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My heart is racing, but I take the first page and lean back in my chair with it. “How very empathetic of you, to care about his anxiety, instead of using the poor man’s diagnosis to make him suffer more extensively. And how clever, to use my love for him to hasten my compliance. But I think I’ll read this first,” I say coolly. “It seems very important.”
I skim the first few lines, quickly tiring of the business language. “You sure put thehostileinhostile takeover,” I say, reaching for the next page. “Why do you even need my father’s name to stay on this venture?”
“Pull your head out of your smart little ass, girl. We’re going to be killing people, and I need a patsy. He’s weak and easy to manipulate, because he’s got a cause and he loves you. I want him to do things he’d never in a million years agree to, but he wants his daughter back, so he’ll do what needs to be done. He wanted to learn business from me, and I’m teaching him that daughters are chattels, good for manipulating and trading. Everyone likes girls. I only have boys. They’re only fit for moving around a chessboard, but soft, delicate females…”
I turn the next page of the contract, intentionally slowing each movement, to annoy him.
He cocks his eyebrow. “Take as long as you want. If the boy bleeds out before you’re done, we can scribble out half your demands, and I’ll get an even better deal.”
He’s trying to rile me, but I have no idea what state Quin’s in. They separated us almost immediately. He may be dead already, but if I let Jack know I truly care, he’ll only make us both suffer more. “Let me know if he does die, and I’ll think of new demands,” I reply in a voice that sounds infinitely stronger than I feel. “Maybe instead of one life, I’ll make an amendment that you must use your wealth and influence to save millions. A lot of third-world countries would benefit if I enforced your generosity in my terms.”
Show no weakness.
I can’t actually enforce shit, and we both know it, but it makes me seem less of a pushover.
I restrain my every urge to sign the agreement in a rush. He won’t let me leave unless I do sign, and it’s pointless, resisting what is clearly out of my control, but the only leverage I have is to make the process as painful as possible for him. Even more slowly than before, I reach for the next sheet of clauses.
It looks like the first page of the very intense-looking non-disclosure section. None of the contents should stand up in an actual courtroom, but bribery and corruption would surely come into play to find numerous loopholes, because this man is rich enough to own the court system, and a case like mine would never see the light of day. This is how business is done at his level.
Jack watches my finger follow each line at an excruciating dawdle. Before I’m halfway down the first paragraph, he sighs and flips through the stack, to hand me the final page, instead. “That NDA is standard protocol. Anyone with half a brain would know not to tell anybody about what happens here, and judging by your smart mouth, you obviously have an intellect and a decent grasp of the situation. Skip ahead. This is the only page you care about, so let’s save some time, shall we?”
I look at my clear list of demands, typed out neatly by some lawyer who must have a similar NDA to the one included in this contract. I read through each bullet point and look up at Jack. “If I sign, I can tend to Quin, and both he and my father will be set free and all threats of death will be nullified? My father will be given an opportunity to go underground before news breaks, and nobody will be physically harmed, including any of your children, existing or yet to be born?”
He rolls his eyes. “It says so, doesn’t it?”
“And I’ll be free to go, once my side of the bargain has been upheld?”
“Indeed. If I don’t return you to your father, he won’t fulfill his part of the deal, and I’ll be liable, so you see, it’s all quite safe. What goes around comes around. We scratch each other’s backs, and everyone gets paid and moves on to spend elsewhere, keeping the economy afloat. It all flows, Ms. Grant. That’s why we call it currency. Sign the fucking papers, and I’ll begin arrangements for our wedding before you get much older.”
He takes a deep breath and lets it out in a happy-sounding sigh, as he looks me over. “Eighteen today. That’s pretty special. I set my lawyers the task of sorting a marriage license the same day Quintus first declared he had no interest in you, so there will be no delays. On paper, it’ll look like you turned legally old enough to marry me and couldn’t bear to wait a second longer. I like each of my wives to feel special in some way, and you’ll hold the title of my youngest wife. Once it’s all official, we’ll move on to the consummation. I’m sure you’re anxious to get that part over, but I’ll be sure to draw it out until you’re begging for relief.”
I swallow hard and read through the final page of the contract. Everything I asked for seems to be listed there, but my gaze keeps falling on the last words, saying I will be returned to my father the moment my marital duties have been fulfilled and that a prompt annulment will follow. It states I’m not permitted to keep the Montgomery name — not that I’d want to, after this.
I flip through the rest of the contract, seeing all the same layout and language as there was on the first few pages. I turn back to the final page and hover my pen over the line I’m meant to record my signature on.
I make an amendment to the time I will marry him, so I’ll have longer with Quin. I also add the emergency contraceptive medication I’ll require to the list of other drugs and medical supplies I requested, then I hold out the pen for Jack. “You’ll need to initial these changes.”
He snorts softly, takes the pen and the amended page, and sits behind his desk, to read it. He lifts his gaze from the paper to study me a moment, and then he signs it off. “If you think a little more time is going to change the outcome here, it won’t.”
I nod. “Undoubtedly. But I don’t trust you not to manipulate my clauses to suit yourself, so I’ll make it clear what’s expected.”
“Wise.” He leans back in his chair and takes me in. “It’s a shame you’re not interested in joining the business sphere. You’ve got the knack for it. More so than your father.”
“If this is what’s expected, I’ll pass.”
I pick up the pen he’s discarded, sign away part of my soul, and then stand as staunchly as one can when wearing panties and a corset. “Take me to him. And the list of medications and emergency supplies I listed had better be there.”
Jack rises from his seat. “Wait outside. Someone will be along to collect you. Once you’re done playing nurse, you’ll be escorted to your quarters. You’ll shower and dress in what is provided, and then you will ring the bell at your door. You’ll be taken to the master suite, for a short wedding ceremony and a long night. Understood?”
“Yes.”
He nods and dismisses me with a wave of his hand, and I wait outside his office door, trembling until I see Lucius coming and have to pull myself together.
9
QUIN
Iflinch at the touch, and awareness fights its way to the surface.
