She studied him with an incisive gaze. “No, thank you.”
“Did Blizzard convince you to feed him?”
“Of course.” Elizabeth gave the faintest of smiles. “I completely forgot about that beast until I walked in. I felt such guilt until I took a good look at the place and realized someone’s been looking after it and him.”
“You have enough to worry about,” he said softly. “Including looking after yourself.”
“I have Daniel to help with that, thank god.”
Joining her in the living room, Ronan took the armchair on the opposite side of the table from her. His laptop sat open in front of the couch, the screen dark. “Have you heard anything?”
Her jaw tightened. “Nothing I want to hear.”
His eyes closed briefly, pained by the anger and worry that were threaded like barbed wire around her words.
“It seems like a lifetime ago,” she began, “but it was only Monday that Ireland told me she was spending her first overnight with someone new. And she was considering bringing him to the masquerade. Since you were her plus-one Friday night, I’m assuming she was talking about you.”
“I’m the fortunate fellow, yes.”
Her gaze narrowed slightly. “She also acted as if she’d never heard the name McCaffrey or had any knowledge of your designs on Vidal Records. Can you explain that?”
Blizzard curled into a coil on his lap, still purring loudly. Petting the cat with both hands, he answered, “Yes. At first, we gave each other some variant of our real names.”
“So, Ireland had no idea who you were. But you, Ronan... You knew who she was.” Settling back into the seat, Elizabeth crossed her long legs. “Is the company a line to my daughter or is my daughter your line to the company?”
Her candor was almost enough to make him smile; it was so reminiscent of Ireland.
“Vidal was always the goal.” He ran his hands along the cat’s long body. “And I’ve had it in a chokehold for some time. Meeting Ireland the way I did was unexpected, unplanned, and in relation to Vidal Records, unnecessary. But certainly not unwelcome.”
“Aren’t you clever. Extraordinarily handsome, too. I see the appeal. But be honest…you thought you were getting my shares,” she argued. “You needed them for the majority.”
Ronan saw so much of Ireland in her mother. The direct gaze. The assurance. The dubious appraisal. They were women who didn’t hesitate to wield their power. He also understood that focusing on him and his agenda served as a distraction from the terrible waiting and worrying that now dominated every idle second of their lives.
“The company is massively indebted to me and can’t pay,” he said evenly. “I didn’t need a single share to assume control of it. I bought out the other shareholders to eliminate any possibility of a bail-in.”
Her brow arched. “There are easier and less expensive ways to get into the recording business, and Gideon doesn’t need to use brute force to intimidate someone, so all signs point to you being here for personal reasons.”
“That’s true,” he agreed.
“So you take over an ailing business with dismal prospects at great expense to yourself. What are you getting out of it?”
“Keeping the label afloat wasn’t initially the plan.”
“But now the plan’s changed?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His answer was simple, even though the reason was complicated. “Ireland.”
Elizabeth’s smile was sharp. “So where were you tonight?”
The question took him aback. “I had dinner with my sister. At the Vidal offices, actually. We have artists recording in both studios now.”
Thoughtful, she absorbed that for a long moment. “I was married to Chris for over twenty years. I can’t tell you how often we fought about himnotlosing his temper. Sometimes you need to get mad. Unfortunately, Chris has a long fuse. But the moment he saw you in my son’s office, he was positivelylivid.”
Ronan’s shoulder lifted in a nonchalant shrug. “Losing control of a family business due to your own ineptitude isn’t something anyone would be happy about, but his anger is misdirected. He’s solely responsible for the consequences of his actions.”
