The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max) novel Chapter 50

Lark slowly walked to the phone and picked it up gingerly, hitting the speaker button. “Hello?”

“Miss Hoffman. Where is Olivia?”

“I don’t know Mr. Laredo. I only now arrived back at the hotel. My visit to Houston was to settle a lawsuit with my ex because I wrecked his car and ruined his employment opportunities when I exposed his tiny p***s to the entire office we worked at together.” She prayed her voice was as confident as she tried to portray.

“I’m aware of the reason you’re here. I’m furious with you both. Leading me on a wild goose chase through my city and then hiding like a pair of cowards. Neither of you strike me as cowards, Miss Hoffman. Now, I don’t usually stay in hotels however this one is quite luxurious. I can absolutely work from this hotel room with ease, however I have a low tolerance for noisy neighbors. The gentleman on the other side of my wall threw something, my guess is a chair from the way it thudded against the wall. It would be a shame if I were forced to educate him on who is in the room next to his to let him know to keep the noise to a minimum. Do you think it would upset him to know why I am here?”

The two women exchanged a glance, both paling at his words. Before she could speak though the man continued. “Now, it seems to me, Maximilian Villeneuve is highly protective of his twin sister. I imagine if he knows I am here with a small army for my protection given how her lawyer likes to pull firearms, my guess is he might come out swinging.” Lark’s heart rate accelerated at the truth of the man’s statement. Max would definitely not be amenable to Santiago Laredo insisting Ollie go with him.

“What do you want?”

“I want to talk to Olivia, however you will do for now. You can be my messenger. Heriberto and I are going to quietly cross the hall, and you, are going to let us in. Otherwise, I will go to Max and insist on his sister’s whereabouts which will make him angry, and I may be forced to retaliate against his boorish behavior.”

“Boorish behavior? Rich coming from a man threatening me.”

“I have not threatened you, Miss Hoffman. Not a single threat towards you personally has escaped my lips. Now, are you going to open the door, or no?”

“If I say no, you’ll go to Max’s?”

“Yes.”

Tears coated Ollie’s cheeks.

“I’ll open it.”

Ollie made wide eyes.

“Can you give me a couple of minutes though? I came straight to my room and rinsed off in the shower. I’m in a towel.” “Heriberto won’t mind.”

“But I will,” she shot down the man with the laugh as dark as the deepest chocolate.

“Three minutes.”

She hung up the phone and looked to Ollie as Lark began ripping off her own clothes. “Here’s what we are going to do. He’s going to come in here and he’s going to search the room, right? Lark grabbed her giant suitcase and unzipped it. “Get in.”

“Your suitcase? I won’t fit in there.”

“Ollie, I swear to god, crunch your skinny body into this suitcase or he’s going to come in here and carry you out over his shoulder and my dead body in this case.”

“This is absurd,” she looked around the room. “Why not under the bed?” She wiggled the top of it as she lay it off to the side of the room. Ollie barely fit and complained about not being this flexible.

“First place he’ll look is under the bed and before you say the shower it will be the second place. If murderers and serial killers can take bodies out of hotels in oversized suitcases you can hide in one for the few minutes he’s going to be here and I’m fairly sure you’ve been bent in far more awkward positions by the man coming into this room than this.” Lark was grateful she bought the biggest suitcase in the shop because she disliked carrying multiple bags as she threw the clothes which she hung up only the day before around the room to make it untidy. Not leaving a single item hanging in the wardrobe she threw them everywhere. Leaving the suitcase unzipped with Ollie curled up inside of it, she loaded clothes on top of it, she grabbed the ironing board from the wardrobe and opened it over the suitcase and set the iron on top of it. She threw a blouse on it and then as the man gave a single knock on the other side of the door, quickly shimmied into shorts and a t-shirt.

She wondered if Ollie’s heart was beating as hard as hers was as she pulled the door open and ushered him in quickly, shooting a worried glance in the direction of Max’s room.

The door closed behind them as both men entered. Heriberto gave her a long look and she blushed as she realized how short her shorts were. She should have grabbed track pants.

“I did not take you for someone so disorganized.” Santiago Laredo looked around the room as his brother immediately got on his knees to look under the bed.

“I’m not. I had an existential crisis this morning. I wanted to appear professional but make Doug regret every single decision he’s made over the last few months. I might have had a meltdown in the process,” she kicked a pair of dress pants out of the way and sat down on the edge of the bed.