Bitter Heat

by Mia Knight

  “Right,” Ariana muttered.

  “He won’t find out because we aren’t going to tell him,” Colette said through clenched teeth.

  Jasmine stared out at the city as her sisters argued. What was Roth’s end game? To destroy the Hennessy name? Declare war on one of the richest and most powerful families in New York? Maybe it was meant to be that Maximus had given her the money so she could pay off her ex and be free of him once and for all.

  She didn’t realize how cold she was until Colette’s warm hands wrapped around hers.

  “If you can’t do this,” Colette said quietly, “we can find another way.”

  “No.” She faced her sisters who sat side by side on the couch. “I’ll call.”

  “You have his number?”

  She nodded and stuffed her hands in her pockets. “Get some rest. I’ll contact you if I get in touch with him.”

  Before they could say anything else, she walked away and boarded the elevator on legs that felt like jelly.

  Chapter 10

  “Where to?” the driver asked.

  She stared out the window as they pulled away from Hennessy Tower. “Not sure yet. Just drive.”

  After two blocks, she pulled out her phone. She unblocked his number and waited for a deluge of notifications or voicemails to pop up. Nothing happened. It was anti-climactic.

  Her gaze returned to the window. She wanted to beat her fist against the glass until it splintered. She thought she was done with corporate games, but Roth was drawing her back into the thick of it. He thought she was bad at business because she didn’t have the balls to behave like him, but he was wrong. She would do whatever it took to keep her family legacy alive even if it meant sacrificing every penny she had to fight him. Once upon a time, he broke her heart. That wasn’t enough for him. He kept dicing it into smaller pieces. Did he want her to hate him? Mission accomplished.

  She found his name in her contacts. Her finger hovered over the screen. She buried her feelings, tapped on his name, and put the phone to her ear. It rang once, twice, three times. Maybe he wouldn’t answer her call, just like her sisters. She was just a piece of ass to him anyway—

  “Jasmine.”

  The hand in her lap balled into a fist. “Where are you?”

  “My office.”

  “I need to talk to you.”

  No response. She waited and then pulled the phone away to check that he was still on the line.

  “Roth?”

  “I’ll be here.”

  “Where’s your office?”

  He rattled off an address she was very familiar with. His office was across from Hennessy headquarters. Motherfucker.

  “See you in ten,” she said and hung up.

  She gave the address to the driver who seemed relieved to have a destination. She shoved her phone in her purse and closed her eyes as she readied herself for the confrontation. Her emotions frothed inside her. Business isn’t personal. She ground her teeth as her father’s words drifted through her mind. The fuck it wasn’t. Roth was going after Hennessy & Co and God knew what else. Her eyes pricked with furious tears. He was a heartless bastard.

  When the car stopped, she sat back. “Give me a moment,” she said when the driver prepared to get out of the car.

  “Ms. Hennessy?”

  “A minute,” she repeated and took a deep breath. She snuffed out her emotions. If she showed weakness, he would have the upper hand. He wasn’t her ex-husband, friend, or enemy. He was a nobody, a faceless fuck who was messing with her family. She had several hundred million at her disposal, and he wouldn’t be expecting that. Money was what he wanted. It was what he craved. She would give him what he wanted, ensure Hennessy & Co was back in her sister’s hands, and then peace the fuck out of here.

  Someone knocked on the glass. She opened her eyes to find an unfamiliar security guard watching her. She rolled down the window a crack.

  “Mr. Roth’s expecting you,” he said.

  When she unlocked the door, he held out a hand to help her from the vehicle.

  “I’ll escort you,” he said.

  She looked down the empty sidewalks of the business district. It had to be close to eleven o’clock. She glanced across the street at her father’s building and felt her swinging equilibrium stabilize. She would never be a CEO, but she was still a Hennessy. Maximus Carlsbad Hennessy didn’t raise weak women. He built a legacy that would live on for generations, and it was up to her to make sure that happened.

  She lifted her head as she walked into the building. Their footsteps echoed eerily in the empty lobby. The guard didn’t say a word as he pressed the button for the forty-fifth floor. The elevator was so smooth, she didn’t feel it stop. They strode past a beautiful reception area filled with fresh flowers, then walked down a long hallway lined with offices with frosted glass sliding walls. The guard led her to the executive suite and knocked on the double doors.

  “Come in.”

  She steeled herself as the guard opened the door. Roth sat behind his desk with the stunning backdrop of New York City behind him. The view paired with his palatial office let everyone know immediately who was in control here. The white floor, espresso desk and neutral walls highlighted the strategically placed plants, statues, and artwork. She didn’t have to ask him to know that everything in this room was top of the line.

  The door closed behind her as she walked toward him. His suit jacket was draped over the back of his chair. His navy silk tie was loose around his neck. He looked stylish and expensive and every inch a tycoon.

  “You finally used my number,” he said and shrugged back the sleeve of his shirt to look at his watch. “We can fuck here or at my penthouse.”

  She stopped dead in her tracks a few feet from his desk. “I’m not here to fuck.”

  He gave a one-shoulder shrug. “I thought you needed more material for your books.”

