by Lana Grayson
“You okay?”
The first gentle touch he ever offered me, and he accidentally pressed a painful welt.
“I’m good.”
He picked me up before I was ready and sat me on the edge of the bench. Nicholas usually kept me still, flat, and stuffed with his seed. Max didn’t care. He didn’t meet my gaze either.
Ashamed.
I should have comforted him.
I should have asked if he was okay. If I could somehow…help.
I might not have loved Max, but I cared for him. Greatly. Not like a lover, and certainly not a brother, but as someone I wanted to trust.
I touched his hand. He allowed it.
But, without the courage of lust, the barrier of pain, or the freedom of release, it didn’t feel right prying where I didn’t belong.
I licked my lip. It’d swelled where I’d bit to survive the whipping.
“I…have a plan to fix the takeover. We can still do it, but I need you to talk to Nick.” I sucked in a breath. “Will you please help me?”
“Baby, I was always going to help you.”
“Oh. Good then.”
“No, you don’t get it.”
Max stood before me, knocking my chin up to meet his gaze. The intensity hadn’t diminished, but a foreboding darkness shadowed his intentions.
Christ.
He was keeping secrets too.
“Sarah, I will always help you. You hear me? No matter what happens now or in the future. You ask, and I’ll come running. Even…if one day you hate me. Or fear me. It doesn’t matter. I will live my life to help you.”
I blushed. It wasn’t sincerity that possessed him, but sheer intensity, a desperate energy. I kissed his forehead. He didn’t pull away.
“Thank you,” I said. “I have the perfect solution to end all this insanity, but you’re going to have to convince your brother. Because, believe me…there is no way Nicholas Bennett will ever agree to my plan.”
6
Nicholas
If my father didn’t kill my brother first, I’d murder Max in a cold-blooded rage.
Sharp, crisscrossed welts marred Sarah’s back. The lines bruised her, whipped by the expert hand of someone who understood his strength but hadn’t wielded the restraint I expected.
That I trusted from him.
I tasted the fury—a vibrant copper that accompanied a new instinct, one that demanded curled fists and pain to relieve the frustration poisoning my judgment.
Violence wasn’t my solution.
But what solutions of mine had worked lately?
Sarah sat stiffly on the couch, edging away from the cushion. Reed peeked at her shoulders before she could chase him off.
“Jesus Christ,” he said. “That’s from a rope?”
“A jump rope. It had those plastic beads on it…” Sarah blushed, the pink darkening to a red. “I’m fine. Really.”
I wouldn’t let her defend Max’s actions. “No, you aren’t.”
I promised to protect the delicate girl only to deliver her into the perversions of a savage. She argued with me, but I had no patience for her, not when I used all of my restraint to remind myself that my brother shared my blood, and; therefore, deserved a chance to explain before I personally disinherited him.
Max, of course, offered no apology. I expected as much.
“Should we…get her some ice?” Reed asked.
I saw red.
Max sighed. “I got carried away. It won’t happen again.”
Sarah groaned. “I’m fine.”
Christ, how badly had we manipulated the girl that she’d defend the beast who bruised and tore her skin?
“Nick,” she said. “Really. I’ve been through worse.”
Not the reminder I needed.
Sarah unsuccessfully ordered Hamlet to sit. Reed hollered as the dog’s wagging tail pitched a glass onto the floor. Hamlet didn’t notice. He buried his head in her lap and jarred her against the couch.
She winced.
She hurt.
Max would feel the pain ten-fold.
If I didn’t kill him first.
Max and Reed weren’t discharged from the hospital yet.
I took my place beside my father at my mother’s grave. The minister dusted the coffin with dirt. My father embraced his silence, steadfast, as he shook hands with those paying their respects. I mimicked him, his stillness.
“You saved your brothers.” The minister patted my shoulder. “Without you, they would have perished in the crash. You are a hero, Nicholas.”
I didn’t feel like a hero. Heroes didn’t cry in the cramped funeral parlor bathroom and wash away their tears with sweet cherry scented soap. I smelled it over the flowers. I hoped my father didn’t.
“A special bond exists between brothers,” the minister said. “Nothing more profound in this world. They trust you with their lives, and yours with them. It is a love nothing can break, not even death.”
My father returned to the hospital after the funeral. He forbade the doctors from taking Max’s mangled leg and ordered them to sedate Reed when tore at his stitches after hearing of Mom’s death
He ordered me to stay and receive the condolences for my mother.
I refused.
Someone needed to comfort my brothers.
If only because it’s what Mom would have wanted.
I left Sarah with Max, and he repaid me with her pain. I didn’t let him avoid my gaze.
“You will not harm her again.”
Reed shouldn’t have said it. “Better Max than Dad.”
“This wasn’t a punishment.” I steadied the rage in my voice. “This was his own fun.”
“Nick, drop it.” Sarah sighed. “I said I’m fine.”
“How am I supposed to trust her with you?” I asked. Max stretched against the couch, arms behind his head as though pleased with his work. “You might have seriously hurt her.”
