by Lana Grayson
“Remember this moment,” she whispered. “Right here, right now.”
“Every second with you is forever seared in my memory.”
“Good.” Her voice was a tempting challenge. “Remember this conversation on my twenty-first birthday.”
“Why?”
“Because, Nicholas Bennett, once I own you and your company, you’ll be obeying my orders.”
“And what would those entail?”
“You touching me because I want it. You taking me because I command it.”
It was a defeat worth earning. She leaned in, but I denied her, if only to watch her pout.
“You’ll get that kiss once I return,” I said.
“I’ll hope for more than a kiss.”
Dangerous girl.
I pushed her back onto the bed as she dared to sit up. She obeyed with a quirk her eyebrow. She quieted, but she wasn’t tamed.
Not yet.
Her soft curves nestled into the blankets. For a single, indulgent moment, I imagined how beautiful she would look with the gentle swell over her belly.
I hardened again and ignored the fantasy that bordered on sin. The cool shower steadied my base instincts. I dressed and let her sleep.
The helicopter stood by to take me to San Jose. I texted Max from the air.
Sarah’s yours today.
His response was delayed. Should I marinate her, or can I treat her like any old piece of meat?
I didn’t have time for his games. Keep her safe today. Make sure she behaves.
Where’s Dad?
Where else? With me. Board meeting.
Can you keep it together?
Did I have a choice? I had to control myself, just as I had to force Sarah to apologize to the monster who mistreated her.
A punch to his face wasn’t enough. Not when my fists still clenched, my teeth gritted in obedient silence, and my blood dissolved all Bennett loyalty.
I detested violence.
I hated my father more.
He met me within the main conference room. I wasn’t as late as I thought. Only four of our shareholders had arrived. Of course, they were the members of my father’s inner circle. Old money.
Billions of dollars sat at the table, a soft majority of it in my family’s pocket, but it wasn’t enough. Money bought power. The men who helped to make our company grow, the ones who invested and fought and profited, they always coveted more.
Then Josmik Holdings waved a stack of Atwood cash under their noses. Some refused, but others? Just like Sarah Atwood, some temptations were too hard to resist.
“Nicholas, sit.” My father took his seat at the head of the table. He greeted me with sincerity. I believed none of it.
Was this what he did to her?
Lured her to his office. Offered her a chair. Sunk in his teeth for the kill?
I chose one of many available seats. Odd. Where was the rest of the board?
“Should we get started?” My father accepted a mug of coffee from the brunette secretary he kept too close during the day.
I declined the coffee. She moved to the man opposite me—Bryant Maddox, one of my father’s long-term investors and the only son of a bitch more dangerous to the young secretary than a Bennett.
He did take a cup, though his request for sugar came with a pat to her ass. She shifted from him and tended to the other men—each older, richer, and less trustworthy than the last.
“We don’t have a quorum.” I paged through my emails. I received nothing explaining their absences. I hated ill-manners more than tardiness. “We should postpone for other board members.”
My father dismissed his secretary with a pleasant smile that wouldn’t have fooled a child.
“This isn’t a formal meeting,” he said. “We’ll only discuss old business. No sense disrupting everyone’s day.”
My father never played his board meetings informally. Usually, the stockholders would arrive—on time and accounted for—settle into their seats, and throw softball questions at us regarding the business, the profits, and the direction of the company. Most of the questions I answered. My father would summon a CFO to field more the complicated inquiries. The business was formal, stagnant, and the board didn’t delve too deeply into the Bennett Corporation. What was going on?
“Nicholas,” my father said. “Can you give us an update, son?”
The clenching of my gut wasn’t just intuition. Twenty-nine years of fear, apprehension, and the strike of a cane against my back taught me more than respect. I learned my father’s expectations with every bleeding punishment.
Something was wrong.
I cleared my throat. “An update on what exactly? Monthly projections? I have some data from the second quarter pending, I might be able to estimate profits—”
“No, Nicholas. An update on Sarah Atwood.”
Even her name stuck in his throat like wax. He couldn’t speak of her without tempting whatever vile aspect of his nature heated his blood.
It heated mine too, but at least I admitted I was dangerous to Sarah.
I delayed as long as I could. The board waited patiently.
“Sarah Atwood knows nothing of Josmik Holdings,” I said. They nodded. “We have some time yet before she is awarded her inheritance, and I’m encouraging the stockholders who entered agreements with Mark, Josiah, and Michael Atwood to reconsider their arrangements.” I met my father’s gaze. “I have no doubt we will maintain control of the Bennett Corporation.”
“Yes, yes, we have full confidence you’ll secure our lost stock.” Bryant leaned over the table, rapping a finger to emphasize his hissed his question. “Have you fucked the girl?”
“Excuse me?”
“Sarah Atwood.” A portly stockholder spat her name, clanking his spoon on the sides of the coffee saucer as he stirred in milk. Jacob Fisher perpetually sweated, and I waited for the day he’d dab his forehead with a hundred dollar bill. “Have you taken the girl yet?”
I stilled.
This wasn’t a stockholder meeting.
