“So do you have a presentation?” Reid pulled him out of his thoughts. “I’d like to know more about this company we’ll be absorbing. How many employees are there? Obviously we’ll be laying them off. I want to install my own people.”
He’d meant to draw this out, to relish the kill, but suddenly he wanted to go home. At least at home he would be in the same city she was in. “There’s only one employee you need to worry about.”
Reid nodded, an arrogant look on his face. “I think I’ll make those decisions, son.”
He shuddered a little. This man was nothing like his own father. He wasn’t grieving a son. He grieved that he’d lost his heir. A vision of his father’s face frozen in pain hit him. His father had mourned a baby that had only taken two breaths. He’d taken his grief deep, holding on to his wife, reaching out to his son.
And Keith had turned away from him.
“You’re under a misapprehension, Mr. Reid.” He slid the report across the desk to him. “This isn’t a merger. It’s a take-over.”
“What?”
Keith stood up. “I’ve already acquired a ten-percent stake in your company. I’m prepared to offer over market value to your three largest stockholders in order to gain a controlling interest in Reid Industries. Once I have control, I will gut the entire thing.”
Reid turned a nice shade of red, sputtering as he stood. “You can’t do that.”
“Oh, I can and I will. That plan details exactly how I will ruin you. Most of your money is in that company. I’ll make your every share worthless. You need to understand that I’m willing to take a massive loss to ensure your destruction. I figure I stand to lose roughly a hundred million. I can mitigate some of it by selling off property, but I’m willing to lose it. I’m a billionaire, Mr. Reid. My wealth makes yours look like a child’s piggy bank. I’ve lost and made more money than you’ll see in your lifetime and I’m not even forty yet. I did it by being smart and more ruthless than you can imagine, so understand when I tell you that I will do anything to protect Ashley Paxon and her daughter from you.”
He swallowed visibly, placing his hands on the desk for balance. “You’re the man the PI talked about. The man she’s been seeing.”
“Yes.” He didn’t mention that they weren’t seeing each other anymore. It didn’t matter. For the rest of her life, he would watch over her. “I’m the man who protects her, and that includes not allowing her to lose custody of her daughter. If I get even a whiff that you’re going to try to take Emily away from her, I’ll destroy you.”
“Well, now that I know your plans, I can easily block you.”
Keith snorted at the thought. “With what? You’re mortgaged to the hilt. You think I haven’t run your financials? You can’t afford to buy out your stockholders.” He started for the door. “Call off your dogs and maybe I won’t start talking about how I’ve looked into your company and think it’s a bad investment. The minute I sell my stock, you’ll see a deep drop. I’ll make a call to some of my friends at the papers and suddenly you’re in free fall. All because I started a little rumor. You should know a man’s reputation is everything. I have many ways to ruin you.”
“That’s my blood. My granddaughter. I can give her more than that whore ever thought about.”
He pulled out his phone. His assistant answered immediately. “Get me a dinner meeting with Craig Johnson from the Times. I’ve got some stock tips for him.” He hung up. “I hope you survive what I’m about to do to you.”
“Wait!”
But he didn’t. It didn’t matter now. Keith would ruin this ass if it was the last thing he did.
He kept walking. Maybe revenge could keep him warm at night.
* * *
Ashley settled Emily down for her nap. She smoothed her baby girl’s tuft of hair back and watched her for a moment. Her tiny mouth was moving as though she was sucking a bottle in her sleep. Sweet dreams, my girl.
She wiped away tears. They’d come so frequently lately. It had only been a few days but she missed her Sir.
She took a long breath and stepped back into her tidy living room where Karina and Jill waited for her. Reports. She’d been getting a ton of them. Someone from McKay-Taggart called at least once a day to update her on what was going on.
“Can I get you something to drink?” That was the polite thing to do. She felt like a zombie, moving through her days in a weird haze of sorrow and fear. She had to remind herself to be polite.
