Rebecca flinched, like the idea was physically painful to her. “I have so many wonderful ideas…”

  “Yes, did you see the eco-friendly ones?”

  “Ah.” Rebecca’s face took on a pinched look.

  I smiled genially. “Listen. I think these are all fantastic ideas. But there’s too many of them and to do them all at once will stretch us too thin. It’ll destroy the company. I understand this might not be something you’re aware of, given your lack of expertise in a new role. Leigh warned me about it.”

  Rebecca’s eyebrows shot up. She couldn’t outright say that Leigh was a liar or that she didn’t believe Leigh. That would mean revealing that she was jealous of Leigh and felt they were in competition. But her displeasure was still visible on her face.

  “However, with a younger, hungrier company, where resources could be more focused and angel investors could be pulled in,” I continued. “I think you could start your own company with these ideas, Rebecca. I think it could come to rival Lawton if you put your mind to it.”

  Rebecca shook her head. “The Lawton name opens doors. I’m a nobody.”

  “Perhaps,” I acknowledged. “But I would be happy to back you, for what my family name would be worth. If you struck out on your own and took these employees with you, I think you’d find a surprising amount of success. They’re eager to be heard and appreciated and a lot of people have noticed the work you’ve put in over the years even if they weren’t the ones with the power to do anything to help you up the ladder.”

  “Mr. Lawton.” Rebecca squinted a little at me, like she was trying to read my mind. “If I didn’t know better I would say this sounds a little bit like corporate espionage.”

  “I wouldn’t call it that. I think that if you and others in the company decide that you’re tired of waiting for the board to appreciate you, and you go off and form your own company, that’s perfectly understandable.”

  Rebecca still looked skeptical. I didn’t blame her. I had plans for her to change her mind, those would just take a little longer. “I’ll consider it, Mr. Lawton.”

  “Please do. I don’t want to hurt my employees by stepping down. It would give me a great deal of peace of mind if I knew that someone capable was taking the people who deserved it under her wing.”

  Her mouth twisted up into a wry smile. She was smart, and lovely to look at. Unfortunately for her, I was stuck on Leigh. All I could think about when I looked at Rebecca was that she wasn’t Leigh. That in my mind Leigh was smarter, and more beautiful, and funnier.

  God, I sounded like a fucking sap. I might as well just start dancing through the office like we were in some kind of Old Hollywood musical.

  “You’re really pushing for this,” Rebecca noted. “I’m sorry I can’t seem to change your mind on stepping down.”

  “This is what needs to be done,” I said. “I wouldn’t last, and I think in your heart you know it.”

  Rebecca bit her lip. “I think that you would, actually,” she said.

  I groaned inwardly in frustration. It was the contrast between who I was and who I pretended to be. Could I, Bryce, run a company? Quite possibly. I was curious to see if I was up to the task. I felt I’d done a good job in my days here posing as Jack. I was a lot more determined and willing to be ruthless than the actual Jack Lawton.

  But the man I pretended to be, Jack, he couldn’t. He wasn’t a CEO type. As he was my client, it was my turn now to consult him and tell him what best to do. And I was going to make sure that I got everyone exactly what they deserved.

  “Rebecca.” I stood up. “Don’t spend so much time trying to see in me what you want to see that you neglect to see that everything you want is already there inside of yourself.”

  She knew a dismissal when she heard one, but she took a second to stand, looking a little shocked. “I—uh—thank you? Mr. Lawton?”

  “You’re welcome. Go on.”

  She left quickly, still looking surprised.

  Yeah, I couldn’t help Rebecca with her love life exactly but it was well past time she learned to stop looking for someone else to give her the recognition and promotion she wanted and take the reins herself. If these people hadn’t appreciated her in all this time, they never would.

  Now, it was time to deal with the snake in the grass.

  Chapter 21

  Leigh

  * * *

  I was steaming mad when I left Jack’s office.

