Controlling Interests: A Step-Brother Romance (The Legacy Series Book 2) (13 page)

But I feared it still wouldn’t be enough.

“I have a plan.”

Sarah announced it to the room, but Max and Reed averted their gazes.

Shame…or maybe defeat. Either way it wasn’t an emotion a Bennett should have revealed. Sarah surged forward.

“I know how to fix the takeover. I know what we can do to ensure you get the votes to cast your father out of the corporation.”

“A plan?” I repeated.

“Just…hear me out, Nick. Before you say anything.”

So it’d be that kind of plan.

If it involved leather jackets, my motorcycle, and stealing her out of the country, it wouldn’t work. I already tried and dismissed it as an impossibility. My father would find her, but he wouldn’t waste money dragging her back. Not when a bullet and shallow grave would end our troubles.

But I obliged her. I settled into the wingback closest to the hearth. The last time I claimed a seat and watched her perform, my father ordered her to strip. She faced me with a courage I never expected, and I admired every ounce of her bravery.

I decided then to take it for my own.

And I did.

“Your takeover?” She broached the subject with caution. “It failed. Darius still has control of the Bennett Corporation, and he probably will retain it for some time.”

“It’s more complicated than that,” I said.

Max dared to speak to me. “How complicated?”

More than he knew. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

“Well, I don’t want
complicated
anymore,” Sarah said. “Nick, I’m inheriting Josmik in about nine months.”

A magic number.

“Nothing can stop it, right?” She asked.

Not without killing her. I nodded.

“So why are you fighting my inheritance?”

Reed and Max didn’t listen to her pitch. They watched me, waited for my reaction. And then it made sense.

She went to them first.

And, together, they’d present their plan to me.

“You no longer have a controlling portion of the Bennett Corporation,” I said. “But you have enough shares to make it…difficult, if you so choose.”

“My goal isn’t to be
difficult
. I want the controlling interest.”

“That won’t happen.”

Her eyes revealed so many things she didn’t say. “It can
if
I’m given additional stock. If I can earn it, I can use Josmik and the purchased shares to take a majority and vote out your father.”

She didn’t know how dangerous the board was. They would never sell an Atwood her shares. She had all the stock she could possibly acquire, and my father’s partners controlled the rest.

“Sarah, there isn’t any more stock you can cheat, buy, or steal.”

“Yes, there is,” she said. “And you’re going to give it to me.”

She silenced.

My brothers revealed nothing. They waited for my reaction, for my decision, as they always did. Since when did Sarah Atwood have such control over them?

“I’m going to give…what to you?” I prompted.

Sarah held my gaze.

“Everything.”

“Everything?”

“I will buy your complete portion of the Bennett Corporation. Reed and Max already agreed to sell me theirs, but you hold the largest percentage. With your stock and Josiah and Mike’s collected shares, I’ll have my controlling interest. I will own
everything
.”

My voice lowered. “You want me to give you…”

My entire life.

My fortune. My empire. My
future
.

Absolutely not.

“Sarah, this isn’t a game,” I warned.

“I never said it was.”

“You don’t realize what you’re asking.”

“I’m asking to combine our power. I understand the risks, but this
will
work, Nick. It’s our only chance.”

“You are jeopardizing the stability of both our companies. This is stock for a corporation worth
billions
.”

“I know.”

“Do you understand what would happen to the Bennett name if an Atwood seized control of our
family
company?”

Sarah bristled. “Yeah, I do. About the same thing that would happen if I waddled onto an Atwood farm eight months pregnant with a Bennett’s bastard heir.”

Damn. I wasn’t ready to admit that concession.

Reed’s sigh was heavy. “Nick, dude, this the best idea I’ve heard since you tossed her naked over a desk.”

I anticipated him siding with her. Reed had already pledged his stock. He’d surrender his name and carve out the genes he shared with our father too, but that didn’t make it a good idea. It just proved Sarah wasn’t the only one in danger.

My father already threatened Max and Reed for refusing to harm Sarah.

If he knew they allied with her? That they offered their birthrights to an
Atwood
?

