Stealing Her (Covet 1)

Her face was sad. “Yeah, Julian.”

I needed her to stop saying that name.

“I’ll see you tonight.”

And like I needed another strike against me, I muttered under my breath. “Isobel.”

I heard her soft gasp before the door shut behind me.

Chapter Thirty

ISOBEL

My hate was back. Or maybe it wasn’t hate, maybe it was hurt masquerading as hate? The minute the door shut, I locked it, just in case, and ran toward his office. I slid my fingers along the computer keyboard, waking it up, and grabbed the piece of paper. I wasn’t sure when he would notice it was missing. And that’s when I noticed that the screen was still open, frozen, actually.

I could feel my heart in my throat, still pumping, still reminding me I was breathing and okay, as I moved my fingers over the track pad.

In glaring black-and-white typed script, I saw the name Bridge Anderson Tennyson.

It was a trust fund.

For $2.5 million.

And 30 percent of Tennyson Financial.

I don’t know how long I stared at it.

Julian had a brother I didn’t know about.

A brother named Bridge.

Maybe that’s why his mother slipped earlier when she called him Bridge?

Oh God.

Is that why he’d been acting so weird?

It was time to ask him questions.

Time to get answers and grow a backbone.

He’d been at the hospital visiting his brother.

I wanted to know why.

Chapter Thirty-One

BRIDGE

I deserved to rot in hell.

That was really the only thing that came to mind when I sat in that board meeting, while my father kept smiling at me.

That he had somehow won.

Because I’d called her Isobel on purpose, to make her think I was him, out of desperation, because I wanted to save her, because I wanted to save both of them.

My heart lodged in my throat.

I was out of control.

“Now . . .” Father rose from his chair. “As you know, Bridge is CEO, and while we are all so thankful that he’s here and able to run the company, I think we should discuss what happens if Julian doesn’t wake up. Obviously, things will go on as usual. But if it does get leaked in the right way, Bridge will look like a hero. I just want us to be completely prepared for the worst.” He sighed. “I talked with the doctors, no more movement.”

Harry sighed. “Sorry, Edward, I know how much Julian means to you, to all of you. I—”

“Sorry for interrupting.” I stood. “But can we not talk about my brother as if he’s already dead? He’s in a coma, healing, that’s all that matters. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to business. IFC had over six thousand employees that we’re now responsible for, employees who, without us, would be out of a job. I want this transition to be seamless, but you know what happens when you start working with a new company. Things slip through the cracks and, gentlemen, we can’t afford to let that happen.”

My dad’s jaw looked like it was ready to fall off his face, and then he muttered the most shocking thing I’d ever heard him say. “You’re absolutely right, son, I’m sorry, let’s get a letter drafted to the VPs and management.”

Harry nodded while another board member looked over at me and smiled. “Two days in and you’re already busting balls, hmm?”

“It’s my job to bust balls and to make sure you guys stay rich, so should we move on to the next few acquisitions I’d like to look at, including a temporary-tattoo company that’s been extremely lucrative over the past year? If you’ll just pay attention to the screen, I’ll be quick.”

The lights lowered.

And two hours later, I actually felt better about the day. I was giving Julian this; I was giving him his company.

And I refused to fuck it up by not doing a good job.

I had a long day ahead of me and was suddenly thankful I had a secretary who could feed me copious amounts of Starbucks throughout the day, because I knew I was going to have an even longer night.

Izzy.

Damn it, it always came back to Izzy, didn’t it?

I dismissed everyone and silently made my way back to my office, his office, the line was blurring too much for me to process.

I made it a few steps down the hall when my father caught up with me.

“You did well in there.” He seemed so proud I wanted to hurl. “I mean you overstepped since I’m still the boss, but you did real good. Your brother would never have—”

I stopped walking and glared at him. “Comparing us is only going to make me more angry.”

“Kind of hard not to compare you. He works his ass off, and I can tell it doesn’t come naturally to him. He’s the guy you bring to parties, the one that people adore without even hearing him speak. Put him in a boardroom, and he can make anyone believe anything, but thinking about the employees the way you did today, getting down to business instead of talking about golfing and—”