by Cynthia Eden
The knocking turned into a pounding at his door.
“Your father took the business away from him.”
“No, he—”
“My father wouldn’t sell, so Nathaniel Donnelly stopped the shipments of all my dad’s supplies. He applied pressure at the bank so that debts were called in. My family lost everything, all because your bastard of a parent wanted to add another feather in his cap.”
Her throat had gone desert dry.
“My father broke after that. He had nothing. It was just weeks later—weeks—that he killed himself.”
Cat’s heart broke for him. “I’m so sorry.” She wanted to wrap her arms around Jason and hold him tight. “Jason, I-I didn’t know.” What hell that must have been for him. No wonder there were secrets in his eyes.
“I didn’t just lose him that day. I seemed to lose everything.”
Tears were stinging her eyes as she imagined Jason back then. Hurting. Lost. “Jason…”
And the pounding at the door was louder.
Jason’s shoulders stiffened. “Your brother is just like him. He doesn’t stop to see if he’s wrecking anyone. He takes exactly what he wants, but a reckoning has finally come. It’s time for them to pay for all they’ve done.”
You scared me, Cat. Her brother’s voice floated through her mind. A voice from long ago. A ten-year-old who’d been terrified on a long stretch of sandy beach. You can’t leave me.
“Cat!” That roar came through the door. From the person pounding so fiercely outside. “I know you’re in there!”
She recognized that roar—because it belonged to her brother. “Cameron? That—that’s Cameron!”
“Speak of the fuckin’ devil,” Jason muttered.
Chapter Four
Jason jerked open the door before Cat could. Cameron Donnelly stood on the threshold, chest heaving, and his face was blood red. His eyes—a shade lighter than Cat’s—glared at Jason.
“My sister,” Cameron gritted out. “I want to see her!”
Jason lifted a brow. He stepped back.
“Cameron.” Cat’s voice was uncertain. Jason hated that uncertainty. Cat didn’t need to be afraid of anyone or anything.
Cameron stormed inside the penthouse.
“I guess they just let anyone past security these days…”
“Screw you!” Cameron threw at Jason. “Cat, what is going on? I rushed to this asshole’s place as soon as I got your message.” His breath huffed out. “Is that your bra?”
Jason looked down. Sure enough, that sexy red bra that Cat had worn the night before rested about a foot inside the doorway. Cat had dressed, damn fast, but she must have forgotten that lovely accessory.
Cat didn’t answer.
Jason did. “Since she’s the only woman here…why, yes, I do believe it’s—”
Cameron swung at him. Jason dodged easily. Like he was about to let that bugger get a hit on him. Then he came up swinging. I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.
His fist slammed into Cameron’s abdomen. The breath left the guy in a grunt and Jason drove his left hand—always his stronger hand—at Cameron’s jaw.
“No!” Cat yelled.
Too late.
But, apparently, Cameron could take a punch. He staggered back but then swung again at Jason. When Jason dodged again, Cameron came in for a vicious head-butt.
Sonofa—
“Stop!” Cat shoved between the two men. “Stop it right now.”
Cameron swiped away the blood that dripped from his lips.
“It is my bra,” Cat said.
Cameron tried to lunge around her and get at Jason once more.
She pushed him back and, surprisingly, Cameron let her.
Jason frowned. Cameron was being very…careful…with his sister. Touching her softly, lightly as he turned Cat to fully face him.
“Did he hurt you?” Cameron demanded.
“No.” Cat glanced back at Jason.
He saw pain in her eyes. Fuck me, I did hurt her. Not with his body, but—
“Why the hell did you screw him, Cat?”
Jason wanted to hear the answer to that one, too.
“Because I wanted Jason.”
Hell, yes.
“But he didn’t want you!” Cameron fired and a vein bulged near his temple. “He’s using you, he’s—”
“Excuse me, love,” Jason murmured to Cat. He pulled her away from her brother. Narrowed his eyes on the jerk. “You don’t know what the hell I want. And don’t raise your voice to her like that.”
