Consequences of Deception (4 page)

I’m loath to open a can of whoop-ass on myself but I’m not about to let a dozen or so men into my house without an explanation of some sort. Standing my ground, I pretend to be tough as nails when I look Killian in the eye. “Why do you want me to let these strange men into my house, and why is there a moving truck in my driveway?”

He’s grinding his teeth so hard that I’m surprised he hasn’t broken one. “
I don’t have time for this shit
. Open. The. Fucking. Door.
Now!
”

My instinct is to cower in front of him, but I can practically hear my father reminding me never to take shit from any man. Folding my arms across my chest, I glare at him.

“I’m not opening the
fucking
door until you tell me why you want me to. What’s inside of my house that requires a dozen men and a moving truck to be here after nine o’clock on a Friday night?”

For just a second, I think I see a flash of respect in his eyes, but then it is gone as he schools his expression and I see nothing other than that damn icy blue. Running a hand through his hair he glares at me before answering. “
You
. You’re why they’re here. You’re out of this house, tonight. The sooner you open the goddamn door, the sooner we can be done with this.”

Against my will, my jaw drops as I stare at the clearly insane man standing in front of me. At some point Killian has gone from being a jerk to being a crazy asshole.

“You’ve lost your mind. What the hell is wrong with you? I’m not moving out of this house until after my birthday, and when I do move it will have nothing to do with you. Get your people and leave, Killian. Whatever joke you’re playing here is over. Leave.
Now.
”

He steps forward and I take three steps back, stopping only when my back comes up against one of the enormous pillars on the porch. Completely ignoring social protocol and my need for space, Killian gets so close to me that we are almost touching. Only a very slim piece of paper would be able to slide between us. My breath catches in my throat, both due to the look on his face and the fact that my heart rate is skyrocketing from being so close to him.

“Listen to me, princess, because I’m not fucking joking. You’re going to open that door and tell the movers which room is yours. While they’re packing you up, I’ll explain to you what’s happening. You have ten seconds to open that door before I have one of them break it the fuck down.”

Clearly he isn’t rational, and I need answers. If his movers are going to pack some boxes for absolutely no reason, so be it. I need to do it anyway, and I’m sure that by the time I finish talking to Killian, he and the movers will be leaving without me and my things. Walking around him, I go to the door and punch the code for entry.

As soon as I open the door, Killian is giving orders. In less than a minute, the crew that he had assembled in my driveway has managed to pile into the foyer. At his insistence, I tell them where my bedroom is, and I watch as a parade of people start up the stairs to pack my room. I don’t even know what to do or say, so I wait for Killian to say something to me. Once he finishes talking to a man who has stayed in the foyer, he turns my way.

“Where can we talk?”

I say nothing as I gesture to my left and begin walking down the hall towards the living room. When we enter the room I wait until Killian takes a seat before I choose my own. I see him smirk at me as I sit across from him instead of on the couch next to him, but I don’t care. Once I am seated I stare at him in silence, waiting for him to tell me why he is doing all of this.

“Your aunt and uncle have driven Evans Investments into the ground and there’s nothing left.”

My brain goes to mush as my eyes go wide. Evans Investments isn’t
just
the family business— it is also my grandfather’s legacy. I can’t believe that Stephen and Celine could have possibly run it so poorly that there isn’t anything left.

“That’s… that can’t be true. They haven’t said anything to me, so you must be wrong!”

Shaking his head, Killian frowns at me. “No, I’m not. Over the course of the last year, eighty percent of the clientele has bailed out and gone to other investment firms. Your uncle has been lying to the employees to cover up what’s going on. The business is in the hole for five million dollars, and it’s almost exclusively money that’s owed to the employees. In addition to abruptly losing their jobs, none of them are going to get the benefits that they’ve earned. There is no money to pay that many people, plus there’s the fact that several of the higher ranking employees have invested all of their savings with the company.”

I latch onto that number like it’s a life raft in a tsunami. “I have that! My father left me a little over ten million dollars in his will. I’ll have access to it in eleven days and I’ll gladly hand it over to the employees. They shouldn’t suffer because of Stephen and Celine. This doesn’t concern you.”

I feel a frisson of fear work its way up my spine as he shakes his head in the negative at me.

“No, they shouldn’t. Nobody should have to suffer because of those two half-wits, you’re right about that, but you don’t have the money to fix it, Sloane.”

Exasperated that he isn’t listening to me, I respond forcefully, “
Yes
I do
! I wouldn’t make something like that up. On my twenty-second birthday, I get that inheritance.”

“No, you don’t. Stephen was in control of your money and he lost it all.
Everything
is gone. You’re broke. There’s nothing left. You have no assets at all.”

My head is spinning out in endless circles and my stomach is rolling like thunder. What does he mean there is nothing left? How is that even possible and why is Killian the one telling me this?

A horrifying suspicion takes root in my head and a wave of dizziness sweeps through me as I realize that there is only one possible reason that he is here. The
only
explanation that makes sense is that he wants to be the one to throw me out into the street. Somehow he’s in control of Stephen and Celine’s house, and I just bet he’d done whatever he had to do to get himself into this position. Four and half years he’d been waiting for a shot at me, and now he has it.