  Who the hell did Bryce think he was? I was so frustrated I wanted to cry. I couldn’t believe that I’d let myself think that Bryce was different, that he would treat me better than any other man. I wasn’t just someone to have fun sex with, I was someone to respect.

  Turned out I’d been wrong. He dismissed me the second he thought I couldn’t handle things, which was pretty damn fast if you asked me.

  Well. If he didn’t think that I was capable, fine. I had gotten myself into this mess. I would get myself out of it, without the help of anyone else.

  David was just like any other man. I could manipulate him just the same.

  David might have been a corporate lawyer, but he didn’t work in the actual company building. He worked with his firm in another building, which gave me time to change into something a little more revealing—a tighter skirt and a blouse that had a slit down the middle to show off a tantalizing glimpse of cleavage—before I went over to his office.

  Getting up to see him was easy. I just smiled and acted like I was a client and sauntered in. When I arrived at his office, I could see him through the glass on either side of the door. I took a deep breath.

  My stomach twisted uncomfortably. I ignored it. I’d flirted with and done physical things with men I didn’t like before. Why should this be any different?

  Unbidden, the memory of Bryce’s hands on me, that last desperate fuck on the desk, sprung into mind. I shoved it away, trying to convince myself that Bryce wasn’t special.

  I swallowed down the lump in my throat and walked into the office. It was time to be bold. “Since we’re on the subject of blackmail. . .”

  David looked up sharply as I closed the door behind me. I smirked at him and leaned back against it.

  “What are you talking about?” He sounded annoyed. “And what are you doing here?”

  “I’m here to change the terms of our deal, seeing as I’m not the only one with a massive lie hidden under the surface.” I walked over and sat in front of him on his desk, crossing my legs to show them off. “I know you killed Mr. Lawton.”

  David’s eyebrows shot up.

  I laughed throatily. “Oh, your face. What, you thought that nobody could figure it out? I get it. You did what you had to do. In fact I kind of find it… sexy.” I shrugged, as if this was nonchalant to me. “But it does mean that I have something on you just like you have something on me. So I think that changes things a little, wouldn’t you say?”

  David stood up and planted his hands on either side of my hips on the desk, looming over me. It took everything in me to keep the smile on my face as my stomach unexpectedly churned.

  You can do this, I told myself.

  Terrifyingly… I wasn’t sure that I could.

  “That’s a dangerous thing to come in and accuse a man of doing,” David said softly.

  “Oh, please, as if the old bastard didn’t deserve it.” I took a delicate hold of his tie between my fingers and played with it. “He was holding the company back. Why do you think I showed up the moment he was gone? You were finally vulnerable. It’s just a pity that he didn’t really put you in his will.”

  “You’ve been paying close attention to the gossip mill,” David noted.

  I shrugged. “I have to admire a man who’s willing to go so far to accomplish his goals. It couldn’t have been easy to pretend to like such an asshole.”

  David’s gaze searched mine, a smirk on his lips. “I suppose you would know a lot about that.”

  “I do, unfortunately.” I spread my legs a little and tried to fight down the feeling of nausea that hit me when his gaze flicked down. “So why don’t you and I team up together and we can figure something out that works for the both of us.”

  David chuckled. “This really gets you that hot and bothered, huh?”

  I nodded, biting my lip.

  David sighed. “You know, I can’t tell you how tempting it is to fuck you right now.”

  Hearing him say it made me want to throw up. I struggled to ignore that swirling sensation in my stomach.

  “But… unfortunately for you…” David’s smile grew, and then his hand jerked up and wrapped tight around my throat.

  I tried to scream instinctively, but his other hand joined the first as he squeezed, hard, blocking my airway. This was nothing like when Bryce would touch me and play with my throat a little, or when he put the collar on me. This was pain exploding instantly behind the backs of my eyes.

  “…I don’t think just fucking you would be enough to get Jack to do what I want.”

