“He hurt her!” Cameron thundered back. He glared at Jason. “Cat’s never hurt anyone. She was probably the best damn thing that ever happened to you, August, and you just threw her away. Why? For our old man? Cat and I both could’ve told you…he’s not worth shit.”
Brock’s jaw went slack.
Cameron jerked out of the other man’s hold and marched out of the door.
Brock glanced at Jason. The guy looked lost and uncomfortable as hell. Brock cleared his throat. “I’ve…known Cameron and Catherine for a long time. So I feel like I should tell you…the man meant what he just said.”
Jason rolled his shoulders as he tried to push away some of the thick tension in his muscles. “You don’t know me at all, so I think I should tell you…” He advanced on the guy. Brock didn’t back down. “No one will keep me away from Cat.”
Brock’s gaze searched his. “Jeremiah Adair…he was really your father? All that stuff you said was true?”
Jason nodded.
“I’m sorry.” Brock sounded as if he meant the words.
“Take some advice,” Jason said. “Get the hell away from Donnelly Dining while you still can.”
After one long, hard look, Brock headed for the door.
Jason slammed that door closed behind Brock, then he stalked toward the window. The city was spread out before him. His. That whole building was his. Power. Money. Privilege. It was all his.
He wasn’t the kid without a home any more. The boy shuffled from relative to relative until his mom finally found some guy to shack up with—Paul August. A man who’d never given half a shit about Jason…and who’d kicked his ass out as soon as Jason’s mum passed away.
Jason had been seventeen then. Alone. He’d done anything and everything necessary to survive. Staying on the right side of the law hadn’t mattered to him. When it was a choice between living or dying—you did everything to live.
I’m not the same boy.
He had the fucking power now, and he was going to use it.
Cat had just rushed onto the street below him. He could see her so clearly. His hand lifted and touched the glass. He’d left her alone for a year. No, not alone, he’d gone to her little town in Maine. Watched her when the need got to be too much.
Stalking her? Fuck, yeah, maybe he had been, because Cat had messed with his mind. She’d twisted him up on the inside, and he’d had to be closer to her.
If she thought that she could come back into his life, give him a taste of her again, then just walk the hell away once more—
Cat slipped into the back of a waiting cab.
You’re wrong.
He sucked in a deep breath. The rage he’d felt when he came face to face with Nathaniel Donnelly had taken him by surprise. He hadn’t anticipated that fury. He’d have to deal with Nathaniel. The man had to pay for his crimes. As for Cat…
She could run, but she couldn’t escape. He wasn’t letting her go.
***
“He’s trying to ruin me…over a damn hole in the wall pub!” Nathaniel Donnelly paced furiously around his office, his face red, his movements tight and jerky.
Cameron stared at his father, well-used to his outbursts by now. “Did you know that man—Jeremiah—died after you took his pub?”
Only the guy hadn’t just died. Cameron had done some digging in the last few hours. From all accounts, Jeremiah Adair had committed suicide.
And left his son consumed with hate and rage.
“Why the hell would I care what happened to the man after I got his place? I had what I wanted!” Nathaniel stopped pacing to point a stiff index finger at Cameron. “Now you need to get busy. Do some PR damage control on this mess that your sister created.”
Cameron choked back his own fury. “Cat didn’t make any mess.”
“She let him screw her!”
Cameron stepped forward. “Don’t.”
“She didn’t ever have the steely spine needed for this business. She couldn’t stay in command so she ran away to play with those damn kids.” He waved his hands in disgust. “But she came back long enough to make us look like a laughingstock to our stockholders. Useless. Always was. Always—”
Cameron had grabbed his father by the shirt before he’d even realized that he’d leapt across the room. “She’s the only thing that has mattered to me when it comes to this piece of shit we call a family.”
Nathaniel’s mouth sagged open. “Wh-what?”
“You only cared about the money. Always, the money. How much you could make. How much you could take from other people. You never saw us.” He forced himself to let his father go. “Not me. Not Cat. The difference between us was…Cat cut her losses. She left.” His laughter was bitter. “I’m the fool who stayed, thinking I could impress you enough that you’d care, but you won’t. You can’t, can you? You can’t care about anyone but yourself.”
Nathaniel—when did I ever call him Dad?—narrowed his eyes. “Watch that mouth, boy.”
More laughter spilled from him. “You’re kidding me, right? I’m not seven. I’m not some boy.” He yanked at his tie. He hated the ties. Hated the sterile office. Hated the restaurants. I even hate cooking—and we have a freaking restaurant empire! “I’m done.” He spun for the door.
“Don’t you walk away from me!”
That was exactly what he was doing. He paused at the door. Glanced back once more. “Don’t ever call my sister a whore again.”
His father snarled, “You don’t talk to me like—”
“Like what? Like I see you for who you are?” Who I could become? Cameron shook his head. “I know you…and I even know what you’ve been doing with the company.” More like doing to the company. “We could’ve survived August’s attacks, but someone’s been siphoning off cash for quite a while…someone at the very top of our organization.”
“What?”
Cameron’s shoulders sagged. “I traced it back to your access codes, Nathaniel. What happened? Did you get too many expensive mistresses?” He’d always had them, and their mother had never cared. When she’d had her fatal heart attack four years ago, her father had been gone…with another of his women.
And he dared to call Cat a whore?
Cameron’s lips tightened in distaste. “I can’t believe I cared what you thought.” He glanced around the office. He was done.
“Don’t walk away!” Nathaniel roared. “Don’t! You’ll regret this! I haven’t taken a dime—this company is mine!”
Cameron shut the door on his father’s shouts. He walked down the hallway, the sound of his footsteps being swallowed by the thick carpeting. Night had fa
llen outside, and the rest of the staff had already gone home. He pulled out his phone. Called Cat. He’d tried to reach her several times that day, but she hadn’t answered him. Come on, Cat. Pick up now. Pick up.
Amazingly, she did. She answered on the second ring.
“Where are you?” Cameron asked his sister.
“The airport.”
It was the answer he’d expected and feared.
“Don’t leave yet. Just give me a little time, and I’ll come for you.” His steps hurried toward the elevator. “We need to talk, in person.”
“I’m sorry,” Cat whispered. She’d been crying. He could hear the tears in her voice.
“You have nothing to be fucking sorry for, do you hear me? Nothing.” He was almost to the elevator. “Don’t leave. Wait for me. I’m coming.” The elevator doors opened.
“Cameron!” His father’s roar of fury chased after him.
Because he’d answered his father’s call for all of his life, Cameron hesitated.
“If you leave me now, I’ll make sure that you and your sister have nothing.” His father yelled. “Do you hear me? Nothing.”
The elevator waited.
But the rage inside of Cameron had him whirling back around to face his father once more.
***
Cat’s shoulders slumped as she ended the call. So much for her smooth escape. But Cameron was her weak spot. If he needed her, if he wanted her to stay, she would.
She started making her way toward the counter once more. She’d been lucky to score the ticket on the plane that was leaving in the next hour, but maybe…maybe that luck would hold a bit and she’d just be able to transfer to a slightly later flight.
A man stepped into her path. A man with big, wide shoulders. A man with glittering, golden eyes.
Eyes that would haunt her forever.
Cat’s heart seemed to jump right out of her chest.
Jason shook his head. “Did you think I wouldn’t find you?”
She tore her gaze from his. Tried to walk around him. He caught her hands, and his touch was like fire against her skin. “Don’t!” Cat cried out.
Jason immediately dropped his hold. “We have to talk.”
He wanted to talk. Cameron wanted to talk. She was sick of talking. “Why? So you can lie to me again and tell me that I matter to you?”