Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
“What small print?”
“If anything about this ‘marriage’ is deemed for show, you lose everything. I’m guessing there’s a PI who will be following you. You have to assume you will be watched.”
“Of course, I will be. And as for Bella, the other woman is just never going to fly with her. And you’re right. Her career matters to her. Hell, she’s up for partner, and that was on the table before we ever got involved. She just closed a major deal for her brother, Dash. I can’t take that from her.”
“Then get a list. You have fifteen months to screw this up, or six months plus a short marriage to end this. Once you inherit, it’s done.”
“What about the company? What will anyone know?”
“Nothing. You’re the crowned CEO and majority stockholder until you’re not. I’ll spare you the details unless you want to hear them, but technically you inherited the stock and maintain your current role of CEO, with stipulations. As of today, you are no longer in an acting role. You’re the real deal. Notifications have been sent out to all partners. With your permission, I’ll send a formal notice to the clients of the firm.”
“Yes. Do it. We’re done here. I need to think.” I walk toward the door.
“Get me the list,” he calls out.
I lift a hand and say nothing.
There is only one name on my list, and that’s Bella, as impossible as that seems right now.
Chapter Fifty
Tyler
I work late, buried in a multitude of things I should have handled days ago. It’s almost ten o’clock when I leave the office and intend to drive home. Instead, I drive to Bella’s house and sit outside, talking myself out of going inside. My cellphone rings with Gavin's number, almost as if he knows where I’m at and he wants to check me.
“Yeah,” I answer.
“I hope like hell you aren’t with Bella. You will ruin her. You will ruin yourself. You will ruin lives. Let me be a little clearer: she is not good for you if she ruins your lives and those of others. Get me my list.”
“I get it. Did you call for anything I need to hear?”
“We both know you needed to hear that. I’ll come get the list. Where are you?”
“I’ll get it to you when I get home. Goodbye, Gavin.”
“Wait,” he says. “What was that bullshit your father said, about you finding out more about him, and what he was into? Paraphrasing, of course.”
Holy hell, I think. I haven’t even thought about that portion of my father’s letter at all. “Dierk will handle it.”
“All right. Let me know if you need me. And I’ll be looking for—”
I hang up before he can say “list” and dial Dierk.
“Tyler,” he greets. “What do you have for me?”
I give him the rundown on the family involved in the legal case, the situation with the will, and the warning from my father about his behavior I’d soon learn about. “Find a way to get me out of this. And if you can’t do that, find a way to ensure I keep the Allen family on a leash.”
“They’re powerful. That’s a big order.”
“I’m powerful, more so when I inherit five hundred million. Get me something to control them. And I need to know what my father was into. I need to head it off.”
“That I can do. More soon.”
We disconnect and I’m still sitting outside Bella’s home. She’s under my skin and that’s a problem. Gavin isn’t wrong. I have to control this situation or people will get hurt. Hell, convicted criminals might get free just because our firm touched their cases if it comes out we withheld evidence for the Allen family. But I’m not going to stay away from Bella. I’ve never felt like I couldn’t stay away from a woman, but my present location sums up where I stand. I want her, and I want her badly. She’s the first woman, since—since a long time ago that I’ve allowed myself to have feelings for. And I didn’t even allow this to happen. She took me off guard when not much does.
My fingers thrum on the dash. Control, I think. I need it. And I don’t have it when Bella has it and right now, she does. There’s only one way to handle this. I need to fuck her about a thousand times and get her out of my system. I don’t want to hurt Bella, but I have to think about all the hundreds of employees, too. No more of this emotional bullshit.
No more.
I know what I have to do and I punch in Gavin’s number. “I need some changes to that contract.”
Chapter Fifty-One
Tyler
I meet with Gavin the next morning and review the contract. “You sure this is how you want to handle this?”
“Positive,” is my only reply. “And now I have a company to run.” I leave him staring after me, relatively speechless. He knows me. When I’m this sold on something, he needs to let it ride.