Page 212 of Mad As Hell

“I just got off the phone with a friend,” he informed me. “It would appear that Beckett has been slowly buying up shares in several lucrative pharmaceutical and tech startups. Enough that he’s put his own company in jeopardy.”

My brows knitted together. “How so?”

Gary waved a dismissive hand. “The details don’t matter, but I know the names of those companies, and I’ve already started proceedings to acquire them outright. But in order for this to work, I’ll need you to do something.”

“Of course.” I was starting to scare myself with how easily I was lying. Thank God I wasn’t hooked up to a polygraph, because the thing would’ve been going nuts.

“We need to encourage Ryan to move up the wedding. It shouldn’t be hard, considering how infatuated he is with you. We need access to your money and old man Harris’s. With those fortunes, we’ll have absolute control. The Cains will fall.”

“And I’ll be stuck with a husband I don’t want,” I pointed out.

He grinned at me. “Not for long.”

Ice flooded my veins.

“Evan is more than just one of my drivers. He handles… delicate matters for me as well,” he hedged with a smile that boarded on manically giddy. “In a few months, once all the paperwork is settled, he’ll help us remove Ryan Cain from both our lives for good.”

My vision swam for a second as I grew lightheaded. He was talking about killing Ryan.

Everything in me screamed against the idea, and I curled my hands around the armrests to keep from jumping up and wrapping my bare hands around his thick neck.

“Madison.” Gary’s sharp voice cracked through the air, and I jumped. He chuckled. “Already envisioning life as a free woman?”

I forced a thin smile onto my lips as I shrugged. “Obviously.”

“First things first,” he muttered. “I’ll have my lawyers start drawing up paperwork to get us the companies. I can liquidate assets and come up with the funds, but we’ll need the wedding to happen by the end of the year so we have access to your trust and Ryan’s. Is that doable?”

“Absolutely.” If he only knew how doable that really was.

“We’ll move fast, and you’ll have to keep Ryan focused on you.” He eyed me critically. “Do whatever it takes to keep him happy and satisfied. I don’t care if you miss every class because you’re hiding under the desk at each of his to suck his cock, got it?”

This man had zero boundaries. “Got it.”

“Beckett Cain has his end-of-year meeting with his council this week.” He rubbed his palms together, looking excited. “I plan on crashing it and letting him know that I’m his new boss.”

“Sounds like you have it all planned out,” I murmured.

He nodded. “Now go. You need to get back to school and into that boy’s bed before his eyes start to wander.”

My own eyes narrowed and I got up. “I can do that, but I want you to promise me that you’ll tell me before anything happens to Ryan.”

He stilled, his gaze turning suspicious.

I giggled and shrugged one shoulder. “I want to be there when he dies. He needs to know I was behind it.”

Gary’s lips pulled back into a wicked smile. “Of course, sweetheart. Consider it a belated wedding gift.”

I winked at him with a bright smile and walked out the door like he hadn’t just threatened to destroy my entire world.

Evan was waiting for me outside by the car. He held open the door and I got into the back of the town car, praying he didn’t see my hands shaking.

My gaze went to his hands around the steering wheel, and I saw burn scars wrapping around the back of one hand and disappearing under the sleeve of his shirt.

I turned away with a grimace, trying not to think about what those scars meant as I turned over events of tonight in my head. I got lost in my thoughts as we drove, but I couldn’t seem to stop glancing at the scars on Evan’s hand.

The silvery pink skin seemed to mock me every time we drove under a street lamp. I couldn’t look away, and my stomach was roiling by the time Evan pulled up in front of my dorm.

He met my eyes in the mirror, and I wondered if he could hear the thumping of my heart. “Have a good night, Madison.”

---