Evergreen: An Alpha Billionaire Romance Read online

  EVERGREEN

  An Alpha Billionaire Romance

  Complete Series

  By Michelle Love

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  ©Copyright 2017 by

  Michelle Love- All rights

  Reserved

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights are reserved.

  Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

  Looking for a Billionaire Romance series by a bestselling author for FREE? Check out these TWO series not published anywhere, grab your copies from #instaFreebie @instaFreebie, Click here to get yours... https://www.instafreebie.com/free/7xRtC

  Table of Contents

  Evergreen Complete Series

  Part #1:Luca

  Part #2: Zea

  Part #3: Maximo

  Part #4: Jesse

  Part #5: Bree

  Part #6: Ophelie

  Part #7: Kizzie

  Part #8: Ethan

  Part #9: Emory

  Part #10: Auburn

  A Billionaire’s Treasure Complete Series

  Billionaire Romance Series

  Preview of Dirty Money Books 1 and 2

  Collateral Damage Book 1

  Toss of a Coin Book 2

  EVERGREEN

  An Alpha Billionaire Romance

  Part #1:Luca

  By Michelle Love

  In the beautiful, evergreen state of Washington, the uber-rich send their teenage and young adult children to the exclusive private Auburn College of Fine Arts, where the teachers’, parents’ and even the students’ lives and loves collide.

  #1: Luca

  Beautiful professor Emory Grace loves her job teaching at one of Washington’s most prestigious private colleges, but her private life is a mess. Her much-older husband, Ray, a Harvard professor, is an abusive, controlling monster and Emory makes up her mind to leave him and serves him divorce papers.

  The peace she finds while teaching at Auburn is shattered when a colleague goes on a murderous rampage, killing both teachers and students and Emory is caught in the crossfire. Rescuing a student, she sacrifices her own safety and is badly wounded.

  The student she saves, Bree, is the daughter of billionaire businessman, Luca Saffran, who, at the time of the massacre was locked in a divorce battle with his wife, Clementine. When Luca meets Emory and thanks her for saving his daughter, there is an immediate attraction. Luca discovers the abuse that Emory’s much older husband, Professor Ray Grace has subjected her to and offers her safe haven. But Ray won’t let Emory go without a fight.

  . Will Emory’s physical and mental scars prevent her from ever trusting a man again, even if that man is as alluring and enigmatic as Luca Saffran? And will her violent ex-husband ruin any chance she has for happiness?

  Emory Grace sneaked a look at her watch. The commencement ceremony was already an hour in, and now that her husband, Dr. Raymond Grace, was about to make his speech, it would almost certainly be another two or three hours before she could escape and get back to Auburn. She sighed, her skin almost feeling like it was itching with irritation. Ray would bloviate for an hour – about himself – and then finally get around to the students who, by that time, would be muttering dark thoughts and getting antsy.

  Emory glanced over at her friend, Joan, who was Ray’s personal assistant. Joan winked back at her, knowing exactly what she was thinking. Emory didn’t think she would have made it through the last five years of her marriage without Joan. Joan was the one person of whom Ray was terrified. A striking woman in her early seventies, Joan didn’t stand for any of Ray’s arrogance or rudeness.

  But then again Ray had never hit Joan across the room, kicked her in the stomach or almost choked her to death.

  Emory touched her throat now, remembering the evening a few nights ago when she’d quietly told him that she didn’t want to attend this event. He’d been silent for a moment then moved so quickly she hadn’t had time to defend herself. He grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall, his thick fingers squeezing her neck until she saw stars at the corner of her vision.

  ‘Why must you always defy me?’ He’d whispered before releasing her. She had dropped to the floor, gasping for air but it hadn’t been the end of the attack. He’d grabbed her long dark hair in his fist and dragged her to their bed. Emory had closed her eyes as he grunted above her. Three short thrusts and he was done. He rolled off her and fell asleep while Emory shivered, letting her tears fall silently.

  No more, she’d decided that night, and now she repeated it to herself. No more. When she was sure he had been asleep, she got up and went to grab some water and made a plan. A Plan to escape from this man she had married. God, how had she ever loved him? Nearly twice her twenty-eight years, when they met he had seemed so worldly and wise, so charming. How long had it been after their wedding that he’d changed? She hardly remembered, but now it was clear; she had to leave him. She wanted to leave him. The thought of the next thirty or forty years with this abusive, weak man…God, she couldn’t do it.

  So, she’d planned meticulously. When she was finally able to get back to Auburn, to the college she loved with all her heart, she would move into one of the few cottages on the campus that were kept available for staff to stay in at times of need. She’d cleared it with the Dean, a kindly Englishman called Stephen Harris, who’d gone to college with Ray and despised him of old – not that he’d ever said that to Emory…until the day she’d told him she was leaving Ray.

  ‘It’s become apparent that we cannot continue to live together,’ she’d said, not wanting to tell him too much but Stephen had glanced at the bruises on her neck, and they’d shared a look.

  He’d offered to lend her money, but she smiled gratefully. ‘Thank you, Stephen, but no, I’ll be fine. I’ve always been a saver.’

