"Look, I'm not sure I want to leave my wife right now," Lincoln said. "We have kids."
"Put them in boarding school," Sloan said. "My parents did it and look how I turned out."
"Uh, yeah," Lincoln said hesitating. "All I'm saying is that I need a little more time to figure out the personal side of things, okay?"
"Well, don't drag your feet," Sloan said. "I'd hate to have to pull out the big guns and take aim."
"There's no need to be unreasonable, Sloan," Lincoln said in an icy voice. "I'll figure things out, and we'll get what we're after."
"You'd better hope so," Sloan said as she walked back to her car and opened the door. "I'm not accustomed to being disappointed, and I don't deal well with it when I am."
"Understood," Lincoln said. "I'll see you tomorrow. Usual time and place."
The car door slammed, and Sloan backed out of the driveway, leaving Lincoln standing there alone. He didn't move, but since we couldn't see past the branches in our way, I couldn't tell what he was doing. A few minutes later, we heard him walk up the steps and go back inside the house.
"Well, I'll be damned," Jack said as he looked at me. I had no idea what he was thinking, so I stayed quiet and hoped that he would keep his arm around me a little longer.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Jack
"That son of a bitch," I said as I stood up and started pacing the garden walk. "That no good son of a bitch is trying to ruin the company!"
"It's obvious that Sloan wants to pull it apart and sell it off," Leah said. "But are you sure your brother wants to do that, too? He sounded a little less certain of … well, everything."
"He's a greedy bastard who has always done everything for profit, and I'm sick and tired of it," I said as I felt the ball of anger building in my chest.
"Maybe you should sit down and talk with him before you get too worked up," Leah suggested.
"I'm going to kill him," I growled as I headed back toward the house.
"Jack!" Leah called. "Don't do anything drastic before you know the whole story!"
"Fuck that, I'm going to murder my brother, and then I'm going to go after Sloan Morgan with everything I have," I called over my shoulder. There was no way the two of them were going to make a fool of me.
"JACK!" Leah shouted. I stopped and turned around to see her striding toward me with a determined look on her face. "No, you are not going to go in there and blow the one advantage we have simply because you're pissed about some childhood grudges and mad at a girl who played you. God, you are such a man!"
"What the hell does that mean?" I said as I turned and looked down at the fiery Irish girl who was ordering me around.
"It means that you're an idiot," she said with her hands on her hips. "God, what do I have to do to get you to see that if you go in there and start a war with your brother, you'll blow every possible advantage we have. And you'll make it impossible for us to formulate a counter-attack."
"But he can't get away with this!" I shouted.
"Keep your voice down," she said, quieting me. "Look, we just heard their entire plan. Now we can sit down and map out a way to subvert it. But if you go in there and tip our hand, we'll never be able to stop them. Your brother has contacts at the bank, and Sloan is as slippery as a greased snake."
"You've been hanging around Norma too much," I grinned as the Southern saying slipped out of her mouth. Leah laughed a little and then stepped closer and rested her hands on my chest. I felt my body instantly respond, and I had to quickly remind myself that she was my employee, not a conquest. It wasn't easy, though. Her fingers were light, and I could feel the warmth of her palms seeping through my shirt as she looked up at me. Never in my life had I ever wanted to kiss a woman more than I did at that moment.
"Listen, we've got to put up a fight," Leah said looking up at me. Her eyes were softer now, and I could see every one of the freckles that dotted her nose and cheeks. "There are so many people at Baby Steps who are counting on keeping their jobs. We can't let Sloan and your brother gut the company and leave them high and dry, can we?"
"No, we definitely cannot," I said clearing my throat and forcing myself to look away. At that moment, I couldn't have cared less about the company. I wanted to sweep Leah up in my arms and carry her to my bedroom so I could peel off the layers of clothes and find out if her freckles stretched all the way to her toes.
"Jack?" she said as she tapped my chest.
"Huh?"
"I asked you what you were going to do right now," she repeated.
"I'm going to go inside and not murder my brother," I dutifully replied. "Then tomorrow morning, we'll go into the office and begin formulating our plan of attack."