Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 132097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
The corner of Daley’s mouth turns in like he’s trying not to smile.
“Listen,” he says, leaning forward like he’s about to let me in on some great secret. “The reason—the only reason—I wanted you heading up the company is because you’re Leonidas’ grandson. This is a fickle business, as you know. Blackthorn Holdings in anyone else’s hands won’t be Blackthorn Holdings, if you catch my drift. Who else can I trust for a project this big? And what good is the name without an actual Blackthorn?” He stops and sighs. “Regrettably, you disappeared and—well, we had to explore other options. Just as we agreed on paper.”
“Other options.” I snort. “You mean you had to see how fast you could pounce on my grandfather’s property for damn near nothing. Also, for the last time, I haven’t resigned.”
“Officially. However, you’ve taken an unexplained absence. It’s been weeks, Blackthorn. You failed to answer inquiries, even from your own team,” Cooper says, sounding like he’s regurgitating a statement from his lawyer. “That’s effectively a resignation in any reasonable terms.”
“Wrong. If I’m the CEO and I’m telling you face-to-face I haven’t quit, then who are you to say otherwise?”
He shakes his head slowly.
“I was so hopeful we could turn this around and make good, but that was under the assumption you had inherited some of Leonidas’ blood, and a lot of his work ethic. I see I was mistaken.”
Fucker.
I clench my jaw, inhaling flames.
Hearing him invoke the high bar Gramps set makes me want to break something. I have to remind myself we’re in public.
Assault charges won’t do me a bit of good, especially over a waste of oxygen like Cooper goddamned Daley.
“Seeing how you went behind his back with your previous acquisitions, I guess that’s why you wanted me to be more like him,” I say.
“I respected him.”
I don’t.
But I also respect him a hell of a lot more than this liar.
My feelings with Gramps are complicated.
Yes, he lied to me.
Yes, he roped me into a fake engagement that wound up smashing Hattie’s heart, but his letter showed nothing’s cut and dry.
When the truth first hit me, I didn’t want to be like him at all.
Now, maybe I’m more like him than I’ll ever want to be.
And maybe that’s okay.
Especially if I learn to own up to my mistakes a whole lot quicker than Gramps ever did.
“Let’s be real,” I bite off. “We both know this is a ‘gotcha.’ A trapdoor you built for me to fall through at some point, knowing I don’t have your experience, or my grandfather’s. Just admit you want the land—all of it—and this was never a sincere partnership at all.”
Cooper exhales slowly.
“No such thing, Blackthorn. Look, I don’t pretend to know what you’ve been going through lately, but I think it’s getting to your head. All I wanted was to work with a Blackthorn, one on one. I wanted to work with you.”
Absolute bull.
But that fails the first test—common sense isn’t working.
Fine. On to phase two.
“And if we litigate?” I ask. “If Blackthorn won’t forfeit the land at your insane reduced rate?”
“That would be regrettable,” Cooper says in a wooden voice that isn’t sorry at all. “Particularly with the trouble you’re in. In a few weeks, you’ll wish you’d just resigned openly, I think.”
What?
His tone gives me pause.
My body reacts before my brain, tensing like it knows he’s about to drop an atomic bomb.
“What trouble is that?” I wrap my hands around the mug so I don’t lunge for his neck.
“The Taylor Rollins case. So tragic for Portland, losing her so young.” He gives me a carnivorous smile, even as he shakes his head with practiced regret. “I remember reading about it when it happened. Just awful, and written off as a freak accident, I believe. But what if it wasn’t that simple?”
My blood freezes over.
The way he looks at me—he can’t know.
Can he?
I think of Hattie, but she never would’ve told him.
Margot, my parents, they never knew.
Even Hardass Holden wouldn’t have ratted me out—if Gramps ever filled him in. His bodyguard is loyal to a fault. I can’t imagine he wouldn’t die first unless he’s that hard up for money.
Shit.
What else is there? Who else knows?
Or who made it their business to find out?
Then again, I never knew who Taylor told about us.
No one, I assumed, considering the situation.
What if I was wrong?
What if there’s someone out there, sitting on the devastating truth for over a decade?
What if I’m completely fucked—and maybe I should be.
“Bad memories? You look concerned.” Cooper raises his eyebrows in mock-sympathy. “The poor girl’s family never did find out what caused her accident that night, did they?”
Say nothing.
And no, they never knew how torn up she was, how my rejection almost certainly caused her to drive recklessly and go crashing to her death.
They never knew if she deliberately killed herself, and neither do I.