Dumped My Cheating Ex. Now I'm Sleeping Next to a Billionaire CEO novel Chapter 455

James’s mouth twitched at Dean’s words, but there wasn’t even a hint of real amusement in his eyes.

“My wife’s none of your business, Mr. Sparrow.”

He paused, then added, “Still, I have to thank you for what you did to help save her this time.”

Dean scoffed, like he’d just heard the most ridiculous thing in the world. “Help? I was saving my own woman. That’s not helping, that’s just what any man would do.”

James’s face grew cold, but he wasn’t going to waste time trading insults with someone who was being deliberately thick.

He tapped his tablet a few times and spun it around so Dean could see. “You spent six hundred million trying to win Pearl’s trust.”

“I got five hundred million of it back for you. It’s already in your account.”

“The last hundred million—I’ll figure out a way to recover it.”

Dean’s eyebrows shot up. He hadn’t expected James to know exactly where all the money had gone. He’d handed that cash straight to drug dealers, and yet James had managed to get most of it back in no time at all.

Dean couldn’t even imagine what kind of people James had under his command. Still, his voice was dripping with contempt. “If it meant keeping her safe, I wouldn’t hesitate to throw away six hundred million. I’d throw away sixty billion, if I had to.”

He lifted his chin, his eyes challenging. “But even if you had the chance, could you do it, James?”

“You live on the edge every day. You have no idea if you’ll even see tomorrow.”

“You can’t protect her forever.”

“Give her back to me.”

James suddenly laughed, low and mocking. “You? The man who cheated before the wedding, who left her, who hurt her—now you’re standing here acting all righteous?”

“Mr. Sparrow, I’ve got to say, your nerve is something else.”

“I can ask my superiors to make you a confidential informant. Work with us, help us take down the traffickers.”

“What do you say, Mr. Sparrow?”

Dean narrowed his eyes, studying James. No American could stand drug dealers. And the truth was, at first he really hadn’t known what those men were. He’d thought they were just mercenaries, guns for hire. It wasn’t until the military nearly tracked the whole thing back to him that he realized what he’d actually done.

He’d been furious, went straight to Claudia to confront her, but she just swore up and down that they were only mercenaries. Even with the evidence in her face, she played dumb and dragged him deeper into the mess. She’d even tried to use it to force him into marrying Evelina.

That was where the disgust started. So when Evelina’s name got ruined, he didn’t even hesitate—he broke off the engagement on the spot.

He was American through and through. And after what happened to his mother, he’d never been able to forgive Claudia and her daughter.

Dean thought for a moment, frowning. “Since you’ve dug up so much dirt on me, James, let me ask you—have you looked into Claudia’s background? Because it’s far from clean.”