A Very Private Merger

by Day Leclaire

  “And yet, you had no compunction asking me to spy on the Kincaids. Or is that somehow different?” She fumbled with her buttons, appalled to discover that her fingers trembled making the task nearly impossible.

  “Here…let me.” Sweeping her hands aside, he buttoned her jacket, realigning the buttons she’d shoved into the wrong holes. “First, I didn’t ask you to spy on them. I asked you to investigate, which is quite different.”

  “How?” she asked. “Seriously, I’d love to know how you make that distinction.”

  “We were sleeping together while you were investigating me on the Kincaids’ behalf. You aren’t sleeping with the people I asked you to investigate.” His eyes fixed on her. Narrowed. “Are you?”

  She shot off the couch and spun to face him. Fury flowed through her and she didn’t make any attempt to conceal the fact. “That’s a filthy thing to suggest. You know Matt and RJ are both in committed relationships, on the verge of marriage. And just to be clear, I’ve never, ever had any sort of personal or intimate relationship with any of the Kincaids. Ever. I work for them. Period.”

  Something in her tone and ferocity must have gotten through to him. He inclined his head. “Okay, fine.”

  “No,” she insisted. “It’s not fine. You owe me an apology.”

  He stared at her with such an expression of disbelief it would have been amusing if the circumstances had been different. “Let me get this straight. I owe you an apology?”

  She folded her arms across her chest. “You may recall that the first thing I did when I came here was apologize to you. I was in the wrong. I knew it and I said I was sorry. So, yes. You now owe me an apology for accusing me of sleeping with RJ and/or Matt.”

  “And/or?”

  “Exactly. And, just for the record, I never slept with your father, either. I think that covers all the Kincaid males, other than you.”

  “I never thought—” He broke off, his blue eyes turning even more stormy. “I’m not a Kincaid male.”

  She lifted her shoulder in a shrug. “Potato, pah-tah-toe. Apologize right this minute or I’m leaving.”

  “You’re not leaving until we’ve had a chance to go over these reports of yours.”

  She simply lifted an eyebrow and waited.

  “Son of a—” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Okay, fine. I apologize. I shouldn’t have accused you of sleeping with the Kincaids. But you were in bed with them, figuratively, if nothing else.”

  “I was working that entire time trying to prove your innocence.” She closed her eyes and accepted the painful truth. “Except you’re not innocent, are you?”

  Jack slowly stood, anger rippling across his face. “What the hell does that mean? You just said you didn’t believe I killed my father.”

  She waved that aside. “Of course you didn’t.”

  “Then explain what you meant?”

  “I mean that you plan to destroy everything your father spent his lifetime building.” Unless someone stopped him. So many secrets. So many schemes. They wore her out, even though many of those secrets and schemes were resting in the palm of her own hand. She released her breath in an exhausted sigh. “Becoming involved with you was a mistake.”

  “News flash. I already figured that out.”

  She had to find a way to get through to him—other than this heartbreaking argument over her employers. They’d never see eye to eye on the subject. Nor did it get to the true heart of the problem—Jack’s illogical vendetta against the Kincaids.

  She dared take a step closer to him, seeing the wariness leap into his gaze, as well as a flash of something he struggled hard to conceal. Want. An irrepressible need that echoed the one sweeping through her. She moistened her lips and tried a new tack. “Jack, did you ever read the letter your father left you?”

  She’d caught him off guard and his wariness grew. “No.”

  “He left one for each of his children. For your mother, too, from what I’ve heard. There must have been a reason for that. Something he wanted to say. Aren’t you the least curious?”

  “My relationship with my father was…complicated.”

  “Mine wasn’t,” she said simply.

  “That’s a bit cryptic. Care to explain?”

  She hesitated. It wasn’t a subject she liked talking about. It had caused a great deal of distress and pain in her life. But perhaps if he understood why she’d gone to work for TKG, he’d also understood why her loyalties were so torn. She forced herself to give it to him straight. “If it weren’t for your father, I wouldn’t have a career.”

