Chapter Nine #3
“I can see that,” Jackson said dryly, no doubt alluding to the way Rocco couldn’t keep his eyes off Mira and was compelled to play with her hair or caress her wrist—as though Jax was one to talk when he had checked out Brielle’s ass as she walked away.
“Otto must be angry that she broke her engagement to Axel and intends to marry you. There are rumors that he disinherited her over it.”
“There are rumors that she’s pregnant. Those aren’t true, either,” Rocco said pithily.
“But she and Otto have had a falling-out.” The old man was livid, using every channel to try to get to her.
Rocco intervened every time, using his lawyers to thwart Otto’s threats of legal action against her by calmly countering with his spying accusations.
“As I say, none of my business,” Jax said mildly. “But I do wonder how it will affect our business.”
“I want all of it,” Rocco said plainly. “I’m in a much stronger position than Vorstoben. You must have seen the market reports that Mira is taking her investment capital out of it?” She was considering moving it into GPS specifically so Rocco could compete more robustly against Otto.
“I have and I spoke to Dom last night.” Jax mentioned his brother-in-law. “He has always had a good relationship with Axel so he wants to speak with him before—” He glanced at his phone as it pinged. “That’s him.” Jackson’s eyebrows went up as he read the text. “Did you know about this?”
Jackson showed Rocco the screen where a text read, Severin is not taking calls while he’s on his honeymoon.
Axel was married? The text was followed by a link to a news story.
“Will you send that to me?” Rocco glanced up as the women wound their way toward them. Had Mira known Axel was seeing someone? Was that the real reason she had broken her engagement? If so, why hadn’t she told him?
He didn’t want to mistrust her again, but found himself rising, saying to Jackson, “The bill is covered. Add whatever you like, but we’ll have to continue this another time.”
“What’s wrong?” Mira asked as they took the elevator to their suite. “Why did you rush us away like that?”
“Was Axel seeing someone while you were engaged?” Rocco asked with a slicing glance.
“No.” Mira had told Axel to date if he wanted to, so long as he was discreet about it. He’d said it wasn’t worth the gossip. “Why?”
“He’s married.” He clicked on his phone and showed her the announcement Jax had forwarded. “It went online an hour ago. Someone named Joy Youngston? According to Jackson’s brother-in-law, they’re on their honeymoon.”
Mira covered her mouth, fingers suddenly cold against her lips. She didn’t mean to speak her thought aloud, but the words blurted out in a shocked rasp. “He found her.”
“Who?”
She shook her head, still taking it in. She hurried out of the elevator toward the doors to their suite.
Stupid tears arrived as Rocco let her in.
She wasn’t sure why she was upset. Shock?
She wasn’t hurt. Not really. It had nothing to do with her.
She genuinely didn’t blame Axel for going after what he’d been promised.
This was a more general reaction to being pulled back into that awful morning in Otto’s office.
She stopped in the middle of the lounge and dropped her face into her hands, submerged again in the agony of learning the truth about herself and being cast out by the man she’d thought was her father.
“You do care about him,” Rocco said grimly from across the room.
The naked emotion in his voice was enough to pull her from her own spiral and pick up her head. Blinking away the gloss wetting her eyelashes, she took in the tension radiating off him—the set of his shoulders and the clench of his jaw and the knotting of his fists.
He wasn’t jealous. He couldn’t be. There was no way she had that much of an effect on such a powerful, self-possessed man.
Besides, “This isn’t about Axel.” She used her knuckle to brush away the dampness beneath her eyes. “I’m furious that Otto is such a hypocrite. He was filthy to me because my mother let him believe I was his, but he—” She stopped herself. This wasn’t her story to tell.
She could see Rocco retreating into himself, though, erecting defenses against her.
A pang of loss struck. Their nascent connection was disintegrating before her eyes.
“Can I trust you, Rocco? Really trust you?” she asked. “Because this is a very sharp weapon to use against Otto and he’s not the one who would be most hurt by it.”
Some of his tension eased. His expression changed to one of interest.
“I know how dangerous double-edged blades are,” he said cryptically. “Whatever you tell me will not leave this room.”
“The marriage contract we signed stated that if Axel married Otto’s daughter, he would gift his shares in Vorstoben to Axel and his bride. After we signed it, he showed us the paternity test that proved I wasn’t his daughter.”
“That’s how he told you?” His expression went blank with astonishment. Outrage. “What a vile piece of…” The rest was a blue streak of Italian curse words delivered in such a lethal tone, it sent a shiver through her.
She appreciated his anger on her behalf, but, “Let me finish. Otto then revealed he’d had a daughter with someone else.
She was relinquished for adoption, but it seems Axel has found her and married her.
That means Otto is obligated to step aside, install Axel as CEO and give them the company in a year. ”
“Attacking Vorstoben is no longer an attack on Otto.”
“Exactly.”
Rocco swore and took a step away from her, hands on his hips as he processed this wrinkle.
“I agree we can’t use this woman’s private life to attack Otto. That’s not fair to her, but what do you know about her?”
“Only that Otto learned about her three years ago. She’s my age, so you see what a hypocrite he is?
” she said on a choke of humorless laughter.
