Nick shrugged. “She would have gotten there eventually.”
“After wasting how many years?”
“Don’t try to make this better than it is. You weren’t doing her a favor.” Nick stared at him. “You’ve lost it. I don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing, but you’ve gone too far. This isn’t a battle to win—it’s a vendetta. You want to hurt someone, hurt the man who’s responsible. Take on Jed Titan. But whatever you have going on with your sisters is wrong. What kind of a man bullies a woman? Are you that frightened of them?”
Garth held on to his temper. He’d come here to reason with his friend. Apparently Nick wasn’t willing to listen.
“You won’t come back to the board?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“No. I’ve sold most of my shares in your company.”
“Just like that?”
“This isn’t what I wanted,” Nick told him. “You’re right—you’ve been my family for years. But I can’t be a part of what you’re doing. You’re going to have to figure the rest of it out alone.”
Garth stood, then left. Fine. If Nick wanted to be led around by the nose, that was his problem. Garth didn’t need him. He didn’t need anyone.
But as he walked to his car, he had the sense of being totally alone. He had few friends, no one he really cared about. There was Kathy, but she was more like a child than an adult. His staff, who might respect him but little else. If he ceased to exist this very moment, who would mourn him? Worse, who would know?
He got in his car, then looked back at the house. Damn feelings. He had to get out of here and fast. Whatever had gotten Nick seemed to be contagious. Emotions. A conscience. He had no time for either.
There was nothing wrong with being alone. It meant he could move faster. Easier. He was close to winning. Soon he would have it all. Then he wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about Nick or anybody else. Then he would have won.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
NICK HAD SPENT nearly two weeks being ignored by his staff, walking the hallways of the house at night and examining his life. It had taken him that long to figure out what was important and what he needed to do. He had a feeling if Izzy knew, she would inform him that the average woman would have realized the truth in about an hour.
He paused by the front window in the living room and watched an SUV drive up to the porch. It parked and two women climbed out.Lexi and Skye didn’t look anything like their sister, but seeing them reminded him of Izzy. There was both pleasure and pain at the thought of her. Pleasure because he’d finally come to see she was everything to him. Pain because he might have lost her forever.
He met the women at the front door.
“Thanks for coming,” he said.
“We’re not here for you,” Lexi said briskly as she pushed past him and walked into the living room. “We’re here because you made it clear we were having this conversation one way or another and we didn’t want Izzy seeing you in Titanville.”
He motioned for them to sit down.
They sat together on the sofa. Skye eyed him with a mixture of contempt and dislike.
“We’re not interested in helping you,” Skye said bluntly. “Just last week, Jed paid a visit to Izzy to try to convince her to date one of his business partners. Izzy slapped him in the face and threw him out. If she was willing to do that to her own father, imagine how little trouble I would have taking you on.”
Nick held up both hands in a gesture of surrender. “No one is questioning your motivation or ability.”
“Good. Now, what do you want?”
“If he says Izzy,” Lexi told her sister. “Shoot him or I will.”
Unfortunately that is what he’d been planning to say. He needed a new plan.
“How much do you know about my past?” he asked instead.
Skye and Lexi glanced at each other. Skye motioned for Lexi to talk.
“Foster kid, very smart, goes to college at fifteen. You’re a total geek, you don’t fit in, Garth saves you, becomes your friend. Flash forward seven or eight years, you’re working for him. Another eight years, you screw our sister.” Lexi gave him a cold smile. “Did I miss any highlights?”
“No.”
Izzy had told them about him, but hadn’t mentioned his guilty secret. He knew in his gut it was because she knew it was the part of him that shamed him the most. Even in her pain and heartbreak, she’d protected him.
“What Izzy didn’t tell you is about my time in South America.”
He spoke quickly, giving them a brief synopsis of what had happened there. He didn’t spare himself the blame, taking full responsibility for what had gone wrong.