“You’re… throwing me out?” I try, damn hard, to keep from breaking down. The tears I keep at bay, but there is a definite warbling of my voice as I ask the question.

Immediately I am angry with myself for showing such weakness and I decide to take the bull by the horns. I am not about to give Killian Brandt, of all people, the pleasure of seeing me break, even though I have to admit to myself that I am definitely breaking. I plow on before he can answer my ridiculous question.

“What am I saying?
Of course
you’re throwing me out! I’m sure this has to be one of the best moments of your miserable life, you selfish son-of-a-bitch. You want me out? Consider me gone!”

I jump to my feet to go call Demi, only to come to a dead halt when Killian thunders out a command. “Sit your ass down,
now
.”

I am so shocked by the force behind his words that I immediately drop back onto the couch. I don’t actually
fear
Killian, but my response to his tone of voice is instantaneous.

For one moment, I allow myself to hope that maybe Killian isn’t here to ruin my life. Maybe, just maybe, he isn’t as bad as I think he was.

“I’m not kicking you out, Sloane. I’m buying you.”

Whatever I thought before? It was all too generous. Killian just turned my life upside down with nine life-changing words.

It hangs out there between us as I gape at him while I try to formulate a response. “Buying me…? This proves that you’re insane! I’m not a commodity. What exactly can I do for you, Killian? Be your maid?”

The look he gives me is a lot like a warning and instinctively I know that whatever he says next isn’t going to be good.

“No, you’re going to be my lover.”

Clearly this is all an elaborate, not to mention cruel, hoax. There is no way that Killian Brandt has just told me that he is buying me and taking me as his lover. It’s preposterous—so totally unbelievable that I start hysterically laughing at the very thought of him ever being able to be close enough to me, for a long enough period of time, to be intimate.

“Am I amusing you, Sloane?”

Looking at him, I find that he is somehow managing to keep a straight face as he plays this joke out. Pointing at him, I continue laughing. “You really must think I am some kind of moron if you believe that I would be
stupid
enough to consider, for even one second, that you would ever buy
me
, Killian. I’m a lot of things, but gullible isn’t one of them. This is just another one of your attempts to mess with my head. Guess what, buddy? I’m not buying.”

He doesn’t even crack a smile. “I never joke, especially not when I’ve just spent seven million dollars to acquire something. I spent the entire afternoon with your uncle hammering out a deal and it’s signed, sealed and delivered. In exchange for you moving in with me and being at my beck and call for the next year, I’ll be paying all of the closing expenses at Evans so the employees can get what they’re entitled to.”

My heart feels like it’s going to break into a million tiny pieces, and I hope against hope that he is lying, even though he seems very serious. “I’m not a toaster and there’s no way that my uncle would ever agree to let you buy me. He wouldn’t do that.”

I pray that I am right about that, but even I can hear the false bravado in my voice. Stephen hadn’t gone with us to the party tonight, which wasn’t the norm. Celine had said that he had called and said he had an important meeting to deal with but that he would ‘probably’ arrive at some point. Was it really possible that his meeting had been with Killian?

Killian’s expression gives me nothing, not even a wry smile. Shit. This wasn’t looking good.

“You don’t think so? Well, you’re dead wrong about that. You were a fuck-load more expensive than any toaster I’ve ever bought, but the fact remains that I
did
buy you.”

As he is speaking, he reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a bundle of folded papers. Opening them, he holds the papers out to me. With shaky hands, I take them from him and read the contents as my stomach drops into another realm entirely. It’s all here in black and white—Stephen has sold me like I am an object. I read, re-read and then read again, but the words never change.

In exchange for my “services” over the next year, Killian is agreeing to take care of all of the costs of shutting Evans Investments down. If I refuse, or am unable for any reason, to ‘perform,’ Stephen and Celine will be responsible for repaying Killian within a sixty-day time frame. If they don’t, they will owe him the money he’s given them plus fifty percent interest.

You would think that I couldn’t feel sicker, but the last paragraph has me struggling to swallow past the bile in my throat. In addition to the almost five million dollars to pay off the business debt, Killian will be paying off Stephen’s mortgage and lump sum of one point two million dollars. For me. Stephen’s signature is right here for me to see, and it doesn’t look any less elaborate than usual. It looks to me as if he didn’t have a crisis of conscience while he was signing me away like a common whore.

The following page is a non-disclosure agreement which stipulates that if Stephen or Celine tells anyone about the arrangement they will be forced to pay Killian back with one hundred percent interest. Like the previous document, Stephen appears to have signed this with a steady hand. That son-of-a-bitch has sold me like I mean
nothing
to him. He has stolen my inheritance, destroyed the family business that was my grandfather’s legacy, and now, to add insult to injury, he sold me. Any positive feelings that I have left for Stephen need to be left in the dust. He has no loyalty to me and that means that I need to let go of mine to him.

Summoning up courage and strength that I don’t really have, I hand the papers back to Killian. “This deal is between you and Stephen and it means nothing to me. I’m not a piece of jewelry or a horse, which means that I can’t be bought or sold. I do not, and I will not, agree to be a part of this. I feel wretched for the employees, but I’m not a hooker and I never will be. Ever. You should find Stephen to tell him that the deal is off.”