“I didn’t.”
“You have no restraint. No control.”
“She’s walking, isn’t she?”
“I asked you for help.” I loathed the implication. “I allow you to touch her because I hope to spare her pain, not cause it.”
“For Christ’s sake. A little whipping isn’t going to fuck with her. Not when we’re all trying to knock her up. She should be begging for a flogger instead.”
Sarah’s cheeks flushed as she stood. “Enough. I’m not sitting here while you guys measure your dicks to see who fucks me the right way.”
Reed grinned. “It’s me, isn’t it?”
She ignored him. “Nick, even if it were possible, I don’t like the thought of conceiving just to save my life.”
Neither did I, but it was better than my father murdering her because she inherited a secret trust. A majority of the board allied with him, and I hated that I could no longer judge the number of votes I had to take the company from him.
But what should have been my primary concern was lost in rage.
The woman I loved was hurt by a man I trusted.
And now, regardless of her pain, I’d take her to bed—not driven by jealousy, but because I needed to know that she was okay, unharmed, and safe. We lied far too easily to each other, but, in moments of passion and tangled in pleasure, everything was revealed.
Everything except the corruption which infested my board of directors. Sarah didn’t know how many men beyond our family demanded her rape and breeding. And she wouldn’t learn. I loved her too much to ruin her with the evil of others.
And so I’d lie to keep her safe.
I’d lived an honorable life before I took Sarah Atwood, before she corrupted me with her perfection, broke me with her touch, and damned my soul with her love. If protecting her meant shredding every ounce of human decency left within me, I’d do it.
But I feared it still wouldn’t be enough.
“I have a plan.”
Sarah announced it to the room, but Max and Reed averted their gazes.
&nbs
p; Shame…or maybe defeat. Either way it wasn’t an emotion a Bennett should have revealed. Sarah surged forward.
“I know how to fix the takeover. I know what we can do to ensure you get the votes to cast your father out of the corporation.”
“A plan?” I repeated.
“Just…hear me out, Nick. Before you say anything.”
So it’d be that kind of plan.
If it involved leather jackets, my motorcycle, and stealing her out of the country, it wouldn’t work. I already tried and dismissed it as an impossibility. My father would find her, but he wouldn’t waste money dragging her back. Not when a bullet and shallow grave would end our troubles.
But I obliged her. I settled into the wingback closest to the hearth. The last time I claimed a seat and watched her perform, my father ordered her to strip. She faced me with a courage I never expected, and I admired every ounce of her bravery.
I decided then to take it for my own.
And I did.
“Your takeover?” She broached the subject with caution. “It failed. Darius still has control of the Bennett Corporation, and he probably will retain it for some time.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” I said.
Max dared to speak to me. “How complicated?”
More than he knew. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“Well, I don’t want complicated anymore,” Sarah said. “Nick, I’m inheriting Josmik in about nine months.”
A magic number.
“Nothing can stop it, right?” She asked.
Not without killing her. I nodded.
“So why are you fighting my inheritance?”
Reed and Max didn’t listen to her pitch. They watched me, waited for my reaction. And then it made sense.
She went to them first.
And, together, they’d present their plan to me.
“You no longer have a controlling portion of the Bennett Corporation,” I said. “But you have enough shares to make it…difficult, if you so choose.”
“My goal isn’t to be difficult. I want the controlling interest.”
“That won’t happen.”
Her eyes revealed so many things she didn’t say. “It can if I’m given additional stock. If I can earn it, I can use Josmik and the purchased shares to take a majority and vote out your father.”
She didn’t know how dangerous the board was. They would never sell an Atwood her shares. She had all the stock she could possibly acquire, and my father’s partners controlled the rest.
“Sarah, there isn’t any more stock you can cheat, buy, or steal.”
“Yes, there is,” she said. “And you’re going to give it to me.”
She silenced.
My brothers revealed nothing. They waited for my reaction, for my decision, as they always did. Since when did Sarah Atwood have such control over them?
“I’m going to give…what to you?” I prompted.
Sarah held my gaze.
“Everything.”
“Everything?”
“I will buy your complete portion of the Bennett Corporation. Reed and Max already agreed to sell me theirs, but you hold the largest percentage. With your stock and Josiah and Mike’s collected shares, I’ll have my controlling interest. I will own everything.”
My voice lowered. “You want me to give you…”
My entire life.
My fortune. My empire. My future.
Absolutely not.
“Sarah, this isn’t a game,” I warned.
“I never said it was.”
“You don’t realize what you’re asking.”
“I’m asking to combine our power. I understand the risks, but this will work, Nick. It’s our only chance.”
“You are jeopardizing the stability of both our companies. This is stock for a corporation worth billions.”
“I know.”
“Do you understand what would happen to the Bennett name if an Atwood seized control of our family company?”
Sarah bristled. “Yeah, I do. About the same thing that would happen if I waddled onto an Atwood farm eight months pregnant with a Bennett’s bastard heir.”
Damn. I wasn’t ready to admit that concession.
