A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1) (33 page)

“Not as much as it must bug the shit out of you that we have control over your money every month.” Carter’s head snapped back to Austin, whose face was pinched and hard. He sat forward. “I’d bear that in mind before you start with your sanctimonious bullshit, Carter. I kept your ass out of prison once; I can sure as hell get it back in there.”

Carter became very still. “You threatening me, Ford?”

“No,” Austin replied, “just reminding you that you’re not the only one with a set of cards to play.”

Carter was silent for a considerable amount of time before he continued in a low, even voice. “The money I receive, I have every right to claim. It’s mine. In fact, I should get more—”

“You would, if you didn’t have a criminal record.”

Carter hid the flinch of rage that pricked at his throat when Austin interrupted him. In truth, Carter couldn’t have given two shits about the money. He never had. What he cared about was that he was the rightful owner of the shares of which Austin spoke. Adam, who placed a very formal-looking document in front of Carter, broke the game of stare-down between Carter and Austin.

“You haven’t brought any legal representation,” Adam said pointedly. “It would be better if—”

“I can read, Adam. Just explain what it says and cut to the chase,” Carter barked, making his cousin flinch. “My lawyer can peruse that shit at his leisure.”

Adam fiddled with his cuffs and exhaled. “Upon dilution of your current shares, the money you receive monthly would be tripled. For life,” he said. “Instead of paying for an acquisition with shares, we’re offering you new shares in the firm. Shares worth in the region of five million—”

Carter snorted in derision. “Five million? Are you shitting me?”

He looked incredulously from Adam to Austin and back again. Both men remained silent. Carter rubbed his face in disbelief, aching for a smoke. “We all know the shares I own are in excess of five
hundred
million,” he scoffed. “I was expecting to be impressed with your offer, not insulted.” Carter pushed the papers across Austin’s desk and slammed back in his seat. “Try again.”

Austin visibly bristled and took a deep breath that made his shoulders lift. “For someone who claims to not give a shit about the business, you sure seem to be protective and knowledgeable about it all.”

“Austin,” Carter fumed. “There is a huge fucking difference between not giving a shit and not appreciating being handled and played by an asshole who thinks he’s God’s gift because he wears an expensive suit. I went to prison, not fucking dunce school. Your offer is shit. You know it. I know it. So, like I said, try again.”

The silence was deafening. “Fine,” Austin murmured. “I’ll get my law team and finance team to reevaluate, and we’ll get back to you.”

“Can’t wait,” Carter retorted. “May I be excused?” he asked with his hands on the arms of his chair.

Austin didn’t answer but dipped his chin minutely, his stare fierce and angry.

“Thank fuck,” Carter grumbled. “I have a literature session to get to.”

As Carter stood, he noticed both his cousins react instantly to his words. Adam, who was still standing to Carter’s left, shifted nervously, while Austin rubbed his palms together.

“Oh yes,” Austin said as Carter began walking across the office. “How is Kat?”

Carter froze with his hand on the door and gripped the cold steel in his fist. The question hung around the room like a putrid smell. It was, to anyone who didn’t know better, a simple, polite question. To Carter, the question reeked of a possessiveness that nobody but him had any right to feel. How the fuck did he know Kat?

Carter’s heart pinched. He turned slowly, attempting to keep his expression neutral. Still, as soon as his eyes met Austin’s, Carter knew he was on thin ice. Asshole knew. What exactly wasn’t clear, but he knew something. Carter’s eyes darted to Adam, who was now apparently fascinated with his shoes.

Carter took a breath. “Kat,” he replied through a tight throat, “is just fine.”

Like a snake ready to strike, Austin smiled. “Oh, good,” he said with too much enthusiasm. “I was hoping she was.”

“Were you?” Carter seethed. His right eye twitched and his nostrils flared.

“Absolutely,” Austin replied, standing from his seat. He moved around his desk. “Oh, didn’t you know? Adam’s engaged to Beth, who’s known Kat for years. We’re friends, Kat and I. I knew she had family to see in DC and Chicago, so I haven’t seen her since her birthday party.”

Carter swallowed and bit his tongue so hard he could taste blood. “Birthday party?”

