The Billion Dollar Bachelor(44)

Pandora swallowed, her throat tight, the pain in her heart growing sharp little spines, digging in. So he’d done it. He’d called off their engagement. Cut all her ties to Morrow.

Great. Freaking wonderful.

Abruptly she shoved her laptop away and slipped off the bed, walking the narrow, cramped length of the room then coming back again. A restless, hollow feeling coiled in her gut. Like she was missing something.

Dammit, why didn’t she feel better? Why wasn’t she thrilled with the news?

She could go anywhere she wanted. Do anything she wanted. She was free. Truly free.

But still that pain in her heart wouldn’t go away.

You know why.

No. It wasn’t love. It wasn’t. Freedom was what she’d wanted.

Are you so very sure?

Her throat hurt, her eyes burned. She turned and stumbled back to the bed, sitting on the edge of it. Then she bent her head, pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. Light burst behind her closed lids like fireworks.

No, shit, it was Jax she wanted. Jax she’d been so hungry for. Right from the start he’d given her all the things in her life she’d been missing. Freedom. Passion. Confidence in herself. Safety. Love … .

Tears filled her eyes and she had to press her hands against her lids harder. Jax had told her he loved her and yet he let her go.

Unlike Dad.

Pandora blinked and raised her head, realization tipping over her like a bucket of ice water.

For years her father had told her that he was keeping her safe, keeping her protected for her own good. Yet he hadn’t given a shit about her, not really. Because if he’d truly loved her, he’d have let her go.

Like Jax had …

It was lack of love that trapped. That confined. Love on the other hand …

Love set you free.

Pandora brushed away the tears that kept leaking out despite her best efforts. Okay, so, yeah. She was in love. She was in love with Jax Morrow. Which meant she had some decisions to make.

But first there was a small matter to handle. The small matter of her father.

Jax had told her he’d got his private investigators onto digging up dirt on Nick, but she knew he hadn’t managed to find anything, at least not yet. Which meant his announcement of their broken engagement would put her father’s blackmail plan in motion.

Well, she wasn’t going to let that happen. No matter he said he’d deal with it, that she wasn’t to investigate her own father. This was her mess as well as his and she couldn’t let him take the fall alone.

She wasn’t Snow White lying in her coffin, helpless and sleeping. Hell no. She was the fucking prince.

Pandora pulled the laptop to her. It didn’t take long to bring up the right site and sure enough, the backdoor she’d left in the firewall all those years ago was still there. Five seconds later, the firewall was in ruins.

She smiled. The Morrows weren’t the only family in the world who had secrets.

*

Hours later, she made her way to the apartment building that had been in her father’s schedule and waited outside it. It didn’t take long for him to come out.

The bulletproof limo was already waiting at the curb, Thing One and Thing Two plus a whole lot of other Things milling around.

Nick Garret strode toward it, the look on his face absolutely expressionless. Which meant he was pissed. Which was good. She wanted him pissed.

Pandora stepped out of the shadows and walked down the sidewalk. She didn’t bother to announce herself. The bodyguards—if they were any good, and Nick’s bodyguards were always extremely good—would have spotted her the moment she moved.

The crowd of men near the limo froze. Then her father noticed and he froze, too.

“Pandora,” he said, very quietly. The expressionless cast to his face rippled, something that might almost have been feeling crossing it. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Hi, Dad.” Her voice was calm, level. “I guess you’ve seen the news.”

The bodyguards were moving, surrounding her.

“Indeed I have.” Nick stayed where he was but his dark eyes roamed over her as if checking she was all there. “And I have to say I’m disappointed. Very disappointed. But I’m a man of my word. I’ve got a few documents that will be making their way into the hands of a few officials tomorrow. Morrow was a great company. Pity it won’t be for much longer.”

Pandora met his gaze, matched him stare for stare. “Those documents aren’t going anywhere. In fact, you’re not going to send them at all.”

“Oh?” One brow quirked, a cold smile beginning to turn his mouth. “And why is that?”

She pushed her hands into the pockets of her jeans, ignoring the menacing stares of the bodyguards. “Did you know I hacked into your computer systems years ago? Well, I did. I was bored and I wanted to see if I could do it. Turned out I could. And I can get back in again anytime I want because I left myself a backdoor.” She allowed herself a smile of her own. “You’ve got a whole lot of nasty little secrets all of your own, haven’t you, Dad?”