The CEO (Colorado Billionaires #1)

Prologue

PROLOGUE

J uly, three years ago, Denver, Colorado

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Bree Taylor looked at the clock on the microwave. Her coffee was almost done. Six o’clock in the morning. Who in the world would be at her door now? She gathered her chenille robe tighter about her and headed to the door. After looking through the peephole, she opened the door. “Yes. Can I help you?”

“Brianna Taylor?” asked the Marine captain in dress blues with his hat under his arm and wearing white gloves.

Behind him stood another marine and a chaplain, both in their regular uniforms.

“I am.” She shook her head. This couldn’t be happening. Her eyes filled with tears. Only one thing would bring these three men to her doorstep…Brad.

“Miss Taylor?—”

“No. No. No.” She continued shaking her head. This wasn’t real. “No!”

The officer continued, “I’m sorry to inform you that your fiancé Bradford Anderson was killed while on active duty in Afghanistan this past Monday. You are listed as his only next of kin.”

Her heart hurt. Bree grabbed the door handle as it was the only thing to latch on to.

The captain stepped forward and took her by the arm. “Perhaps we should go inside.”

She nodded. “Yes, that would be best.” Bree straightened her back. She worried this day could come every time Brad deployed to some war-torn part of the planet, but she didn’t think it would happen so soon. He’d only been gone for two months. She sat on the sofa and looked up at the officer. “What’s your name?”

He stood with his hat under his arm. “Captain Marcus O’Reilly.”

“You must hate this part of your job.”

“Yes, ma’am. It is never easy informing loved ones at a time like this. Can I get you some water or something?”

His voice was muffled. Bree shook her head. “No. Nothing. How did it happen?” She was barely keeping the tears at bay, but she needed answers. “Please sit, so I’m not looking up at you.”

He nodded. His hair was dark above the white sidewalls of the military cut. He sat and angled his body toward her. “It was an IED. That’s how many of our soldiers die. They are insidious. If it’s any consolation, he didn’t suffer.”

She nodded and held back another sob.

“Is there someone I can call for you? You really shouldn’t be alone at a time like this.”

Swallowing hard, she nodded. “Adam. Adam Kincaid. He’s Brad’s best friend.”

“Do you have the number for Mr. Kincaid?”

“Yes, let me…” She picked up the phone on the coffee table, then unlocked the phone before handing it back to the captain. “He’s on my favorites list, the second name.”

The captain took her phone and touched the favorites list and then Adam’s name. He put it on speaker.

She heard Adam curse at being woken up. It was Saturday, the only day of the week he allowed himself to sleep in. Despite the situation, she smiled at the normalcy of his response.

“Bree? What’s wrong?”

The captain glanced at Bree. “Mr. Kincaid, this is Captain Marcus O’Reilly with the Marine Corps. I believe that you should come over to Miss Taylor’s as soon as possible.”

“What happened? It’s Brad, isn’t it? Never mind. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Or less.”

“Thank you, Adam,” said Bree with a sob and her arms clasped over her stomach. Holding it together was getting harder and harder with each passing minute. She would never have the perfect ranch house on acreage with horses and chickens and two dogs for the kids to play with. Never have the four kids she and Brad had planned on. Never have the wedding she’d dreamed of with the perfect dress to go along with the perfect groom. And Brad would have been the perfect groom. He was the perfect everything…to her. How could she go on without him, without their dreams, without holding each other every night and again in the morning?

Nothing would be the same, and she had no future without Brad. How could she go on?

About ten minutes later, a knock sounded.

The captain stood and walked to the door.

Adam rushed past the captain to Bree.

She lost it and buried her face in his chest, her arms around his waist, as tears rolled down her face and she bawled.

Adam picked her up in his arms and sat her on his lap.

He buried his face in her hair.

She felt rather than heard his sobs. He and Brad had been best friends since kindergarten. He was hurting as much as she was. They had both lost their best friend.

“May I leave you here, sir, to care for Miss Taylor?” asked Captain O’Reilly.

Bree lifted her head and spoke to the captain. “Adam will stay. You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll be fine.” Though she said the words, she knew they were a lie. She would never be fine again.

Driving the Lamborghini, Adam raced to Bree’s, breaking every speed limit to get to her side. He’d left Valerie home, but it didn’t matter. They were divorcing anyway, and Bree needed him. He knew she would be a mess. Heck, he was a mess. Brad. Gone. He couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

After Adam finished his stint with the Navy SEALs, he’d tried to get Brad to join him when he started Kincaid Holdings. It would have been Kincaid and Anderson Holdings then. Brad would have been a richer man now, if he had. But he’d wanted to be a Marine since second grade, when one came to talk to the class. He’d decided then and there that he would wear that uniform and carry a sword. And he’d done it.

Joined right out of high school. He’d worked his way up to captain in the fourteen years he’d been in.

Adam was proud of him.

Brad was happy, and then he met Bree, and together they were his best friends and the happiest couple he’d ever seen.

That made him even bitterer about his own marriage, which was ending in divorce. He wondered now if he’d ever loved Valerie. He’d always put Bree’s needs before hers. He realized now that he always would. Bree was his best friend, along with Brad. Now, his only best friend.

Pushing that out of his mind, he focused on Bree as he knocked on her door.

When the captain answered, Adam rushed to Bree on the sofa. She just looked at him and tears ran from her eyes down her sweet cheeks. He hated seeing her like this, but knew she needed to get the immediate grieving process started. As did he.

He held her and when he sat her on his lap; she buried her head in his chest.

Adam couldn’t hold his tears any longer and leaned his forehead against the top of her head and let them flow.

The captain asked if Adam would stay and take care of Bree.

She’d answered for him and said he’d stay.

And he would, for as long as she needed him. He would cancel everything else to be with Bree and help her get past this.

He needed her as much as she needed him at this moment in time. He would keep his promise to Brad to take care of Bree if anything happened to him. Brad was no one’s fool. He had his business in order before he took off. That meant his will and his financial records and accounts were all in order and ready for Adam to give them to Bree.

Brad had never let on, but he was a wealthy man because of his stock holdings, most of which were in Kincaid. He hadn’t been ready to go to work for the company, but he wasn’t about to pass up a great opportunity. So he put as much as he could into the company stock.

For now, though, Adam was content to hold Bree, and she was content to be held while they shared their grief. After the funeral was soon enough to deal with Brad’s will.