It was then that Carter noticed the absence of Austin’s wedding ring.

“Oh, yeah,” Austin answered. “We had dinner. Then I drove her home. We had a great time.” He fucking grinned. “She loved my gift. She’s a great girl. Beautiful, too, but I guess … you know that.”

Carter shook with ferocious violence.

Austin and Kat had dinner? She’d been with him. In his car. Alone? Had she invited him up to her apartment? Did that mean they’d …?

Bile rose in his throat at the same time an agonizing pain hacked through him.

Austin continued. “I’m planning to take her out again, you know, go on a date and get her mind off work and less important matters.” Austin gestured toward Carter and grinned. “Like her students.”

Through the furious red haze, Carter could see the son of a bitch was goading him, taunting him, like a kid with a stick through the bars of the lion’s cage, waiting for the inevitable snap, wanting him to lash out and play right into Austin’s greedy fucking hands.

Sure enough, the rope of sanity Carter was holding on to within himself was thinning rapidly, while the grip he had on it was tenuous at best. He wanted nothing more than to grab Austin by his neck, rip off his balls with his bare hands, and throw him out of his office window.

But then, where would that leave him? Where would that leave Kat? His ass would be sent back to prison quicker than he could say,
Fuck you, Ford
. Parole would be a thing of the past. He and Kat would be a thing of the past.

With Herculean effort, and with the image of his Peaches the night before, writhing and begging for him as he fucked her in his bed, Carter took a huge breath.

“Well, Austin,” he said through clenched teeth, “I’ll be sure to let Kat know you were asking about her.”

Austin was instantly perplexed. Carter turned back toward the door.

“But I wouldn’t hold your breath for that phone call,” Carter added, glaring over his shoulder at his cousin.

“Oh, really?” Austin spat, no longer hiding the aggressive jealousy in his voice. “And why’s that?”

“Well, as you pointed out, she’s busy with her students. And with me”—he glanced down at his own crotch before looking back at Austin with a smug-ass grin on his face—“her hands are always full.”

Without waiting for a response, Carter yanked the office door open, causing the hinges to squeal in protest. The inevitable slam behind him was all that Carter heard as he stormed through the lobby, past the raven-haired bitch at her desk, while lighting a cigarette and flipping a finger at the No Smoking sign above the WCS exit.

* * *

As the clock struck five after four, Kat found herself alone in the reading room of the library, playing on her newly purchased iPhone. She’d had a free couple of hours between leaving Arthur Kill and her session with Carter, and had managed to make it home to upload all that she needed onto it. She couldn’t live without her music. Not for another day.

She’d been more than a little hesitant about putting the rescued SIM card from her old phone into it, and as the phone began to beep incessantly with missed calls, voice mail messages, e-mails, and texts, she suddenly realized why. She scrolled through them slowly. Beth’s name, her mother’s, Ben’s, Adam’s, Austin’s, and Carter’s all made appearances. After listening to the fifth voice mail from her mother, she deleted the remaining six, not wanting or needing to hear her abhorrence one more time.

The one name she did pause at was Carter’s. He’d sent a number of texts on the days she’d been driving from Chicago back to New York, and each one seemed more frantic than the last. The texts from Beth, on the other hand, were short and succinct:

Call me.

We need to talk.

I’m so sorry.

Kat didn’t allow herself to get mad. Beth wasn’t worth it, and besides, anything she had to say was worth shit at this point.

Austin’s messages, as always, were charming and concerned:

Hey, Kat, hope you’re well. Give me a call.

Kat, Adam called. He and Beth are worried about you. I am, too. Regardless of what they’ve told me, I’m here if you need a friend. X

Thinking of you. Austin. X

“Fuck,” Kat muttered, deleting every one before throwing her cell into her bag.

Despite his omitting his link to Carter, Austin was a polite, handsome, charismatic guy. She’d enjoyed his company and enjoyed the kiss they’d shared. It was … pleasant.

In retrospect, Kat realized that there was never the burning passion with him that she felt every time she was in Carter’s presence. The small flickers of attraction she had for Austin were nothing compared to the all-out inferno that occurred each time Carter touched her, kissed her, fucked her.