“No, thank you, hon. Please sit down and join us,” Karina said. “I have some news for you.”
Her gut tightened. God. All the news she’d been given lately had totally sucked ass.
Jill patted the sofa beside her. “Sit down, sweetie. It’s good.”
Ashley sank to the sofa, her hand finding her sister’s. Jillian had been her rock. Jill had given her everything she needed, could possibly want. Everything except Keith’s big arms around her. “All right. Tell me.”
Karina smiled. Outside of the club, she looked different. Dressed in slacks and a tailored shirt, she was cool and professional. In control. “The Reids will no longer be seeking custody of your daughter.”
A huge sigh of relief shook her system. Tears blurred her eyes, and she couldn’t help but shake her head. “How?”
“Keith,” Karina said.
The very name made her heart ache. “Why? I thought he was going to get me in touch with a lawyer.”
“Sometimes the best way to take care of a problem is to create another one. A distraction, shall we say,” Karina explained.
Jill laughed a little. “Of course. Keith went after his company.”
“What does that mean?” She was still trying to process the fact that Keith was doing anything for her at all.
“It means Keith is a ruthless son of a bitch,” Jill replied. “He always has been. Ryan told me Keith is a complete shark when it comes to business. Apparently it translates to his personal life.”
Karina slid a file folder across the coffee table. “He’s very quiet about it, but he’s filthy rich. His parents had some money and Keith turned out to be very smart when it came to investments. He made his first million before he turned twenty-one. He took that and invested it again. And that was when other people started coming to him. He became what they like to call an angel investor. He loans start-ups money in exchange for a piece of the company. He was the investor behind a couple of very popular software companies and search engines.”
She tried to grasp that. She’d figured he was wealthy. He’d been the man to invest in Ryan’s latest project, so he had to have some money. She hadn’t imagined it was so much. Her childhood insecurities crept up on her. Maybe it had been more than the fact that she had Emily. A rich man likely wanted someone more refined. “I understand. He’s got a lot of money.”
“His money didn’t guarantee him a terrific life, Ashley. I did the background check on him before Ian allowed him provisional membership,” Karina explained. “It’s not something I would normally share, but I think there are some things in Keith’s background you need to know.”
“I know he had a baby.” She could still see the hollow look in his eyes when he’d left.
“What?” Jill turned, obviously startled.
So no one knew. It was a secret he guarded. It was a secret that seemed to be eating him up from the inside.
“He was married to a woman named Lena Olsen when he was twenty-one. They seemed to be happy for a year or so and then she got pregnant,” Karina stated, her voice lowering in sympathy.
“How did the baby die?” She had to know. Her heart ached at the thought. She had no idea what she would do if she lost Emily.
“He had a rare genetic condition that wasn’t caught in utero. They were both young. Hospitals don’t routinely do an amniocentesis or a genetic work-up if both parents are young and healthy. The baby was a boy named John Michael. He died within moments of birth. From what I can tell, Keith stopped speaking to his parents aroun
d that time and he and his wife divorced within six months of the child’s death.”
She wiped away a tear. It explained a lot. It explained why he didn’t want to have anything to do with her child. He still ached with the loss of his own. It explained what he meant by not being able to give her what she needed. He thought she would want siblings for Emily and she did. She couldn’t say she hadn’t imagined them coming from him. She’d had thoughts about a boy with his eyes.
But she’d learned long ago that families weren’t so much about blood as they were about love.
And love was way stronger than grief in the end.
Jill patted her hand. Her sister was crying, too. “Well, at least we know why he left. That should be some comfort.”
“I don’t want comfort.” She’d fought for Trevor. She’d done it in a stupid fashion and, in the end, it had been more about her baby than love for him. He’d burned her love away the moment he’d walked out. Keith had walked away, but he hadn’t gotten very far. He’d left her and then went and became her champion. He cared about her. He might even love her. Wasn’t that worth a try? She didn’t want comfort. She wanted him. “I need to talk to Ryan.”