  David spoke like he wasn’t actively strangling me. I clawed at his arms, black spots dancing in my vision. I wasn’t in control of my body, panic infusing me as I tried desperately to get away.

  “Oh, sure, I think he’d be hurt,” David said too casually. “But a man scorned like that is liable to do the opposite of what you want. Tit for tat and all. No…”

  David leaned in. It terrified me how cold his eyes were. Like my death, and life, were nothing to him. “But if he finds out you’re in danger? That your life is in my hands? Now that… that’ll get him where I want him.”

  A tiny, sardonic voice at the back of my mind piped up that he was deeply overestimating how much Bryce cared about me, but even if Bryce condescended to me, he was a good man. He’d literally taken this job to protect Jack and find a killer. He’d probably be worried for me, just as a matter of compassion.

  Still… as my vision blurred and black closed in, I couldn’t help but hope that maybe I was wrong, and David was right, and I was in some way special to Bryce.

  That was the last thought I had before it all went dark.

  Chapter 22

  Bryce

  * * *

  There was immediately something off when I entered the restaurant.

  Not the restaurant itself. That was fine. I instinctively checked the exits and the various guests seated at the tables, but everyone looked normal. No, it was when I sat down across from David that the hairs at the back of my neck stood up.

  “How was the rest of your day?” I asked.

  “Eh, you know how it is, trying to work with a lot of demanding people who often want conflicting things.” David shrugged and raised his hand for the server.

  Once we’d ordered, he leaned back in his chair, smiling genially. “So, you going to meet Leigh after this?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think that my private business is anyone’s concerned, but for the record, I’m not. She has other things to do and we’re not—I told you it’s not like that.”

  I sounded like an absolute moron, but I couldn’t let him see the real wolf’s teeth in my mouth without revealing that I was more than I was pretending to be. Jack Lawton would be a bit nervous and stammer over a glamourous woman. I just had to keep this up for a short while longer.

  Although, I hadn’t heard anything from Leigh since she’d stormed out on me. I’d sent her a text just to make sure she was doing all right, but hadn’t gotten a response. I had assumed she was ignoring me.

  But now, my gut twisted. I had a feeling that David wasn’t asking merely out of curiosity. In fact, I probably should’ve been more suspicious of his asking about Leigh at the meeting earlier today. Had he just used that to get the confirmation he wanted?

  “Of course it’s not,” David said smoothly. “So, the company. . .”

  He outlined his thoughts on the entire thing while our food arrived and we ate. I kept myself alert, watching the exits and the staff as well as the diners. Nobody around here seemed to be an accomplice. That was a foolish mistake. David probably thought he was being smart, operating alone, and maybe in most circumstances he would be. But I wasn’t what you’d call ‘most circumstances’.

  I watched David as he pulled out his phone over our dessert. “I appreciate your advice,” I said to him. “But I know what my course is. I’m going to retire as CEO.”

  David blinked at me. “Well, that was easier than I expected.”

  “You think I didn’t know you wanted me to step down? I suppose I appreciate that you tried to be my friend about it, unlike your father. I suspect you did the same to my uncle, trying to get him to see your side of things. But I knew you wanted me out of the way. I agree, I’m not fit to continue as the head of the company.”

  “That’s a relief.” David smiled. “I suppose I…”

  “But,” I added quickly, “I won’t be giving it over to you.”

  David frowned. “Jack. Don’t be stupid. You’re so close to doing the right thing. I would hate to have to give you the consequences of making a bad decision.”

  “I’m sure that you’re prepared to make my life a living hell,” I said patiently. “But you’re not the only lawyer in this city…”

  “You misunderstand.” David waved his free hand in the air dismissively while he unlocked the phone with the other. “I thought you might be stubborn, and I have to admit I’ve developed a fondness for going about things… in a way that’s not exactly legal. It’s just so much fucking faster. More efficient.”