  Jack shrugged. “Okay, so he gave you your start in the business.”

  “No, he didn’t. I didn’t even know him when I first started working.”

  “Then—”

  “He helped me salvage my reputation after my previous employer ripped it to shreds.” There. She’d said it. “He helped me out of a very tight corner.”

  A frown formed between Jack’s dark brows. “What the hell happened?”

  She hated discussing that time. Hated that she could have been so naive and foolish, especially considering her father had been a policeman and had drummed both caution and integrity into her practically from birth. But she hadn’t been cautious. And the man she’d fallen in love with had lacked integrity, something that had ultimately rebounded on her.

  She wished she’d accepted that drink when Jack first offered it, her mouth so bone-dry she felt as though she had to drag the words out from where they’d bottled in her throat. “It was my first real job after college, with newly minted degrees in police science and business administration.”

  “No one can accuse you of being an underachiever.”

  She smiled for the first time in what felt like days. “Did I mention my minor in criminal justice?”

  “You did tell me you were considering going into law enforcement.”

  Her smile faded. “But I couldn’t do that to my family, not when Dad went down in the line of duty. Instead, I made the classic mistake so many women do when they first start working.”

  It only took him a minute to make the leap. His uncanny knack for connecting the dots was one of the qualities she’d always appreciated about him. “You fell in love with your boss.”

  She couldn’t help flinching. Hearing it stated so baldly made her aware of just how painfully young she’d been. How hopelessly inexperienced. “Yes. Even worse, he convinced me to keep our affair secret. He even proposed, promising that once we married, we could admit to the relationship. If my father had still been alive, I doubt it ever would have happened.”

  A hint of sympathy darkened Jack’s gaze. “You did tell me he was an excellent judge of character.”

  “I thought I was, too.” She paced the width of Jack’s office as though in an attempt to put distance between herself and those long-ago events. “I don’t know. Maybe believing I was my father’s daughter made me cocky.”

  Jack crossed to the wet bar, freshened his drink and poured her one, as well. “Here. I think you need this even more than I do.”

  She accepted the double malt scotch with a swift smile of gratitude and sipped, the rawness of the liquor catching in her throat and burning a warming path straight to her bones. Slowly she relaxed. “The details aren’t really important. Let’s just say Craig used my name for a land development scam he had going. When it all fell apart, he was long gone and I was left looking very, very guilty.”

  “How did my father end up involved?”

  “Reginald was a close personal friend of my grandfather Beaulyn. Obviously, my mother’s dad,” she added.

  Something swept across Jack’s face, as though her grandfather’s name rang a distant bell, and she froze, wondering if she’d made a terrible mistake mentioning his name. Then the moment passed. “But your father was a cop. I’m surprised the Beaulyns would have encouraged the match.”

  Nikki shrugged. “My parents met at college. It didn’t matter that they came from different so
cial backgrounds. Mom always claimed it was love at first sight. When I had my issues with Craig, your father felt he owed my grandfather and stepped in to help me.”

  “Explain that.”

  As much as she wished she could tell Jack the whole truth, the time had come to tiptoe. “Grandpa was a very savvy businessman who made an impressive amount of money in real estate. He was also old money, part of the upper echelons of Charleston’s social elite.”

  Jack’s eyes narrowed. “Which would have attracted Dad. One of the reasons he married Elizabeth was to penetrate Charleston’s old-money bastions. Apparently new money didn’t smell as good to them as old.”

  She suspected he spoke from current, personal experience and couldn’t help remembering the charity auction where he’d been so soundly snubbed—right up until she’d bid for him. “I’m not in a position to argue the point. The bottom line is, Reginald caught wind of it, possibly through my mother. He stepped in and salvaged my reputation. Then he hired me to work for The Kincaid Group.”

  “So you feel you owe him.”

