I’m not going to cower from this man, no matter the fact that I’m scared out of my pants. If only I were wearing pants. I’m suddenly very aware of just how little I’m wearing.
His eyes are a dark, stormy chocolate. And gods, does he have to be so large? The huge span of his chest blocks out almost my entire vision. I’ve never been so near anyone so…masculine. I ought to be terrified, and I am, don’t get me wrong. But I’m not going to cower in fear in front of him.
“The question is, Dr. Daphne Laurel, who are you? Are you as corrupt as the rest of them?”
I frown. “Corrupt? I don’t underst—”
“Stop playing innocent,” he suddenly booms, grabbing my upper arm in an unrelenting grip.
I shriek and he lets go but his eyes are thunderous as he looms over me. “You will be tested. Are you an innocent girl just trying to find the cure for the disease that took her mother’s life? Or are you a money-grubbing business executive like your father?”
“What are you talking about? My father isn’t—”
“Your father,” he practically spits, “talked a good game. But as soon as he could, he traded his ideals for a fortune. I guess making money from beauty creams is better than trying to cure the incurable?”
“It’s not incurable!” I shout, shoving at his chest. “We’re close. And who the hell are you to judge me? Belladonna had to diversify or we wouldn’t have had enough money to continue our research. The research that will save lives one day!”
He grabs both of my wrists, easily subduing me. “So passionate for your cause,” he smirks. “Or like daddy, lying is just second nature to you by this point.”
“Let go of me, you son of a bitch.” I yank to get away from him but it’s like trying to wrestle a bear. He’s too strong and his grip is like iron. But he doesn’t do anything other than hold my wrist in the shackle of his hands. He just stands there patiently until I finally stop struggling. Furious, I huff hair out of my face and glare at him.
“I know I can’t trust a word from your pretty mouth. But that’s all right. Ever since you dropped into my lap last night, I’ve been thinking. I was going to just destroy your father’s company and revel in watching it burn. But then…” He pauses and frowns. “Then there’s you.”
What does that mean? I feel my mouth drop open slightly. This entire thing is insane. This man is obviously insane.
“Who are you? What did we ever do to you?”
“All that matters is what you choose to do now. I’m going to give you a chance to save your company, little girl. It’s the only offer you’re going to get, so pay attention.”
“You don’t have any power over—”
“But I do. I own the future of Belladonna, in point of fact.”
I laugh. But then I sober. Maybe I should just play along with the delusional man. If I play along, will he actually let me go?
But he sees right through me. “You don’t believe me.” He smiles and leans in. “Go ask Daddy dearest. Ask him how he got out of debt six years ago when the company was in trouble. Then again, I doubt he’ll tell you the truth so I’ll save you the trouble. He sold all his patents. To me.”
“No,” I laugh. “He would never do that.”
But the man in front of me isn’t laughing.
I just keep shaking my head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. What patents?”
“All of them, Daphne. Every bit of research, every right to bring your findings to market—it all belongs to me.”
“You’re lying,” I whisper. Dad would never, ever, sell the patents. We’d have no company without them. Our research wouldn’t be our research anymore. “Dad would never…”
“He thought it was temporary. That he’d be able to buy them back when times were better. I leased them back to Belladonna for a time. But time’s run out.” He smirks. “Belladonna owns nothing. Your father can’t worm his way out of his mistakes this time. It’s time for his sins to finally catch up with him.”
“Why are you so hateful?” I jerk back from him and he finally lets go of my wrists. “You’re a monster!”
He tilts his head at me, the black half-mask making his face blank and creepy as hell. “Maybe. I am what they made me. The question is, what have they made you?”
“They haven’t made me anything. I’m my own woman.”
“We’ll see. We’ll see, Daphne.” The way he says my name…it’s so familiar, like he knows me, not like we’re strangers that just met in the worst of circumstances. Gods, how long has he been stalking me? How long has he been fantasizing this non-existent relationship between us? The roses have been coming for years and years. Has it really been him this whole time? And why is he so fixated on my family?
