Her hands flattened on the desk as her gaze narrowed. “Does your father know you want to fight him on this takeover?”
“Not yet, but I’m sure he’ll soon find out.” He cleared his throat. “Three months ago, while visiting with him, he slipped up by mentioning the takeover for Adkins Dev-Tech.”
He leaned forward against the desk and rested his hands on top. He couldn’t stop gazing into her enchanting green eyes that held him prisoner. “When I realized he had targeted James’ company, I panicked.” He shook his head. “Nicole, I can’t let him take over your grandfather’s company. I can’t allow my father to do that to James.”
She continued to sit up properly in her chair as she looked at him with a guarded expression. He would give anything to know what she was thinking.
“Mick, I get the impression that you are somehow friends with my grandfather.”
“I was seventeen years old when I met James. I worked for him after school during the summer. James was a father figure to me, and I admired him greatly. There were many times that I’d wished he was my father. In fact, James gave me my first loan.”
Her forehead creased. “A loan?”
Mick chuckled. “I needed a car to get back and forth to work. I couldn’t rely on my mother because she held down a full-time job and a part-time job just to support us since my fatherforgot– on several occasions – to give us child support.”
“My grandfather bought you a car?”
“Actually, he went with me to a used car lot and helped me pick my first set of wheels. I paid your grandfather fifty dollars a paycheck until it was paid off.”
Her shoulder relaxed as did her pretty expression. Slowly, her mouth stretched in a smile.
“My grandfather was like that. He had a very caring heart.”
Startled by her words, his chest tightened. “What? Jameshada caring heart? I’d heard he was sick, but he’s not...”
Shaking her head, she waved her hands. “Oh, no. He’s not dead. But he’s not doing very well, either.”
Mick relaxed in his chair once more. “I’m glad he’s still alive. I’d really like to see him again. I hope you’ll take me to see him soon.”
She nodded. “I can do that.”
He smiled. “Thank you, Nicole.”
She pushed her chair back and moved away from her desk. “So, Mick, you want to help me save Adkins Dev-Tech and keep it out of your father’s clutches?”
“Yes, I do.” He stood.
“How? Do you have any plans?”
“To start off, we’ll need to contact all of the shareholders. What worries me is that my father has already contacted some of them – if not all – since they’ve been thinking about the takeover for three months.”
“What if he has? How can we sway them not to sell their shares?”
He shrugged. “That’s why I came here to find you. I was hoping between the two of us, we could devise a plan to stop my father.”
She laughed and sat on the edge of her desk, facing him. “Have you forgotten? The only scheme my friend and I could concoct was to blackmail you. And well... you saw how that turned out.”
His resolve softened toward her. Gradually, she was starting to trust him, which was necessary if they were to work together. When she smiled at him, her green eyes sparkled like gems, which made her face so beautiful that he nearly lost his breath. Not only that, but her laugh made his heart flutter. During these moments, he could see himself becoming the man he’d always wanted to be – which was totally opposite from his father.
Nicole Adkins was his angel who’d been sent from Heaven to help him change. Did she even know how sweet she was? He prayed her heart was as caring as her grandfather’s.
“Believe me,” he said, “if I could come up with a plan to blackmail my father – that would work without fail – I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
She folded her arms and stared at him through a narrowed gaze. “Mick? Can I ask you something?”
“Anything, sweetheart.”
Her cheeks bloomed pink. “Why are you so adamant about getting those pictures from me?”