Cameron blinked at him. “Are you shitting me?”
Jason lifted a brow. He was just looking for a reason to take another swing. Give me the reason. Give it the hell to me. Cameron Donnelly hadn’t been involved in the buy-out of his father’s business—he’d been too young then—but the guy was as rotten as Nathaniel Donnelly. He was just like—
Cameron lifted his hand. “We can do damage control. The right media spin can fix anything.” He motioned toward Cat. “Come on. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Not happening.” Jason’s voice was clipped.
“Oh, yeah?” Cameron demanded. “Because you think—”
“Uh…excuse me, but I get to decide what I’m doing and where I’m going.” And Cat was heading for the door. “Even before Cameron arrived, I was out of here. I’m sorry, so terribly sorry for what happened to you father, but like I told you before,” she released a ragged breath, “we’re done.”
No. He grabbed for her.
“You dick, don’t you touch my sister!” Cameron snarled.
He’d do more than touch her. Jason shoved Cameron back even as he pulled Cat into his arms. “We have a big problem.”
“Stop touching her,” Cameron told him. “Get those hands off—”
“I’ll touch my wife all I want.”
Cat’s eyes fell closed.
“Wife?” Cameron sounded as if he were choking. Then he was craning his neck and looking down at the hand Jason had deliberately grabbed. Cat’s left hand. The hand that bore his ring. “Cat…” Now his voice was hoarse. “What is he talking about?”
Cat didn’t look at her brother. She kept her eyes on Jason, and he…he didn’t like the way she was staring at him. As if he were some kind of villain. A monster. “Why do you like hurting me?” Cat asked him. “I thought…I keep hoping there’s more to you.” Then she pulled away.
His chest ached. He rubbed the spot, wondering if Cameron had gotten in a hit when he hadn’t been paying close enough attention.
Cat opened the front door. “Why don’t you both just stay away from me?” She marched into the hallway.
Jason lunged after her.
“Oh, the hell you are…” Cameron caught his shoulder and swung him around. “You’re not going any place until you tell me why you just called Cat your wife.”
Cat had escaped down the hallway. In seconds she’d be inside the elevator. Especially since the woman was full-out fleeing from him. “I called her that because she’s married to me.” Cat didn’t think the marriage was real, but it was to him.
“You married my sister last night?”
“No, I married her a year ago.”
When the guy’s grip went slack with shock, Jason jerked away from the man and sprinted into the hallway. “Cat!” He could see her inside the elevator. She was frantically pushing buttons to close the doors. “Cat, no!” He pushed himself to run even faster, but the doors were closing.
She backed away in the elevator, shaking her head at him. The doors closed when he was less than a foot away from her. Sonofabitch. His hands slammed into those gleaming, closed doors. She’d gotten away. Left him. Again.
“You can’t be married to my sister! I’d know!”
The idiot had followed him. “You know now.” Jason rolled his eyes and jabbed for the elevator control button. There were two elevators that rose to this level. He’d be just moments behind her. Hurry up, hurry—
> The doors opened. He shot inside.
Cameron jumped in right after him. “You’re using her.”
Jason growled. The doors closed.
“You’re trying to screw my sister to get at me!”
Too much. Jason shoved the guy back against the wall of the elevator, and he jabbed his forearm over Cameron’s throat. “What I do with Cat has nothing to do with you.” So he’d originally sought her out because of her last name. That had changed five minutes after he’d met her. After he’d looked into her eyes and felt something other than the cold numbness that had been his companion for so many years.
He’d looked at her, and he’d wanted her. Simple. He’d looked at her and…she changed everything.
Cameron tried to shove him aside. The guy failed. Jason wasn’t going anywhere. “Listen up,” Jason barked at him. “Cause this isn’t about you. Last night, some fool on a motorcycle tried to run over Cat.”
Cameron’s eyes bulged—whether that was from the pressure of Jason’s arm or from shock, well, Jason wasn’t sure. He also didn’t ease his grip. “And someone’s blackmailing her. So right now, I don’t want Cat alone. She’s not safe, not until I figure out who is after her.”
