“I gather you took a little trip down to South America.” Mitchell took control of the conversation once more, leaning forward to catch his son’s eye. “And no, James didn’t give you up. Even private planes are required to report flight plans, Nicholas. You should know that by now. After all, this isn’t the first time you’ve pulled this kind of stunt.”
My throat closed, and my blood ran simultaneously cold. Uh-oh. He actually thinks Nick and I took off together, maybe to hurt him, embarrass him, or fuck with the stupid merger. He doesn’t know I went alone, that Nick only went to find me.
I knew Nick wouldn’t throw me under the bus, but I didn’t want him to take the blame either, so I did my best to intervene, to coax those colorless eyes onto me instead. “No, that’s not—”
“Nicholas,” Harold chided softly, “how could you?”
My eyes flew desperately around the room, trying to get anyone to look at me instead of focusing all their wrath on my boyfriend, who was finally innocent for perhaps the first time in his life. “No, Mr. Hunter,” I tried again, “you’ve got it wrong. Nick was—”
“I’m sorry.” Nick’s sudden apology rang out through the room, and he held my hand in a death grip, urging me to remain silent. His eyes locked on his father’s as he straightened a few inches taller. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience and concern I caused, but the merger was already closed, and our three months were up. You can hardly blame Abby and me for wanting to get away.”
Harold turned a nasty shade of green, while Mitchell’s eyebrows lifted dangerously into his hair. On the flipside, standing behind them and watching as his friend took the bullet for me, I could have sworn James looked a little proud.
“That was not our agreement,” Mitchell said sternly. Quiet as they were, every word sliced swiftly through the air, chilling the temperature by fifty degrees. “You are fully aware of all terms of the agreement.”
A faint tremor ran through Nick’s hand that was still clamped down on mine. “Dad,” he began, “I wasn’t—”
“Why don’t you tell me what the arrangement was?” Mitchell said, more of a demand than a question. Contrary to his previous remark, Mitchell was seldom one to ask questions and preferred to bark out orders.
Nick didn’t answer and simply bowed his head.
“At sundown, after the merger was complete, you would receive the hard drive.” Mitchell’s eyes swept coldly over his son, without a hint of leniency. “Did you fulfill your end of the deal?”
“No, sir.”
“That’s right, Nicholas. You didn’t. You ran off to South America instead.”
It was incredible, in a ghastly sort of way: the way he seemed to hold everyone in the room at bay, rendering us all scared to blink or breathe just by his presence; the way the man didn’t even need to raise his voice to lay a person completely bare; and the way he effectively suppressed any shred of humanity or paternal connection he might have felt toward his only child.
If he’s ever had any feelings for Nick in the first place, the monstrous bastard.
“Based on that,” he continued, swirling his empty glass, “am I in any way obligated to return the hard drive?”
Nick’s eyes flashed up, blazing with an emotion he was quick to control. “You got what you wanted. The board signed your deal, and—”
“Nicholas...”
The word scorched through the air. I jumped in my skin, James’s pacing instantly ceased, and even Harold looked down at his feet.
“Answer the question. Am I obliged to give you the hard drive?”
For just a moment, I thought maybe Nick would refuse to answer, that he and James would just decide to join forces to overpower Harold and dump Mitchell Hunter into the roaring fire like some crazy scene out of an action movie, ending his reign once and for all. Nevertheless, Nick knew his father far better than I did.
“No, sir,” he spoke softly, keeping his eyes on the floor. “You aren’t obligated to do anything.”
For a full minute, everything was ominously quiet. The entire house seemed to be holding its breath, just waiting to see what would happen next, and when that next thing occurred, it was something I never would have predicted.
“Fortunately, the fallout from your foolish antics was not what I imagined.” Mitchell poured himself another shot of liquor from a second bottle, staring thoughtfully at the glass. “In fact, it seems to have played out in our favor.”
What!? I thought, certain I couldn’t have possibly heard that right. Sitting on the couch beside me, I felt Nick pull in a quick breath, just as mind-blown as I was.
“I’m sorry? What does that—”
“We told everyone you eloped to Peru.”
At that point, my jaw actually dropped to the floor, and Nick stared at his father as if he was a man he’d never met before.
For his part, Mitchell looked rather pleased as he announced, “It was actually James’s idea, a brilliant one at that.”