing?”
I knew this man, but I’d never seenthisside of him.
The Gideon Alexander I knew was a seasoned businessman who never lost his cool.
In fact, in the business world, he was known for being as cold as ice.
We were friends.
In fact, he was probably the best friend I had aside from my brother, Cole.
“Sierra is one of my best friends,” he growled. “We grew up together. You two look way too friendly. Are you fucking her?”
Okay, he was my friend, but he was going way too far and getting way too personal.
Fury coursed through my body as I slammed my palms hard against his chest, sending him flying until he hit the wall on the other side of the alley.
Gideon was a big guy and a few years younger than me, but I had rage on my side right now.
“My relationship with Sierra is none of your damn business. And she’s your best friend?” I asked in graveled voice. “If she’s one of your best friends, why in the hell didn’t you protect her from all of the fucked-up things that happened to her?”
I saw a flash of remorse on his face. “We were best friends when we were young. After she got married, not so much. We spoke once in a while, but she became really distant. I thought it was because she was married and didn’t really want to be too close to another guy. I didn’t know what that bastard was doing to her until it was too late.”
“He nearly killed her,” I said in a low, dangerous tone.
“Do you think I don’t hate myself because I never knew that she was in danger?” Gideon asked gruffly.
I took a deep breath. “You couldn’t force her to talk to you,” I conceded unhappily.
As much as I wanted to blame Gideon because he’d known Sierra and those things had happened under his watch, my rational mind knew it wasn’t his fault.
Sierra’s husband had deliberately isolated her from everyone.
Hell, even her own mother hadn’t really known the truth.
“Are you two together?” Gideon asked suspiciously. “Fuck! Maybe I never should have asked her to stop by your place and see how you were doing. I didn’t think you’d hook up with her. In fact, I was worried about you because I knew you were isolating yourself.”
“You asked Sierra to come by my ranch?” I asked, confused.
“He did,” Sierra said as she arrived in the alley. “I’m sorry. I should have told you that I didn’t come to your place for a job. Not initially. Gideon asked me to stop by your ranch and check on you because you were friends. He was worried about you, but he never really told me why. The job offer to be your housekeeper seemed too good to be true, so I took it. I wasn’t hiding that I knew Gideon. It just never seemed to matter why I originally stopped by after I started the job. I would have mentioned it eventually. It just seemed like every time I was going to tell you about Gideon that something else more important came up.”
Hell, Sierra and I couldn’t be together without touching each other, so I knew exactly what hadcome up.
I couldn’t really blame her for not saying anything earlier.
Gideon scowled at Sierra. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were working for Asher?”
She waved her hand at both of us. “Because I knew you’d act like this. I didn’t want to tell you that I was attracted to Asher. It’s not like we talk every day. You have a lot going on right now. It wasn’t that difficult to just not mention it the few times we’ve spoken. You’d just lost your father, Gideon. It didn’t seem that important.”
I’d only spoken to Gideon a few times since his father had passed away, too. Those conversations had been brief, but I knew that the patriarch of the Alexander family had died.
I also knew that Gideon had moved from Austin back to his hometown in Texas recently.
I just hadn’t realized that Hollister was apparently his hometown.
“If you hurt her, I’ll kill you,” Gideon said matter-of-factly.
“Could you please stop acting like a fool,” Sierra requested drily. “I’m thirty-seven years old, Gideon.”