The elevator had shot straight down to the lobby. A soft chime sounded right before the doors slid open. A soft gasp came from the doorway. Jason’s head turned. A man in a rumpled business suit stared at him and Cameron with bleary eyes. “S-security!” The man whispered.
Whispered? Right. Like that was going to attract attention. And the security guards in that place knew better than to tangle with Jason.
Jason freed his prey. I need to find Cat.
“Why would someone be blackmailing Cat? She hasn’t done anything blackmail worthy!” Cameron sounded confused—and he was also gasping for air.
“She slept with me,” Jason threw at him as he shoved aside the businessman. “That’s what she did.”
The businessman stumbled back. He was still whispering about, “Security!”
Jason barely spared him another glance. Cat, where are you? The lobby was pretty deserted at this hour, so Cat should have been easy to spot, but she wasn’t there. That ache was back in his chest, only it was worse now. Much worse.
Because he remembered the snarl of a motorcycle. That motorcycle had come far too close to Cat.
He hurried toward the revolving doors at the front of the lobby. He burst outside, right into a misting rain and then he saw her.
Cat stood at the edge of the sidewalk. Her head was tilted down. A newspaper—one of those tabloid rags—was in her hands.
“Cat!” He ran to her.
She didn’t look up.
“Cat, dammit, we need to talk. We have to make plans, to figure out how to deal with the blackmailer.”
Her fingers fisted around the paper. “There is no blackmailer. Not anymore.”
Hell.
She looked up at him. Tears gleamed in her eyes. “When I was going down in the elevator…this…this was inside. Just tossed on the floor.” Her gaze darted over his shoulder, to Cameron. “Did you leave this in there?”
“What? No,” Cameron denied hotly. “Why would I leave some tabloid trash for you?”
The twist in Jason’s gut told him why. He pulled the paper from her tight grip. Jason swore when he saw the pictures splashed there. Pictures that had been strategically blacked out in certain spots. A big, bold headline across the top read…THE BAD BOY OF BRITAIN CAUGHT IN A SEX TAPE SCANDAL…
“They identify me by name,” her voice quivered. “That’s my body, my face—everyone can see.”
And suddenly, Cameron was swearing, too—because he’d just seen the headline and the photos.
No, fuck, no. Jason yanked out his phone. Contacted his manager. “Ronald, call the owner of the Crimson Star. Tell the bastard he’s done—his whole business is finished—if he doesn’t get every copy of his current issue off the streets and get this story pulled from the Crimson Star’s online site, now.”
Cat looked shell-shocked. Too pale.
Teeth grinding together, Jason continued, “Tell the bastard I’m on my way to his office, and he’s going to pay for what he just did to my wife.” He shoved the phone into his pocket. Crushed the paper into a ball with his hands. “It’s all right, Cat.”
She shook her head. “I’ll lose my job.”
Her job. Right. Cat was a school teacher. Hell, hell. This kind of scandal wouldn’t fly for her back in the little town in Maine that she called home. But…
She’s not in Maine anymore. She’s with me. I can fix this. “I can fix this,” Jason heard himself promise.
“No, you can’t.”
“Bullshit. Enough money and power can fix anything.”
Cameron was silent behind them. Jason knew the guy was figuring out plenty as he watched them.
Jason threw the gossip rag into the trash. Then he carefully took Cat’s chin between his thumb and forefinger. “I can fix this,” he said again, and, this time, the words were a promise to her.
Jason didn’t intend to ever break a promise to Cat. He had much to prove to her, and the time to start proving that he wasn’t just the big, bad monster in the room—that time was now.
***
Catherine wasn’t running away from August. She’d seen the paper. She’d stood right there on the street, with tears on her cheeks as she stared at the photographs that filled those pages.
And August had come running after her. The man was still with her then. Touching her. Pulling her into his arms.
While Cameron Donnelly just watched them.
What. The. Hell?
