Billionaire Zander: Billionaire Black Brothers, #9

By Josie Snow

Zander had loved Whit once upon a time, but she'd broken his heart. That'd been ten years ago. Now she's back and he's not sure why she seems to hate him, he was the injured party in all this. But when the truth is revealed, can he let go of the past to have a future with her?

 

Whit had believed he wrong person and it ended up with her living a very controlled life. Now that she's breaking away from it, and old flame is there to help her. But will old lies tear apart what they're building again?

• Language: English
• Publisher: DM
• Release date: May 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393034292

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Chapter 1

Zander

It felt good to be back in LA. I had been gone for over a month, and from what I’d heard, during that time a lot had gone down with one of my brothers. Something about a show in Vegas... that ended with him being married, accused of murder, and my new sister-in-law being kidnapped.

Though I never got overly involved in what any of my brothers did, I had to admit, that sounded pretty intense. Logan was often the one who was summoned when one of us was in need of legal help, and with Gray being practically married to an FBI agent, well, she came in handy, too.

But, I was still more than a little interested to know what was going on with my brother, and I was glad when I finally got the call that said the man who was framing him for murder – and the one who had kidnapped the girl – was finally behind bars.

My mother wasn’t sure if they were going to go through with an annulment, as they had said in the beginning, but after the kidnapping, they made it clear to everyone in the family they were together for good. Which meant two of my brothers were now married, and I wasn’t even sure how many more were engaged.

With nine other brothers in the family, it was hard for me to keep track of everything that was going on. I was already working a high-pressure, incredibly demanding job, and I was forever trying to keep things straight there, too. Since that was what I was doing with my life, it tended to take more priority over what my brothers were all doing with their lives, but I still wanted to stay in the loop as much as possible.

And, with someone who liked to talk as much as my mother, it wasn’t unusual for her to call any one of us and fill us in on what was going on with the other brothers.

I sipped on my iced tea and looked over my shoulder at the sunshine that fell across the patio of my front yard. I had been all over the world, and traveled extensively all over the states. But nothing beat the view of my front porch, that was for sure.

The pool was crystal clear and inviting, and was well maintained by all the people I hired to make sure my house was never left entirely unattended. Though I didn’t rely too heavily on my wealth, I had to admit that I did utilize it to make sure everything I had was taken care of as much as possible.

I worked hard, anyway. Though I didn’t have to. My father had left all of us kids with more than enough money, so much that we could easily live comfortably for the rest of our lives, but he also didn’t raise lazy children. From the time when we were all young, our father had made it clear that we were supposed to work for what we had, or, if we didn’t work for the necessity of it, that we worked to contribute to society in a healthy way.

Our mother was a humanitarian, in every sense of the word. She would travel the world to help anyone and everyone she could, and she was becoming known for it.

Of course, with our family name, it was impossible for us to go unnoticed. The Black family was known all over the world, and despite the fact we had all embraced different careers in our lives, the name itself did serve to help us from time to time.

From business owners, to art agents, to musicians, we dabbled in practically every industry there was. Personally, I’d gone into the entertainment industry. I had always had a fascination with and an appreciation for film, and I wanted to get into the industry in some way when I was finally old enough to do it.

My familial connections made it possible for me to really get involved at an early age, and the fact that I would prefer to be behind the camera rather than in front of it seemed to help as well. I didn’t have any desire to be a famous actor or singer, or anything of the sort.

What I did want to do was make other people famous. I wanted to be the one to discover the next big name in Hollywood, and I wanted to connect them to the people who would make them big. I was well-known as a talent agent, and I refused to only limit myself to the talent that was meant for the big screen.

I would scout talent for the music industry, the modeling industry, and really any other industry where I felt it belonged. I was responsible for glamming up those who were supposed to appear on the red carpet, and I was responsible for pushing new talent all the way to the top.

That was the entire reason why I had been in the Big Apple for a while. I had a new client I was hoping would make it big, and with his need for moral support, I didn’t want to throw him to the wolves. So, I made the trip, offered advice, and gave him as much support as I could throughout the time it took him to really get the gig.

And, when he did, I gave him my card and told him to spread the word. The more connections I had, the easier it was for me to keep up the work. Because, even though I might not need the money, I did enjoy doing it. And, nothing was better than the payoff that came from knowing I’d gotten a client a whole new life.

Now, being back at home, I had some time to myself. The phone could ring at any minute, and I could get a call at any second asking that I take on another client. But, for the most part, I expected things to stay pretty quiet for a while. I didn’t have a lot planned anyway – there were a couple clients I would be meeting with later in the week, but they weren’t pressing, and I would get to them when I got to them.

My phone was surprisingly quiet, however, considering that my mother and brothers all knew that I was back in town. I’d gotten in late the night before, and earlier that morning I had texted them all to let them know that I was going to be back for a while.

Of course, my mother was the only one to really blow up my phone in return, and I knew that shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Gray, my brother who owned an escort service, was the brother I was closest to, and that was largely because of the professional connections we shared.