“I’ve decided I want to give you a chance, Daphne. I want you to submit to me, let me break you down, crack you open, and see your truths. This is the only way I’ll consider saving Belladonna.”
“You’re crazy,” I choke out.
“I’m merciful.” His jaw hardens. “Something your father knows nothing about. But I won’t force anything on you. I’ll even let you take a day to think about it.” He walks back to the door, and to my shock, opens it wide.
I start to hurry towards it but before I can run through it, he grabs my arm. “But rest assured, if you aren’t back tomorrow by sunset, I’ll move forward with my plans to bring Belladonna to its knees and then break open the bottle of Chateau Margaux I’ve been saving while I scatter the ashes.”
Our eyes lock and I search his eyes, looking for madness, looking for some indication that this entire thing is some sort of fever dream. But all I see is…warmth? Like he’s hoping for something? And determination. He’ll follow through on his threat.
I’m so confused. None of this makes any sense.
“There’s a taxi waiting out front. He’ll take you wherever you need to go.”
Then he releases my arm and I flee out the room, down the hall and down the elegant central stairway and out the front door.
* * *
I stumble out into the sunshine, looking back over my shoulder as I go, sure it’s some twisted trick. He’s going to drag me back any second, laughing at my foolishness believing he’d ever let me go.
But no, he remains a dark, forbidding shadow in the doorway. I’m not going to take another moment second-guessing my good-fortune. I turn and this time I don’t look back. I sprint towards the taxi, yank open the back door, and slam it behind me.
“Drive!” I shout at the elderly cabbie.
“Where, miss?”
“Anywhere! Just get me out of here.”
He puts the car in gear and we pull forward on the circular drive that surrounds an elaborate fountain. Only when we’re almost out of the driveway do I look back. What the hell is this place?
It’s a legit castle. Gray-green stone, towers, turrets, even battlements. The towering structure is built on a hill, surrounded by a maze of hedges and green lawn. The further down the curving drive we go, the more gardens come into view. One of the side sections is full of blooming flowers that look like roses. But beyond it is a towering hedge, almost like the labyrinth.
I remember last night and shudder.
The car turns onto the main road, rolling past giant, forbidding iron gates. I turn back around in my seat and drag my hands down my face. What the hell just happened? That man was insane. Nothing he said was true.
“So where to now, miss?” the cabbie looks at me in the rearview. He has old, slightly rheumy eyes that I bet have seen a lot.
“To the nearest p—” I bite my lip and squeeze my eyes shut. Police station. I need him to take me to the nearest police station. Right?
But…
What if?
What if there was even the tiniest bit of truth to what the Beast back there said? If Dad really did sell the patents? I grab my stomach. Gods, I feel sick.
Yeah, because that crazy bastard drugged you! Which is why you need to go directly to t
he police station, do not pass go, do not collect a hundred dollars, no questions!
But there’s something Dad hasn’t been telling me. He’s been bad ever since the stroke, but it’s something more. He’s gotten closed off. He pretends to be asleep when I stop by so he won’t have to talk to me. He thinks I don’t know, but I do. I thought he just didn’t like looking weak in front of me but what if…
“Lady, you gotta give me a destination or we’re just gonna keep driving in circles. I mean, I’m on a meter so it’s fine with me but—”
“New Olympus city. Belladonna research labs.” I sit up straighter. If I go to Dad first, I won’t get a straight answer. No matter how much I’ve done for the company, he still sees me as his little girl. I need to find out the truth, no matter how much it hurts.
* * *
Three hours later, I step out of a ride share at my father’s townhouse, clutching a stack of papers to my chest. I spent the last few hours scouring my Dad’s offices at Belladonna, hoping against hope that I’d find evidence to refute what the Beast who stole me claimed this morning.
