Page 134 of Theirs to Corrupt

Except for responding to questions in a cursory way, she’d been totally silent.

Once we were back home, she returned to the bedroom I’d given her the first night she arrived at my house.

Arrived?My conscience taunts me.

More like she was taken there without her agreement.

But if the situation replayed itself? I’d make the same decision all over again.

A knock on my door pierces the storm clouds gathering fury in my head. I stop pacing long enough to scowl.

Without waiting for an invitation, Pax enters. “Boss.” He closes us in and drops into a chair in front of my desk.

“Where is she?” I demand.

For a moment, he is silent. “She’s in a meeting.”

I scowl. “Who with? Griffin?”

Drake Griffin is the hotshot attorney I recommended when she demanded the name of a lawyer. He’s a cutthroat as well as a friend. I would have expected him to give me a heads-up about the consultation. Maybe we should have a discussion about loyalty.

“Celeste Fallon.”

Pax’s words fall into the silence. “Celeste?” I couldn’t possibly have heard right. “The fuck?”

Celeste Fallon is a fellow Titan, and she’s on the organization’s steering committee. To most of the world, she appears to run Fallon and Associates, a PR firm that’s been in her family for over a hundred fifty years. But the truth is, her specialty is crisis management. The ruthlessly intelligent attorney makes any problem go away—but the cost is astronomical.

Pax shrugs. “As we’re finding out, our wife has a mind of her own.”

“How the hell did she find Celeste?” If Griffin gave her the recommendation, I’ll fire his ass. “Goddamn it.”

“Mira and Torin are with her.”

I glare. He knows this is about more than her physical safety. If I could, I’d keep her locked up in the house, at least until I’ve dispensed with her brother.

The problem is, that wouldn’t help.

Tessa is turning out to be a problem I can’t solve with money or influence. Our relationship isn’t a hostile takeover I can strategize my way through.

She’s left me feeling more powerless than I’ve ever been.

Harnessing my anger and frustration, I cross the room to drop into my chair. The leather creaks as I scrub a hand over my face. “She’s going to file for divorce.” The words burn like acid in my mouth.

“We don’t know that,” Pax counters. Though he’s calm and thoughtful as ever, there’s a hint of doubt in his voice.

“What the fuck else is she meeting with Celeste about?” The edge in my voice is sharper than I intend. “She’s barely spoken to us since Vegas.”

Vegas. Christ. When we were there, I’d caught a glimpse of the future I wanted. The three of us, happy. A real family, unlike the one I’d grown up with.

The memory of Tessa’s laughter, the sight of her walking down the aisle to pledge herself to me, the way she looked at us both with trust and desire, the image of her on her knees, in our arms… Now I have nothing left but memories and a dream, and even that is slipping away faster than I can hold onto it.

“Might be about Axel,” Pax says.

“Something we are handling.”

“By ourselves. Without her input.”

I clench my jaw so I don’t fire back and kick him out of my office.

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