Susan Mallery - Hot On Her Heels

“You’re a Titan.”

“Only technically. Besides, they’ll be fine. They have you to protect them.”

She raised her chin, as if facing a challenge. “I’m more than ready to take you down.”

“So you keep telling me. Talk is cheap.”

Annoyance tightened her face and he knew she was searching for some scathing comeback. Or something heavy to throw at him.

Dana took her responsibilities very seriously. She would worry about her friends and do anything in her power to protect them. But who looked after her?

She would say she didn’t need protecting, that she was fine. But was it true? Or were there vulnerabilities she hid from the world?

“Is there anything else?” she asked.

“That’s all I have, unless you’d like to arm wrestle for dominance.”

She ignored that and stood. He rose and stepped beside her as she walked to the door. Instinctively, he put his hand on the small of her back, as if to guide her out of the office.

He hadn’t planned the touch. It was something a man did in the presence of a woman. A polite gesture, nothing more.

But as he felt the warmth of her skin through her shirt, it seemed like more. It seemed…intimate.

She glanced up at him, her brown eyes clouded with emotions he couldn’t read but could guess. Wariness. Maybe fear. Which made him want to tell her that everything was going to be all right. As if he could predict the outcome of any of this.

“I can make it to the door on my own,” she said, moving away. “But thanks for trying to help.”

“You’re prickly.”

“Part of my charm.”

Part of the way she protected herself.

He wanted to tell her that she could trust him-that he wasn’t her enemy. But that wasn’t true. He was exactly who she should be wary of-he was her worst nightmare. A man willing to do anything to win.

“Until tonight,” he said.

“It’s not a date. I’m there to watch you. My ultimate goal is to see you in jail for the rest of your life.”

He tapped the folders she held. “Maybe it was, but it’s not anymore. I’m not the bad guy and you know it. But you’re welcome to watch anytime you want.”

Her jaw clenched and then she was gone. Garth smiled as he returned to his desk. Dana made things interesting and he liked that in a woman.

DANA PACED IN LEXI’S office. The fountain and the spa music in the background were supposed to be soothing. Instead it made her want to climb the walls. Or shoot something.

After she was done here, she would go work out for a couple of hours. Maybe take out her frustrations on a punching bag.

Lexi glanced up from the folders. Her normally pale skin had gone white, her eyes were wide.

“Did you read this?” she asked.

Dana nodded. “Scary stuff.”

“I can’t believe it, but even as I say that, there’s a part of me that isn’t surprised. Jed’s ruthless. He’s always been that way. He pretties it up when he has to, but it’s there. Still, he could have killed his own daughter. Did he even care that Izzy was on the oil rig? What about the other lives? But hey, winning is all that matters, right?” Her voice rose as she spoke, her tone got more shrill.

Dana moved to the desk and looked at her. “Deep breaths. Baby on board and all that. Try to stay calm.”

Lexi nodded and exhaled slowly. “I know. I’ll be okay. I’m just in shock. Jed doing all this. Treason.” She sighed. “I need to think about this. We need a plan. The next step. I’m going to need a little time.”

Dana settled across from her desk. “Take all the time you need. You have a lot going on.”

Lexi leaned back in her chair. “I’m having a baby. Women do it every day.”

“I don’t care about them, I care about you. You’re my friend.”

“Thank you. I’m doing okay. This is a stunner, but I’ll get through it. We’re working together and that makes me feel better.”

Dana eyed Lexi’s growing belly. “Just remember what’s important. We can go after Jed anytime.”

“We’re not stopping because I’m pregnant. I’m taking excellent care of myself and Cruz practically hovers.”

“Skye mentioned something about a baby shower.” Dana managed to get the sentence out without shuddering. She wasn’t really a baby-wedding shower kind of person. What was up with the strange games? And why did the food have to be cute?

Lexi grinned. “You’ll be there, honey, if we have to drag you. Don’t think you’re getting out of it.”

“Oh, joy.”

“It could be worse.”

“How?”

“There could be balloon animals.”

“I happen to like balloon animals.”

Lexi laughed. “It won’t be too horrible, I promise. No color-coordinated mints.”

“Is Skye planning the shower?” Skye might run a nonprofit foundation but she was also an expert party planner. Her system of organization rivaled any battle plan the Pentagon put out.

“Yes. Okay. You’re right. The mints might match. But it will still be fun.”

“If you define the word very loosely.”

“Poor Dana,” Lexi teased. “My baby shower is only the start. Skye’s talking about getting married.”

“We all knew that was going to happen,” Dana grumbled. Skye was madly in love. No one would be surprised when she and Mitch set the date. “You’ll be next.”

“After the baby is born,” Lexi said. “I never planned to be unconventional, but here I am, having a baby and then getting married. I’m sure my mother is horrified. Cruz and I are talking about late spring. So you’ll have time to recover.”

Which she would need, Dana thought. “At least Izzy is more the type to simply run off some weekend and show up Monday with a wedding ring and a new last name. She was always my favorite.”

Lexi laughed again. “How you suffer for us all.”

“I know. That’s me. The suffering friend.”

“Maybe you’ll meet someone you want to marry.”

“No, thanks.”

“Not ever?”

“When pigs fly.”

The next words were spoken softly, hesitantly, as if Lexi were treading carefully. “Not all men are like your dad.”

She and her friend had never talked about what it had been like, but Dana also wasn’t surprised that Lexi had figured it out. What did startle her was having the subject brought up twice in two days.

“Garth knows about my father,” she said. “I don’t know if he put the pieces together and got lucky or if he’d spoken to someone.”

“You talked about it?”

