With more enemies lining up to kill him than he can count, a playboy billionaire must hire the only woman capable of keeping him alive, even if she hates his guts.
Gabriel Gerard's life is full of gorgeous women, expensive cars, and infinite wealth...
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Gabriel spent the morning assigning accounts to Asher. They were not the glamorous previously Fortune 500 ones that his brother snottily requested through email but solid accounts that made up a decent share of their profit. Eventually, he would transfer entire subsidiaries to his brother, but the snide emails would have to stop first.
"Mr. Gerard?" Olivia's voice came over his phone's intercom breaking his train of thought.
"You don't have to keep calling me that." He chuckled. "Gabe's fine."
"I don't know why but it's kind of fun." He could hear the smile in her voice. "Anyway, Mr. Gerard, a Mr. Ramsey is here to see you."
"Send him in." Gabriel barely finished pushing the button before bounding to the door. He swung it open to find a decidedly surprised gentleman with fading blonde hair and mischievous blue eyes dressed in a navy sweater and slacks. His overcoat was draped casually over one arm as he opened them. Stepping into the embrace Gabriel said, "Uncle! I thought that you were going straight to Philadelphia?"
"I decided to come see my favorite nephew first," William Ramsey explained releasing him. His eyes wandered over the office. He whistled at the museum-worthy artwork. "I wasn't expecting all this."
"Are Aunt Sandra, Tarek, and Mira with you?" Gabriel asked, looking past Olivia's desk into the empty hall.
"They're at the hotel," his uncle answered vaguely. "We'll all have dinner tonight before we go to see your mother tomorrow."
"Can I offer you anything?" he asked, gesturing to the large bar. "Whiskey, perhaps?"
"Maybe later, Nephew." William looked out the windows at the bleak landscape. "I wanted to discuss something in private with you first."
"Sure." Gabriel stood beside him; they were almost exactly the same height. He didn't want to think about all of the times that he had wished that this man was his father. "What's up?"
"Europe is depending on the U.S. and the Americas to succeed at stopping the People's Federation of Asia." William was a former U.S. Ambassador to England. After he'd served his country, he, his British wife, and children settled down there. As Vice President Patricia Gerard's brother, he still had sway in the British parliament, or what was left of it, and was a perfect go-between for the two allied countries. "But The New Republic of Texas's cause is noble."
"Say no more, Uncle. We can speak more tonight at my place before dinner."
"Very well then."
And that was all they needed to say. Gabriel's brain was reeling as they continued to make small talk for the appropriate amount of time before William took his leave. Did his uncle know about his mother? Does he know what was actually going on? Was he ready to help the white mages in Texas? Gabriel thought about how much to tell him and wondered if he could trust him.
As a boy, he would have had no doubts. He had spent the summers of his youth along with his brother and sister, Harper, in England learning the ways of the gentry that his father had been denied through the stain of bastardy. His Uncle William had been his hero, soft-spoken yet commanding, handily skilled with a rapier, acknowledging his self-worth yet not arrogant. He was everything that Steven Gerard was not. Gabriel had been forced to stop going after his fifteenth birthday. His father had said that it was time for him to be a man and that playtime was over even though it had been Steven's idea to send the boys in the first place. So, Gabriel joined his father at work in the summers learning the family business while Asher and Harper were still free to spend as much time there as they pleased until the attacks. Gabriel was never sure if his father had been jealous, but now he wondered if Steven hadn't trusted William. And he needed to decide if he should do the same.
