Her father’s expression darkened. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Wouldn’t I? You may have the police in your pockets but you don’t have the media. In fact I’ve got quite a few online friends who’d be very keen to see a few personal Garret e-mails.”
He sneered. “You’d never do that, Pandora.”
“Give me one reason.”
“Because I’m your only family. I’m your father and—”
“No you’re not,” she cut him off, suddenly coldly furious. “You’re not my fucking father. You never gave a shit about me. So why should I give a damn about you?”
The sneer vanished. He took a step toward her, anger twisting his features. “You do this and you’re dead to me.”
“You know what, Dad? I don’t care.” She lifted her chin, met his dark eyes, so like her own. “I’ve given you a choice, which is more than you ever gave me. Take it or leave it.”
She didn’t wait for him to reply. Just turned around and began to walk away.
Perhaps he’d put a bullet in her back. She wouldn’t put it past him. But she’d gambled on the fact that he had a shred of decency left in him. A shred of feeling for her.
And perhaps she was right after all, because the only sound she heard was of the car doors closing and the engine starting. Driving away.
Leaving her alone.
*
“Canceling the party is going to cost us shitloads. Can’t we have it anyway?”
Jax ignored his brother. He kept his attention on the stock-ticker running along the bottom of the left-hand monitor. Morrow stock had dipped significantly after the news of his engagement had broken. Which surprised him. He’d thought most investors would have been relieved to get rid of the Garret association.
“What’s happening with the docklands project?” he demanded curtly. “Do we have any buyers yet?” Christ, he just wanted that gone. He wanted everything that reminded him of this mess, of Pandora, gone.
Donovan didn’t say anything.
Jax jerked his head up. There was a flicker of green in Donovan’s eyes. An angry flicker. Christ, he hadn’t had any time for his brother’s shit before, he had even less now. “Well? Report, Donovan.”
The other man’s jaw tightened, the angry sparks in his gaze glittering. Then his lashes fell. His voice, when he spoke, was expressionless. “I have a few. Just playing them off.”
“We don’t have time for games. I want it sold.”
“But presumably you want actual money for it, right?”
Jax drummed his fingers on the desk, angry. He knew he shouldn’t be taking it out on his brother but he couldn’t seem to help himself. The raw feeling hadn’t gone away and it didn’t take much to set him off. That detachment had gone with Pandora and hadn’t come back.
“Sell it. I have plenty of other people who can handle it if you can’t.”
A muscle jumped in his brother’s jaw but his voice was full of his usual lazy amusement. “Relax. I’ve got it all under control. We’re a team, right?”
Jax chose to ignore the sarcasm. “Fine. Now leave me alone. I’ve got work to do.”
After his brother had gone, Jax stared at his screens, at the unrolling news stories and stock-market prices, at the incoming e-mails and the spreadsheets. The chiming of his scheduler as tasks came up.
What he should be doing was getting Donovan to keep a handle on the news channels and other members of his staff to check and see if Garret had gone public with his Morrow information. Applying pressure to the investigators. Have his PR team on standby to handle the flak when it came.
But he couldn’t seem to get up the energy. It felt meaningless. Unimportant.
The company he was in charge of, the company his father and grandfather had sweated blood bringing from the criminal underworld and into legitimacy, the company that had been so important to him, now felt insignificant.
He almost didn’t care if it went down. Pandora was the important one. He’d freed her from the engagement, freed her from him. Which meant that now she could have the life she’d always wanted to have.
His intercom buzzed.
“Shit,” he muttered. He really didn’t want to answer it. Leaning over, he pushed the button. “Yeah?”
“Pandora Garret is here to see you, Mr. Morrow,” his personal assistant said without inflection. “I’m afraid she doesn’t have an appointment.”
Every single cell of his being went still at the sound of her name. What the hell was she doing here? Hadn’t he told her what he’d do if she ever came back? “What does she want?” he demanded hoarsely.