Page 49 of Threaded Lies

“Excuse me?” What the fuck did he just say to me?

“I said you’re slipping. Too wrapped up in whatever it is you’re doing to look at the fine print. Didn’t you say something like that when we closed the deal?”

Now he most definitely has my attention.

“You’re not giving her anything she can’t get through marrying Chad, you know.”

“How’s that?” I play it off but question my own sanity in even having this conversation. I figured out why she was pissed. I rectified the situation today with the board meeting.

But you never figured out why she agreed to marry Chad.

“It’s buried deep in the bylaws. A misplaced paragraph in the boilerplate of it for the purpose of it to go undetected.”

“You’re boring me, Rhett.” But he’s doing anything but.

“You pride yourself on turning the screw in, but it seems those fancy, high-dollar lawyers you have missed something, didn’t they.” I want to punch the smirk right off his face but I refuse to give him the satisfaction. “It was a way to keep my gran, the only Rothschild by blood at the time, as an acting part of the company. When the CEO or the COO marries, their wife is given voting shares and a seat on the board.”

That’s what Chad has that I don’t.

That. Right there. She knew the fucking contract was signed, thought I wasn’t giving her what I promised, and like the defiant, temerarious, driven woman Rowan is, she set out to get it herself.

My head spins. My breathing shallows. Jesus fucking Christ.

“What’s wrong, Knight? Didn’t you know that?” He shrugs. “What you’re missing is she doesn’t want the co-CEO title. All she cares about are the shares and the clout of a board seat. All she is desperate for is to match what I have. By marrying Chad, she’ll get that.”

“Then you don’t know your sister very well.”

“And I wish you didn’t know her at all,” he sneers.

I cross the room and am in his face in seconds. I get pleasure in how his breath hitches in fear. He wants to play who has the bigger balls, I’m 100 percent fucking game. “You’re a fucking coward, Rothschild. You’ve kept Rowan at bay in this company, because she’s smarter than you and within seconds will ferret out all that you’ve done to fuck this company over. Then you stand here and tell me she doesn’t want the new position because you’re too goddamn terrified she’s going to show you up and make you look like the fucking pompous prick you are. That makes you weak. That makes you small. And I’m going to have so much fun knocking you off that Westmore fucking pedestal you think you own when you didn’t do a goddamn thing to earn it.” He opens his mouth to speak but my finger jabbing in his chest stops him. “She’s not the only one who suspects you’re shady as fuck. I know you are. And there is nothing I’ll enjoy more than dismantling the man everyone in this town thinks you are for all to see. Remember whose company this is now. Mine. I’m here watching your every move, and I assure you my bite is much stronger than anyone else’s. My well of depravity has no bottom.” I pat him on the shoulder and grin like a lunatic. “Glad we had this little talk.”

I walk around him, leaving him standing just inside my new—his old—office. Audrey eyes me from where she is gatekeeping in the hallway and holds out a copy of the stapled, corrected agreement from the lawyers’ office. The one that has everything I promised Rowan in it and then some.

“Thank you,” I say.

She smirks and glances to where Rhett must still be. “I’ll make sure the door is locked and the lights are turned off for you.”

“I don’t deserve you, Aud.”

“I know.” She chuckles. “I know.”

Now for the hard part—convincing Rowan I kept my word.

And that I can give her every fucking thing marrying Chad can get her and more.

SIXTEEN

Rowan

I should expect the knock on the door, but it startles me anyway when it happens. Winnie barks like a loon but I just sit and stare at the slab of wood and try to process how I feel about any of this.

It’s more than I wanted or was promised. It’s the board seat he offered and then a new, elevated title that I don’t particularly understand at this point.

“Open up, Rowan. I know you’re in there.”

If I don’t talk, he’ll go away eventually, right? But … do I want him to?

“If you weren’t, Winnie would be in her crate and not standing at the door.”