The Billionaire Op Read online

  The Billionaire Op

  The Sutton Billionaires Series, Book 3

  Lori Ryan

  Copyright 2020, Lori Ryan.

  All rights reserved.

  * * *

  This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.

  Other Books by Lori Ryan

  The Sutton Billionaires Series:

  The Billionaire Deal

  Reuniting with the Billionaire

  The Billionaire Op

  The Billionaire’s Rock Star

  The Billionaire’s Navy SEAL

  Falling for the Billionaire’s Daughter (May 2020)

  * * *

  The Sutton Capital Intrigue Series:

  Cutthroat

  Cut and Run

  Cut to the Chase

  * * *

  The Sutton Capital on the Line Series:

  Pure Vengeance

  Latent Danger

  * * *

  The Triple Play Curse Novellas:

  Game Changer

  Game Maker

  Game Clincher

  * * *

  The Heroes of Evers, TX Series:

  Love and Protect

  Promise and Protect

  Honor and Protect (An Evers, TX Novella)

  Serve and Protect

  Desire and Protect

  Cherish and Protect

  Treasure and Protect

  * * *

  The Dark Falls, CO Series:

  Dark Falls

  Dark Burning

  Dark Prison

  * * *

  Coming Soon – The Halo Security Series:

  Dulce’s Defender

  Hannah’s Hero

  Shay’s Shelter

  Callie’s Cover

  Grace’s Guardian

  Sophie’s Sentry

  Sienna’s Sentinal

  * * *

  For the most current list of Lori’s books, visit her website: loriryanromance.com.

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Epilogue

  Stalker Notes (Otherwise Known as Author Notes)

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  I’d like to thank my incredibly supportive husband and my kids for putting up with the madness of deadlines and rewrites. Thank you to Sue and Cathy for all of the brainstorming and reading drafts. Thank you to Patricia Thomas for editing, copyediting, and working with such tight deadlines and turn-arounds. Thank you to Emme Adams of Novel Ideas Editing for developmental contributions. And, thank you to Patricia Parent for being my final set of eyes.

  Author’s Note

  If you love this book and want to read two novellas in the series for free, sign up for my newsletter here and I’ll send them to you.

  Chapter 1

  Chad Thompson woke to searing pain in his chest as he gulped air, desperate to fill his battered lungs. He squeezed his eyes shut and battled to clear the fog from his head and slow his heart rate.

  This was wrong. It was all wrong. He caught hold of the sounds around him and forced himself to listen to them, knowing they would ground him: the sound of traffic on the street below his window and the hum of his air conditioner kicking on as it reached the designated temperature. Chad shook his head and forced his eyes open.

  He was in his bedroom in New Haven, Connecticut, in his bed with the navy-blue sheets and mahogany headboard. Above him was the familiar crack on the ceiling that he always meant to fix but never remembered to unless he was in bed staring up at it. His flat-screen television, mounted on the wall, ran static. His laptop lay on the bed next to him where he’d abandoned it for sleep the night before.

  Despite the familiar surroundings, it took Chad a minute to realize there was no medic kneeling beside him, pushing a too-long needle into his lung. There was no metallic scent of blood or charred flesh choking him and making him nauseated.

  No ringing in his ears. The other three men in his detail did not lay still and silent beside him, their eyes lifeless and unseeing, their bodies forever broken and destroyed.

  The dream didn’t come often anymore, but it always took him a few minutes to recover when it did. As Chad took deep, calming breaths he realized his phone was ringing. He slapped at the nightstand with one hand until he found the phone then slid his thumb across the screen to answer the call.

  “Yeah?” His voice was thick with sleep.

  “Chad?”

  He bolted upright in his bed, the remnants of the dream no longer clutching at him. His gut twisted when Jennie’s voice came through the phone with the ring of false confidence. Something wasn’t right.

  “You okay, Jennie?”

  Jennie Evans didn’t normally call him outside of working hours at Sutton Capital. They had a weird relationship. Chad was Jennie’s boss. She was flippant, irreverent, and completely brash in all her dealings with him. And, he loved it.

  Outside of work, things were equally unorthodox between them. They spent a lot of time together because Jennie was best friends with Kelly, the woman who married Chad’s cousin last year. Jack and Chad were more like brothers than cousins. So Chad saw Jennie almost anytime he hung out with Jack and Kelly, which was just about every weekend.

  But, Chad and Jennie weren’t the type of friends that called each other or sought one another out outside of the group. It was more that they ended up at the same functions because of their mutual relationships.

  So when she called on his cell phone first thing on a Sunday morning, he noticed.