“He did mostly. Last night. I think he was making a point-that he knew a whole lot more than I’d realized. I hate it when men are insightful. It upsets the balance of power.”

“What do you think of him?” Lexi asked. “A card-carrying member of the evil empire?”

Dana shook her head. “Nothing that simple. He’s so damn sure of himself. Confident he’s going to win. And just when I think he’s barely human, I remember those scars.”

Izzy had told them both about Nick and Garth’s time in the jungle. Lexi could only imagine what the scars looked like, but Dana had seen them for herself.

“What does he think of Izzy’s plan to bring him into the family?” Lexi asked.

“It confuses him. Of course that’s just a guess on my part. We aren’t exactly sharing secrets.”

“Do you like him?”

Dana glanced at her. “I don’t hate him.”

“Izzy would say that’s progress.”

“It depends on how you look at the situation. I still don’t trust him. But he’s not the devil.”

There was more. He made her uneasy. His casual touch on her back had seared her down to her bones. She’d felt each of his fingers, the pressure of his palm. She’d wanted to move toward him.

Garth made her aware of her weaknesses and that terrified her.

“What happens now?” Lexi asked.

“I wait for him to make a mistake.”

“What if he’s no longer our enemy?”

“Then everything changes.”

JED TITAN HAD KNOWN Brock Lyman since college. Nowadays they were both tall men with graying hair and a taste for the good life. They’d played football together and Brock had introduced Jed to his first wife. Something Jed never held against him. Now some thirty-plus years later, Brock was the chief financial officer at Titan World and the only person Jed was willing to trust.

Which didn’t mean he had to like what his friend said.

“He’s bought even more stock,” Brock said from his place across the conference table.

Jed and Brock were having their morning meeting. In the past, the time had been more about sports scores than any real business, but in the past few months, they’d been scrambling to manage what seemed like a new crisis every other week.

“Did he file with the SEC?” Jed asked, even though he already knew the answer. Damn Garth Duncan. He was always careful to follow the rules. Once he’d crossed the threshold of stock purchases, he’d done all the paperwork required. Just once Jed wanted him to make a mistake.

Brock nodded. “Filed on time and correctly. He’s up to fifteen percent ownership in Titan World. More in a few of the subsidiaries. So far we’ve been able to keep the news out of the media, but I don’t know how long that will go on. A few major stockholders have taken notice.”

Which was Garth’s plan, Jed thought, annoyed by how well he was being played.

By buying large blocks of stock and holding on to them, a case could be made that Garth was planning to take over the company. That made other stockholders nervous. SEC rules required public filings when a shareholder reached a certain amount of ownership, which Garth had done. He wasn’t hiding what he was doing, and that made Jed uncomfortable. He couldn’t go after someone who wasn’t breaking the law.

“If he wants to buy the company, why doesn’t he approach us?” Brock asked, obviously frustrated.

“It’s not his way. He’s waiting until the time is right.”

It was all a game and whoever had the most at the end won. Jed could almost be proud of Garth. After all, the man was his son. But things had gone too far. Garth had to be stopped.

“What about the investigation of the oil rig explosion?” Brock asked. “Why hasn’t Garth been arrested for his involvement in that?”

“I don’t know.” Jed couldn’t figure it out, either. Enough evidence had been planted to indict Garth. What had gone wrong? “He’s smart. Maybe smarter than we gave him credit for. We have to find his vulnerable spot. No target is off-limits.”

“First we have to find one,” Brock grumbled.

“We will. In the meantime, we have to buy back shares. He owns too much of the company.”

“There’s no money.”

“We’ll find it. Borrow it, whatever. I want to start buying back shares from anyone who will sell.”

“If word gets out,” Brock began, then shook his head. “No one can know, Jed. People will think the company’s in trouble and that’ll start a stampede of shareholders trying to sell. Any panic will drive down the price of stock.”

“Then we’ll keep it to ourselves.”

“We’ll need a bunch of cash. I don’t know where we’re going to get it. Unless you’re willing to start selling some of your assets.”

Something Jed had always refused in the past. There were dozens of choices but only a few worth tens of millions. His racehorse farm, the shipping company and Glory’s Gate, the family home.

It was all about winning. Defeating the upstart bastard who was trying to take him down.

“This is war,” Jed said at last. “Sacrifices have to be made. Start making discreet inquires about potential buyers. But remember, this isn’t a fire sale. I want top dollar.”

Brock stared at him for a long time. “It may not be enough.”

“Then we’ll figure out something else. I don’t care what it takes to beat Garth. I want him crushed and swept up with the trash.”

DANA DID HER BEST to sit quietly in the lobby of Garth’s condo. Usually she enjoyed a good stakeout. She found it relaxing. It gave her time to think. But today her brain was not her friend, not when it kept racing from subject to subject, the most annoying of which was the anticipation she felt at the thought of seeing Garth again.

She was actually worried about what she was wearing. She’d thought about changing her clothes. Worse, she’d gone home and put on mascara, which happened to be the only makeup she owned. Mascara. Like she was a sniveling teenaged girl nervous about a date.

This wasn’t a date-it was surveillance, dammit.

She shifted on the comfortable bench, thought about leaving, then tensed when the elevator doors slid open and Garth stepped into the foyer of his condo building to pick up his mail.

He looked good. The stubble on his jaw, the slightly loosened tie all suited him. There was a weariness in his eyes, as if it had been a long day. She felt a definite quiver low in her belly and did her best to ignore it. She wasn’t the type of woman to quiver for any man and if she pretended it wasn’t happening, eventually it would go away. At least that was the plan.