Instead… I swallow hard against the lump in my throat. No, don’t even think it. Dad will be able to explain. He’ll tell me how this is all some misunderstanding. A mistake in paperwork that the Beast is exploiting somehow. Making it out to be something it’s not.
Dad wouldn’t…couldn’t betray everything we’ve worked for like this.
Dad’s nurse Gemma opens the door and a smile lights her face. “Oh Daphne darling, your daddy will be so happy to see you. I know he wants to hear all about how the ball went last night. And that handsome fella Adam Archer. Rumor has it the two of you are getting hot and heavy.”
What? The ball feels about a million years ago but I smooth my expression and put on what I hope is a polite smile. “Is my father awake? I really need to talk to him.”
“Aw honey, what’s wrong? You look like you had yourself a piece of porcupine pie for breakfast.”
Gemma’s almost as old as Dad and has been working as a nurse for decades. Usually I like her spunky colloquialisms and interest in all the town gossip, but not today. I’m on a mission.
“Sorry, Gem, I really need to see Dad.”
She frowns but steps back from the door to let me through. “Okay, baby, come on in. He just woke up from a nap and I know seeing you will brighten his day.”
Ha, I think. Not likely.
I pass the living room and the bay window where someone, probably Gemma, has propped a painting of Thornhill’s gardens. The view is exactly what I used to see when I looked out the window of my mother’s home.
Mom and I used to curl up with pillows and blankets and read fairytales when it was raining outside. Everything always seemed extra magical when it was raining, like wizards and fairy godmothers were more likely to pop out of the woods when mist covered the earth after a good rainstorm. My chest aches the way it always does when I think of Mom.
When we lost her, I had no one to talk to. Dad was so lost in grief, and the only person I ever could really talk to about her left not long after she died.
Gods, I haven’t thought about Logan in such a long time. He and Adam were my dad’s research assistants back in the day.
Adam always seemed…unreachable, unattainable. He was surrounded by co-eds, the golden boy everyone wanted a piece of. But Logan was quiet, studious. He went to college on scholarship and was devoted to his studies. A lot like me.
So we’d study together and during late night study sessions and sometimes in the lab, we’d get to talking. I was only nineteen and he was twenty-eight but science is a universal language. And he knew about Mom and everything we were trying to do to save her.
I wish I could talk to him now. He’d know how to make sense out of this. Dad always treated me like a little kid but Logan treated me like an equal. I was hurt when he suddenly left without saying goodbye, but apparently he got a really good post doc across the country and had to leave right away.
People leave and let you down. Seems like a lesson I should have learned a lot earlier than now but I guess I’ve been stubborn to the end. I turn away from the bay window and push up the stairs. I’m not a child anymore.
Finally I’m at Dad’s door and I pause. My heart is racing. Gods, what am I doing here? Because in spite of the many times people have disappointed me in my life, Dad never has. And there could be other explanations…right? I mean, okay, there are some unexplained blanks in the accounting records. But Dad was never good with that kind of stuff.
He’s a lab guy like me. He might be just as clueless about all this. Yes, I know he’s the CEO, but that doesn’t mean someone didn’t take advantage of an old man… I should’ve taken a closer interest in the company as a whole long before his stroke. Gods, how could I have just let him shoulder the entire burden? What kind of daughter does that?
But I’m here now and we’ll figure this out together. Whatever this is. Whoever is trying to screw with our company. I take a deep breath and then push through the door.
Dad’s reading a thick tome, but he looks up at my entrance and his face immediately brightens. His once salt and pepper hair is now all white and I’ll still never get used to seeing him in the hospital bed we had installed up in his room, machines constantly monitoring his vitals.
“Daphne.” He sets the book aside. “I wasn’t expecting you today. To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Dad, there’s a problem.” I rush to his bedside, trying to ignore how unsettling it is to see the changes in him. “Someone’s been stealing from the company. Or something. I don’t know how to explain what I’m seeing. But I need your help to figure it out or else we’re in trouble.”
