The Ruthless Gentleman(74)
I swallowed. I couldn’t love him, could I? I couldn’t love a person who’d treated me so cruelly. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. Why was everything so fucking unfair? I didn’t want to be in love with a man who’d left me so easily. But of course she was right. Of course I loved him. Or a version of him at least. I loved the way he seemed to want to peel back my layers and know my deepest, darkest thoughts, the way he was so driven and determined that sometimes he’d forget the time of day and the day of the week but still kept the perspective that his brother had a job far more worthy. I loved the man who was the best man I’d ever known. I would never have risked everything for anything less. But it didn’t matter what he’d meant to me. He’d hurt me. Despite what he thought, he was the one who’d betrayed me. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself not to cry. “He’s gone now. It doesn’t matter.”
“You should totally call him. You swapped numbers, right?”
I shook my head. “We had a huge fight. It’s done.”
“Tell me what happened.” Skylar pulled me into a hug and I let her. I needed someone to show me they cared in that moment.
I explained Hayden’s accusations to Skylar, and explained what really happened. Talking about it was like putting a period at the end of the relationship. I could no longer pretend to myself that things were different, that what he’d accused me of had just been some big mistake and that he’d be back soon, begging my forgiveness. It was done.
I’d never felt that irresistible pull that I had toward Hayden for anyone else. I couldn’t imagine I ever would again. No one would be able to pin me to the spot with just a look, rile me up to the point of almost coming with just a kiss. No man would ever make me feel as if it was an honor for me to share the weight of my responsibility with him. Even just talking to Hayden about my family had helped lift the burden slightly.
People like Hayden Wolf came around once in a lifetime. Things might have been different if I’d never taken that phone and business card. Maybe then, we might have found a miraculous way through the distance and contradictory lives and lifestyles, but the chance for miracles was over.
Now I had to focus on what I should have always put first—my family.
Thirty-Two
Hayden
The driver opened the passenger door. I dipped my head to get in, then groaned at the sight of my brother. “I hope you’re here to tell me good news.”
“Welcome home, brother. I thought I’d meet you at Heathrow as I knew you’d be so pleased to see me.”
“I’ve had quite enough of you at the moment. Especially after a commercial flight.” I was exhausted.
“Christ, you poor bastard. You had to fly commercial from your superyacht? Did the world run out of private jets?”
I pressed my lips together, trying not to let him see the grin threatening at the corners of my mouth. “And? I presume you came with news.”
“I’ve found your leak,” he said as he pressed his thumb against the side of his tablet, his fingerprint bringing it to life.
“About time. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to go back to my office.”
“It was Gerald,” he said simply.
I recoiled. “I thought that having an offshore account wasn’t conclusive? How can you be sure?” As financial controller for Wolf Enterprises and right-hand man to my finance director, he would have a lot of access to a lot of information.
“Because I’m that good.”
“It’s taken you nearly eight weeks—you’re not that good.”
“What can I say? He covered his tracks well. We had to wait for him to make a mistake.”
“Prove it to me.” When he’d told me about Avery, I’d refused to believe it until I’d seen the evidence for myself. And even after I’d found the phone and the business card, I still went ashore to see the photographs for myself. When I’d confronted her, her explanations were a little too polished. She’d had an answer for everything. I’d wanted to hear more—when had she started with Cannon? Had she been in their pocket all along? But she’d stormed out of my office, indignant. There was only one piece of the puzzle missing with Avery. Landon hadn’t been able to track the payoff to her account.
Landon swiped through various documents and photographs, showing me records of Gerald receiving large payments into an offshore account on dates just after Cannon closed the four deals they’d stolen from under me. Landon had also had people search Gerald’s home and recovered various electronic files stored in a safe, which were full of confidential details about the transactions Wolf Enterprises had been working on.
“Jesus. He’s worked with us for years. He was so competent and professional; he’d be the last person I would have thought capable of something like that.”
That wasn’t true. Avery was the last person I’d ever have thought would betray me. I might have known her for a fraction of the time I’d known Gerald, but I’d been certain I’d looked into her eyes and seen nothing but honesty and truth. Her selflessness was one of the things I’d liked most about her. The way she had such strong values—the way she’d sacrificed so much for those she cared about. I’d just thought I was one of those people. Apparently it had all been an act, a means to an end.