Page 221 of Mad As Hell

“Maybe one of your board members?” I drawled, uncaring when his cheeks turned a mottled shade of purple and the vein above his left eye bulged. Him having a stroke right here and now would actually be kind of perfect.

“There’s an ironclad NDA in place,” he snapped. He slowed his breathing and straightened his shoulders. “It doesn’t matter. Gary can’t have enough money left to buy me out.”

“Oh, he does,” I assured him.

His gaze sharpened. “How would you know that?”

I smiled, folding my hands over my stomach as I leaned back in my chair. “Because my fiancée told me so. Even recorded the conversation they had last night.”

“Madelaine told you that?” Disbelief and derision dripped from his words.

I shrugged. “She and I have come to an understanding. Mostly her understanding that between me and Gary, I’m by far the lesser of two evils. You know how much she hates him.”

“Exactly. So why the fuck would Gary tell her shit?”

A grin stole across my lips. “Because I might’ve helped her convince him that she’s on his side by letting her record a conversation where I confessed I was hopelessly in love with her and was willing to give her everything.”

He stared at me for a moment before bursting out into a deep laugh. “Sometimes you manage to surprise me, Ryan. Not often, but sometimes.”

“You have one shot to get ahead of him,” I advised, laying out the plan I’d gone over with Ash on the drive over until my brain was ready to bleed. “Did you ever stop to wonder why you were getting those companies so cheap?”

Beckett scoffed. “I’d say a ninety-million-dollar investment is a tad more than cheap.”

“The parent company is divesting their interests, but it isn’t enough. They’ve got someone on their payroll with an idea that will make Malcolm Whittier look like an imbecile. But the project hit delays and they need investors. It’s why they’ve been selling off portions of smaller projects and companies, but they’re still short. They’re planning to look for investors next month.”

Beckett eyed me critically. “How do you know this?”

“Ash,” I replied. “He’s been keeping an eye on things and found out where all the companies are connected. They’re planning on launching technology that will guarantee military defense contracts, but also be available to the public.”

His eyes widened, and I knew he was taking the bait.

Bex’s dad had created CryptDuo as a secure way to transfer and download files for the military and political heads in our government, but they’d never made the tech public, so they were missing a large chunk of the market.

I met his gaze and went in for the kill. “All of our shit aside, Cain Industries is my birthright. I’m not fucking giving it to Cabot or his whore of a daughter.”

“So what are you proposing?” Beckett asked, a slow smile spreading.

“Invest in the parent company before Gary finds out, then it won’t matter about the smaller companies. You’ll own the rights to the technology. That’s where the real money is.”

He watched me for a second before looking away. “As much as I hate to admit it, I’m a bit tapped out. I don’t know that I can invest that much.”

I’d suspected as much. “Then let me help.”

His eyes snapped to me.

“I’ve barely touched my trust fund,” I said. The multimillion-dollar trust had been set up by my mother before her death. Her shares of Brookfield’s profits were split between myself and Cori, to be unlocked when we turned twenty-one.

I wasn’t lying; I’d barely made a dent in the massive fortune that had been left to me and continued to grow as Brookfield was one of the leading wineries in the world. Besides, giving him this money meant it was going straight back into my pocket through Phoenix anyway.

“You’d do that?” Beckett’s head tilted as he watched me.

I stood up and smirked. “Absolutely. At the end of the day, we’re family. Fuck the Cabots.”

“All right, son,” he agreed softly, nodding. “Let’s end the Cabots once and for all.”

CHAPTER 60

MADDIE

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