Page 37 of Suddenly Desired (APEX Billionaires’ Club #2)

BLAKE

By the time Blake had walked out of the barn, the helicopter was closing in.

It was a powerful, black Eurocopter, and even before he saw the Heartbook logo plastered on the door, he knew who it belonged to.

He had ridden in that very same helicopter countless times, and even though he hadn’t always liked flying, he’d always loved the feeling of being airborne, of soaring over the streets and buildings below.

Whenever he’d taken the chopper, he’d felt free.

Now, though, the sight of it made his heart tumble into his stomach.

He was a prisoner on the run, finally being cornered by the police.

The helicopter spun lazily above the large yard, kicking up a storm of dirt.

Through the window he could see David in sunglasses and headphones making the signal to land, and sure enough, the chopper slowly descended, bumping gracefully on to the grass.

The noise of it thumped through him, the wind buffeting his clothes and ruffling his hair, drying the mud on his skin, but he stood tall.

He may have lost his crown, but he would not bow to the monsters inside the helicopter.

A hand found its way into his and he looked to see Ellie there.

Her hair streamed behind her, but her expression was defiant and brave, her eyes fierce.

Even dressed in her pink joggers and T-shirt she looked like royalty.

She met Blake’s eyes and nodded, and he nodded back.

Even though they didn’t speak, the message was clear: whatever happened next, they would face it together.

The thrum of the helicopter grew quieter as the throttle eased off.

The doors opened and David hopped out, tossing his headphones on to the seat.

He waited by the door, offering his hand to Michelle as she appeared behind him.

She was wearing a ridiculous pair of heels, and her nose wrinkled with disgust as she dropped gracefully on to the dirt.

When she looked at Blake, though, her expression turned into one of delight.

She threaded her arm through David’s and they ducked under the spinning rotors, walking briskly across the yard.

Now somebody else was climbing out of the chopper, seemingly forgotten by the other two.

He was a short, plump, balding guy in faded jeans and a baggy, lime-green T-shirt, a cheap all-weather jacket thrown on top.

Blake frowned. He wasn’t anyone he recognised from the company, and he certainly wasn’t a lawyer.

The mystery deepened when Ellie squeezed his hand, hard enough to hurt. He winced, looking down to see that the colour had drained from her face.

“What is it?” he asked.

She glanced up at him fearfully. “That’s Josh,” she said. “That’s my ex.”

There was no time to ask her what might be going on, as David and Michelle walked into earshot.

Blake straightened his back, trying to make himself look as imposing as he could.

Without thinking, he took a step forward so that he was standing defensively in front of Ellie.

She gripped his hand even harder, giving him strength.

“Well, well, well.” David’s voice barely carried above the thrum of the rotors. “Blake Fielding, as I live and breathe.”

“I told you we’d find him,” said Michelle, her face creasing again as she looked him up and down. “We didn’t need Josh after all. We could have just sniffed him out.”

“Yeah, it’s sad,” said David. “How the mighty have fallen. One minute you’re one of the richest men on the planet, the next you’re rolling around with the pigs.”

“Goats, actually,” Blake spat out.

They both laughed, and Blake’s blood boiled in his veins.

He felt Ellie squeeze his hand again, not in panic, but to reassure him.

Josh was cowering beneath the chopper blades as he made his way across the yard.

He stopped behind the others, peeking past David’s shoulder as if he was worried somebody might take a shot at him.

Blake had no idea why Ellie had been dating him.

She’d been batting way below her league.

“What are you doing here?” Ellie asked.

“Claiming what’s mine,” the man replied, giving her such a smug grin that Blake felt like he actually was about to take a shot at him.

He breathed slowly and deeply, keeping his cool. He was in enough trouble already. He didn’t need an assault charge on top of everything else.

“Josh came to us with an offer,” said David, raising his hand.

He was holding a manila envelope and Blake knew what was inside it — the papers that would strip him of everything he had spent his life building.

“I call that perfect timing. Shall we? A couple of signatures and it’s done. You can’t run anymore.”

“Who said I was running?” Blake eyeballed David until he looked away. Coward.

“Where do you want to do this?” Michelle asked.

“Right here.” Blake held out his free hand.

He was furious, yes, but something had taken the edge off his rage.

His head was full of dreams of him and Ellie waking up together in their farmhouse, of drinking coffee and eating freshly laid eggs together on the porch, of planting crops and raising livestock, and even wrangling goats in the mud.

Nothing else seemed to matter anymore, and the thought of returning to the boardroom and poring over thousands of lines of code seemed like the least appealing thing imaginable.

He smiled at David, and it caught the other man by surprise.

“Not here,” spat Michelle, swatting at a fat bug that had landed on her shoulder. “Inside.”

“Where the papers won’t fly away,” added David, fighting to hold on to the envelope in the wind from the helicopter blades. “After you, Blake.”

Blake paused for a moment, then turned and headed back to the house. Ellie walked by his side, not letting go of his hand until they reached the door. Isla had arrived before them and was looking at the trio of newcomers with murder in her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Blake said. “They won’t be here long.”