More often than not, I would hire one of the girls who worked for him as a date for one of the clients I was representing. But, with the other brothers all settling down with their lives, they had better things to do than to blow up my phone when I got back from yet another of my trips.

It was strange to think that I and Logan were the only two brothers left who didn’t have women in our lives. Logan, well, that wasn’t much of a surprise to anyone. He was far from romantic in every sense of the word, and I couldn’t imagine he would ever find someone to settle down with.

I, on the other hand, just wasn’t interested in settling down with anyone. My heart had been broken by a woman I now considered to be the one who got away, and I didn’t have any intention of ever opening my heart up to another. There was no reason for me to waste my time on a woman when it wasn’t going to lead anywhere, and I had better things to do.

My career kept my busy enough, and whenever I was really in need of a woman, it wasn’t ever hard to find someone to take home with me from a pre-game or an after party. God knows I spent plenty of time at both.

But today, I was just tired.

I didn’t want to do much but lay around and recover from not only the long trip that I’d had, but the work that I’d put into it when I was gone. Though it fell to the talent that I found to actually pull together the final act, I was the one who had to do a lot of the leg work that made that happen.

And, though it wasn’t my career that was on the line when it came down to the final gig and whether they got the job or not, it drained me worrying about what was going to happen, and what could happen.

Even those that went as well as this last one did were draining in their own right. And even being as happy as I was that it was done, I was ready to just sit back and do nothing for a day or two while I got ready for what was coming next.

The day was lazy for the most part, and I lounged about the house for most of it. I took a long nap in the afternoon, glad for the fact that I would wake up to warmth and sunshine. I loved New York, and I really loved it in the fall. But, I didn’t like the cold that came with the winter, and snow could just fuck itself as far as I was concerned.

So, I was glad to be back in LA with the A/C on high, and know that it would continue to be a warm, nice day even after my nap.

My phone buzzed, and I expected it to by my mom again. Likely trying to pin me down for some breakfast or lunch that she wanted to host. She often did such things anyway, but when any of us were gone for any length of time, she made sure to throw a big party when we got back.

But, it wasn’t my mom. It was Hunter who was trying to get my attention. Next to Gray, Hunter was the other brother I was closest to, and it didn’t surprise me that he was texting me.

You’ll never guess who I just ran into – Whit! And she’s got a kid!

My stomach dropped and I felt a knot form when I read the text message. I read it through twice, in fact, trying to process it. Whitney, the girl I’d loved more than anyone else in the world. The one who broke my heart more than I thought possible. The girl who got away.

At first, I went on high alert. If she had a kid, that might well mean that she was married now, and I didn’t want to deal with that. On the other hand, Hunter hadn’t given me a lot of information to go on. He’d run into her, but where? And what were the circumstances?

How old was this kid? Was there a ring on her finger? Was she with someone? Was she still with that Nate guy? God, I hoped not. But, I didn’t like to think of her as a single parent, either. That would be hard. It was hard on my own mother, and we were all grown or nearly grown when our dad passed. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like with a small kid in the mix.

But, LA was a big city, and I very rarely explored beyond what was right there in Hollywood. Hunter lived in the heart of the city, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he were to run into more people, considering his location alone. It wasn’t likely I would run into her myself, but I was still glad to have the warning.

Thanks for the heads up

I sent the text and left my phone on the counter, trying to forget about the whole situation. I didn’t want to see Whit, and I couldn’t imagine I would change my mind on that. But, I would like to be ready with something if I did happen to run into her.

It would be something short and to the point. Something that was polite but not too inviting. I didn’t want to reconnect with her. There was no way in hell I could be just friends with her after everything that had happened, and I had a feeling she had her own family now.

For whatever reason, she had chosen not to be with me, and well, I wanted to believe that I’d moved on. I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life thinking about her. And I wasn’t going to waste the rest of the day on her, either.

I refused to think about her being in town, as I tried to decide what I was going to do for dinner. I refused to think about her when I went through the emails after I’d eaten. I refused to let myself think about the fact that Logan and I were the only two brothers left who hadn’t settled down with someone, and that my mother would be more than happy for that fact to change.

I pushed her out of my brain entirely for the rest of the evening. Well, I wanted to be able to say it was entirely, but if I was honest with myself, I knew that she was right there in the back of my mind.

Even as I slipped into bed and closed my eyes, I had to make a conscious effort to not think about her as I started to drift off to sleep. I didn’t want her to be the last thought that was on my mind before I lost consciousness, but then, part of me didn’t have the choice.

The last thing I remembered before I drifted into dreamland was her smile, her eyes – the way she would look at me when we were together. And, no matter how much I wanted to control my brain, I knew that I would likely dream about her that night.

Even if I didn’t want to.

Chapter 2

Whitney

I sat at the table at my parents’ house, watching Tyler play on his tablet. He was watching some videos on YouTube among other things, but he was staying quiet enough. It was early, and both my parents were still in bed, so I told him to keep the volume down on the device.

Although I kept a cheerful smile and a bright attitude when I talked to my son about what was going on in our lives, I didn’t know how much longer I could keep this up. I was worried about him, there was no denying that. I tried to