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One crosstown drive later, a maid was letting Cassandra into her father’s beachfront villa. As she followed the maid to the study, Cassandra kept a wary eye out for her stepmother. The last thing she needed was to add more family members into the mix. She wanted this problem handled without drama.
The maid opened the door and silently slipped away, leaving Cassandra to step inside the study. She found her father on the phone, speaking in hushed tones. He looked up at her, mumbled something into the phone, and then set the phone aside. Obviously that had been a conversation he hadn’t wanted her to hear.
Suspicion made her frown. Whatever her father was up to, he likely had no intention of ever telling her.
“Cassandra. What an unexpected surprise,” her father said as she approached his desk.
He was sitting in the huge chair at his desk, looking anything but surprised. On the contrary, there was a satisfied smile on his face. Like he had been expecting her despite his odd phone call.
“Your assistant didn’t call you?” she asked with a frown. “I called company headquarters, but she told me you were working from home this afternoon. She assured me that she would let you know I was coming over.”
“You know how hard it is to find good help. Assistants aren’t what they used to be,” he said dismissively as he shut his laptop. “Why don’t you sit down? What can I have the maid get you while we talk shop? Coffee? Tea? Something stronger?”
She hated it when her father treated their relationship like some kind of business meeting. There was something so painfully formal about the way he treated her that just drove home her loneliness even more intensely.
“Nothing for me, thank you.” She sank down into a chair, her resolve already wavering under the slightest pressure.
“So,” he began, rubbing his hands together, “what’s the reason for this impromptu meeting?”
Her father dominated everyone by treating every interaction like a business deal. If she was going to stop being so weak and prove she was made of stronger stuff, she had to find a way to face whatever he threw at her. His losing a card game to Jack Landry had seriously upended her life, and it wasn’t fair that she had to pay the price for her father’s mistakes.
Clearing her throat nervously, Cassandra forced herself to sit up straighter. “It’s come to my attention that you gave away the ownership of my penthouse—”
“Ah. That.” Her father held up silencing hand and then opened one of his desk drawers to retrieve a humidor. He opened the humidor and pulled out a pair of cigars. “Smoke?”
Annoyance flooded her. He knew perfectly well that she hated those things. He was just making a big show of offering a cigar to remind her how out of place she was. How out of her depth she was in the male-dominated boy’s club he thought she didn’t have the spine for. Cassandra didn’t know which was worse: the fact that her father expected her to take over his empire, or the fact that he didn’t think she was tough enough to handle it.
“No thanks.” She sighed. This confrontation was going to be even harder than she had expected. “Listen Dad, I woke to a man in my penthouse this morning. According to him, he had every right to be there.”
Her father lit his cigar and took a puff. “He was correct. I gave him a set of keys myself.”
“Really? I had to wake up to a strange man in my bed and—”
“What? That cocky son of a bitch put his hands on you?” Her father’s face turned red with rage. “I’ll kill him myself.”
“Jack didn’t touch me,” she said firmly. Though she didn’t trust Jack, she was already certain that he would never try to harm her. After all, he had been disgusted with her father treating her like property. “I was already asleep when he apparently passed out drunk in my room. I think he was just as shocked to see me as I was to see him. Why the hell didn’t you tell me what you’d done?”
“I had more pressing matters last night,” her father said, seeming to calm down somewhat. “For shit’s sake, Cassandra, how was I know that Landry would end up in your bedroom in the middle of the night? I gave him the keys thinking he’d show up today or tomorrow. At a reasonable hour. It was when front desk security got in touch with me this morning that I gave Bruce a phone call.”
You called your bodyguard before you called your own daughter? She inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly, counting to ten. Anger wouldn’t work with her father. At least not from her. “Even if you didn’t expect this, you also didn’t tell Jack that I already lived in the penthouse. And you didn’t bother to call me to let me know what had happened. You called my bodyguard to tell him, but not me.” She crossed her arms, trying desperately to keep her fury under control.
“Landry is responsible for his own screw-ups,” her father muttered.
“Well, he’s not the only one who has responsibilities,” she said. “How could you make that kind of bet? I’ve heard about people being financially ruined because of illegal card games, and—”
“Landry isn’t supposed to talk about that card game,” her father said indignantly. “That’s against the rules.”
“Are you kidding me right now? That’s the part you’re hung up on?” She shook her head in total disbelief. Her father had always been controlling, but she had never seen him this unreasonable before. It was like he refused to accept that he had made a terrible decision. Refused to acknowledge a mistake and accept blame for his part in all of it. “Dammit, Dad! You bet my penthouse!”
