Throne of Truth (Truth and Lies Duet #2)(15)

“No, you haven’t.” I spread my hands, giving him the space to speak. “You haven’t set your terms; you’ve merely demanded what you expect. They’re different.” I did my best to ignore the skimpy nightdress and leather cuffs, draping myself in an imaginary suit with bodyguards and personal assistants ready to do whatever I commanded. “Pretend we’re in a business negotiation at Belle Elle. What would you say?”

He smirked. “I’d say this was a takeover.”

“A hostile takeover, don’t you mean?”

“No, Elle, a partnership. A new director of the board buying fifty-one percent of the stock but letting the old manager keep forty-nine.”

Oh, how generous of you.

“That’s not a partnership. It’s a dictatorship.”

“Wrong again. It is a partnership with the smallest amount of authority.”

I would never sign Belle Elle over to him. Even if he killed me. The company wasn’t mine to give. It was my family’s—it belonged to my future children. The Charlston legacy would only go to a man worthy of serving by my side.

“If it’s about the money, I’ll give you some. What do you want? A million? Two?”

He threw his head back, laughing hard. “Oh, I knew your anger was cute, but you’re just adorable when you try to bargain with chump change.”

“A million isn’t chump change.”

“It is to you.”

“Ten million.” I pursed my lips. “Ten million and you walk away.” I flung my hands in the air, hating the weight of the chain and the jingle of the links as I moved. “Walk away from this, from me, from Belle Elle, and I’ll wire the money to you right now.”

“We don’t have reception out here. No Wi-Fi.”

“Fine, take me back to the city, and I’ll do it there.”

Where I can call the police, not the bank.

“Nice try, Elle.” He tapped his nose with the sharp blade. “I much prefer our current situation.” Leaping off the counter, he inhaled my neck like a grizzly bear. “Ten million is still chump change. You can’t buy me off. The only bribe I’d accept would be...”

He deliberately left me hanging.

I hated myself, but I took his bait. “Would be?”

“You.” His eyes flashed. “Marry me, give me fifty-one percent of Belle Elle, fifty percent of the contents of your bank accounts, and then divorce me for all I care.”

My eyes flared. “You’re saying if I married you and gave you half of everything I own, that you’ll walk away?”

He cocked his head. “Maybe.”

“Maybe isn’t an answer I can agree to.”

“Guess you’ll just have to make us dinner and stop trying to barter then, huh?” He ran the knife around my belly button, pressing the gold satin against my skin. “Cook me something, wife-to-be, then we can finally see if we’re as compatible in the bedroom as we are in the boardroom.”

“We were never compatible in the boardroom. You were never allowed in the boardroom.”

“Precisely. You were boss there.” His teeth glinted. “But here in my bed, in my cabin—I’m the boss.

“And I can’t fucking wait to show you what I can do.”





Chapter Eight


Penn


“HE’S NOT FUCKING here,” I growled into the phone. “Does he have another property?”

Joe Charlston cleared his throat, the sound of an engine loud on the line. “No, that’s the only one that Steve—”

“Everett? Is that you?” Steve Hobson’s voice replaced Joe’s. I envisioned him snatching the phone, either to stand up to me and beg me not to hurt his cocksucker of a son or help me find the woman who was like a daughter to him.

“Tell me where I can find him.” I paced the woodland where the car tracks vanished onto a road. I had no clue what direction they’d gone in, no more hints or clues to chase.

Elle was still out there.

A new day had replaced the night, and I was fucking raging at the thought of her still with him.

“He’s not at the cabin?”

I ground my teeth. “He was. His Porsche is here, but they’re not. He had another car. They’re still missing.”

Steve cursed something I didn’t catch. “I don’t know what else to tell you.”

“Tell me something helpful. Tell me you know your son. Hotels he prefers, locations he likes.”

Steve paused then rushed, “I know he was thinking of buying a fishing lodge. I don’t think he did, but then again, I had no clue he had another car up at the cabin.” His voice turned despondent. “This entire fiasco is showing how little I know my own flesh and blood.”

Another man came on the phone. A man I remembered vividly for multiple reasons. And he remembered me. “Everett, David speaking. Elle’s bodyguard.”

“I know who you are.”

I remember the night we first met when your judgment stole all my joy at being with Elle and reminded me I was scum who doesn’t deserve her.

“I’m driving Mr. Charlston and Mr. Hobson to the cabin. Wait there, and we’ll track them down together. I’ll do some digging with my contacts and see if there are any other assets under his name.”