“I...” Leah scrolled back through her phone’s messages. The look on Ajax’s face was fierce, feral, like nothing she’d ever seen before. Usually he was so controlled, so unruffled. But now he was frightening. A different man entirely. “She doesn’t say.”
“Text her. Now.”
“Ajax, if she needs space...” Her father spoke tentatively.
“I’m not overly concerned about that,” Ajax bit out.
Leah texted as quickly as she could, her fingers shaking. Alex who? Anyone I know?
You don’t know him. Alex Christofides. Unexpected. And I’m sorry.
“Alex Christofides.”
Ajax and her father shared a look that said volumes. The hair on the back of her neck prickled, goose bumps rising on her skin as she realized the full implication of the name.
“Alexios,” Leah said slowly. “Alexios Christofides.”
“That would be the one,” Ajax said. “Not content with attempts to destroy my business, the bastard has to destroy my wedding, as well. And make a grab for Holt, I imagine.”
“Why, Ajax? Why does he have it in for you like this?”
A shadow passed over Ajax’s face. “I don’t know. Just business, I suppose.”
“But she... Does she know that? Does she know who he is?”
“She wouldn’t,” Ajax said. “This isn’t her world.”
No. But it was hers. She knew about Alexios Christofides and his attempts to bump Ajax’s retail and manufacturing conglomerate off the map, via covert stock purchases and reporting of illegal activities that hadn’t even existed, much less been provable. Alexios had been a headache for Ajax in an increasingly alarming way over the past five years.
“And you never mentioned him to her?”
“As I said,” he replied, teeth clenched, “it is not her world.”
Leah sent another text to Rachel, while her father and Ajax continued talking.
He’s an enemy of Ajax’s. Didn’t you know that? What if he’s using you?
It’s too late, L. Can’t marry Jax now. I need to be with Alex.
The day of your wedding?
I’m sorry. Trust me. There isn’t another way.
“If Rachel has chosen him,” her father broke in, “then she’s chosen him.”
“Even if he’s out to hurt Ajax? And what about the company? My business is rolled into this. I am going to get steamrolled by his heavy machinery tactics.”
“You’re making the assumption that he doesn’t care for Rachel. And that Rachel is a fool. I don’t believe that, Leah,” her father said.
No. Of course not. Rachel would never be so foolish. At least, that’s what everyone would think. Sparkling, poised Rachel, who did so well in every social situation, would never be seduced away from the man she was meant to marry through lies and deceit. She was too savvy.
Leah didn’t buy it. Her sister was wonderful. And as such had been coddled by the media. Rachel didn’t see the ugly things in life. And the idea that a man, Alexios, might be lying to her, using her, made Leah’s stomach churn.
“Sign it over to me,” Ajax said, his attention on Joseph. “Revise the agreement.”
“I would,” Joseph said. “But the company is something that was promised to my daughters. To the husband of the first to be married.”
“It was always meant to be me,” Ajax said. “You made the offer with me in mind.”