  It was also the use of his name that got his attention. Quickly.

  Jennie didn’t use a nickname like ‘Boss Man,’ ‘Big Man,’ or ‘the Hulk’ like she usually did. No, this morning she called him Chad, rather than any number of other nicknames designed to taunt him about his large stature.

  “Um. I’m a little...stuck,” Jennie said on the other end of the phone. He could hear her hesitancy through the line.

  “Define ‘stuck,’ Jennie.” As he talked, he threw back the covers and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.

  “I’m out at Edgerton Park and I don’t have any shoes to jog home. Can you come get me? Jack and Kelly are touring the Labor and Delivery Unit at the hospital this morning so I can’t call them and I can’t get hold of Jill, either” Jen
nie said.

  Jill was married to Chad’s friend Andrew who also worked at Sutton Capital.

  “How did you get out to Edgerton Park without shoes or a car?” Chad asked as he shoved his feet into sneakers.

  As he spoke, the implications of what he’d just said sank into his brain. Jennie was alone in a park without shoes or a way to get home. Fear for her rippled up his spine, but he tamped it down and focused.

  He moved a lot faster, as his mind began to play through scenarios. Was she with a guy and he ditched her? Was she out drunk last night and never made it home? Maybe she found herself in the park, with no shoes and no idea how she got there?

  Just the thought of Jennie out with a guy started a slow burn in his gut, not that he had any right to be upset about that. Chad couldn’t date her since he was her boss, but if a man treated her wrong or hurt her in any way. . . he sure as hell wouldn’t tolerate that.

  I’ll kill whatever asshole did this to her.

  “Can I tell you when you get here? I’ve been here for a while now. I’m getting a little hungry. And my feet hurt. I had to run in bare feet. I could really use a ride.”

  Run? She’d been running…

  Chad’s fists turned into hard knots of anger as he thought about someone leaving Jennie where she could have been hurt or... Another thought sent cold spiraling through him.

  God, what if they didn’t just ditch her at the park? What if...? His heart pounded in his chest and he broke out in a sweat.

  Now Chad used the eerily calm tone of voice from his days in the military. It came out when he was pissed as hell and ready to tear someone to pieces, but also when he needed to keep himself calm and collected enough to deal with the situation.

  “Jennie, did someone hurt you?”

  “I’m okay, Chad. No one hurt me,” she answered, sending a wave of relief over him that left him weak—much weaker than he’d acknowledge. He grabbed his wallet and keys.

  “On my way.”

  “Thanks, Chad. I’m over by the greenhouses. I’ll wait by that entrance,” Jennie said.

  The park was well known for the large row of greenhouses that boasted an impressive array of native plants. The local gardening club held a native plant sale twice a year. There was an entrance cut into the stone wall that surrounded the park, near those greenhouses. Chad knew it well. It was the entrance he used whenever he jogged through the park.

  “Got it,” Chad said as he ended the call and grabbed a T-shirt. He pulled the shirt on as he rode the elevator to the garage and jogged to his truck.

  What the hell, Jennie?

  He didn’t know what story she’d have when he got there, but this sounded like a bit much, even for Jennie.

  Explaining this to Chad wouldn’t be fun. How do you explain that you had to run from guard dogs with half your clothes missing because they snuck up on you when you were skinny dipping in some guy’s pool?

  When Jennie had been running from the dogs, she was laughing. When she’d climbed the fence and run through a stranger’s backyard to get away, it had still been kind of funny. When she couldn’t find anyone other than Chad to come out and get her, she’d stopped laughing.

  Kelly or Jill would have laughed with her. Even Jack or Andrew probably would have laughed a little. Chad? Not so much. He wouldn’t be amused and he wouldn’t hesitate to lecture her. And lecture her. And lecture her.

  She spotted Chad’s black F350 as he turned onto Cliff Street. She had to force herself to stand still and keep her head raised. If she fidgeted, he’d see it as a sign of weakness and that would only make things worse.

  Jennie twisted her long hair, squeezing the excess water from it. What a sight she must be. Her hair was wet, she was missing her shoes and her bra, and her T-shirt was torn and dirty. And if he noticed her limping, he’d probably drag her off to the hospital. Chad was nothing, if not overprotective.

  And…there’s the scowl.

  Jennie wished, for once, he wouldn’t look so damned sexy. She didn’t know how it was possible for someone to look so good and still have such an angry expression, but he looked gorgeous no matter what he was doing.

  Maybe it was the dangerous edge he presented. Anyone who knew Chad knew he was a sweet teddy bear on the inside, but on the outside he looked like he could do some serious damage.