“I wouldn’t stay in this pigsty if you paid me,” Michelle muttered as she walked through the door.

Blake turned to her, positioning his body in a way that made her take a step back in frightened surprise.

“Michelle,” he said, his voice low and threatening, “the way I see it, you guys have spent the morning chasing your tails all over the English Riviera, looking for me. Why? Because you need me. If I don’t sign these papers now, you’re facing a legal battle that could sink this company for good.

So listen to me, and listen well. You can say what you want about me, but I swear if you say one more thing about this gracious woman, or her house, or her beautiful, kind daughter, then I will take those papers and stuff them into the goat shed and I will see you all in court. How does that sound?”

Michelle’s mouth fell open like a puppet with snapped strings and she looked away.

“That’s an apology, right?” he said.

“Sure,” she mumbled, turning to Isla. “I’m sorry.”

“Enough of this,” growled David. “I’m bored. Get me a table, and let’s finish this thing.”

He shoved past Blake and walked to the kitchen table, pushing Ellie’s laptop and notepads out of the way. He opened the envelope and pulled out a sheaf of papers, all covered in small legal type. Post-its pointed to at least seven places where Blake would have to sign.

Slapping it down on the table, he grinned at Blake.

“It’s all yours,” he said, pulling a pen from his breast pocket and holding it out. “Maurice left you a handsome severance package, enough to get by on for the rest of your life, really, if you behave. Any last words?”

“You’re disgusting,” said Ellie. “What you’ve done to Blake, you should be arrested for it.”

“Oh, get over yourselves,” said David. “Welcome to the world of business, sweetheart. I’d try to explain it to you, but it would go right over that pretty little head of yours.

Blake was played, plain and simple. All these years people thought he was a genius and yet all it took to take him down were a handful of badly written fake posts. ”

“Hey,” said Michelle, walking to his side. “They weren’t badly written, they were carefully constructed. I knew people wouldn’t believe it unless it really sounded like him, so I made it really sound like him.”

She laughed, and David put a hand on the back of her head, pulling her close and kissing her. Michelle looked at Blake out of the corner of her eye and Blake recoiled. How had he ever found himself attracted to her? She was grotesque, and she was evil.

“But he’s innocent,” Ellie said. “You framed him.”

“He was asking for it.” Michelle broke free of David. “He’s a loser. He was more interested in creating a wholesome, positive social network than he was in making money. And everybody knows money makes the world go round.”

“I made you millions,” said Blake, through gritted teeth.

“It’s not enough,” Michelle replied. “It’s never enough.”

“I can’t believe I ever thought there was good in you,” said Blake, and she laughed again.

“But that’s you all over, isn’t it? Blake the good man.

Blake the kind man. That’s why this is all so beautiful.

You’re the most decent person I know. You’ve never said anything offensive about women in your whole life.

You respect women, you respect everyone.

And now everyone thinks you’re a monster. ”

“And the beauty is, you admitted to it,” said David, laughing. “Yesterday at the press conference. I mean, we were expecting some kind of fight and we were prepared for it, but in the end you just rolled over. You seriously couldn’t have fallen into this trap harder.”

“But why?” Blake said, his heart aching as he turned to his old friend. “I loved you, David. You were my best friend.”

David’s expression wobbled for a moment, then Michelle took his arm and clutched it tight. David seemed to steel himself. “No room in this world for nice guys,” he said. “Just look at us, Blake. I’ve got it all, and you’ve got nothing.”

At this, Blake smiled again. And to his surprise it was a genuine smile. He looked at Ellie and he felt nothing but happiness and relief. She was all he wanted. She was all he would ever want, even when they were old and grey.

“You know what? You two deserve each other.” He turned to Ellie.

“I have everything I will ever need right here. All these years I thought I was happy, but it was only when I met you that I understood what happiness even was. They’ve taken my company from me, they’ve taken my credibility from me, but they’ve left me with something money can’t buy. You.”

Michelle pretended to throw up. “Well, don’t think your little flower here is going to save you. Because we’re taking everything of hers as well.”

“What?” said Ellie.

“LifeWrite,” said Michelle. “It’s a great idea, and it’s ours.”

“ What ?” Ellie said again, louder this time. She looked at Josh, who was skulking in the corner of the room. He walked to David and Michelle, dwarfed by both of them.

“That’s right,” Josh said. “Did you think I wouldn’t strike back after what you said the other day? Do you really think I’d let you treat me that way? You wrote LifeWrite when you were with me, and I kept copies of all the code. I even helped you create it.”

“That’s a lie,” Ellie said. “All you did was criticise and complain.”

“It’s your word against mine,” he said. “You never copyrighted it, you never patented it. You left all your ideas and code lying around in those stupid little notebooks of yours for anyone to read. Which means it’s as much mine as yours.”

“No,” said Ellie. She looked at Blake, tears in her eyes. “They can’t do that.”

“They wouldn’t dare,” Blake said.

“Oh, it’s already done,” David said. “We signed a deal with Josh this morning. Say hello to your soon-to-be-millionaire ex-boyfriend.”