Page 54 of The Billion Heirs Boxed Set

“So no attorney-client privilege, then.” From Miles. “Of course, he’s dead anyway.”

“Attorney-client privilege survives the death of the client,” Shankle clarifies. “But it doesn’t apply here for two reasons. First, this is all news to me, so there’s no privilege. And second, a client’s communication to his attorney isn’t privileged if he made it with the intention of committing or covering up a crime or fraud.”

Chance plunks his ass back down on his chair. “We are so fucked.”

“We?” Miles lifts his eyebrows. “He kept me and Austin out of his life completely.”

“Until now when he’s dead. Until this shit comes up,” Chance reminds us.

“Boys…” Shankle begins.

I stand again, this time lunging over the marble coffee table and pulling Shankle up by his bolo-tied collar. “I swear to God, if you call us boys one more time—”

“Easy.” Miles stands and jerks me backward. “This doesn’t have anything to do with the two of us.”

“Yes, it fucking does!” I release Shankle and throw him back down on the couch.

I spin, running my hand over the back of my neck.

“We can’t walk away from this cluster fuck,” I tell my brothers. “I need that money. I have a dying seaplane business and a sick mother. I have no choice but to stay and be sucked into this shit.”

I walk out of the living room, out of the damned house, knowing the problems will follow.

16

CARLY

I’m crazy. Crazy.

I shift once again beneath the cool sheets, second guessing every bit of confidence I lumped together to get here. I had a plan. To show up at Bridger Ranch, sneak into Austin’s room and seduce him.

The only thing that went right was that I parked by the stable as I usually did without incident. Then things fell apart a bit.

I ran into Lexie, who was late leaving for the day, and I had to lie and tell her I forgot my phone. She left after I pretended to go into the staff room to grab my not-left-behind cell. When she was gone, I sneaked up to the main house, hoping to slip in through the back door and to Austin’s room. The plan was to have him asleep, naked, and I’d climb in and we’d have sex.

However Miles caught me barely inside the house. I was tiptoeing across the kitchen, my work boots grasped between my fingers. I was so nervous just sneaking in that my heart rate was out of control. When Miles closed the fridge door and grinned at me, I felt like a deer caught in the middle of the road before being plowed down by a cement truck.

“Hey there,” Miles says, holding a beer. Of the three brothers, he’s the quietest. But the wildest, I think. He’s rough around the edges, just like I imagine most from New York.

I glance at the back door, wishing I could just disappear. And he could forget he ever saw me. Then I whip my head around, hoping Chance isn’t here. Or Austin, because I’ll have to do some serious lying as to why I’ve entered their house unannounced and uninvited.

I’m here to have sex with Austin. To use him for orgasms and hope his dick is as talented as his fingers.

“Hi,” I whisper, my voice catching in my throat. “Um…”

“You’re here for Austin.”

I nod, swallowing hard.

“He’s not here.”

I slump my shoulders, feeling defeated.

“Neither is Chance, so take a breath.”

I do exactly that, but I’m not all that relieved. “I suck at seduction.”

My hands fly to my mouth. No, I didn’t. I did not just tell Miles Bridger that I suck at seduction.