Jill shook her head. “He isn’t talking to Keith. He’s so mad that Keith walked out on you that he’s looking for a new investor.”
Drama queen. Her brother-in-law needed to be more patient. “Tell him to stop because I don’t intend to let Keith do this anymore. He’s been running for a long time. It’s time for him to stop.”
Karina smiled, sitting back. “I knew I liked you. Tell me what I can do.”
She would need Karina to talk to Taggart. She needed to meet her Dom on common ground. She would need to fight him on his terms. “I want to see Keith tomorrow night and I’m going to need a new contract.”
Chapter Eleven
Keith knocked on the door to Ian Taggart’s office with a sigh and a desperate desire to get the hell out of Sanctum. He’d only come over because the Dom had told him he had very important news about Ashley he wouldn’t discuss over the phone. Keith had tried to talk to the asshole, but he’d hung up after telling him to be here at seven and then hadn’t answered the phone again.
If he had any sense at all, he would have ignored the whole thing, but he didn’t have a lick of it when it came to her. He’d counted the hours, his brain going over all the bad things that could have happened to her.
More likely than not, Taggart wanted to make sure he understood his membership had been revoked and that he could never walk into this club again.
It was no more than he deserved. It might be time to think about going back to New York. Or maybe leaving the country altogether for a while.
“Come in,” a deep voice said.
He pushed through, ready to get this over with. He stopped in his tracks because Ian Taggart wasn’t standing in his office. Ashley was. She stood behind his desk, looking perfectly stunning in jeans and a T-shirt that molded to her every curve. Again he was struck by how lovely she was in her own clothes. He loved how she looked in a corset and thong, but she was so damn pretty in street clothes with her hair in a messy bun, looking like she’d just gone to the grocery store or dropped off their kids.
And that was exactly why she wasn’t for him. That was why he’d compartmentalized their relationship. So he wouldn’t have to think about all the things she needed outside of the bedroom, outside of discipline.
“Come in, Keith.” Ryan held the door open for him.
Now he was seriously confused. Ashley wasn’t screaming at him and Ryan wasn’t punching him in the face. He’d kind of expected to have Ryan on his doorstep vowing revenge, not holding the door open for him. Unless this was a plan to murder him and hide the body. Taggart might even be okay with it. The dude probably knew exactly where to stash a corpse. He actually looked down to make sure he wasn’t standing on a thick sheet of plastic.
“Is something wrong?” A worried look came over Ashley’s face.
Ryan’s laugh boomed through the office. “He’s trying to make sure I’m not about to give him the Dexter treatment. Come on in, man. Ashley won’t let me off you.”
He stepped inside. “I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”
“I sure would.” Ashley frowned at her brother-in-law. “You said you wouldn’t be an asshole.”
Ryan held both hands up. “I’m totally unarmed. Please have a seat, Keith. Ashley has a proposal for you.”
Something was wrong. Fuck. When your boss was a nosy asshole who ran a security firm, it was probably pretty easy to get medical records. “You two know.”
Ashley paled, but held her ground. “You told me, Keith. You told me you had a child who died.”
He’d said what he said because she’d pushed him past the breaking point. He’d never intended to let any of them know. He didn’t talk about it. He’d known Ryan for years and he’d never once mentioned it to his closest friend. “Yeah, but you know why.”
She nodded. “Yes, I do, but that doesn’t matter.”
A bitter laugh huffed from his mouth. “It matters, sweetheart.”
Ryan closed the door behind him. “It doesn’t matter to her. Please sit down. You owe her that much.”
She stood there, biting her bottom lip, her eyes pleading with him. God, he did not want her pity. He sat down and turned to Ryan. It was far easier to look at Ryan.
“And what do I owe you, man? Do I owe you whatever the fuck this is? Some therapy session or something?”
