A scenario that I didn’t intend entertaining a minute longer.
I stood up and glared down at him. “You’re a sick asshole, you know that? A perverted lunatic, and I don’t have to listen to this.”
I set the brandy tumbler on his desk and spun toward the doors, determined to make it out this time.
“Did I say you could leave?” His voice boomed through the room with as much fury as the thunder outside, and something in his tone, something that he’d only hinted at before, suggested very strongly that he wasn’t to be disobeyed.
Frustrated, I whirled back around to face him. “What is it you want from me?”
He was standing now. At his full height, I was very much aware that he was bigger than me. That he was stronger than me. That we were alone in a storm, and I was helpless, if he wanted me to be.
And he very much wanted me to be.
“Sit down,” he ordered, the narrow focus of his eyes daring me to defy him.
I took two reluctant steps toward the chair, but stopped when I remembered the tender state of my ass. “I’d rather stand, if you don’t mind.”
“I do mind.” His flash of teeth told me he knew exactly why standing was my preference. And that, for the same reason, he was determined I sit.
I paused, deciding.
“Sit,” he said again, his voice so controlled that it sent dread coursing through my veins.
I sat down, wincing openly this time as I did.
Edward remained standing, peering down at me with a smug smile.
He liked that. Having me uncomfortable. Having me hurt. The glint in his eye paired with his evil smirk gave him away. That’s how much he liked it.
From the hint of color in his face, I would even go so far as saying that it turned him on.
I’d maybe have feelings about that if I weren’t so rattled. If I weren’t so scared.
“You want my father’s shares,” I said, thinly, stating the obvious so I could have time to think. “That’s what this is about. How will killing me get you that? They’re his shares. They aren’t in my name.”
“They weren’t. But as of nine days ago, on the date of your marriage, they now belong to you.”
My stomach dropped, and I could feel the color drain from my face. I’d forgotten that. How had I forgotten?
“No one knows that.” My voice was nearly a whisper.
His knuckles pressed into the desk as he leaned into them. “I’ve done my research, too, sweetheart.”
It was a change my father made to my trust years ago, when he’d thought I’d marry Hudson Pierce. Some stupid loophole he’d found to avoid paying taxes. His shares would be transferred to my name at the time of my marriage. He’d never expected to actually give up control of Werner Media, though, until he retired. That was supposed to be protected by my prenup, and it was.
A prenup didn’t do anything, though, in a case of death.
Oh, God.
He wasn’t bluffing. He meant what he’d said. He really did mean to kill me.
There was something Edward didn’t know, however. If he did, this whole scheme of his would be null and void. He didn’t know that Hudson Pierce secretly owned more shares than my father. My father didn’t even know it. If Edward was after control of Werner Media, killing me would get him close, but it wouldn’t get him where he wanted to be.
If I told him now, would he realize the futility of his plan and let me go?
Possibly.
It would also make me worth nothing. And now that he’d threatened my life, he couldn’t let me walk away and not expect repercussions. I was fucked if he didn’t know the truth. I was doubly fucked if he did.
I folded my hands in my lap, aware that they were shaking, hoping he didn’t see how much. “So...what? You just come back from this honeymoon a single man?”
He paused only for the space of a breath. “It had been the plan.”
“And now?”
“Now, I’m willing to renegotiate.”
Hope rushed through me before reality set in. “There isn’t anything you can offer that will get me to sign those shares over to you. Threaten me all you want. I’m not handing over my father’s company to his arch nemesis.” My father would kill me if Edward didn’t.
“Forget the shares for the moment.” He tossed the subject away casually, as though we were talking about bed linens instead of the state of my life. “Let’s talk about what you’d planned to do to me. You wanted to convict me of some sexual crime, but to do so, you would have had to endure whatever it is that I prefer in the bedroom. I’m guessing that you still don’t know what that is exactly.”
“Uh.” It was difficult to focus on anything but my predicament, so I focused on the effort. Bedroom. What he likes there. In truth I didn’t know exactly what he did with his lovers, but wasn’t the gist obvious? “I have some thoughts.”
“I’m sure you do,” he said, patronizingly. “But let me tell you so you know for sure—I like to see a woman broken down.”
I shook my head. “Whatever that means, I have no doubt I could have handled it just fine.”
He lifted his hands off the table and thrust them in his pockets, once again towering over me at his full height. “Let’s find out,” he said.
“I don’t know what you’re saying.” I was starting to get a headache and the lack of food was getting to me. I needed things spelled out.
So Edward started spelling. “I’m saying, that’s my deal. You want to live? Then let me break you down.”
Three
Lightning flashed, and with a loud crack of thunder, the lights went out, underscoring Edward’s offer, because even nature was under his command. Why was I not surprised?
The blanket of darkness was a welcome relief. This time, Edward couldn’t see the latest shiver that his words precipitated. He couldn’t see the new stippling of gooseflesh along my arms. Couldn’t see whatever I was sure my expression hadn’t managed to conceal.
Break you down.
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
But now wasn’t the time to ask, in the dark, with the wind and rain hitting so forcefully against the windows that I wasn’t entirely sure they wouldn’t break.
I could hear Edward across from me, a drawer of his desk opening and closing before a light shone brightly in my eyes.
I put my hand up to block my vision, my eyes squinting. The light remained there for several seconds then dropped down slightly, settling on my mouth.
“There are emergency lights in the kitchen,” Edward said, and I could see now that what he was holding was only his cell phone.
I’d stopped carrying mine since I’d been on the island. The cellular service was too spotty and unreliable. Now the once relied-on gadget was only good for an alarm clock. Flashlight was another notable use, apparently.
The beam dropped from my face to the floor, moving around the desk along with the man holding it.
“Come,” he said, and I was on my feet before I even thought of following his order. Once I was standing, his fingertips gripped tightly at my elbow, as though he didn’t believe I’d accompany him otherwise.
Honestly, he might not have been wrong. Power out or not, I wasn’t keen on letting him be my hero. With his hand tugging me along, I didn’t have much choice in the matter.