  ‘Well, you can stay here as long as you need,’ he said, ‘and really, Em, whatever you need, don’t hesitate to ask. We’re all Team Emory here.’

  She had to leave his office before she burst into tears. But now she felt as far from crying as she could; she just felt excited. Her lawyer had prepared the papers to serve to Ray as soon as she left for Auburn; most of her clothes, books and records had been hidden away in the trunk of her old Impala; Ray was so self-absorbed he hadn’t realized they’d been missing from the home they shared. She was leaving virtually everything else. She didn’t want any reminder of Ray. Her wedding ring she would leave on his nightstand – a final ‘fuck you.'

  She had been daydreaming for so long she hadn’t realized people were clapping. She sat up and looked towards Ray at the podium. He caught her eye, saw she wasn’t applauding and glared at her. Emory gave him her cheesiest grin.

  Yeah, fuck you, Raymond Grace, you’re not going to see this coming.

  Two days later…

  Clementine would not meet his gaze. Luca Saffran, across from his soon-to-be ex-wife as they sat in their $700 an hour lawyer’s office, had tried to catch her eye for the entire duration of the settlement meeting but Clem wouldn’t look at him. He could see the spots of pink high on her patrician cheeks, her dark red hair up in a perfect chignon, her blue e
yes red-rimmed and watery. She hadn’t wanted this, the divorce, the separation of their lives but Luca had known it was over for a while. So did Clem in her heart but still, she was heartbroken. They had managed to keep it civil for the sake of their nineteen-year-old daughter Bree. Even now, the meeting was going smoothly; Clem didn’t want anything but her trust fund and the property in Snoqualmie. Even though Luca wanted to give her half of his seven billion-dollar fortune. It dwarfed her trust fund.

  ‘I don’t want your money,’ Clem said evenly, though her voice shook. Finally, she met Luca’s dark eyes. ‘I’m not being difficult, Luca, I just don’t want it.’

  Luca sighed. ‘How about I create a trust fund for Bree?’

  Clem sighed. ‘In addition to all her other trust funds? Luca, stop.’

  He stared at her for a few moments then looked at the lawyers. ‘Guys, can we have the room, please?’

  When they were alone, he got up and took the seat next to Clem, taking her hands in his. ‘Clem, I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you.’

  She looked at him, her blue eyes cold. ‘Then why did you, Luca? Why a divorce?’

  ‘Because you would never have asked for one, Clemmie. Never. And I knew with my whole heart; you need more than me. More than the life we had.’

  She made a disgusted noise and pulled her hands away from him. ‘And you know what I need?’

  ‘We’re not in love anymore. You know it and I know it. We haven’t been for a long time; we want different things. You love the social scene, and I hate it. You have ambition and drive, and I just want a quiet life. We don’t fit anymore. Clem?’

  He touched his hand to her cheek, and for a second, she leaned into his touch. ‘Clem, it doesn’t mean I don’t love you anymore. Far from it. You’ll always be my best friend, but we’re not in love. And please don’t think it’s because I have someone else, I don’t. I’m not interested in meeting someone else. But you deserve a fairytale, Clemmie.’

  She pulled away from his touch. ‘You think I can’t function without a man?’

  ‘That’s not what…’

  ‘Fuck you, Luca,’ she whispered, her tears falling freely now, ‘You’ve broken my heart.’

  Someone knocked at the door, didn’t wait for their signal. The stricken face of their lawyer, an otherwise unflappable man, made Luca’s heart stop.

  ‘Guys,’ the lawyer said, ‘you need to check the television news. Right now. It’s Bree’s college. There’s been a shooting spree.’

  The gunfire had stopped. Emory signaled for her class to keep quiet. ‘Keep down, away from the windows. I’m going to check the exit to make sure it’s clear then we’ll get out.’ She kept her voice steady – a miracle considering the abject terror she was feeling. But that didn’t matter. The shell-shock on the faces of her English students made her want to hold them all, protect them all, comfort them all. Babies, they’re just babies, not one of them older than nineteen.

  ‘Emory?’ One of the boys, Greg Sestino, stood. ‘Please let me come with you.’

  Emory smiled at him but shook her head. ‘No way – but thank you for offering. Keep together; I’ll be back in a few moments.’ She appreciated the way her students wanted to help, but there was no chance in hell she’d put them in danger.

  As she crept out into the silent hallway, her ears were straining to hear any sound at all. When the first shots rang out, she’d been five minutes into her class, the students still settling into the lesson. There were some students who hadn’t arrived and now, as she moved silently through the corridors of her beloved school, her heart was thumping painfully. Please, please let them be okay. What she wanted most to know was: Who the hell was the shooter and how the hell had they gotten a gun into school? Auburn prided itself on being one of the safest schools in the country – charging parents a little under fifty thousand dollars a year did that. Metal detectors at every door, constant around the clock security.

  Emory rounded the corner and breathed a sigh of relief. An exit – a straight path for her kids to escape through. She ran quietly back to her class and told them to follow her. ‘Quiet as you can, though, and if anything happens, run. Run like fuck. When you get outside, run, but keep low and zig-zag until you get to safety.’

