Chapter 98
Chapter 98:
Cole looked at her. The ghost of his dead brother Caleb whispered in his ear. Take care of her. The familiar chain of guilt tightened around his throat.
He turned back to the phone. “I don’t have time for your vague corporate games, Declan,” he snapped, his patience gone. “Send a formal proposal to my M&A team if you want the plant. Otherwise, don’t waste my time p>
Declan’s voice came through the speaker, low and laced with quiet amusement. “Suit yourself, Cole. Just remember I offered to do business p>
Cole didn’t care. He pressed the end-call button and crossed the room to Alycia. He grabbed a tissue and wrapped it around her finger.
There was barely a drop of blood. A microscopic paper cut.
He stared at the tiny scratch.
𝗕е p𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝘧 𝗈𝘂r 𝗰o𝗺𝗆𝘶𝗇i𝘁y 𝗈n ѕ.𝘤оm
Then, unbidden, an image surfaced in his mind.
June’s back in the hotel bathroom. The massive, angry red blisters. The way she had pressed her forehead against the cold tiles and bitten her lip until it bled, refusing to make a sound while he worked the freezing cream into her third-degree burns. She had endured absolute agony in silence.
Alycia was sobbing over a paper cut.
A sudden, violent wave of revulsion rolled through Cole. He released Alycia’s hand and stepped back, his skin crawling.
He moved to the floor-to-ceiling window and stood there, staring out over the city. A deep, unsettling anxiety began to take root in his stomach, and Declan’s parting words echoed at the edges of his thoughts.
But his pride was a fortress. He pushed the doubt down and buried it. In three months, when the SEC freeze lifted, June would come back. She would have to. She would come back, and she would need his money, and everything would be as it had always been.
He made himself believe it.
It was six in the evening.
Inside an exclusive private club on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the air was dim and close, carrying the mingled scent of aged leather and expensive cigar smoke. Declan Hayes moved down the long corridor, his shoes sinking into the thick velvet carpet. He carried a heavy black leather briefcase in his right hand. Inside it was the most explosive due diligence report his analysts had ever compiled.
Julian stepped out of the men’s restroom just ahead, his face flushed and his breath heavy with gin.
He spotted Declan further down the hall, just ending a phone call. Declan’s voice was low and sharp — the tone he reserved for closing deals. As he slipped his phone into his jacket pocket, he shifted the sleek tablet in his other hand. For a single, careless second, the screen illuminated as it woke from sleep before Declan locked it again.
One second was enough.
Julian’s drunken eyes, always scanning for something useful, caught the image on the screen — a high-resolution photograph of June, clipped to the header of what was clearly a confidential background file. The Apex Bio logo was visible in the top corner.