The Billionaire's Alibi: The Proposition Read Free Page A

after everything that had happened in recent months.
    She shoved the phone back in her pocket, text unanswered. Besides, she reasoned, she had been looking forward to having the apartment to herself for the entire night. Her ex-boyfriend had a date, or at least she assumed—he had added a woman’s name and dinner reservation to his calendar on the fridge—and if Chase was being Chase, he would try to sleep with her, thankfully at her place instead of the apartment they were forced to share.
    Alexa glanced up as the butcher handed the tall, handsome man his order. The man gave her a sidelong look before grabbing the plainly wrapped packages and neatly folding them under his elbow. He ducked his head as he turned away, but he hadn’t secured his purchases well enough—one of the packages slipped and fell to the floor in his hurry. The tape securing the wrapping had come loose, causing a gap between the paper and its contents.
    “Sir?” Alexa immediately bent down to pick it up. “Sir, you dropped something.” The man backtracked toward her in a matter of seconds, panic reaching his eyes.
    “I’ll take that,” he said, reaching out to grab his purchase from her—but not before Alexa’s eyes fell on the transfer between their hands, giving her a closer look at the package’s contents. A bag of white powder.
    Her smile faded as her mind registered what she was seeing. The package fell from her grasp and she stepped back. Behind the counter, the butcher’s eyes widened, and he mumbled something nervously before fleeing to the back office.
    “Oh my God,” she said, avoiding the man’s eyes. She turned and walked back to her cart as calmly as possible, hearing him snatch the package off the ground.
    She spun around. “I won’t say anything,” she whispered. “I swear. Everything is fine.” So much for the fantasy. She had been wrong—her tall, handsome man was into drugs, and God knew what else. The last thing she needed today was to be a witness in a drug bust, especially because she had to pay for all her groceries and pick up the kids in less than an hour.
    She gripped the handles of her cart and pushed it toward the front of the store, hoping the man would ignore her as she wanted to ignore him.
    And hoping she could forget what she saw.
     

 
    WILL
    “WAIT!” Will cursed to himself and ran after the girl who had, out of pure dumb luck, been a witness to his transaction.
    When he reached her, he grabbed her elbow.
    She flipped around, her eyes wide. The words flew from her mouth in a hushed voice. “You don’t have to worry about me. I won’t tell anyone, I didn’t see anything, nothing happened.”
    “At least let me buy your groceries.” He tried to remain collected, like buying illegal drugs in a grocery store was just like picking up a bag of chips or 6-pack of soda. He had wanted to get in and out of the store unnoticed, but this new complication changed his plans.
    “That’s unnecessary,” she said, finally regaining her composure. “They’re not for me anyway, so you wouldn’t be doing me a favor. My employer would just ask questions.”
    “Who’s your employer?”
    “Does it matter?”
    He followed after her, not letting her out of his sight. She didn’t seem to know who he was, but he couldn’t take any chances. He was one of the one-percenters, and everyone loved to see a rich kid get what was coming to him.
    “Hey,” he said. “I’m just trying to make conversation. Will you at least tell me your name, so I can thank you properly?”
    She brought her cart to a halt, turning to look him in the eyes for the first time, though they were narrowed suspiciously. “Alexa,” she said. “And you are?”
    “You don’t know?” Will laughed a little, knowing that women fell hard for his soft chuckle.
    “Oh!” she exclaimed. “Ryan Gosling! I totally didn’t recognize you in that hoodie.” She rolled her eyes and pushed her cart forward again. It took him a moment to