Claiming His Secret Heir

She wanted to ask him if he thought her dad could have really masterminded the kidnapping of his own daughter, but she knew he wouldn’t answer such a thing. How could anyone have suspected that? She’d known her father was controlling, but she’d never guessed he would try to erase her memory to keep her away from Damon. Whatever her father did, if she couldn’t prove it and see him punished, she would have to find a way to live with it. To move past it.

“Thank you.” She nodded, needing to keep her thoughts on the task in front of her and not her spiraling emotions. If she wanted her father to sign over his stake in Transparent, she needed to put on a hell of a show in that boardroom. “If you’ll excuse me though, I think I see my cue to enter the meeting starting right now.”

She watched as Damon shoved a contract in front of her father. He was passing over the buyout offer with incentives to sell his stake to the McNeills. There were terms Stephan Degraff would never agree to.

Unless she made him.

“Are you sure?” Officer Downey stepped forward, as if he would follow her into the meeting. “I can go with you.”

“I’ll be fine.” She tried for a gracious smile, all the while knowing how important timing was for the entrance. “I have two bodyguards and you can see me through the window.”

Her heart beat faster in fear of her father, of what she might discover. Damon would be angry about this. But the end would justify the means.

She hoped. It was the best way she could think of to make amends for not finding her way back to him sooner. She peeled off her wedding ring set and slid the diamonds into her purse.

She couldn’t afford to think about those vows right now when she was about to break them in spectacular fashion.

* * *

“I would have to agree to the sale, and I never will.” Stephan Degraff had the nerve to smile as he refused to even glance at the agreement in front of him. It was a small, fake-apologetic smile that Damon wanted to punch into next year.

He wouldn’t, of course.

He wasn’t going to lose his cool in the boardroom, especially now when the stakes were higher than they’d ever been before. The safety of his wife and his child rested in the balance.

It was just because of the hell this pale, perfectly groomed man had put Caroline through that had Damon imagining all the ways to exact revenge. How dare the bastard show his face after lying to the police about Caroline’s disappearance. The guy had always been somewhat of a Silicon Valley enigma, focusing on start-ups that other investors hadn’t even heard about before, beating his competition to the punch. Damon suspected that had far more to do with his daughter’s business savvy than his own. The value of Degraff’s portfolio had skyrocketed once Caroline had joined his company. And the bastard had paid her back by sabotaging her marriage. Her health.

Risking the life of his own grandson in the process.

The knowledge made Damon tense with icy rage, but he had to get through this. Had to turn the tide before the man succeeded in robbing him of his company.

Everything about Stephan Degraff was meticulous, from his perfectly centered double Windsor knot to the way he put down his pen at a ninety-degree angle to the top of his legal pad every time. He was a perfectionist who took things too damned far.

“Has it occurred to you that it’s generous of the company to offer a buyout now when you might be sitting in prison this time next week, without any way to tap into the rewards of your investment at all?” Damon ground his teeth while Gabe kicked his shin.

Little did Gabe know how much he’d restrained himself already.

“Prison?” The bastard lifted an eyebrow, his lips pursing in a smirk. “I hardly think so.”

“The terms are generous,” Cameron McNeill stepped in smoothly, redirecting the conversation away from prison time and giving Damon a moment to get his fury under control. “And this way you’re not tied to the launch of the new product for a payout. You must realize we can continue to stall the launch if we can’t agree on terms.”

There was grumbling around the dark cypress wood table from the other investors, none of whom wanted to wait another day for their investment to appreciate, let alone months.

Damon didn’t care. He needed control of his business. And now, even if Degraff agreed to stop trying to boot him out of the CEO seat, it was no longer enough. Damon needed the backstabbing prick gone.

He lifted his eyes toward the glass wall separating the meeting space from the reception area, and glimpsed Caroline talking to the cop who was working on the investigation into her disappearance. Damn it. What was she doing in such a visible spot? He’d hoped she would wait in one of the offices. What if her father saw her?