They were all standing there. Not fighting. Not tearing each other apart. Cat—her hands were rising. Wrapping around August’s shoulders. The man had used her, treated her like trash, and she was holding him in the street?
Cameron backed away from Cat and her lover. He couldn’t believe Cameron wasn’t tearing into August.
What is going on? What’s happening here? He’d worked so hard, done so much…it couldn’t get screwed like this.
Even before he’d arranged for Cat to meet him at the Playhouse, he’d already leaked those pictures and the footage. He’d planned to toss her to the media-wolves all along. The bit about the Playhouse…that had been another piece of his set-up. Costumes and disguises were all part of the game at the Playhouse. He’d intended to debase her, to humiliate her…and she’d never have known his identity.
Then I was still going to laugh when your past was exposed, Cat. Laugh and enjoy her pain.
Because she deserved her punishment. They all did.
He’d ditched the motorcycle. There was no way it would be traced to him. And now…now wasn’t the time for another direct attack. Not with all the players so close together. He had to be more careful, had to wait for a better moment.
Even though he desperately wanted to take out his gun and shoot Jason August in the back of the head.
He could see it happening. Could feel the rush as the bullet exploded and went straight for his target. Cat would scream. Cry. Blood would get on her as her lover fell.
It would be so perfect…
But that wasn’t part of his plan. He’d worked too long to let rage take over.
So he stepped back. He left them there.
Soon enough, your world will be ripped apart. He’d already started that destruction. He was taking them all down. Piece by precious piece.
***
“I want the name.” Jason’s voice thundered out, so fierce that Cat winced. She was glad she wasn’t on the receiving end of his fury.
They were inside Sam Young’s office at the Crimson Star. Sam, editorial chief of the Crimson Star, was currently sweating. A whole lot.
“I-I thought you’d like the article. I mean, hey, what guy doesn’t like to see a pic of himself with a hot, naked chick?”
Jason grabbed the man, his hands fisting in Sam’s shirt-front. “That ‘naked chick’ is my wife.
”
“I-I didn’t know that! But, hey, isn’t that even more bonus? You can sell the video, get big bucks—”
Cat decided she hated Sam Young. “The video was taken without our permission. We’re not selling it!”
“And you’re not posting any additional pictures.” Jason glared down at the smaller man. “Do it, and you’ll be out of business before you can blink.”
“Y-you can’t do that!”
“Watch me.”
Jason could just be…scary.
But Sam hadn’t backed down, not completely. “If I don’t run ‘em, someone else will. You know that. It’s the nature of the beast. Sex sells.”
Cat had just never expected pictures of herself having sex to sell.
“Let me worry about anyone else,” Jason told him.
Sam backed away from him and swiped a hand over his sweaty brow. “Shit, man, are your guys trying to silence everyone?”
Jason smiled at him. Yep, that smile was definitely scary. “I want to know who sent the photos.”
Sam cut a quick glance to Cat. “Aren’t you going to say something?”
“I hate you,” she said instantly.
Surprise flickered over his face. Surprise, why? Did the guy have any idea how she’d felt when she saw those pictures of herself splashed there? For the whole world to see? And the images had been on the tabloid’s website, too—right before Jason had managed to shut down the site.
“Donnelly,” Sam muttered. “Donnelly Dining…you want to blame someone, then look back to them, sweetheart. Cause the person who sent that email to me? It’s someone you know.” Sam marched to his desk. He flipped his laptop around to face them. “Sorry, but that sure as hell looks like an email that came from your family’s business two days ago.”
Two days ago? But…but that would have been before her scheduled meeting at the Playhouse. The blackmailer had first contacted her a few days ago, but he’d set up the meeting date at the Playhouse so that she’d have time to fly into Vegas.
He was planning to leak the images all along. No matter what happened at the Playhouse.
She craned to see the email address and felt her heart lurch in her chest. That wasn’t just from a general Donnelly business account. “That’s my brother’s email address.” Her brother, who’d been at Jason’s place even as the light of dawn streaked across the sky. He’d been there…and he’d seemed so furious.