  “I do owe him, Jack,” Nikki replied steadily. “Your father had his flaws, I won’t pretend otherwise. But he also had quite a few strengths, most of which you’ve inherited. And there’s no doubt in my mind that he loved his children—all of them.”

  “I assume that brings us back to the letter he left me.”

  She nodded. “Aren’t you curious about why your father left you such a large percentage of TKG? Why he divided the other forty-five percent between RJ, Matt, Laurel, Lily and Kara?”

  “No.”

  Okay, so that utter black-and-white quality was one of the characteristics she wished he hadn’t inherited from Reginald. “All that matters is that he’s given you the means to gain control of The Kincaid Group?” she demanded. “Offered you the opportunity to take revenge on your brothers and sisters?”

  “They’re not my brothers and sisters.” Emotion ripped apart his words.

  “Of course they are. And they’ve done nothing to you, Jack. They didn’t even know you existed until shortly after your father’s death.”

  His mouth tightened. “They didn’t exactly welcome us with open arms.”

  Oh, for… “Would you have in their place?” she asked in exasperation.

  Jack made an impatient gesture. “Why are we even discussing this? You were supposed to come here in order to discuss your reports. Instead, we’ve done everything but.”

  “I hoped I could get you to see what a difficult position I’m in. What a difficult position we’re all in because of Reginald’s actions. The Kincaids want me to investigate you. You want me to investigate them… .”

  “Actually, I asked you to uncover the identity of the person or persons who own the remaining ten percent of TKG stock. Have you even bothered looking?” He broke off, the muscles along his jaw tightening. “Son of a bitch…”

  Uh-oh. “Jack—”

  His eyes narrowed and anger flickered to life in his eyes again. “You are looking, aren’t you? Only it’s for them. RJ’s already asked you to find the missing shareholder because whoever controls them, wins control of the company. That’s why you’ve been stringing me along all this time, so RJ can get to this person ahead of me and have them squarely in his corner before the annual board meeting.”

  Nikki allowed Jack’s words to hang in the air, hoping against hope that he’d take them back. When it became clear that he wouldn’t, she crossed to the doors of his office. She paused for a brief moment then turned. “You know, as much as I loved and admired your father, there was one quality about him I could never come to terms with. For such a caring, generous person, he was one of the most ruthless men I’ve ever met, especially when it came to achieving his own ends. It’s a shame you’ve decided to emulate him in that regard.”

  And with that, she exited his office. She hadn’t thought she could feel any worse than when she’d first arrived. But she did.

  What was she going to do now? A battle was brewing between the Kincaids and Jack, one growing progressively more dangerous and messy. It only required a single spark for open warfare to erupt. Unfortunately, she was that spark.

  Because as soon as either side discovered she owned those final ten percent shares of Kincaid stock, they would all come gunning for her.

  * * *

  How the hell had she done it?

  Swearing beneath his breath, Jack snatched up the file Nikki had left on his desk. How had she managed to turn the tables on him so completely? He’d been wronged—by her. All this time she’d been working for the enemy, gathering God knows what information for his brothers and sisters—not his brothers and sisters, he swiftly corrected himself, but those damn Legitimates. And why? To use against him, that’s why. And then she had the unmitigated gall to stare at him with those big sapphire-blue eyes all full of hurt and reproach as though he were the one at fault.

  Well, he refused to buy into it. She should have told him the truth right from the start.

  And if she had? What would he have done?

  He swore again and dropped into his chair. Would he have attempted to turn her against her employers? Would he have bribed her? Used their relationship to have her go against her ethics, an ethical code instilled by the father she so adored? He didn’t want to think he’d sink so low, but then, how rational was his need for revenge against the Kincaids?

  Worse, she’d been appallingly right. He was every bit as ruthless as Reginald Kincaid; his entire life was dedicated to the pursuit of eclipsing the company his father had spent a lifetime building. Jack forced himself to stare unflinchingly at his motivations for creating Carolina Shipping and winced. It wasn’t a pretty picture. He’d been his father’s firstborn and had been denied that birthright thanks to circumstances beyond his control. As a result, he’d been determined to prove himself better and more capable than any of his father’s other sons—for once in his life to be first and receive acknowledgment of that fact.

