“If you want to be a cold bastard, that’s your business. But you don’t get to insult my father in my face.”
I exhale before taking a step closer, until my chest almost brushes against hers, and I wrap my hand around the back of her neck, holding her in place as I lower my head so that our noses almost touch.
“You’d do well to remember that I’m the one who owns this house, and everything in it.” I squeeze her neck slightly. Not enough to hurt her but enough to remind her who’s incharge. “If you want something to do, you can start by having dinner ready for me when I get home, like a good little wife.”
“Make your own damn dinner.” She pushes against my chest.
I drop my hand from her neck and step back, letting her storm from the kitchen in a rage. I stare after her, too damn pissed to even appreciate the sight of her ass in those pink leggings.
Ciara says I give her whiplash with my moods, but she’s just as bad. One minute, there’s such heat between us that I almost bend her over the kitchen island, and the next, she’s looking at me like she wants me dead.
I’m no stranger to hard work, but Ciara McCarthy is on a whole new level. I’d do well to stop thinking with my dick and remember why she’s here in the first place. But that’s easier said than done when her smart mouth and killer curves have me thinking such dirty thoughts.
I wait until her bedroom door slams shut before stalking from the kitchen to my office.
The feeling of Ciara’s palm against my cheek still lingers, so I pour myself a glass of whiskey in the hopes of settling myself and carry it over to the desk.
It feels wrong to be sitting in my father’s chair and drinking his whiskey. This room was once his sanctuary and now it’s mine, but I feel anything but at peace.
Downing the rest of my drink, I pull out my phone and give Connell another call.
He picks up on the third ring, his voice groggy like I’ve dragged him from a nap or a bottle.
“Yeah?”
“Any update on the encrypted payments?”
“Still working on it. They’re heavily protected. I’ve never seen code like this in your father’s ledgers before. Whoever buried these numbers knew exactly what they were doing.”
Shit. This is not good.
“Can you crack it?”
“Eventually, but it’s going to take time.”
Time I might not have.
I rub my forehead as I try to think through what to do.
“Do you think my father was hiding something?”
Connell hesitates, which is an answer in itself. “Honestly? Maybe. There are layers in this encryption that weren’t standard for any of your operations. It’s...weird.”
Not exactly the comforting words I was hoping to hear. “I want another update by morning.”
“On it, boss.”
I hang up the call and lean back in the leather chair, staring at the ceiling as I try to look at this from my father’s perspective.
All of the other transactions had been scrubbed clean and were legitimate-looking on the surface except for the encrypted ones. So, there must have been a reason why my father wanted to hide them. But the question is, fromwhom?
My father made sure to teach me this business, inside and out, so the fact I can’t access these files makes me nervous.
I think back to Ciara’s offer and how she admitted to having specialized in cybersecurity and data encryption. She might be a pain in my ass, but maybe she can actually prove herself to be useful by taking a look at these files.
As much as I hate the idea of handing her over my family’s secrets, I might not have any other choice, because right now, I’m not just fighting to keep this empire afloat, I’m fighting to understand what the fuck my father got himself into and what he left formeto clean up.
Chapter Nineteen