Christ, it was an execution.
Adrenaline surged into me, tightening my muscles for a fight I hadn’t expected. What did my father know? The bruise on his face faded, but my punch hurt his pride more than his cheek. Was this his retribution?
My father told the board we kidnapped Sarah Atwood.
Why the hell would he tell the board?
“I’m not sure what you’ve heard…” I met my father’s gaze. He offered me nothing. “Sarah Atwood is a guest of ours.”
Bryant snorted. “Is she pregnant yet or not?”
“I—”
“For Christ’s sake, Nicholas,” Bryant said. “We don’t care how you do it as long as it gets done. Did you create Sarah Atwood’s heir yet?”
My father didn’t warn me. He didn’t tell me he revealed the secrets.
He let me walk into a lion’s den and admit to raping the girl we held hostage.
What the hell was he planning?
My father shook his head. “Unfortunately, my sons’ first attempt was unsuccessful.”
“You do it right, Nick?” Jacob snorted. “She ain’t a cat to skin. Only one way to do it.”
“Did they all try?” Stanley Bisson spoke from the end of the table, pointing a gnarled finger toward my father. “You have two more sons.”
“They’ve all taken their turn, yes.”
Stanley approved. My stomach turned.
“And they…won’t be a problem if they decline to do their family duties?” Bryant asked.
“Nicholas can be quiet convincing,” my father said. “My sons all prioritize the needs of the family.”
Prioritize? My father threatened to kill my brothers if they didn’t rape Sarah.
“Such a pretty girl. Imagine her hair with Reed’s eyes.” Stanley slurped his coffee and earned the agreement of the other stockholders. “Their boy would break a lot of hearts.”
My father nodded. “And make us quite a bit
of money.”
“They’ve always been good, loyal boys,” Bryant said. “I’d hate to see anything happen to them.”
Stanley frowned. “They know it’s not worth risking their necks to disobey their father. They’re smart lads.”
The table chuckled. This was all wrong.
Not only was my family’s sin exposed beyond the confines of the estate, it was sanctioned by an unspoken portion of our Board of Directors. Raping and breeding Sarah wasn’t just a means to secure our own wealth. The board encouraged our crime because the horror it’d cause was in the best interests of the goddamned Bennett Corporation.
It wasn’t the first time I cursed Sarah for rejecting my offer to sell her company and be done with this insanity. How the hell was I supposed to protect her now?
“How long should all this…messy business take?” Clyde Leonard hadn’t touched his coffee. He rubbed his balding head. “Let’s ensure this whole sordid affair is handled quickly.”
“Nicholas.” My father waved toward me. “Do you have a projected completion date?”
This was sicker than anything we had done. I hadn’t hurt her, but speaking of our vile intentions was a rape of everything beautiful I experienced in my perfect moments with Sarah.
I tempered my words with caution. I hadn’t rebuilt my complete composure yet, not since I stopped my father from mounting Sarah like a rabid beast. I tensed to fight, to maim—to kill. But I could do none of those things.
And so I lied.
“It will be done soon.”
“And you’re sure you’ll get this heir?” Bryant’s voice bore no sympathy for the woman expected to carry the child. “It will be a Bennett?”
“Yes, it will be a Bennett.”
“But what if she doesn’t get pregnant?” He abandoned his coffee.
My pulse quickened. “Why wouldn’t she?”
“Any number of reasons—maybe she escapes.”
“Impossible,” my father said.
“I see no other option to save this company if we don’t have a Bennett in her belly by the end of this year,” Bryant said. “Hell, by the end of the summer.”
My father shrugged. “We have contingencies to make her conceive.”
Bryant waited. He expected me to answer. I hated that it had been my own idea.
“We’re…taking her every day,” I said. “To ensure we don’t miss any fertile times.”
“Excellent.”
“We’ve worked far too hard and too long to lose the company now,” my father said. “My son understands what we need to do. When Sarah Atwood conceives, we’ll secure Atwood Industries, and the trust she’s inheriting will be forgotten. The alliance with the Atwoods will make us more profitable than ever, and my son—” He patted my shoulder. “His legacy will be secured.”
Bryant stood with a grin. “Well, good luck, Nick. Here’s hoping to some happy news in the coming months.” He pointed to Darius. “Looking forward to the barbecue. Tell me I’ll get to meet this little lady of ours.”
“She’ll be the guest of honor.”
Son of a bitch. Wasn’t it enough we kidnapped her? Did he seriously think we could shuffle her between guests at the annual fucking barbecue? No one had that much control over Sarah Atwood.
My father’s selected partners shuffled from the room, questioning how soon they could get to the club before tee-off. My blood chilled, pumping fractured ice through my chest. The tightness would destroy me.
Was this how she felt when she was scared?
When I tied her to the bed?
When I threatened her to conceive a child?
Christ, the only thing that could save her now was the very thing my father and the company wanted most.
What I wanted most.
I was no different from the cackling men discussing an innocent girl’s future. They coveted money while I desired nothing more than absolute control of her body, mind, and soul.
And I had it.
My father wasn’t the only danger. I couldn’t protect Sarah if I craved the same things.
