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“We have a restraining order?” Maddie asked Vik.
“Yes.”
“Didn’t I have to sign something for it?”
“No. His malicious intent was in the papers for the world to see. We filed for it on behalf of AIH and its primaries, of which you are one.”
“Oh.”
He looked down at her untouched coffee. “You’re not drinking that.”
She shook her head. “How did you find me?”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“Yes.”
“The ‘find me’ function on your phone.”
“I turned it off.”
“As long as the battery is in it and holds any charge, the GPS function works.”
“So, if I want privacy, I have to take out the battery. Good to know.”
He had to have looked up her GPS signal right away to have gotten to the coffee shop so quickly. More evidence that she mattered to him in the ways that were truly important.
Her father never would have just dumped his schedule to go running after her mother, or Maddie, certainly.
Vik inhaled, opened his mouth to speak, closed it again and then said, “I would prefer you not do that.”
“Okay.” It was a matter of safety as well, as much as she might prefer to forget that fact. “You came after me.”
“Of course. You were upset. What Jeremy did to you...”
She coughed out a laugh at the rare vulgarity that came out of her husband’s mouth.
Vik put his hand out to her. “Will you come with me now?”
Maddie didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
“Don’t you want to know where?” Vik asked as she took his hand and let him lead her from the coffee shop.
“I guess I assumed we’d go someplace private.”
Vik’s expression turned hard. “Actually, we’re going back to AIH to confront your father.”
“Together.”
“Yes.”
Implying Vik and Maddie were on one side and Jeremy Archer the other. Nice. If she’d needed proof that she came first with Vik, her father couldn’t have provided a better opportunity.
Which, okay, maybe having the proof was nice, but she wasn’t about to thank Jeremy.
* * *
Her father was in his office when they arrived, Dr. Wilson gone. The PA tried to tell them that Jeremy was in a meeting, but Vik just walked through.
He reached across Jeremy’s desk and ended the call, sending Maddie’s father surging to his feet as he spluttered with annoyance.
Vik waited until her father had gone silent to speak. “Have you ever known me to lie to you?”
Jeremy shook his head, his expression instantly wary.
“Do I bluff?” Vik asked.
“No,” Jeremy said shortly.
“Then you will know I mean every word I say when I tell you that if you attempt to prove Madison incompetent to forestall her giving half her shares to Romi Grayson, I will destroy Archer International Holdings until the very building we are standing in is leveled to the ground.”
“You don’t mean that,” Jeremy said, his voice warbling with emotion for the first time in Maddie’s memory.
She hadn’t even seen him appear this distraught at her mother’s funeral.
There was no give in Vik. Not in his expression. Not in the way he stood, towering over Jeremy’s desk. “We have just established that I do.”
Definitely not in his tone.
Her dad said something else, but Maddie wasn’t listening. Everything inside her had gone still as she had her second major revelation for the day.
“You do love me,” she said to Vik, ignoring her father completely.
That oh-so-serious espresso gaze fixed on her. “You are mine to protect.”
“And to love.” Giddy with joy that could not be tempered even by her father’s machinations, she could hardly help the delight surfing every syllable.
She didn’t even want to try.
Maddie beamed up at the man she’d crushed on since she was fourteen and loved since she was sixteen. “I love you, too, but you know that.”
“Do you?” Vik asked. “Even now?”
“Especially now.” He wasn’t even remotely responsible for her father’s actions.
“I meant what I said to your father.” He said it like it was a warning.
“I know.”
“I am utterly ruthless and without remorse.”
She might argue that point, but understood that Vik believed it. And that was okay with her.
He used his powers for good, even if he didn’t see it.
She smiled at him, letting her love show in her eyes. “Your sense of honor is the shiniest and clearest facet of your nature. Everything else about you is filtered through the light it casts.”
“I am not a nice guy.”
“You just threatened to destroy my company,” her dad said with feeling. “You sure as hell are not a nice guy.”
Maddie’s smile morphed into a full grin. “It’s all a matter of perspective. I love that you would pull out every stop to slay my dragons.”
“I’m not a dragon. I’m your father, damn it.”
She flicked him a disgusted glance. “Who threatened to have me declared mentally incompetent.”
“You can’t believe I wanted things to go down that way, but you’re giving away my company.” Vik might claim to be remorseless, but Jeremy’s expression and tone were soaked with regret.
“Don’t exaggerate,” she said, dismissing her father’s words. “Twelve and a half percent with the voting proxy assigned to Vik and any successor he should formally appoint.”
Vik jolted beside her. “I didn’t know that.”
“I trust you.”
His gaze turned soft like she’d never expected to see. “You do.”
“You knew that.”
“I told myself you did.”
“And me.” He’d told her when she’d still been denying it to herself.
“Apparently it is different coming from you.”
Her dad sighed. “You know, your mother and I never felt the need to talk our emotions to death.”
Finally, Maddie gave Jeremy her attention. “Maybe if you had, things would have been different.”
“I cannot change the past,” he said with a pained expression.
“You spend enough time screwing up with your daughter in the present, the past is hardly what you need to be worried about,” Vik told her father.
“I am sorry for ambushing you with Dr. Wilson, Madison.” Jeremy looked at her with appeal. “It probably makes no difference to you, but I told Dr. Wilson I wouldn’t be needing his services immediately after you left my office.”
“That’s hard to believe.” Her father didn’t back down once he’d set a course of action in motion.
He just didn’t. And he did lie.
Jeremy said, “Call him. He’ll tell you.”
Bluffing or truth?
“He’s telling the truth,” Vik told her.
Maddie looked up at her husband. “How can you tell?”
“His eyes shift to the left when he’s lying about something important.”
“And this is important to him?” she asked with suspicion.
“It involves you and his company. There is nothing more important to him.”
That she believed. At least the part about the company.
“Why did you tell Dr. Wilson to back off?” she asked.
Jeremy shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “I knew that if I followed through with my plan, you would never forgive me.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t because you realized that my marriage to Vik would be invalidated if I was deemed unfit to make legal decisions?”
Her father’s eyes widened, his skin going pale. A reaction he could not fake. He hadn’t thought of that. “No wonder Vik pulled out the rocket launchers.”
“He wants to be married to me more than he wants to be president
of AIH.” Just saying the words gave her emotional satisfaction to the very depths of her being.
Jeremy nodded, his expression more vulnerable than she’d ever seen it. “I hope you’ve worked out that I want to be your dad more than I want control of those shares.”
It was her turn to nod, but maybe with not as much conviction.
“It might benefit you both if your father attended some sessions with you and Dr. MacKenzie,” Vik said.
Maddie waited to see her father’s reaction to that piece of advice before offering her own.
Jeremy Archer shocked her to the very marrow of his bones when he said, “I would like that very much. Are you willing, Madison?”
“I don’t know.” What if he used the time they had together with the therapist to compile ammunition against her?
“Do you believe Vik will destroy Archer International Holdings if I attempt to have you declared mentally incompetent?”
“Yes.” There was not a single atom in her body that did not trust Vik to do just that.
“Then you have nothing to fear,” her father said, showing he’d guessed correctly what had her hesitating.
“I’ll talk to Dr. MacKenzie. If she thinks it’s a good idea, we’ll arrange the sessions.”
Her dad startled her again, getting up from his desk and coming around to kiss her on the cheek and shake Vik’s hand. “Thank you for watching out for her better than I ever have.”
“I always will.” It was another Viktor Beck promise.
