Page 38 of Untamed Billionaire
Chloe bit her lower lip, glancing at Marco. He caught the look and his features hardened into thunderous fury. “Who did you threaten, love?” he demanded. “Was the bullet meant for you?”
“No!” she gasped. “I mean…well, I don’t think so!”
“Chloe!” he growled again. “What did you do?”
She shrugged, then leaned forward, unconcerned with the grip on her upper arms. “I just explained a few truths to some of the people that were putting obstacles in your way.”
“Such as?” he prompted.
“Well, Bill Jennings comes to mind.” She shifted slightly and, despite the dire circumstances, Marco’s body reacted to Chloe’s shifting.
Marco shook his head. “Bill Jennings admitted himself into rehab two days ago. He hasn’t left yet, so right about now he’s out of the running.”
“What about his wife?” Dash suggested.
Chloe shook her head. “No, Martha wouldn’t interfere. If anything, she’d probably shoot Bill just to get out of her marriage to Bill. But that’s a threat to Bill. Not me. They aren’t very friendly with each other.”
They were all silent for a long moment, then Angela suggested, “Chloe, your brother has basically destroyed your father’s business. I hate to state the obvious here, but if Marco dies, you now stand to inherit several billion dollars.”
“Chloe isn’t behind this!” Marco growled.
Angela rolled her eyes. “Obviously!” she retorted with exasperation. “But her father might be.”
“Or her brother,” Callum offered.
Chloe’s body chilled and she shivered. “For that matter, my mother might be behind this. I’m pretty sure that she’s not very happy about having someone from outside of Charleston’s first families becoming a member of the family. Although I doubt she thought we’d all get together for family dinners. So I don’t know.”
“They are all valid possibilities. But let’s get over to the reception area and get more information.”
The limousine pulled up to the reception area, but instead of going in through the front door, everyone walked in through an employee entrance located at the back of the hotel where the reception was to be held.
“This way,” one of Kasim’s guards called out, leading the way through the kitchens and employee locker rooms. More security from Marco’s team were holding open a door to a private conference room. It wasn’t a conference room intended for the guests to use. The tables weren’t polished and surrounded by expensive leather chairs. Instead, there were four folding tables pushed together with mismatched plastic chairs scattered about.
The most important content of this room though, was the FBI agents and security guards that were surrounding the table with maps and pictures spread out. One person was quickly taping the pictures and maps onto one of the bare, white walls while others were on their phones getting more information.
Angela stepped forward to shake the hand of one of the agents. “Hey, Rick. Thanks for stepping up.”
He chuckled. “You’re kidding, right?” The man lifted his eyes, taking in the four men and Chloe who were all standing behind Angela. “Miss the opportunity to find out who is trying to kill one of the wealthiest men in the world? Or maybe the world leader to a powerful country?” He grinned, shaking his head. “I’m not an idiot. This is a major career boost.”
Angela shifted on her high heel shoes that somehow perfectly matched the dove grey morning suit she was wearing. “So glad that you’re doing this because you’re on the side of justice.”
His smile increased. “Go out to dinner with me and all of my efforts will be completely altruistic.”
She didn’t bother to roll her eyes this time. “Just tell us what you’ve discovered, dork.”
He laughed again, but turned around to lead her over to the wall where pictures had been taken of the crime scene. How they’d gotten those pictures up so fast, Chloe couldn’t fathom, but she was grateful and more than ready to find out what was going on.
He jerked his head towards one of Kasim’s security guards. “Your Highness, one of your men found the bullet lodged here,” he said, pointing to one of the tall, Corinthian style columns that graced the front of the church. “Trajectory analysis revealed that the shooter had to be somewhere around…here,” he said, pointing to another picture of a building across the old town square. “The building isn’t very high, so that means that it was an easy escape for the shooter.”
“Was it a professional doing the shooting?” Callum asked.
Marco had been holding Chloe’s hand, but as she listened to all of this information, she pulled her hand away and, instead, wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek to his chest. His arms instantly went around her too, pulling her close and she felt Marco kiss the top of her head.
“We don’t know. There weren’t any bullet casings in the empty office where we know the shooter was standing. That indicates someone with experience was policing their brass. However,” he paused and looked at the two photos, “this was an easy shot. I’d guess that the person shooting either wasn’t very good, or something happened to interrupt the shooter at the same moment the person fired their weapon.”
Chloe shivered. The man’s explanations were so…clinical! And yet, someone had tried to kill Marco! Someone had tried to take her husband away from her! Forever! She could have lost him today! He could have been killed and she never would have been able to tell him how much she loved him and how much she wanted to spend the rest of her life trying to make him happy.
She wanted to tell him that now, but those were private words. That kind of explanation wasn’t the kind of thing she could just blurt out in front of all of these people. But Chloe wasn’t sure how to get Marco alone so she could tell him how she felt.