  On a sigh, Jennie opened the door and climbed up into the large cab of Chad’s truck. She knew he’d picked his truck to fit himself comfortably. Unfortunately, it dwarfed everyone else, making it a project for Jennie to get in and out. She shimmied up and plopped into the passenger seat.

  Settling herself, Jennie buckled her seatbelt and raised her face to Chad’s. She tilted her head to the side and took in Chad’s brooding gaze. A shiver of awareness went through her body as she felt his damn eyes on her.

  Down, girl.

  As usual, her body refused to listen to her when it came to Chad. It ran amuck, responding to every look, every whisper, and every grumble that came from those sexy lips in that low, controlled tone of his. Oh, what she wouldn’t do to see him lose that control.

  No! I don’t want that. It’s only my stupid, traitorous body that wants that.

  “Hey, Tiny,” she said. “I’d offer to buy you breakfast, but with no shoes, I’m afraid we couldn’t get in anywhere respectable.”

  She put on her best cheeky grin and hoped he would ignore the embarrassing state of her clothing. Or, lack thereof.

  Chad was apparently of a different mind and let his eyes roam from her face, down her body and back up again. Of course, his gaze felt like hands grazing her body and that lit her up from the inside. Somehow, she knew his hands would feel even more amazing on her. Caressing, roaming freely, they would set her ablaze.

  Stupid body.

  He kept his eyes on hers as he reached over and turned off the ignition with a short, economic movement. Then, he sat. Waited.

  Great. He’s in interrogation mode.

  She rolled her eyes. “Really?”

  “Really.” His was a statement not a question and she realized that, yes, he really was going to wait until she spilled the story. She sighed heavily, hoping he would give up.

  Damn. The man’s got military training and I’ve got diddly.

  “You realize I’m an adult, right? I don’t actually need to tell you what I was doing. You get that, right?”

  Jennie could have sworn she saw the side of his mouth twitch and wondered for a split second if he was tempted to smile. No. Not Chad.

  “I can always let you out and just go home, Jennie. I’m an adult. I don’t actually need to drive you home. You get that, right?” he mimicked her words.

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “You wouldn’t…”

  Chad shrugged as if he really might consider leaving Jennie there. They both knew he wouldn’t.

  “I was jogging. All right? I jog out here every morning.” She laid her hands in her lap as if that answered everything and looked back at Chad with what she hoped was her best wide-eyed and innocent gaze. Oh, why did her belly feel like a hundred can-can girls were practicing in there with their puffy can-can skirts whipping around?

  One tanned, muscled arm rested on the steering wheel of the truck, the other lay between him and Jennie on the seat. She tried not to notice the muscles rippling under his T-shirt or how good he smelled.

  He’d clearly been sleeping when she called him. He probably just rolled out of bed, threw on sweats – and he somehow managed to look like walking sex and smell spicy and woodsy… She licked her lips.

  Chad, who’d been studying her face, looked pointedly down at her bare feet, then flicked his eyes back up to hers and waited. That earned him another eye roll and a huff of frustration.

  “Fine. I jog out here every morning. There’s a house on Prospect Court that has a pool. The guy is never home. He travels a lot,” Jennie explained in clipped tones.

  “You know this, how?” Chad asked, but made no move to start the truck.


  She could see the small tick in his jaw that struck when she was really needling him. Sometimes, she could turn the tick into a smile, if she worked hard at it. She wondered if she’d be able to do that now, but wasn’t sure she could risk it. If she pushed too hard at the wrong time, things might go in the other direction and she’d be in for a lecture.

  Not that a lecture from him was all that bad. She could zone out and stare at the way his shirt stretched across the hard planes of his chest or the evidence of a six pack she could see just below it. But, she would like to shower sooner rather than later. She was starting to feel really grimy.

  “My friend dated him for a while,” Jennie shrugged. “Can we go now?”

  Chad raised an eyebrow but remained silent.

  A frustrated sigh burst past Jennie’s lips, as she shook her head at him. “Fine, I jog here, let myself in through the back gate, go for a swim, and then jog home. It’s my morning routine. I always peek to see if his car’s in the garage. If it is, I skip my swim. He must have realized someone’s been in his yard. I had just gotten in the pool when I heard barking. The next thing I know, there are two big dogs blasting out of a doggy door and heading my way. They were on the side of the yard with the gate, so I had to go over the back of the fence instead and cut through the neighbor’s yard. I grabbed what I could and ran. My shoes weren’t in the pile of stuff I grabbed.”