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She snorts. “Not old enough to suit you. Eric gets his brains from me.” She looks at Eric. “Didn’t know that, did you? I’m smarter than the average gal, despite the fact I let Grayson Bennett steal you away from us.” She doesn’t give him time to reply. She homes in on Isaac again and orders, “Get him what he asks for, son. Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”
“You don’t have the power to make this call,” Isaac argues. “I know you did this while Dad is in Europe for a reason, to sideswipe me and root Eric in my business before he could stop you, but he’s one phone call away and our combined stock overrules yours.”
“Actually,” Eric says dryly. “My stock with Gigi’s combined overrules any vote.”
“You don’t own stock,” he snaps.
“I do now,” Eric counters. “I bought out the bank this morning with a premium theycouldn’t resist.”
Isaac goes completely, utterly still and I watch as hell swims in the depths of his stare. “You didwhat?” he bites out, while I reel at this unexpected turn of events that might just change this company forever, and I’m not sure it’s for the better, not when I see the real anger between these brothers.
“Family needs to be protected by family,” Eric says, his gaze shifting to Gigi. “Don’t you think, Gigi?”
She swallows hard, a telltale sign that she had no idea he’d done such a thing. “Yes,” she says. “And I haven’t always remembered that, son. I do now.”
“So, Harper tells me,” he says dryly, eyeing Isaac, “I’ll work in the conference room for now. Get me access to all databases and all facilities.”
“That will take time,” Isaac says.
“I’ll get it done myself,” Eric says. “I’m impatient like that.” His attention shifts to me, his blue eyes sharp, but unreadable. “You’ll work on the audit with me. Everything else will come second. It was one of my terms when I agreed to do the audit.” Perhaps it’s my imagination, but I swear that his voice lowers, the heat in his eyes smoldering with possession as he adds, “You’re all mine.”
Chapter fifteen
Harper
I’m burning alive under Eric’s scorching attention, melting right here in the center of Isaac’s office with the message in his burning blue-eyed stare: he came here for me. He also promised to finish this family off if he returned. Maybe that means he intends to fuck me in every possible way this time. I don’t know. I just know that as seconds tick by, our present company of Isaac and Gigi fades away and there is just the two of us and a challenge that I don’t understand, but I’m certain I will soon.
“I’ll leave you three to get this done,” Gigi says, snapping me back to the room just in time to find her exiting the office.
“Go do your job, Harper,” Isaac snaps at me. “Eric and I need to have a conversation alone.”
Eric’s lips twitch, his eyes never leaving mine, nor mine his. “I’ll find you when we’re done,” he says, and there is this heady possessive undertone to those words that is anything but professional. This is a promise that we still have unfinished business, that we are far from done, and I have never felt so owned in my life. Considering this place, this family has made me feel pretty darn owned, that’s saying a lot. It’s different with Eric, though.He’s differentfrom Isaac and the rest of them in ways that connect with me on every level. Icravethis man’s confidence. Ineedthis man’s touch. Iunderstandthis man’s hunger for revenge in ways that he can’t know, and yet, I fear that very need in him is why he’s here, is why he’s now dangerous.
“You can leave the door open,” he adds, his tone sharpening with a swift change in mood as he refocuses on his brother. “Isaac and I won’t be long.”
The air crackles and this time it’s not about me and Eric. It’s about him and Isaac and that snaps me out of my lusty haze and shoots me straight into fight mode. My gaze jerks to Isaac. “He’shere because Gigi wants answers. I tried to tell you that. I asked and asked you to help me give them to her. You dismissed her as an old lady and forgot how much power she has. So, suck it up and just give Eric what he needs. Give Gigi what she wants.” I look at Eric. “As for you. You aren’t a bastard because he calls you one. You’re a bastard if you choose to be one.” I look between them. “We’re family whether you two like it or not. You need to figure this out.”
I march for the door and exit, Eric’s voice following me as he says, “She has no idea what kind of bastard I really am, now does she, Isaac?”
That statement, layered with history, halts my steps and I lean on the wall waiting for more. What does that even mean? I need to know what that means and I wait for an explanation, but the door shuts. I’m shut out. Damn it. I push off the wall and hurry down the hallway, reaching the elevator just as it closes, no doubt missing Gigi by seconds. I cut right and take the stairs, rushing down the winding path until I reach the bottom level just as the elevator doors open.
Gigi steps out and pauses to smooth the red dress she’s wearing, oblivious to how the color clashes with her hair, which is more orange than red. “I expected you before I made it to the elevator,” she says, cutting me a look, her blue eyes so like Eric’s in this moment that I shiver. “You’re late,” she adds and starts walking toward her office, which is the only office down here by her design.
“That wasn’t exactly neutral territory you left me in,” I say, easily catching up to her despite the fact that she’s remarkably spry for her age. “And you know I don’t like you down here. You don’t even keep a secretary. What if something happened to you?”
She waves me off the way Isaac tried to wave off Eric and with the same failed results. “I’m fine down here. This is the she cave, no men allowed.” She pauses at her doorway. “Eric’s quite the looker these days, isn’t he?”
My cheeks heat and she laughs. “You noticed.” She disappears through the doorway. “And I noticed the spark between you two,” she calls over her shoulder.
Of course, she did. “And you,” I say, swiftly changing the subject and following her inside what is more a small executive apartment than an office, “should have warned me about what just happened.”
“And you,” she counters, “should have told me when you left New York City. He called me.”
“And you offered him how much money?”
“Enough to get him here.”
“He’s a billionaire now,” I say. “He doesn’t need your money.”
