Unconditional (Masters and Mercenaries #5.5)(41)

He sat for a moment, her words flowing over him. God, he couldn’t stop thinking about it, but at the end he came to the same conclusion. Even if he could get over his problems with being around kids, he couldn’t give Ashley what she would need. She was young. She would want more children. Emily would want a sibling. He’d grown up an only child, and he’d always wanted a brother. He couldn’t give that to them.

Or you could convince her to adopt, you stupid motherf*cker.

His inner voice had started to sound an awful lot like Ian Taggart. It wasn’t a pleasant thing.

He’d started to wonder though. Was his reaction about grief—or anger? Had he been fooling himself all these years?

He shook off the thoughts. Forward. A man had to move forward. When he stopped, that was when the bad shit happened. He would move forward with his life and Ashley would move on. She would find what she deserved. He would make sure of it.

Ten minutes later, he was shown into Trent Reid’s stately office. It was wood paneled and blatantly masculine. A massive desk dominated the room, and Reid sat behind it in the obvious power position.

Keith was sure the man had intimidated many an employee and prospective investor with this setup. Unfortunately for him, Keith didn’t give a shit about where he sat. Power, in this case, wasn’t about perception.

“Mr. Langston, please have a seat.” Reid didn’t stand, an obvious slight. He merely gestured to the small chair in front of the desk.

There was a massive portrait on the wall opposite Keith. It was of Trent, a slender woman with blonde hair, and a teenaged boy in a suit.

Reid gestured toward the portrait. “My wife and kid. We lost him a couple of months back.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Reid nodded. “Yes, well, he wasn’t very responsible. I wasn’t hard enough on him. I’ll do better with my granddaughter. So, my CEO tells me you’re the man to take us to the next level. We’ve been stagnant for far too long. I believe this merger you’re proposing could move us up in the world.”

“Your stock has taken a hit lately.”

He waved it off. “The greenies came after us for toxic dumping or some shit. It was a two-day story. I’m not worried about that.”

Ashley would likely protest outside this guy’s house. She gave a crap about things like the environment. She would have pushed him to make ethical investments. She would have challenged him to think about something other than profits.

Why did that thought not make him wary? Why did it seem good to have a woman he loved playing the role of his conscience?

He loved her. The truth hit him squarely in the gut. He loved her, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“So do you have a presentation?” Reid pulled him out of his thoughts. “I’d like to know more about this company we’ll be absorbing. How many employees are there? Obviously we’ll be laying them off. I want to install my own people.”

He’d meant to draw this out, to relish the kill, but suddenly he just wanted to go home. At least at home he would be in the same city she was in. “There’s only one employee you need to worry about.”

Reid nodded, an arrogant look on his face. “I think I’ll make those decisions, son.”

He shuddered a little. This man was nothing like his father. He wasn’t grieving a son. He grieved that he’d lost his heir. A vision of his father’s face frozen in pain hit him. His father had mourned a baby that had only taken two breaths. He’d taken his grief deep, holding on to his wife, reaching out to his son.

And Keith had turned away from him.

“You’re under a misapprehension, Mr. Reid.” He slid the report across the desk to him. “This isn’t a merger. It’s a take-over.”

“What?”

Keith stood up. “I’ve already acquired a ten-percent stake in your company. I’m prepared to offer over market value to your three largest stockholders in order to gain a controlling interest in Reid Industries. Once I have control, I will gut the entire thing.”

Reid turned a nice shade of red, sputtering as he stood. “You can’t do that.”

“Oh, I can and I will. That plan details exactly how I will ruin you. Most of your money is in that company. I’ll make your every share worthless. You need to understand that I’m willing to take a massive loss to ensure your destruction. I figure I stand to lose roughly a hundred million. I can mitigate some of it by selling off property, but I’m willing to lose it. I’m a billionaire, Mr. Reid. My wealth makes yours look like a child’s piggy bank. I’ve lost and made more money than you’ll see in your lifetime and I’m not even forty yet. I did it by being smart and more ruthless than you can imagine, so understand when I tell you that I will do anything to protect Ashley Paxon and her daughter from you.”

He swallowed visibly, placing his hands on the desk for balance. “You’re the man the PI talked about. The man she’s been seeing.”

“Yes.” He didn’t mention that they weren’t seeing each other anymore. It didn’t matter. For the rest of her life, he would watch over her. “I’m the man who protects her, and that includes not allowing her to lose custody of her daughter. If I get even a whiff that you’re going to try to take Emily away from her, I’ll destroy you.”