Page 65 of Saved By the Billionaire

“School kids found her the next morning. She was freezing cold, had been dead for hours. I’ll never forget what it was like to get that call.”

And then, sympathy was usurped by unfettered rage. Not at Grace, who had obviously struggled with addiction, but that anyone, anywhere, could hurt Roman like that. No wonder he had as many protective barriers in place as she did.

“She had so much potential,” he said. “She should still be here.”

What could Kate say to that, except, “Yes, she should.” And then she stepped onto the tips of her toes and kissed him, knowing that for whatever reason, she’d been given a gift that could take his pain away—and she was more than willing to wield it.

The sun had dipped down right to the horizon when Garrett called. Roman, in the process of uncorking a bottle of wine, hooked the phone between his ear and shoulder as he spoke, eyes on Kate across the room.

He had no idea why he’d put on Grace’s album, only it had felt strange to think of Kate leaving his life and not having ‘met’ Grace. Not having heard her sing, and understood her pain. It was such a huge part of him, and for reasons he didn’t think important to analyse, that made him want Kate to understand that.

“Does it suit for me to come and have a quick talk to Kate now?”

Roman immediately tensed. “What’s happened?”

He poured two glasses of wine and carried one across to Kate, who was scrolling her phone on the sofa, wearing a pair of tracksuit pants that fit her like a glove and made his body tighten instinctively. Garrett was giving an update on Kate’s visa application and the search for her father, but Roman was momentarily deafened by the sight of a flight website open on Kate’s browser. As though she were booking tickets back to Australia?

“Garrett,” Roman cut him off. “You don’t need to go through it twice. Kate and I are in the apartment. Come and see us and explain it then.”

He disconnected the call, stalked over to grab his own wine glass, mainly to buy himself a little extra time. What did it matter to him if she went home? In fact, it was probably better, in many ways. If Kate was on the other side of the globe, he couldn’t possibly weaken and contact her.

He stood up a little straighter, took a sip of his wine. He wasn’t even thinking of that, though, was he? They’d set the boundaries of this—two weeks—and it made sense. He’d never pursued a woman after a relationship had ended, and he didn’t intend to start now. Not even for Kate would he break that rule.

“Garrett’s on his way up. He wants to run a few things by you.”

Her eyes lifted to his, surprise obvious. “About what?”

“Your visa,” he paused. “Your father.”

Kate’s face was a horrifying train of emotion and, even more horrifyingly, he wanted to crouch down and comfort her, and wipe it all away. Her surprise and fear and hope and confusion, the hurt that darkened her beautiful eyes. He sipped his wine instead.

“Has he found him?”

“He didn’t say.”

“How did you not ask, Roman?”

He clenched his jaw, her question fair. But the lift doors opened at that moment and Garrett stepped just inside the apartment, his gaze sweeping from Roman to Kate and resting there in a way that made Roman’s insides clench. He looked at Kate and saw her as an outsider must, with her pale blonde hair loose and fluffed about her un-made-up face, so naturally beautiful with her huge eyes and pale pink lips, and the clothes that hugged her body, showing her lithe, slim figure. He moved towards her instinctively, well aware that he was somehow staking his claim, and that he didn’t need to. Garrett was one of the few people Roman had let into his life; he trusted him implicitly.

“Good evening,” Garrett said, to Kate, nodding at Roman. “How are you?”

She nodded. “You have news?”

Her impatience was understandable. “Not yet. I have a few leads. I need a swab of your DNA.”

“My DNA?”

“It should help sort the wheat from the chaff. You good with that?”

She looked to Roman, as though wanting his advice, and then, changed her mind. “Yes, of course,” she said to Garrett. Asserting her independence, reminding them both that she was able to manage this without him.

“Great.” Garrett dug into his coat pocket and removed a plastic ziplock bag with a medical insignia on it. “If you just wipe this inside your cheek, five good touches on either side, and pop it in here.”

Roman watched as she took the swab and followed Garrett’s instructions, then replaced the swab.

“I’ll get a rush on the results.”

“Thank you so much, Garrett. I really appreciate it.”