Her insides clenched at the memory of his large, solid body between her thighs, his heavy breaths and moans of
more
in her ear, his unrelenting hold on her hips, and his exquisite face as he chased and rode every orgasm. God, he was glorious. He’d obliterated every past lover she’d had, leaving her feverish with her want and hungry for more. The aches of pleasure he’d left in the muscles she hadn’t known existed were luscious.

Her skin blushed with the recollection of his stubbled kisses and the sensation of his silver rings, which had pinched her thighs as he’d slammed home, leaving vivid red marks that he’d licked in apology. Fuck.

She glanced at the empty doorway of the reading room. Where the hell was he? Kat knew Carter had “stuff” to do, and, as far as he knew, she was still without a cell phone, which explained the silence.

Nonetheless, Kat was hit abruptly with a worrying thought. Would Carter start to take liberties with their sessions now that they’d been intimate? Would he really think she wouldn’t kick his ass all over Manhattan for being late just because he’d given her numerous orgasms?

Kat’s leg twitched as her anger increased. He’d be in for one hell of a surprise if that was the case. Punchy and agitated, Kat rose from her seat and began to wander around the reading room, heading for her favorite section: poetry.

With the tip of her index finger placed against the spines of the books, Kat meandered down the aisle between two huge mahogany bookshelves. The smell of the leather, ink, and wood was rich and comforting, and reminded her of her father’s library at the house they’d owned in Westchester. Her father would read Rossetti and Blake to her when she was very young, and always when she was upset or hurt. She stopped when she came to the romantic poets, specifically Wordsworth, immediately needing his imagery of an English countryside and swaying daffodils to ease her mind.

Suitably calmed and incredibly nostalgic after reading three of his poems, Kat replaced Wordsworth and pulled down a small black book with gold-leaf font filled with sonnets, poems, and declarations of love. Holding the book in one hand, she leafed through the yellowing pages with the other when suddenly every single hair on the back of her neck stood on end.

Someone was behind her.

Before she could think about who it was or what they were doing, a large hand clasped her shoulder and swung her around, backing her into the shelves of the bookcase. The book she’d been holding fell from her hands to the floor with a loud slap.

Dizzy from being spun at speed, it took Kat a moment to find her bearings and focus on the face before her, and when she did, she wished immediately that she hadn’t.

The tip of Carter’s nose was inches away, while his breath washed over her face in strong heated waves. His broad chest pressed firmly against her.

But that wasn’t what made Kat’s throat close in panic. It was the expression on his face. His eyes were so dark the blue was almost indistinct, and the edges of his perfect mouth curled up into a hateful snarl. He was ferocious. She opened her mouth to speak, but Carter’s hand was at once covering it, holding her words tightly in a palm that smelled of smoke and mint.

“Don’t,” he rasped. He closed his eyes and shook his head. His nostrils flared and his hold on her tightened. “Just don’t speak.”

Kat’s eyes widened, but she nodded in compliance, causing the metal of his rings to rub against her skin. She watched him, fascinated by his jaw as it clenched and twitched along with the small beads of sweat scattered along his hairline and buzzed sideburns. She knew what that sweat tasted like.

He blew air out from between his pursed lips before he finally began to speak. “I just came from a very … interesting meeting.” He spoke every word quietly to his large boots.

With his right hand still covering Kat’s lips and his left hand squeezing her hip, Carter gradually lifted his head and let his stare rest on hers. His eyes filled with every conceivable emotion. The overwhelming urge to hug him and take away the pain lacing his words struck Kat in the gut.

“Do you know who my meeting was with?”

Kat frowned, shaking her head. Carter’s smile was grim. He moved forward, stopping only when his lips were by her cheek.

“My cousin,” he whispered. He stood back so he could see her face. “Austin Ford.”

A shiver ran through Kat’s body when the fury in his eyes ignited with his words. She knew her face had paled with nausea. What the hell had Austin said? Carter’s response was immediate. His jaw loosened at the same time that his hand dropped from her mouth. His left hand remained holding her, his fingers pushing deeper into her hip.

“It’s true?” Carter murmured through lips that barely moved. A small V appeared between his eyebrows as his gaze flitted questioningly over her face.