“Except it’s not your penthouse.” He leaned back in his leather chair, projecting a relaxed ease that Cassandra knew from experience was forced. It was a deceptive maneuver he pulled to lull his opponents into a false sense of security. “That penthouse is mine. Or it was mine until last night.”
“But you gave me that penthouse—”
“No, Cassandra. I let you live in that penthouse,” her father corrected. The easygoing pretense of his manner evaporated as his grey eyes narrowed. “That property is mine. As the owner, living there rent-free was a luxury I provided you. I let you live there out of the goodness of my own heart.”
“You wanted me to live there to be closer to the Florida office,” she reminded him, struggling to control her anger. “I was more than happy to live in New York or near one of our West Coast offices, but you wanted me close to headquarters.”
“I didn’t know I raised you to whine and complain like a child,” he said, rebuking her harshly. “Maybe those gossip rags are right to call you spoiled. I’ve gone way too easy on you. Letting you live in luxury has made you soft. If you’d had the same hard upbringing I did you wouldn’t have turned out this way.”
Her anger turned to hurt and shame. He was right. Those tabloids had treated her like nothing more than a spoiled rich girl. And hadn’t Jack practically said as much earlier? The whole world saw that she was weak and foolish. She inhaled sharply, fighting the urge to retort in defense. If she lost her temper right now her father would just see her as weak. The weaker he thought someone was, the more ruthless he was in his treatment. Somehow Cassandra needed to get control of the situation and show that she could be tough.
“This isn’t just about the penthouse,” she said carefully.
He let out an exasperated breath. “So what is this little tantrum about then, Cassandra? I’m a very busy man, with things to do.”
The anger returned tenfold. Though he might have been right about the penthouse, Cassandra wasn’t going to let her father brush this aside like it was nothing. He had humiliated her at that card game. “You want to talk about property, Dad? Fine. That penthouse might be your property, but I definitely am not. You don’t get to bet me in a card game and think I’ll let it slide.”
His expression turned sheepish. “It wasn’t part of the original plan. I didn’t think I’d lose that badly to some newcomer. The game went by so fast, and every hand I got was...look, the guy beat me. I didn’t have that kind of cash with me, and I can’t wire that amount of money without raising red flags.”
“Wait...did you bet me before or after you bet the penthouse?”
“Cassandra—”
“Answer me, Dad. Right now,” she demanded.
“Before. I was struggling to think of something to make good on a ten-million-dollar bet,” her father said desperately. “At least now you know that you’re worth millions to me. What daughter can say that?”
“What they—? You’re putting a price tag on me?” She rose to her feet, too outraged to sit still any longer. “You think that makes what you did sound better? That it should make me feel better?”
“You don’t understand how this club operates,” he said, putting his cigar out. “Members can’t renege on a deal at places like that. If you lose and don’t pay up, bad things happen. Really bad things.”
“I don’t want to hear it,” she said, in spite of the chill crawling down her spine. “What on earth were you thinking?”
“You want to know what I was thinking?” he forced out angrily. “I was thinking that my only daughter was a spoiled, ungrateful brat who needed to be taught a lesson. All I wanted was for you to show up to a fundraiser. Do your duty to this family. But you had to defy me. Everything you have is because of me. Your life is mine. So if I want to bet it in some card game, then I will. What the hell are you going to do about it?”
The sheer horror of what he was saying started to sink in. Her father could be demanding. Harsh sometimes. But her defiance had pushed him over the edge. He was totally unrepentant. A lump formed in her throat at the realization that she didn’t know her father as well as she thought she did. Never had she felt more alone.
“So you’re just going to hand me over to this man,” she said, her lower lip trembling. “What’s the expectation here?”
“That man is not to put one hand on you. If he so much as looks at you inappropriately, I want to hear about it so that he can be dealt with,” he said roughly. “That said, the agreement is that you’d be his for a year.”
She gasped. “A year?”
“Now that you’re here we can hammer out the details,” he rushed on. “Landry and I didn’t discuss the specifics of this arrangement, but I’ve got an idea.”
“I don’t want to hear anything about your ideas,” she said firmly. “I’m not accepting this. You don’t get to use me like this.”
“There’s very little choice,” he said darkly. “Mr. Landry and I agreed to the deal in front of several witnesses. The rules of the Gentleman’s Club are clear. Once winnings are agreed to, they must be handed over.”
So he could share about the secret club, but Jack was an ass for explaining his side? Damn, her father was ridiculous. “I don’t care what about some stupid club rules—”
“If Mr. Landry goes back on the agreement that we both made, the consequences are dire.” His eyes narrowed dangerously as he leaned forward. “That club is owned by people who have no problem skirting the law.”