  “Don’t talk about my work!” She wanted to knock his computer off his desk and spit in his face. Instead, she suffocated her emotions and focused on her mission. “I’m here because you bought a controlling share of Hennessy & Co.”

  He surveyed her coolly. “What about it?”

  “I’m here to negotiate.”

  His eyes flicked over her. “Is that right?”

  Her temper threatened to break free from its leash. “You let my pregnant sister wait in the lobby all day?”

  “I’m a busy man.”

  “Yet here I am.”

  “I thought you wanted to fuck.”

  He was trying to make her feel cheap, and it was working. Clearly, the truce they had in Colorado was officially gone. He was showing her how little she mattered to him. Her stomach rocked. The urge to turn around and walk away was overwhelming, but she had something he wasn’t counting on. He didn’t know about her inheritance. She was her sisters only hope. At least she had gotten further than her sisters and actually met him face to face.

  “I want to buy back the shares,” she said.

  “They aren’t for sale.”

  “Everything has a price.”

  “Some things are priceless,” he said as he steepled his fingers. “Like having Colette Hennessy Caruso sitting in my lobby all day.”

  “You fucker,” she said and took a step forward before she stopped herself. He was deliberately antagonizing her. To make her walk? She forced herself to think through the red haze.

  “The shares,” she said hoarsely. “How much?”

  “Colette got cocky. She took risks, which is good, but she took too many at once and didn’t pull back when the first handful didn’t pay off. We never borrow. You don’t want to be indebted to anyone. Her arrogance made her reckless.”

  She ground her teeth. “She knows she made a mistake.”

  “She’s not allowed to make a mistake, not when billions are on the line.”

  “I’ll pay double what you did for the shares.”

  His eyes narrowed for a brief second before he shrugged. “Not
interested.”

  “Of course, you are,” she snapped as her nerves stretched to the breaking point. She couldn’t stand being in his presence. He stirred up so much in her, and none of it was good. Seeing him reminded her of all the mistakes she had made. She felt as if she couldn’t take a full breath like he was sucking up all the air. He was toxic. She wanted to get the shares back and get away from him.

  “I have what you want,” she said.

  “Do you?”

  “I do.” In that, she had no doubt. What she was offering was nothing to sneer at.

  “I’ll pass.”

  He wanted to play hardball. “You haven’t asked how much I have.”

  “It’s irrelevant.”

  What the fuck? She stiffened as he rose. How could she have forgotten how goddamn big he was? He faced her across the length of his desk as he smoothed a hand over his shirt, bringing attention to his body, a body she was intimately familiar with. Their last encounter in her apartment flickered at the edges of her mind, but she resolutely shoved the memories in the dirt where they belonged. She wanted to look away because that probing gaze told her he knew what she was thinking. Fucker.

  “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this moment?”

  A chill tripped down her spine.

  “Revenge. I’ve heard it’s a dish best served cold. Appropriate that winter’s coming, hmm?” He slipped his hands into his pockets. “Seven years ago, your father destroyed me, and he had help.”

  Realization hit. “Oh, my God,” she whispered.

  He began to walk around the office. Roth had always stuck out in a crowd, and it wasn’t just his size that drew eyes to him. It was his confidence that assured people he could pull off every venture he proposed. He had always been intimidating, but now he was a step beyond that. The man she married was no more. He was control personified, completely dispassionate and focused on the bottom line.

  “They thought they would teach me a lesson and show me my place.”

  He drew out the last word, savoring it.

  “And now I’m back to put them in theirs.”

  If he was telling the truth, her sisters were just one of many who he felt deserved punishment. He was about to unleash a tidal wave of terror among the New York elite, and no one was safe. He was unhinged.

  He came back into her line of vision when he perched on the front of his desk. He was too close for comfort but now wasn’t the time to be squeamish.

  “My sisters are innocent,” she said.

  “They owe a debt.”

  “What debt?”

  “Your father’s.”

  Even though she had been expecting something like that to come out of his mouth, she still couldn’t believe it. “This is insane! You’re spending millions of dollars to exact revenge on someone who’s dead! What is wrong with you?”

  “No one gets the better of me, Jasmine.”

  “But he didn’t! You’re here.” She waved her hands to encompass his grand office and the view. “It doesn’t matter what he did to slow you down because you made it despite all of that.”

  “It’s not enough,” he said quietly.

  “What do you want? Blood?”

  He said nothing; he just watched her. She was looking at a complete stranger.

  “What are you going to do with Hennessy & Co?”

  “I haven’t decided yet.”

  “Liar.”

  “Your sisters are big girls. They can handle whatever I throw at them.”

  Her heart sank. “Is that your plan? To humiliate them?”

  “Worried, princess?”

  Her hand balled at her side. “Don’t call me that.”

  He rose and walked toward her. Her muscles locked against the impulse to run. When he stopped a foot from her, she could smell his cologne. No man as evil as him should smell so appealing. He was the devil incarnate. He should smell of blood and sweat.

  “Lyle and Rami will fight you,” she said.

  He cocked his head to the side. “They haven’t been told yet?”

  Fuck. He picked up on every detail like a damn bloodhound.

  “They told you but not their husbands? What did they think you could do?”