Ryan’s eyes softened. “No, man. This is not about what you owe me. It’s about what I owe you. I’m married and happy today because you’re a manipulative asshole. I never thanked you for that.”
He’d simply massaged the truth a little here and there, mislead Ryan a bit in an effort to get him to see past his guilt. “So you dig into my background? That’s not how I would have treated a friend who helped me.”
“I hope you feel differently a year from now. I’ll get to the point. Ashley would like to sign another contract with you.” He slid a stack of papers his way.
What the fuck? He stared at the papers in front of him. Ashley wanted another contract? “I don’t know that I like being a pity fuck.”
“I am a nonviolent person,” Ashley said tightly. “But you are pushing it. Do you honestly think I would sign a D/s contract with you because I feel sorry for you? I’m doing this because I love you and I can’t stand the thought of never seeing you again. It hurts me inside, Keith. I realize that you don’t feel the same way about me. I do. I know you don’t love me, but we were good together and I kind of think you have it in your head that you can’t love anyone.”
This was his out. He saw a clear path marked exit. If he wanted to be out of Ashley’s life forever, all he had to do was shut her down now. Agree with her. Tell her he couldn’t love her. Not ever. Tell her she was a sweet girl, but not really his type. So good-bye, sweetheart. Don’t call again. Ashley would leave. Ryan wouldn’t bug him again. He wouldn’t have the nosy busybodies at the club up in his business.
It would be so much simpler. His life could go on the way it had before. No attachments. No pain. No joy. No love.
No her.
“I never said that. I never said I didn’t love you, baby. I don’t think I deserve your love.” He was so sick of simple, so sick of the emptiness his life had become since that one day. One day and he’d let it ruin a lifetime of happiness. He’d let one tragedy define him.
What if he did the same thing with one good thing? Meeting Ashley had been a turning point.
“What are your conditions?” He heard himself ask the question. He felt a little disconnected, like he was watching the scene play out but he wasn’t a part of it.
She shook her head. “There are no conditions. It’s the same contract mostly. I’ll sub for you Thursday through Saturday, although I have to get back to work in a week so I can only sub when my shift is over.”
He didn’t want that. “I’ll support yo
u.”
She got to her knees beside him, her hand sliding over his. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Sir. I can’t allow you to support me. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable with just a D/s relationship. Not when it comes to my future.”
“Marriage is nothing more than another contract.” He should know that better than anyone.
“I know. And any contract can be broken, but I should be honest. I love you. I want to marry someday. My eyes are wide open. You might never want that. So this contract is for a year. We can look at it and negotiate again a year from now.” Her hand tightened on his. “I don’t have conditions, but I do have a request.”
Here it came. “I’m listening.”
“Sleep at my place one night a week. Have dinner with me on Sundays and spend the night and have breakfast with us Monday mornings. You’re free the rest of the week. You don’t have to see me or call me.”
God, he’d done a number on her. He flipped her hand over, threading his fingers in hers. Touching her, being close to her, made something inside him ease. “I want to see you all the time, love. I think about you every second of the day. I can’t give you the family you deserve.” His throat damn near closed up. “I’m a carrier. Do you understand what that means?”
“It means that any child you father has the chance of getting the genetic abnormality and you won’t risk it again. I do understand that and we can face that if we decide to stay together for the long haul. Keith, I want more kids, but I don’t have to give birth to them.”
“You say that now, but you could change your mind.” It was why he’d stayed away from women like her, women who would want a houseful of kids. He understood it. He longed for a kid of his own, one who looked like him. He’d grown up an only child. He wanted the connection of blood. He couldn’t have it, would never risk another child, but it was a thing he would always miss.
“That’s a risk, Keith. I can tell you I won’t regret not having another biological child all day long, but you might not ever believe me. I’m taking a risk, too. You might never want to get married. You might never want to be around Emily. I could give you a year of my life and get nothing in return. I’m willing to take that risk because I love you.”
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