Without taking his eyes off her, Richard got to the point of his call at once. “Murdock, I need a court order to shut down the Anderson Surgery Center in forty-eight hours.”
With that he ended the call and continued looking at her.
So that was his extreme measure. If she wouldn’t leave, he’d take everything from under her. And she had no doubt he could and would do it. And that would only be for starters. In case this somehow didn’t work, he would only escalate his methods of destruction.
And none of it made any sense.
She cried out her confusion. “Why do you want me to stop working here? What is it to you? Is this even about me or...” A suspicion exploded in her mind. “Is this about Rose? Did you discover her relationship to Burton and come here to clean up every trace of him, including anybody who knew him? If so, did you only want me out of the way so I wouldn’t warn them about you? And now you’ve decided to strike directly since I didn’t cooperate and spoiled your preferred stealth methods?”
As the conviction sank in her mind, from one breath to the next her desperation turned to aggression in defense of her friends. “Burton was a monster who deserved far worse than whatever you’ve done to him. But she was his victim. Besides that, Rose and Jeffrey are the absolute best people I’ve ever known, and I’d die before I let you near them. And that’s not a figure of speech.”
As if he hadn’t heard her tirade, he cocked his head at her. “How did you come to know that couple?”
“Wh-what?”
“There was no evidence of when you met, or of your developing relationship, not even emails or phone calls, and I want to know how you did this.”
“I—I met Rose in a conference in Texas four years ago.”
“And? I want to know what led to their asking you to be their partner and not any of their long-term colleagues.”
His icy focus shook her. Where was this interrogation heading? “I felt a...kinship to her at once. I guess she felt the same, since she told me her life story as we waited for a late lecturer. I was shocked to realize that Burton used to be her stepfather.”
His eyes and jaw hardened. He gestured for her to continue.
“I didn’t tell her about me, but that kindred feeling only grew when I knew both of our lives were blighted by that monster. Incredibly, she felt the same way. Afterward and for years, we talked for hours daily, using online video chat. We practically designed and decorated this place that way. She and Jeffrey kept pushing me to come live in the States and be their partner. The moment I could, I took my family and came back, thinking I was giving us all a new and safe life. Then you appeared to mess everything up.”
His eyes grew heavier with so much she couldn’t fathom. “I don’t want to mess things up. Not anymore.”
“Yeah, right. That’s why you’re going to shut down the practice Rose and Jeffrey worked for years to build and invested all their money in.”
“It’s all up to you. Walk out of here, and I do, too.”
“You mean you’d leave them alone, for real? You wouldn’t have done that eventually anyway?”
“I already said going after them was to force you to leave. I have no interest in sabotaging their business.”
“So this isn’t about Rose? You’re not after her?”
“It is about her.” Before his reply sent her alarm soaring again, he reached for her, dragged her against his rock-hard body. “But the one I’m after is you, as you well know. So I suppose we can negotiate after all. Taking everything into consideration, I’ll make you a deal.”
She squirmed against him. “What deal?”
“I want you out of here. And I want you, full stop. You want me, too, but need to be assured of your family’s safety. So here’s my deal. You will make use of everything I can give you, will be with me every possible minute that our schedules permit. And I promise to stay away from your family.”
His hypnotic voice seeped through her bones with delicious compulsion, until she wondered why she’d ever put up a fight when being with him had always been all she’d ever wanted. And if he promised her family would be safe...
Then he added, “But only if you stay away from mine.”
She pushed away to stare up at him, her mind shying away from an enormous realization.
Then he spelled it out. “Burton was my stepfather, too.”
* * *
Richard had never intended to reveal that fact to Isabella. But he never did anything he intended where she was concerned. Nothing that was even logical or sane. He touched her, looked into her eyes, and his ability to reason was incinerated.