  With his father gone, that would never happen.

  Jack tipped his head back against the leather headrest and sighed. Great. Just great. Score one for Nikki. All these years he’d managed to remain delightfully oblivious to the underlying cause for his drive to succeed. Even more, he’d have been quite content to remain oblivious until the day he’d succeeded in taking over TKG. Now, even that was denied him, and all thanks to Nikki Thomas, the one woman in all creation he’d come within an inch of falling in love with.

  And then there was the story she’d told him about her first job. About Craig. She’d been used once before and badly burned. Had she kept her silence about her job out of concern he’d use her the way Craig had? Granted, different circumstances, but still… Jack straightened in his chair and faced another unpalatable truth—score two for Nikki.

  If he’d discovered she worked for the Kincaids, chances were excellent he’d have used their relationship to try and turn her. The knowledge left a bitter taste in his mouth. Even worse, he’d been one short step away from attempting to put pressure on her tonight in order to find that missing shareholder. To somehow force her to give him the identity before turning the information over to RJ. What the hell had happened to him? And how the hell could he fix the situation?

  When no easy answer presented itself, he flipped open the file and read through every word Nikki had written. He couldn’t fault it. The report was concise, accurate and utterly unbiased, even the part that reported that his Aston Martin had been parked in a lot near TKG the night of his father’s murder. God only knew how that was possible, since he’d left it in the parking lot of Carolina Shipping when he’d arrived at work and it was still there when he left.

  The one detail which caught him off guard he found in a short addendum advising RJ Kincaid that her father, Peter Thomas, had been partners with the lead detective assigned to the murder case. That would be Charles McDonough. Jack grimaced. He’d met the man and might have liked him if the circumstances surrounding t
heir meeting had been different. But being interviewed by the detective was not conducive to a budding friendship.

  Jack returned his attention to the file. He didn’t find any information that Nikki could have learned only as a result of their affair, and nowhere else. All of her facts were documented and annotated, with referenced sources. She’d have made an excellent cop, despite the fact that her family had put pressure on her to choose a different career after her father had gone down in the line of duty. Jack wished he could have known Peter Thomas since he suspected the apple hadn’t fallen far from that particular tree.

  Then he had another, even more uncomfortable thought. What would Thomas have thought of him? Would he have lumped Jack in with Craig and warned his daughter to end their relationship? Quite likely. Jack shoved aside the file with a sigh. And didn’t that just bite.

  What was it about Nikki that forced him to take such a long, hard look at his own character—and find it lacking? He was honest, hardworking, generous. Okay, ruthless, hardheaded, driven. But for the past four months they’d been perfect for each other. Right up until those damn Kincaids got in the way again. Jack shoved back his chair. Well, he knew what he had to do and the sooner he got it over with the better.

  It didn’t take long to drive to Rainbow Row where Nikki owned one of the historic homes, an inheritance from her grandfather she’d once told him. And though she’d told him the night of the auction that she came from Charleston’s elite on her mother’s side, she’d neglected to mention it was the illustrious Beaulyn family. No doubt she was concerned that such a stellar connection would cause friction between them considering his general animosity toward high society. Still, the name rang a distant bell, and for more than its social significance.

  Jack approached Nikki’s door and debated knocking, then decided against it since he found it highly doubtful she’d let him in. Instead, he used the key she’d given him. He paused in the foyer, his gaze inevitably going to the stretch of wall where they’d collided while in the throes of their second kiss—an innocent embrace that had unexpectedly burst into a storm of desperate need. It had been a continuation of the first kiss they’d shared on the night of the charity auction. From that incendiary start, the affair had swiftly taken off, flaming higher and higher over the past three months.