Page 72 of Two Steps Ahead

Weston shifted so that he was between Kayleigh and Beau. There wasn’t much he could do with his hands restrained, but Beau had already proven himself willing to kill. Weston wanted Kayleigh as far from him as possible.

“Are you sure?” Gwendolyn asked.

Beau looked over at Gwendolyn. “Have I ever steered you wrong? Haven’t we walked through all of this together? You lost Sarah, and now it’s time for Leo to pay.”

Who the hell was Sarah?

“You are going to stop this merger,” Gwendolyn told Kayleigh. “Your father is a murderer and I’m not about to let him make any more money off innocent people. You are going to stop it.”

“Murderer?”Kayleigh’s eyes widened. “What are you talking about? Dad is not a murderer.”

“My dead daughter would say otherwise.”

“What?” Weston and Kayleigh said at the same time.

Kayleigh shook her head. “You never talked about a daughter.”

It hadn’t shown up in any of the digging San Antonio Security had done on Gwendolyn either.

“Of course not. It would’ve made Leo suspicious to hear that his assistant had a teenager who died because of him. Beau was able to hide all traces of Sarah from my background so Leo wouldn’t know.”

Beau slipped his arm around Gwendolyn. “I just wanted to help you do what’s right. Leo Delacruz destroys lives.”

“How?” Kayleigh whispered.

“He bought my father’s pharmaceutical company,” Beau said. “But instead of selling it as a whole or keeping it running as it was, Leo dismantled it.”

“Everyone who was in a clinical trial—like my Sarah—was cast aside. All trials canceled. She died.” Gwendolyn stiffened. “Beau rebuilt another pharmaceutical company and now Leo is trying to do the same thing again. I’m not going to let that happen. Your father has to pay for what he’s done.”

Beau’s smile was smug. “So you’re going to cancel the merger today. Not only that, you’re going to sign over the rest of Leo’s holdings to us while you have unprecedented power of attorney. By the end of the day, everything that was Leo Delacruz’s will belong to us.”

Gwendolyn stepped away from him. “We didn’t talk about that. All we talked about was stopping this merger.”

“Think of Sarah. This is justice. Our plan shouldn’t be just about stopping Leo from doing it to other people. This is about you getting what you deserve. Now is the perfect time. Leo’s out of commission. We can get everything that’s coming to us.”

“I won’t do it,” Kayleigh said. “Gwendolyn, I am so sorry for what happened to your daughter, and I’m sorry if Dad had some hand in it, but I won’t sign everything over to you and especially not to Beau.”

Beau dropped all pretense of being reasonable and took a threatening step toward Kayleigh. “I think you will.”

Kayleigh straightened her shoulders. “If you kill me, you get nothing.”

Weston yanked on the handcuffs around his wrists again, but they didn’t budge. “You’re going to kill us anyway. You can’t afford to let us live. We know who you are and that you’rebehind all of this. And if anyone at the merger suspects that Kayleigh has been hurt or coerced, it won’t go through anyway.”

Next to Weston, Kayleigh crossed her arms over her chest. “I won’t do it.”

Beau nodded. “Patterson is right. We can’t allow you to live.”

“Beau!” Gwendolyn gasped. “This wasn’t what we agreed on. Leo was the only one who was supposed to get hurt.”

Beau ignored her, walking toward Weston and Kayleigh. “It’s business. My father always told me that you have to take your emotions out of everything when it comes to business. Of course, Dad died of a heart attack at fifty-five, so what did he know?”

Weston stepped forward so that he was completely between Beau and Kayleigh. “Don’t touch her.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Hero. It’s not her I’m after.”

Beau’s fist slammed into his belly. Weston doubled over, trying to suck in air.

Beau yanked him up and nailed him in the face, once, then again. Weston couldn’t protect himself with his hands restrained behind his back. Pain exploded as he took two more hits in the gut.

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