“So...shady people.” Her blood ran cold. The illegality of the card game had tipped her off, but hearing it in such stark terms still scared her. If her father was cautioning her, then that meant even he was scared of going back on his word. “Jack doesn’t want this, you know.”
“These people will throw Jack Landry off the roof of the penthouse if he goes back on his word,” her father said.
Despite her distrust of him, she didn’t want any harm to come to Jack because of her. If he was hurt, she’d never forgive herself. Still, she didn’t like her hand being forced like this. She had been powerless enough all her life. Cassandra was determined to get back some measure of control.
“And if I decide that I don’t want this?” she asked.
“Well...” Her father paused. “There might be a loophole. There’s nothing that explicitly says you can’t refuse. Though, if you do refuse, you’ll be on the hook to give Mr. Landry a prize he’s willing to accept in exchange. You can’t just walk away without paying up. Based on the price of the penthouse, you’d probably owe him around five million dollars.”
She tilted her head as she started to think. “But there is a way out? I can forfeit this somehow?”
“I suppose you could,” he said. “But you have no say over what happens with the penthouse. It was never yours, which means you’ll be coming back to live here with me and your stepmother.”
Anxiety took hold. Her stomach twisted. Moving back home with her father was her worst nightmare. He would have more opportunities to try to control her. The penthouse had given her some level of independence, and now that was gone. If she came back to the villa she’d be in the belly of the beast. At the mercy of her father’s controlling ways, and closer to what she suspected was the shadier side of Monahan Shipping.
The choices before her were stark. On one hand was Jack Landry. Sexy as sin, powerful, infuriatingly arrogant. Not to mention dangerous. There was something untamed about the man, and she knew he was up to no good. She’d practically had to drag out his motivation for getting close to her father, and she suspected he hadn’t told her the whole truth. That made him totally untrustworthy. Possibly as shady as her father.
But on the other hand was her father. Moving back in with him after years of slight independence would crush her. She’d never be free of her father at that rate. And though she was an heiress, it was her father who controlled the purse strings. Cassandra only got her share of a regular allowance once her father approved all the spending she detailed out in paperwork. The money she got paid for her work with Monahan Shipping’s marketing department wouldn’t be a drop in the bucket when it came time to pay Jack Landry if she reneged on the bet. In fact, now that she thought of it, maneuvering her way out of the bet would keep her even more solidly under her father’s control. Because the only way to pay it off would be through her father.
Cassandra’s mouth went dry at the thought of relinquishing the remainder of what little control she had over her own life to her father. “The idea you had about this one-year arrangement with Jack,” she began, “what is it?”
“I figure this can be closer to a business arrangement,” he said evenly, as if he hadn’t just spent the last several minutes springing the most shocking turn of events on her. “I looked into Landry earlier this morning. Based on what I’ve learned so far, he runs a very successful security business. The guy is a shrewd businessman. Tough. Not afraid of a fight. He’s got qualities you need if you have any hope of being my successor.”
She tried not to flinch as he spoke. The implication of her father’s words were that Jack Landry was everything she was not. It all circled back to her father thinking she was weak. Not strong enough to handle the empire she didn’t even really want. “So a mentor of sorts.”
Her father nodded. “Right. Only you’ll be shadowing him as much as possible. Learning what you can. Doing whatever professional favors he asks of you no matter the time of day. All without pay.”
“Basically the internship from hell,” she said. An entire year with the most unreasonably handsome man she had ever met. The smart decision would be to get as far away from Jack Landry as possible. Not get closer to a man who would be increasingly difficult to resist.
“So it would seem,” her father said, with the faintest smile of satisfaction. “There’s paperwork that Mr. Landry will have to sign. The contract will be sent over to him in a matter of days. The verbal agreement last night sealed the deal, but his signature will serve as assurance. Think of it as a binding agreement between gentlemen.”
Oh, he had planned this perfectly. Handing her over to Jack Landry was just another form of manipulation. A way to keep her under his thumb.
Cassandra squared her shoulders and approached his desk. “If there’s one thing I know it’s that Jack Landry is no gentleman.”
“Cassandra—”
“Goodbye, Daddy.” She spun on her heel and headed for the door. “I’ll show myself out.”
Trying to appeal to her father’s better nature wasn’t going to work. Neither was trusting Jack. Cassandra had to rely on her own wits if she wanted to take back control of her own life. She was now facing an uncertain future, yet she refused to put up with it quietly like a good little girl. Jack and her father might have started this game without her, but she had cards of her own to play now. And she was playing to win.