“He hated my mother for her affair, but he had someone on the side at the same time. Someone who had his baby.” She began to pace off her agitation.
“And even after he knew about her, he conned Axel into getting engaged to me, purely to keep Axel at Vorstoben and to use my money. That’s evil, right? ”
“That’s why you were furious enough to come to me despite hating my guts.”
She faltered. Coming to him had been a combination of her desire for revenge and her desire for him.
He had accused her of that the day she’d arrived in his office and she had denied it, but she could admit that to herself now.
She had seen a chance to see what could happen between them and had taken it.
“I didn’t hate you. I don’t. I was hurt,” she clarified. “Because you weren’t completely honest when we met.”
He swore and squeezed the back of his neck. “Mira—”
“Wait.” Something else struck her. “Axel is on his honeymoon?”
“Yes. Why?” He turned to face her again.
She licked her lips and left them parted in readiness to speak, but hesitated while she finished her mental computations.
“I think Otto is refusing to honor the contract.” She spoke slowly, each word landing on her tongue as she arrived at her conclusion.
“Axel wanted to leave two years ago, to start his own company. Otto convinced him to stay and propose to me, promising Vorstoben in exchange. After he learned I wasn’t Otto’s daughter, Axel must have realized Otto would only string him along again unless he married this woman and quickly.
He was trying to force Otto to make good on his promise.
So why is he on a honeymoon, with a woman he didn’t know existed ten days ago?
He ought to be taking the helm at Vorstoben. ”
“Why is he disappearing when we’ve teamed up against Otto and we’re coming in with ballistic missiles?” Rocco asked, leaping onto her train of thought.
“Right? If Axel is refusing to take calls from the likes of Domenico Blackwood, he’s doing it to warn Otto that Vorstoben can sink into the Mariana Trench for all he cares. Knowing Axel, he’s prepared to take half the staff with him. Now is the time for you and I to go after Vorstoben, Rocco.”
“Let’s go back to Rome,” he said.
Are you really engaged to her? Call me.
Rocco finally heard from Silvio. His text was the reaction Rocco had expected, but not the one he’d hoped for.
I haven’t told her, Rocco texted back. He’d come close, though. That moment in Naples had been ripe for the truth to come out, but Mira had sidetracked him with her deduction of Axel’s motives.
They had flown back to Rome and had been here a few days. It was a bit of a honeymoon of their own, if he was honest. They were busy with calls and meetings and networking events disguised as cocktail parties and dinners, but he’d never felt so aligned with anyone in so many ways.
Obviously, they were beyond compatible in bed. Their lovemaking was frequent, spectacular and, impossibly, got better every time. Socially, Mira understood how to play the game. She was a wonderful asset, helping him move easily into and among the higher echelons.
At home, they were also well-aligned. They both liked to rise early and work out before breakfast. They were both capable of entertaining themselves if the other was tied up.
When it came to business goals, Mira was continuing to extricate herself from Vorstoben and was learning to direct her investment portfolio. She was on a video chat with her trustee, doing exactly that, so Axel returned Silvio’s call.
“Rocco,” Silvio said with rebuke, eschewing any other greeting.
“I’m on a yacht with my entire family, celebrating my thirty-fifth wedding anniversary.
We just got back into service and Claudina is asking me ‘Who is this woman Rocco is engaged to? Why haven’t we met her?
’ I told her it’s a stunt. Yes? I don’t like it, but I’ve seen that Otto’s right-hand man is married and striking out on his own.
Tell me she’s retaliating against him. You’re not really involved with her. ”
“The engagement is a ploy,” Rocco confirmed, but they were sleeping together. Mira was too sensitive to be casual about that and, frankly, Rocco couldn’t dismiss it as such, either. “But we are involved.”
“No,” Silvio said fervently.
Rocco’s gut knotted at hearing that stark, disapproving word from a man he considered a mentor, a good friend and a longtime supporter of all he did.
Most importantly, Silvio was the father of the woman Rocco was seeing.
He didn’t want a repeat of that other not-good-enough dismissal.
He wanted Silvio to approve of their relationship.
“Why?” Silvio demanded. “Why her?” A string of curses came through, but were muffled, as Silvio no doubt ran a hand over his jaw.
“Otto told her he’s not her father. She’s wondering who is.”
“You can’t tell her. I did what I could for her,” Silvio said defensively.
“It’s not enough,” Rocco retorted. “You have no idea the situation you left her in. Especially after her mother died. She had no one. That’s why she came to me when she learned all this.”
I didn’t hate you. I was hurt because you weren’t completely honest when we met.
Rocco couldn’t stomach the way Otto had deliberately hurt Mira without letting her know the roots of his animosity toward her. She had to know she had others on her side.
“I won’t tell her, but you have to,” Rocco said.
“You expect me to destroy my whole family?” Silvio asked with defensive anger.
“I expect you to quit making me hurt her. She wants to know who her father is. She doesn’t understand why her mother didn’t tell her. It’s eating her up.”
“You can’t ask me to break the heart of the woman who has given me thirty-five years of her life.” Silvio words were laced with distress.
“You should never have asked me to carry this secret of yours.” Rocco caught sight of Mira through the window, coming toward his office door. “I have to go. Think about it.”