I couldn’t protect everyone, and no place in the world existed where we’d escape my father. He’d spend millions to track down anyone who wronged him. I saw it firsthand, remembered the money spent and the days wasted while he tracked the man who severed the break line in my mother’s car. Killing Mark Atwood would have only drawn attention to us, pin-pointed the crime to our name, but he made an example of the one he hired.

He’d do the same to my brothers without thinking twice, especially if they betrayed our family.

“No.” I said it gently, but it struck Sarah harder than any of the welts on her body.

“
No
?” She shook her head. “You don’t understand the plan.”

“I understand it.”

“Then
why
?”

Max frowned. “We can’t risk it anymore, Nick. Dad’s not going to stop until she’s knocked up or dead. Who the hell knows what he’ll do next, or what he’s told the board about your takeover attempt.”

A valid concern. “This is too dangerous. Why risk her life? He’ll kill her before the contracts are signed.”

“That’s not true,” Sarah said. “This is the cleanest, safest,
best
solution we have. Why oppose Josmik if you can use it to your advantage?”

“And what advantage is that?” I asked. “Think of the money lost between the stock transfers—”

“Oh, please. This isn’t about the money. You have the money. Don’t pretend you’d mourn the loss of a couple million dollars when this plan would guarantee you control of your
entire
company.”

“Would it?”

She hesitated. Max and Reed tensed.

It took only a moment for her to spark with a quick fury. Sarah shuddered, but not in our offered pleasure or her nightmarish fear. I rarely saw her angry. That was good. The little fairy turned imp, and she seethed in solemn rage.

“You don’t think I’ll give it back.”

Partly.

The Board would skin her alive before they let an Atwood control anything relating to the company. If the vile men lurking in my father’s shadow encouraged their future CEO to kidnap and rape an innocent girl, I imagined what they’d expect to prevent her from seizing our assets.

Her words trembled. “You don’t trust me.”

“Sarah.” Christ. She should have asked anything else of me.
Anything
. I’d kiss away her pouted lip and spare the pain she tried to hide. But not this.

 “You don’t think I’d return the control. That I’d…”

“Destroy the Bennett empire brick-by-brick, starting with me?” I held her gaze. “Sarah, I love you. And you know I am doing everything in my power to protect you.”

“Are you?”

Why was it easier to love than it was to trust?

I wanted Sarah Atwood. The dark fantasies I imagined of her tied to my bed, wrapped within my arms, or swelling with my child were nothing compared to my dreams of her being
happy
.

I couldn’t risk freeing her—not with the power she wielded or the threat of my father—but I still hoped I treated her well. If not now, then eventually, once the madness ended and the takeovers cleared and…

Once she conceived my son.

I needed her in my possession.

I had to defend her from the board.

I was the only man who could stop her from harming herself.

“What good is a promise with this?” I said. “This requires a contract. Signed and notarized and witnessed. Sarah, no agreement is completely secret. Someone would know, someone would tell my father, and you would be in even more danger.” I paused. She was unconvinced. “This plan will only work if you stay alive until you are given the trust.”

“So keep me alive.”

“Then you have to conceive.”

She scowled. “Or, you could sell me your stock now and end this game with your father.”

“How?”

“Here’s an idea.” Her voice chilled. “Why don’t we kill Darius before he kills me?”

The air thickened.

Max nodded, as though he agreed, as though he’d ever dare to actually raise a hand against the man he loathed as much as he longed to impress. Reed said nothing. He’d never get his hands bloody, not when he had the courage to simply walk away, strike out on his own, and make his own life beyond our family crest.

The thought burned me, but the fire suffocated with Sarah’s broken expression. The edge in her voice wasn’t bravery. It was fear.

She really didn’t trust me.

I didn’t know if that was wise or an insult.

“Don’t assume I haven’t considered it.” I softened my voice for her. Those wide eyes stared at me, pale and shaken. “Don’t you think that hasn’t been the first, last, and
only
thought for weeks?”

