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“Mr. Coker is expecting you, Vaughn. Please go right on through. Everyone else is already inside.”
I nodded curtly and moved around her to Harold’s office door. I knocked once but didn’t bother waiting for the old codger to call me in.
The door opened into the spacious, modern office. Harold and my mother were all big smiles for each other, him shaking her hand and holding it while they talked animatedly.
Another man hovered behind, waiting for his turn to greet them.
Caleb fucking Black.
I swung my fist back and then plowed it straight into his nose.
“Vaughn!” Mom yelped as Caleb stumbled back, slamming into a heavy metal filing cabinet.
He blinked in surprise, blood dripping from his nose.
“What on earth, Weston!” Harold rushed to Caleb.
But I wasn’t done.
I shoved the older man out of the way and barged Caleb, smashing him back against the filing cabinet so hard it cracked the wall behind it.
He let out a groan before I cut it off with my fingers around his throat.
All I could see was Rebel at the bottom of that pool. The fear in Bliss’s eyes when she spoke about him. The panic in Kara’s when he’d taken her baby.
I loved Rebel, and Rebel loved them.
Which meant they were mine to protect too.
Caleb had done nothing but hurt them over and over.
He slapped his palms against my arms, his eyes wide. “You’re crazy,” he croaked out. “Call the cops.”
Someone’s hand clamped down on my shoulder, trying to drag us apart, but I refused to be budged.
“You piece of fucking shit,” I hissed in his ear, then looked over at Harold, whose face was purple as he shouted for security. “This is who you want me to work with? This is who you care about impressing? Do you know he tied my girl to a chair and then threw her into the deep end of a pool? Do you know he stole a woman’s baby? That he held women captive, intending to sell them, until they escaped, running to us for help? Do you even know about half the despicable things he’s done, either in the name of furthering his own fucking career, or in jealousy because women see through his snakelike skin to the black heart beyond it? You don’t see that, do you, Harold? Because you’re just as fucking bad as he is.”
Security finally rushed the room, two burly men, plus a worker in a suit hauled me to the other side of the office.
My face blazed hot, the backs of my eyes burning with rage.
Caleb choked and spluttered, clutching his throat. “You’re insane. I’m suing.”
I snorted. “You won’t. Because I know all your secrets, Caleb. Every. Single. One.” I grinned, completely out of control on adrenaline. His taunts I was crazy probably weren’t far off.
I shrugged off the men holding me and then pinned Harold with a glare. “How much further do I have to dig before I find proof of your sins?”
“You’re way off base, Weston.” Harold’s eyes were dangerous. “I’ve been nothing but a mentor to you—”
I snorted. “If you sleep with dogs, you wake up with fleas, Harry.” I knew he hated the nickname, so I slung it at him like mud. “I know exactly what he’s done to further his business connections and line his own pockets with dirty money. I’ll bet I don’t have far to poke before I find the skeletons in your closet too.”
I could tell from the look in his eye I was right. There was anger and aggression in his expression, sure. But behind it, a tinge of fear.
I took a piece of paper from the pocket of my jacket and passed it to Harold. “That was my offer to buy you out. But now my offer is half. Take it and go retire on a beach somewhere. Or stay and I’ll keep digging.”
The security guards escorted me all the way down the elevator and out to my car. I stopped fighting once we were outside, and I was calm by the time I sat behind the wheel.
Before I even drove away, I had a text on my phone from Harold Coker, agreeing to accept my offer.