  He pulled something up on his phone and slid it across to me. “Wouldn’t you say?”

  There, staring up at me on the phone, was a photo of Leigh. She was out cold, with finger-shaped bruises on her throat. Duct tape was over her mouth and bound her hands and feet together. She’d been placed in a bathtub, arranged so that her head rested on the bottom of it.

  The implication was clear. If I didn’t do as I was told, that bathtub would fill with water, and she’d drown.

  My entire body went cold, and then hot with rage. This was nothing like when I’d seen Bill trying to ask her out. That was a candle flame, and this was an inferno. I was going to tear this man limb from fucking limb for this.

  My fingers twitched and I almost reached across the table to wrap my hand around a chunk of his hair and bash his head into the—

  I took a deep breath.

  He couldn’t know who I really was. I had to play the part of Jack Lawton for just a little while longer until Leigh was safe and sound. I wouldn’t be able to manage that if I lost my temper now.

  “You son of a bitch,” I said, keeping my voice a low, startled growl.

  David pulled his phone back. “You really shouldn’t have let anyone figure out what she meant to you. But that’s all right. You’re new to all of this.”

  “I wasn’t aware that kidnapping was a regular part of the corporate world,” I snapped.

  “Your uncle wouldn’t see reason, either,” David said, his tone impatient. “I worked on him for years. And finally when I thought he’d put me in the will and trusted me… it turns out he’d chosen you. A nephew he hadn’t seen in, what, twenty years? It was insanity. But that was your uncle for you. The man was an asshole.”

  David continued on. “But I’m not going to let stupidity get in my way. My father has worked for this company and kept it going for decades. He deserves it. And I deserve it, too. Either you stand down, and you give the company to me, or I finish off your girl.” The prick smiled. “Let me guess. You bought into her little spiel about the environment and the little guy and all that, didn’t you?”

  I looked away, as if it pained me to have him guess correctly. But under the table, I clenched my hand so hard around my knee I felt a knuckle pop.

  This man wasn’t going to make it through the night if I had anything to say about it.

  “What do you want me to do?” I asked, far more calmly than I felt.

  I pulled my phone out, as if waiting for instructions, but instead sent a prepared ABORT text to Jack.

  My original plan had been for the real Jack to show up, startling David into a confession. It was the only way to get him arrested. But our plans had changed. I wasn’t going to give him the luxury of a cushy white-collar jail upstate.

  Now, Jack would know that the mission was aborted and he was to stay away until I contacted him again with different instructions.

  David chuckled. “Put that away. I have everything drawn up for you.”

  He pulled out a file from his briefcase and passed it over to me along with a pen. “Just sign on the various dotted lines, they’re all marked out for you. I’ve made it easy.”

  I had to hold in a snort. I took the pen with acted reluctance and signed all the various places, knowing my signature meant jack shit on the papers. “And what about Leigh?”

  “If you can behave yourself during the entire transaction of the company over to the board, specifically my father, then she’ll be returned to you safe and sound.”

  I handed the papers back over, knowing that David had just lied. He had no intention of letting Leigh go free. I wasn’t sure why—unless he was aware that she knew he’d killed once before. Which meant, she knew too much.

  In fact, he probably thought I knew too much and he had plans to arrange for something to happen to me, too. Or rather ‘Jack’.

  “As long as she’s safe,” I said. “Look, she’s not—it’s not as serious as you think. I don’t know why you think that, but we haven’t known each other that long. But she’s a good person. She doesn’t deserve this. So please, let her go.”

  “Don’t worry. It’ll all be taken care of,” David assured me. He waved our server down to get the check.

  It fucking boiled my blood to have to pretend to grovel to this man. But I did what had to be done. And soon… soon he would get what he deserved.

  When I arrived back to my hotel room, I didn’t waste any time. David was probably smart enough not to keep Leigh at his own place in case I called the police, but he wouldn’t be able to take her to just any hotel.

 

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