Reed’s sigh was heavy. “Nick, dude, this the best idea I’ve heard since you tossed her naked over a desk.”
I anticipated him siding with her. Reed had already pledged his stock. He’d surrender his name and carve out the genes he shared with our father too, but that didn’t make it a good idea. It just proved Sarah wasn’t the only one in danger.
My father already threatened Max and Reed for refusing to harm Sarah.
If he knew they allied with her? That they offered their birthrights to an Atwood?
I couldn’t protect everyone, and no place in the world existed where we’d escape my father. He’d spend millions to track down anyone who wronged him. I saw it firsthand, remembered the money spent and the days wasted while he tracked the man who severed the break line in my mother’s car. Killing Mark Atwood would have only drawn attention to us, pin-pointed the crime to our name, but he made an example of the one he hired.
He’d do the same to my brothers without thinking twice, especially if they betrayed our family.
“No.” I said it gently, but it struck Sarah harder than any of the welts on her body.
“No?” She shook her head. “You don’t understand the plan.”
“I understand it.”
“Then why?”
Max frowned. “We can’t risk it anymore, Nick. Dad’s not going to stop until she’s knocked up or dead. Who the hell knows what he’ll do next, or what he’s told the board about your takeover attempt.”
A valid concern. “This is too dangerous. Why risk her life? He’ll kill her before the contracts are signed.”
“That’s not true,” Sarah said. “This is the cleanest, safest, best solution we have. Why oppose Josmik if you can use it to your advantage?”
“And what advantage is that?” I asked. “Think of the money lost between the stock transfers—”
“Oh, please. This isn’t about the money. You have the money. Don’t pretend you’d mourn the loss of a couple million dollars when this plan would guarantee you control of your entire company.”
“Would it?”
She hesitated. Max and Reed tensed.
It took only a moment for her to spark with a quick fury. Sarah shuddered, but not in our offered pleasure or her nightmarish fear. I rarely saw her angry. That was good. The little fairy turned imp, and she seethed in solemn rage.
“You don’t think I’ll give it back.”
Partly.
The Board would skin her alive before they let an Atwood control anything relating to the company. If the vile men lurking in my father’s shadow encouraged their future CEO to kidnap and rape an innocent girl, I imagined what they’d expect to prevent her from seizing our assets.
Her words trembled. “You don’t trust me.”
“Sarah.” Christ. She should have asked anything else of me. Anything. I’d kiss away her pouted lip and spare the pain she tried to hide. But not this.
“You don’t think I’d return the control. That I’d…”
“Destroy the Bennett empire brick-by-brick, starting with me?” I held her gaze. “Sarah, I love you. And you know I am doing everything in my power to protect you.”
“Are you?”
Why was it easier to love than it was to trust?
I wanted Sarah Atwood. The dark fantasies I imagined of her tied to my bed, wrapped within my arms, or swelling with my child were nothing compared to my dreams of her being happy.
I couldn’t risk freeing her—not with the power she wielded or the threat of my father—but I still hoped I treated her well. If not now, then eventually, once the madness ended and the takeovers cleared and…
Once she conceived my son.
I needed her in my possession.
I had to defend her from the board
.
I was the only man who could stop her from harming herself.
“What good is a promise with this?” I said. “This requires a contract. Signed and notarized and witnessed. Sarah, no agreement is completely secret. Someone would know, someone would tell my father, and you would be in even more danger.” I paused. She was unconvinced. “This plan will only work if you stay alive until you are given the trust.”
“So keep me alive.”
“Then you have to conceive.”
She scowled. “Or, you could sell me your stock now and end this game with your father.”
“How?”
“Here’s an idea.” Her voice chilled. “Why don’t we kill Darius before he kills me?”
The air thickened.
Max nodded, as though he agreed, as though he’d ever dare to actually raise a hand against the man he loathed as much as he longed to impress. Reed said nothing. He’d never get his hands bloody, not when he had the courage to simply walk away, strike out on his own, and make his own life beyond our family crest.
The thought burned me, but the fire suffocated with Sarah’s broken expression. The edge in her voice wasn’t bravery. It was fear.
She really didn’t trust me.
I didn’t know if that was wise or an insult.
“Don’t assume I haven’t considered it.” I softened my voice for her. Those wide eyes stared at me, pale and shaken. “Don’t you think that hasn’t been the first, last, and only thought for weeks?”
“Then…” She crossed her arms and hugged herself. I should have been the one to hold her. “It’s our only option.”
Poor girl. It was never an option.
“Sarah, believe me. I planned. I thought of every possibility. It won’t work. If he dies, and it’s suspicious in any way, his will stipulates everything freezes. The money, the stock, the company. Everything.”
Max rubbed his face. “If I know Dad, he’s already pointed fingers at us. We opposed him one too many times. I’m sure he knows we’ve considered it.”
“And I’m the sole heir to the Bennett Corporation. Billions of dollars are at stake. The police would look to me first and foremost.”
“And Reed and I would inherit our own money. We’d be just as culpable.”