  Her students grinned at her cussing, and she was grateful to have relieved some of the tension. She led them out through the corridor and watched as they skittered out into freedom. Greg was last, and he hesitated by the door.

  ‘What are you doing? Greg, go!’ Emory started to get panicky when he didn’t move. He looked at her.

  ‘You’re not coming with us, are you?’

  Emory shook her head. ‘I have to find the others.’

  Greg looked unhappy. ‘Emory…’

  ‘Go.’ She closed the door on his grim expression and turned. Take a breath. Think. There were three of her students still in the building. Lee Shawn, Hailey Wells and Bree Saffran. Lee and Hailey were dating so wherever they were; they were together. Bree was a solitary creature, a well-liked but self-contained unit. God knows where she might be.

  Emory moved through the corridors slowly. She’d kicked off her sneakers, so her socked feet glided silently along the polished floors. She checked every classroom along the first floor then moved silently up to the second.

  She wasn’t prepared for what she saw. Bodies. A small whimper escaped her as she saw two of her colleagues on the ground in pools of blood. Sam Jensen. Her friend who taught French. ‘Oh no, no, no…’ Emory whispered as she sunk to her knees beside him. A bullet had torn through Sam’s neck; he’d bled out before anyone could help. Tina Halsey lay on her back a few feet away, crumpled as if she had been felled. Emory gagged when she saw that half of Tina’s head had been blown away.

  ‘Em…’

  She spun around to see Lee Shawn crawling along the floor. She ran to him, and this time, she did moan. Lee had been shot in the chest and was bleeding from the mouth. One look and Emory knew it was hopeless. ‘Oh God, Lee…hang on, please.’ She took her over-shirt off and pressed it to his chest. There was blood in his mouth, and he coughed, splattering more blood over them both.

  ‘Emory…Hailey’s dead. He killed her in front of me, and he was laughing, Em, he laughed…’

  Both of them had tears dripping down their faces now. ‘Who is he, Lee?’

  Lee’s eyes were taking on a glassy look, and Em knew he was dying. She was going to watch this bright, funny, kind student die in front of her and she felt helpless. ‘Can you tell me who, Lee?’

  He shook his head, and for a moment, Emory reeled at the thought of a random shooter. God, no…

  ‘I can’t believe it, Em…it’s Mr. Azano. David Azano…Emory…I’m so scared.’

  Emory felt as if she’d been hit in the chest with a hammer. David Azano. Physics professor. Her friend. She scooched down next to Lee and wrapped her arms around him. Lee had to be delirious; it just couldn’t be David. David was the clown of the teacher’s break room, the born teacher who loved the kids, loved the life he had here. He was one of the most popular teachers both with the kids and the staff. No. No way.

  Lee shuddered in her arms. ‘Tell my mom and dad I love them, Em, promise?’

  She couldn’t give him any reassurance that she could save him, and this seemed like such a little thing to do. ‘Promise. Oh god, Lee, please, try to hang on. Some of the kids have gotten out; they’ll call the cops.’

  But he was silent, and she knew from the way his weight was heavy in her arms that he was gone. The sobs came then, and she struggled to keep them quiet, burying her face in Lee’s short dark hair as she cried over the dead boy.

  As her sobs shuddered to a halt a few moments later, she heard it. A scream. A female’s scream and the adrenaline coursed through her body and gently she laid Lee down on the floor and scrambled to her feet. The scream had made her realize; she still had a job to do, and now she was raging, furious as she strode down the blood-soaked hallways and she focused on the one thi
ng that was obvious.

  Bree Saffran needed her help.

  The police keep the media and the relatives far away from the school building, in a clearing beyond the school boundaries. A hastily convened press conference was happening, and as Luca and Clem arrived, they made their way over the throng around the police captain who was talking.

  ‘We currently have an active shooter on the property, and we are effecting a rescue scenario as we speak but folks, this is an ongoing situation, and we need every resource available. I promise you, when we know your children, your friends, your colleagues are safe, we will let you know.’

  Luca realized he was clutching Clem’s hand, but she was so pale, so drawn that he didn’t want to drop it and hurt her feelings. Right now, they needed each other. He looked over to the see the Dean, Stephen Harris, talking to the cops. He looked beyond devastated.

  A cry went up as a flood of teenagers and staff came pouring into the clearing, and hysterical relatives threw themselves at their loved ones. Luca and Clem rushed forward, but as the crowd cleared, it became obvious that Bree was not among them. Clem looked at Luca, and he could see the panic in her eyes.

  ‘No…not my little girl…’she whispered and he clutched her to his chest.

  ‘We don’t know anything yet,’ he whispered to her, ‘let’s keep calm until we do. If she were…gone, I’d know it. You’d know it.’

  He felt her nod against his chest and wondered if she could feel just how hard his heart was thumping. Over her head, he spotted Greg Sestino being hugged by his family. Greg met his gaze and nodded, spoke quietly to his mom who reluctantly let him go. He jogged over to them.