  Her eyes pricked with furious tears. “You won’t get away with this.”

  “Maximus gave me seven years of survival training. I can handle whatever your family decides to throw at me.” He reached out and fingered the ends of her hair.

  “Fuck you, Roth.”

  She slapped his hand and turned away. She wasn’t going to play his game. Just as she reached for the door handle, he spoke.

  “How much are you willing to sacrifice, Jasmine?”

  Her fingers twitched, itching to close around the shiny metal doorknob and get the hell out of here, but her sisters’ faces flashed through her mind. She turned to face him. Why did she feel as if she was being herded into an invisible cage?

  “You proved your worth in Colorado. Our time at the cabin reminded me what it’s like to have a whore who likes what you’re giving her,” he said.

  She felt the blood drain from her face.

  “If you want to save your family’s legacy, I may be willing to negotiate if you give me what I want.”

  She didn’t wait to hear what else he had to say. She left his office on legs that felt wooden. The security guard stood at the end of the hall near the reception area, but the walk from Roth’s office felt like the length of a football field. The guard rode the elevator to the lobby with her and unlocked the front doors of the building. As she stepped onto the sidewalk, the first drops of rain fell. Her guard came forward with an umbrella, which she waved away. She climbed in and stared straight ahead.

  “Tuxedo Park,” she said and covered her mouth as she fought the urge to be sick. It was okay for a man to be sexual, but the moment a woman reacted just as passionately, she became a whore. Fuck him. She would never let him touch her again.

  Her pocket flashed from her phone. She pulled it out and saw Colette’s text.

  Collette: Did you get in touch with him?

  Her trembling fingers hovered over the screen. This was the first time they asked her for something, and she failed. She blinked away tears so she could type.

  Me: I have a meeting with him tomorrow.

  Hopefully, the white lie would give Colette at least one good night of sleep before she broke the news to her. Dread coated her insides. Lyle and Rami would have to be told. They might fight Roth, but Colette was right. Her brothers-in-law were more likely to tell them to bow out of the company. It wasn’t like they needed the money and with both of her sisters having young children, they would want them at home. Hennessy & Co would be no more. She moaned and pressed her face against the back of the passenger seat.

  The way Roth looked at her as if she was a thing and not even a person… She swallowed bile and ran her hands down her clammy face. Because of her mother, she had always felt the need to downplay her sexuality and femininity. Roth was the first man who had encouraged her to embrace her needs… only to throw it in her face years later. If he aimed to make her feel dirty, he succeeded.

  When they pulled up to the front doors of the estate, she went straight to the kitchen. She downed sleeping medicine and something for her stomach and climbed the stairs to her room. She took the time to shower off the layer of filth on her skin. While she dried her hair, she avoided eye contact with her reflection. She turned off the light, slipped beneath the covers, and cried.

  Chapter 11

  Five Years Ago

  Her trip to London to surprise Roth was an unmitigated disaster. Five hours ago, she slipped out of a taxi near Hyde Park in front of an impressive glass and concrete monstrosity that screamed exclusive. She walked into the most beautiful lobby she had ever seen and got a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach. This place screamed wealth. Surely, Roth wasn’t doing so well that he lived here, did he?

  When she told the concierge that she was married to Jam
es Roth, she received blank, inquiring glances in return. The concierge would neither confirm nor deny that Roth lived there. They didn’t care that she had come all the way from the States or that she wanted to surprise him. Even showing her ID granted her no special privileges. She had been forced to sit on the couch in front of a massive waterfall as she tried to get in touch with Roth. He hadn’t responded. As hours passed with no word, her anticipation and excitement began to dwindle away.

  Something was very wrong about all of this. How could he afford to live here? He hadn’t mentioned that he had recovered financially or that his investments were paying off. He didn’t discuss money at all, and she never brought it up since it was such a sensitive topic between them. Once she graduated, she chose a modest apartment. Roth had fought her on it but had given in when she insisted that it was in a good location and convenient for her. He paid the rent and utilities even though she offered to help. She assumed his infrequent visits to Philadelphia were due to how tight they were financially but if this is where he lived… what the fuck?

  Her eyes moved over the luxurious lobby made of glass, gray marble, and gold statues. In the five hours she had been waiting, no one had walked through the lobby. Not. One. Person. It was the strangest thing to watch hundreds of people walk past the impressive structure, but no one entered. She had been hoping to catch Roth on his way in, but that hope had died around hour two. A quick glance at the concierge desk told her they were gearing up to boot her. They had been casting her suspicious looks throughout the day, and it seemed they had lost patience. She wasn’t used to feeling like an impostor. Being a Hennessy ensured that she was given immediate access to everything she desired. Being a Roth meant nothing, apparently. A month ago, she convinced him to give her his address to send a birthday present. Maybe he had given this address while he stayed with a business associate, and she was wasting her time.

  When the manager started toward her, she fiddled with her phone to find a hotel. The manager was a few feet away when the elevator binged. The doors opened to reveal Roth looking spiffy, hot, and all kinds of wonderful. She leaped to her feet and ran to him. She was near tears as she threw herself into his arms and wrapped herself around him.