Arrangement with a Billionaire (Bad Boy Billionaire Brothers Book 1) COMPLETE

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Any Help At All

Chapter Twenty-Eight

It was insane. Arturo's father was trying to get out of prison?

"Are you serious? How is he doing something like that?"

Arturo wiped his face, still so clearly tired, still in so much need of a proper eight, or even twelve, hours of sleep. "He's accusing the police of brutality, and of using fear tactics to force him to confess to something he didn't do. With the money he would have if he was acquitted, there are a lot of lawyers willing to take up his cause. Some of them were his old golfing buddies. He still has his connections."

"What about your lawyers? You have to have a lot of those, too, right?"

Arturo managed a tired smile. "Yeah, we have enough of them. Right now it's just about splitting our time between the company, and making sure he doesn't have a leg to stand on."

"He doesn't, right?"

Arturo shrugged. "It's a long shot, but it's something that we try to squash whenever it comes up."

Isla was shocked that this could've happened for one second before she recalled that, yes, it had happened before. She'd read a couple of article titles that stated Vincenzio Calendri had been constantly trying to get his sentence appealed or thrown out.

She knew nothing about lawyers, so she wasn't sure what the man's chances were, but regardless of those chances, if there were any at all, Arturo and his brothers were clearly doing their best to keep Vincenzio right where he belonged.

"Okay, so, what can I do to help?"

Arturo's eyes widened. "Help? No, nothing. There's nothing you can do."

Isla didn't take it personally. She knew not to. This wasn't about her, it was about Arturo and his family.

"I don't mean there's something I can do with the law, but maybe around here. I can..." she looked around his office. "Clean up for you."

The corner of Arturo's mouth quirked up. "You want me to agree to let my fake girlfriend clean up after me? Sounds like a case for Internet feminists to go insane over sexism. Or for a lawsuit."

"Shut the hell up, it's not sexism if I want to make sure you don't get bugs," Isla said. "And I wouldn't smear your name over cleaning up after you. You already had me sign a contract to not say anything for our...arrangement."

Arturo kept on smiling at her. "For our arrangement, yes, but I never added anything in that contract that stated you have to clean up after me. Next thing I know, you'll be baking me cookies and then I'll really be in trouble."

"You can be such an asshole," Isla laughed.

"Yeah, I should cut it out or else you might actually fall for me."

"I'm going to throw something at you, I swear to God." And the closest thing to her hands was an empty, stained coffee mug.

Arturo shook his head. "I appreciate the idea, but I'll get someone to come in and do that for me. You don't have to clean up. Go have fun. Accept my apology bribe and go shopping."

"It actually is kind of sexist to assume I would want to shop."

"I thought it was more sexist to make the assumption that no women liked to shop."

"I'm confused now," Isla said. "You're actually confusing me."

"I'm always confused by what is and isn't offensive."

Isla nearly shot back that he needed to work on that, but then she closed her mouth.

Arturo was...well, he was attractive. Isla was drawn to him, even if she didn't want to admit it. And a lot of the reason why she was so drawn to him was because of the way he acted. He was a man's man, and he took charge and took what he wanted. Isla had always thought she would be more attracted to a man who was more in touch with his feminine side, but none of the boyfriends she'd ever had lasted long.