Only a monster lusted for such power over an innocent girl.
And only a Bennett would succeed in claiming her.
If my father didn’t damn us all by revealing our plans to men loyal to money over blood. I slammed my laptop closed. He watched me with baited amusement.
“Nicholas.”
He thought he could speak to me.
Every decision this family made, every crime, every life we ruined, was because of him. I learned from my beatings, I earned my fortune, and I did everything he ordered to grow into a creature more demon than man.
But he wasn’t going to hurt her. Not ever again.
“You told the board we kidnapped and raped Sarah Atwood,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Do you want to go to jail?”
“Do you want to lose the company?”
“What if she talks?”
“Cut out her tongue.”
I exhaled. “What if the board talks? Those are expensive tongues.”
“Why would they jeopardize such a fantastic opportunity?” He buttoned his suit. “You have a lot of work to do, Nicholas. Your sister won’t resist us forever. We’ll break her and secure our fortunes as she bears the next generation of Bennett.”
“Or else?”
“Or else what?”
“If she doesn’t conceive?”
“That’s up to you, son. You can watch the company fall, our family crumble, and fail to avenge your mother’s death…”
Goddamn it.
“…Or you can pull the trigger yourself. Nothing stopping you now, of course. I simply imagined Sarah Atwood would rather be raped and left alive than shot dead in her prime.”
Son of a bitch. “If this is brought to light—if they say anything to anyone—we’re ruined. Sarah will be gone, we’ll be jailed, and we’ll lose everything regardless of how many men fuck the girl.”
My father stood. “Or, we’ll be richer and more powerful than ever, and justice over the Atwoods will be served.”
This wasn’t about vengeance for Mark Atwood’s crimes, and it wasn’t for the money. My father trapped Sarah Atwood because life and chance toyed with her fate. She lost everything when her family died, and I lost myself chasing her, holding her, loving her.
I turned to leave, texting the pilot so I could return to the one who needed more than my money and family name.
My father called to me, his voice a dark threat.
“I know, Nicholas.”
I stopped.
“Did you think you’d hide it?”
Damn it.
Sarah.
I revealed everything I felt for her when I attacked him in a blind rage. How could we have been so careless? She slept in my bed, looked to me when frightened, and only uncoiled her hand from the carving knife aimed for my father’s neck when I called to her.
My devotion to Sarah Atwood would damn her.
He knew.
And he tortured me in front of the board to prove his power over all of us.
“Nicholas, you aren’t as powerful as you think. Not yet.” His scowl clipped his words. “This is how you challenge me? I raised you. Molded you. I made you the man you are.”
“So you’ve taken the blame?”
He snorted. “I expected this from your brothers, not you. I thought you’d understand. I hoped you would join me, so we could secure our future together.”
“You were wrong.”
“This complicates things, Nicholas.”
His steps clipped hollow against the thin carpet. He drew too close.
“I expect you to protect this family,” he said.
“I’m protecting the one who matters.”
My father laughed. “And when the takeover fails? When the stockholders sense the derision within our fold? You don’t have a majority, Nicholas. You never did. You never will.” He stepped closer. “Every moment you spend chasing the impossib
le will only ruin you for the future. This takeover will never succeed.”
Jesus Christ.
The takeover.
The surge of awareness chilled me, head to toe. It was never about Sarah. The girl was his obsession, but she was a toy to him. A woman to breed and a source of entertainment when he was bored.
My head pounded. I was reckless.
The realization bled from me as though the flogger turned on my skin. Every plan, every freedom I promised Sarah—
Gone.
He knew about the takeover. He knew more about the takeover than I did. And he could stop it.
I said nothing. He sighed.
“Never mind, son.” His voice hardly warmed, but it gentled for me. Only me. “I was your age when I began to challenge my father.”
He expected a response. “I don’t doubt it.”
“But do you know the difference between you and me?”
“There’s many.”
“Not as many as you would think,” he said. “However, one is most important.”
I stilled as he leaned close, patting my shoulder.
“Son, when I confronted my father, I was strong enough to win.”
3
Nicholas
Mom set the baby in my arms. He didn’t look like a book. Why did she call him Read?
“This is your new brother,” Dad said.
I shoved at Max as he pinched me. “I don’t need another brother.”
“Family is important, Nicholas.” Dad patted my shoulder. “One day, you’ll be in charge of your brothers. They’ll look up to you, and you’ll have to do what’s best for them.”
“I don’t want a brother. Why can’t I have a sister?”
“Maybe in a few years.” Mom shushed the baby when he started to fuss. Max pawed at her too, but Dad pushed him away. “Let’s enjoy your new brother for now. He looks so like you.”
Not really. He was just a wrinkly little thing—all chunky and pasty.
“I guess. Don’t know why people want babies anyway.”
Dad frowned. “Babies are very important, son. You’ll need to have a baby one day.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re a Bennett, and your sons will carry on the family name.”
“Make Max do it.”
Dad chuckled. “You’re the eldest, Nicholas. It’s up to you. But you’ll understand when you’re older. Trust me.”