“Then…” She crossed her arms and hugged herself. I should have been the one to hold her. “It’s our only option.”

Poor girl. It was never an option.

“Sarah, believe me. I planned. I thought of every possibility. It won’t work. If he dies, and it’s suspicious in any way, his will stipulates everything freezes. The money, the stock, the company. Everything.”

Max rubbed his face. “If I know Dad, he’s already pointed fingers at us. We opposed him one too many times. I’m sure he knows we’ve considered it.”

“And I’m the sole heir to the Bennett Corporation. Billions of dollars are at stake. The police would look to me first and foremost.”

“And Reed and I would inherit our own money. We’d be just as culpable.”

“He’d rather dissolve the company than reward disloyalty,” I said. “I won’t let that happen.”

Reed snorted. “I don’t care about the company.”

“I do,” I said.

Sarah tensed.

“I am not putting the company or money before you,” I hated that she even thought it. “But the Bennett Corporation is mine. I’ve worked my entire life to assume leadership, and I’m not going to endanger it, our money, our employees,
anything
if I’m not convinced you’ll be safe.” I paused. “And I’m not.”

Max frowned. “Why? If Dad’s dead, who would fuck with her?”

The four remaining members of a board I couldn’t control—and they’d show less restraint than my father. They wouldn’t care about acquiring Atwood Industries, but they’d do everything to ensure Sarah never gained a single share of the Bennett Corporation.

Sarah had only hope and impetuous courage to guide her. Revealing the board’s corruption would destroy both.

And God only knew what my brothers would do if they realized men they trusted their entire lives would murder them for refusing to aid my father.

“I understand Dad,” I said. “I’ve spent my life learning from him, studying him, mimicking him, and I’ve come to despise everything he expects of me. Every decision I’ve made was meant to make me a better man than him. I’ve ignored his lessons and attempted to manage this family and company the way
I
think it should be run.” I tapped my temple. “But I know how he thinks. He is always two steps ahead. He knows we would kill him if given the opportunity.”

“Then why wait?” Sarah said. “Why not just do it. You know what he tried to do to me! He’s a monster. He doesn’t deserve to live, not after what he’s put me through.”

I stood, buttoning my jacket. “And that’s why your plan won’t work.”

“Why?”

I brushed a hand over her cheek. She didn’t flinch away, despite the tightening of her jaw. She bit back a hundred insults to feel my touch. The desire would either safe her life or ruin her before I could help. “You want revenge. I can’t blame you. But you aren’t being rational. Vengeance isn’t clean. You’ll get hurt.”

“This isn’t about revenge,” she said. I insulted her. “This is about protecting me.”

“And I will.”

She didn’t believe me.

I didn’t believe me.

Sarah held my gaze only to rip out my heart. “The only way you can protect me is if you let me go.”

How many times would she force me to tighten the collar over her neck, trap her in my bed, or repeat the damning truth? She was mine. Forever.

“I can’t let you go.”

“No. You
won’t
let me go.”

“You are safer with me than you are alone in the world hiding from my father.”

She meant to be strong. Instead, her voice laced with hope. “Then come with me.”

It was a greater impossibility. Not with my role in the company, the expectations, the possibilities I had in play that would save us all without bloodshed.

“Enough, Sarah. I know you’re frustrated.”

“I’m not
frustrated
!” Her voice rose. Hamlet galloped to her side, bumping her hand before she wound herself up. The damn dog comforted her more than me or my brothers. “I can’t live like this anymore. I won’t slink around the estate because I’m afraid of a beating. I won’t be paraded like Darius’s long-lost daughter so he can humiliate me before his partners.”

It was far worse than humiliation, but I wasn’t ready to break her spirit just yet. It was easier for her to hate the Bennetts than to endure the betrayal of the outside world. At least I could protect her from that.

“Sarah.”

“He’s planning something. He wouldn’t offer to buy my research and bring me Hamlet and not lay a single finger on me if he didn’t have something planned.”

“Nick scared him off a bit,” Reed said. “He’s not going to try anything with you again.”

It didn’t comfort her.

Just the opposite.