The Dictator (Banker 2)

“I already told her marriage wasn’t on the table.”

His blue eyes narrowed with anger. “You told her a lot of things are off the table, Cato.”

The woman had moved in to my bedroom and shared every inch of space with me. When she asked me for that, I didn’t hesitate to give her what she wanted. All I wanted was for her to come home with me. And honestly, sleeping with her was something I wanted too. “It’s not like the things she’s asked for aren’t mutual.”

“What are you going to do when she asks to marry you.”

“She has too much pride to ask me to marry her.”

“You know what I mean,” he snapped. “She’s gonna put on the pressure, and when you say no, she’s gonna leave. You’ll be so miserable without her that you’ll cave—like you just did.”

“Like I would let her leave.”

“You let her do whatever the hell she wants.” He threw his arm down. “If you want to make the biggest mistake of your life, fine. But I want to stay out of it.”

“As long as I don’t marry her, you get what you want.”

“If you were still gonna kill her, then I would be relieved. But you aren’t.”

“Who said I wasn’t?” I watched my cigar burn down to the halfway point. I rolled it against the brown ashtray and watched the ash spread in the bowl.

He cocked his head. “Are you?”

“I said I would.”

“But you won’t.”

I shrugged. “She’s betrayed me twice. My memory isn’t as bad as you think it is.”

“But your mood affects how sharp that memory is. Until she’s dead, I’ll never let this go. This company is worth billions, and there’s too much on the table for me to brush it off. She keeps worming her way further into our ranks. She used to be part of a wealthy family. I’m sure she misses the jewels and the cash. By acquiring half this company, she would be the richest widow in the world. That’s the kind of dream anyone would do anything to achieve.”

I was on my way home when my mother called me.

During Siena’s absence, Mother had inquired about having another get-together, but I always made an excuse to put it off. Now that Siena was back, I couldn’t put it off any longer. “Hey, Mother.”

“Hey, honey. How are you?”

“Good. Just finished a long day at the office.”

“It wouldn’t be so long if you took time off like a normal person.”

She was such a delight. “What’s new with you?”

“Nothing. That’s why I’m calling. I would love to have dinner with you and Siena tonight. I feel like I haven’t seen her in months.”

No one had. “That should be fine. Maybe in an hour? I’m twenty minutes away.”

“That sounds good. I’m so glad you aren’t blowing me off…for the twentieth time.”

I ignored her comment. “See you soon.” I hung up and called Siena.

She answered right away. “Hello?” She’d gotten a new phone recently, so she probably hadn’t used it until now.

“My mother is coming over for dinner. She was very insistent, so I couldn’t say no.”

“That’s fine with me. I’m hungry anyway.”

“For cheese?” I teased, thinking of one of our first dates.

“You know me so well. When will you be home?”

Home. She considered my place home. “Fifteen minutes.”

“How was work?”

“Bates was a little bitch.”

“Isn’t he always a little bitch?”

I chuckled, feeling my stress melt away just from talking to her. “Yes, he is.”

“I guess we’ll just have to accept the fact that he’ll never like me. And that’s it.”

My brother would never change his mind. That much was true. “He thinks you’re manipulating me to get half the company.”

She laughed loudly. “That guy is seriously paranoid. How would I even do that?”

“By marrying me and getting me to leave you my half when I die. And then you murder me somehow.”

Now, she didn’t laugh. “Wow…he has a really low opinion of me.”

“He has a low opinion of everyone, if that makes you feel better.”

She turned quiet, considering everything I’d just said about my brother. “This is why I hate money. All people care about is holding on to it to the exclusion of all else. The happiest thing in his life has made him the most miserable. It happens time and time again. It’s the same story over and over.”

Maybe she was manipulating me, tricking me into falling for her games. But when I listened to her say things like that, I thought she was being genuine. She never asked me for anything, never asked me to buy her a new pair of shoes or a diamond necklace. The most she ever did was let me pay for her meals. She even ran away to start a new life—and hung up her clothes to dry.

If she really was after my money, she did an extraordinary job hiding it. “I’m about to pull up to the house. I’ll see you soon.”