I start to spread the papers out on his bed but when I next glance up at Dad’s face, it’s gone ashen.
“Dad?” My hands start to tremble. He doesn’t look surprised. He doesn’t look surprised at all by what I’m showing him.
“You knew?”
He doesn’t say anything. He just looks down at his lap.
My throat closes up. No. No no no. “Dad, tell me these are just accounting errors. It can’t be true. You didn’t… I mean, you didn’t really sell the patents.”
“Who told you that?” His head jerks up and there’s an expression on his face I’ve never seen before. He looks manic and angry and afraid all at the same time.
“Dad!” my voice breaks. “What’s going on? Please. You have to tell me.”
My father’s hand shoots out and clamps around my wrist. “Leave it alone, Daph. Walk away. Walk away now.”
My mouth drops open in shock. Is he serious? “This is our company, everything we’ve worked for.”
But his hands are shaking. “He’s too strong.” His cheeks had color when I came in but they’ve gone completely pale.
“Who?” I cry. “Who, Daddy? Who did you sell to? Who’s doing this to us?” I’ve never seen my father like this before. I was expecting him to tell me this was all nonsense. An accounting error, or that he’d never seen this before and we’d track down the culprit together.
But this? He knows my tormentor. Oh gods, how long has this been going on?
“Tell me everything,” I demand.
But he shakes his head vehemently. “This will never touch you.”
Oh Daddy, if you only knew. “What does he want? Tell me that at least if you won’t tell me who it is.”
A tear crests my father’s eye and rolls down his cheek. “I’m so sorry, bella mia. This is all my fault. I hope that he’ll consider my death payment enough.” He coughs a long, raking cough. “I don’t think it will be long now.”
“Dad,” I cry, reaching down and hugging his skin-and-bones body. Gods, when did he get so skinny? “Don’t say that! Never say that. What are you talking about? We can fight this.” I let him go only when another coughing fit hits.
Why didn’t Gemma tell me it was getting this bad? But one look at my Dad and I know why. He told her not to. My stu
bborn ass of a father. Always thinking he can carry things on his own. Always treating me as if I’m a little child, even though I’ve spent my whole life hurrying to grow up faster so I could share the burden with him.
And now he’s just given up. He’s not even fighting. He’ll never get better if he doesn’t even try. He had a stroke but plenty of people come back from that and live fulfilling lives. But this… I look down at his emaciated body.
Does he have pneumonia? And what the hell has Gemma been doing about it? We’ve kept her on because she gets on well with Dad but if she’s not giving him the care he needs, I don’t care if we need to get Nurse Ratched in here.
I grab Dad by his cheeks and force him to look me in the eye. “You are not giving up. You are going to fight, do you hear me? I don’t care about the company.” That’s a lie, but right now, all Dad needs to focus on is getting better. I repeat it out loud: “You just need to focus on getting better. That’s all that matters right now.”
I bite my bottom lip and then I do something I’ve never done before. I lie to my father. “And to ensure you can do that, I’ll do as you ask. I’ll go away. I’ll take an extended vacation so you know I’m safe, okay?”
All the tension leaves Dad’s body and he sinks back into the pillows. “Oh thank the gods. Yes, baby, get as far away from here as you can.”
I nod. “Okay, Dad. I will.” I lean over and give him another hug. “You just focus on getting better.”
I stand on the sidewalk outside of his apartment. The weather’s turned cold, but I welcome the numbing feeling.
I make a few calls, ordering in a new nursing service for my dad. It’s the least I can do. As I finish my call, my cell vibrates with a new text.
RACHEL: How was the ball?
Oh gods, the ball. Was it only last night? So much has changed. I was drugged, woke up in a strange castle, learned my company is worthless. And my father knew it. Everything he built was a lie.
Billionaire’s Captive: A Beauty and the Rose Box Set Page 4
