As everyone filed out of the room, Allie shuffled some papers around, then tapped them against the mahogany. A slight smile pulled at the corner of her mouth as if she were finding some satisfaction, even a little joy, from her victory in their power play.

Despite being out of options, Hudson’s will remained the same. He still wanted the woman who was doing everything in her power to ignore his presence. But she was giving him nothing to grab onto, nothing to draw her to him and make her see how fucking sorry he was. Without her the world no longer made sense. All he had were memories that bled into the horrific morning when she discovered his deception. The lies that cost him everything and left him a giant void in the shape of a grown man.

Allie looked up at him. Her smile smoothed out and the room became as cold as a morgue. “What are you waiting for?”

“I wanted to apologize for my behavior yesterday. That wasn’t exactly how—”

“Don’t.” She cut him off with a sharp wave of her hand. “I meant, why aren’t you buying more shares of Ingram? One percent isn’t much at the aggressive rate you were acquiring stock. You could have surpassed me by now and then you wouldn’t have lost today’s vote.”

Hudson sucked in a breath and exhaled in a rush. “I’m not taking your father’s company away from you, Alessandra.”

“Why not? Wasn’t that the plan? Snatch Ingram out from under him while his daughter was under you?”

“Sleeping with you was never part of the plan.” Hudson remained calm, keeping his hands in his pockets and one ankle crossed over the other as he leaned against the wall. His eyes, however, were locked on Allie with the stealth and shrewdness of a hawk.

“But there was a plan, wasn’t there?”

“Not one that involved you.”

“No? So I was just an added perk then? Or maybe I’m flattering myself. Maybe it was all part of some twisted revenge for what I did to you ten years ago. Maybe you hated every minute of it.” Her words gained momentum with every syllable she lashed at him.

“Enough.” Hudson pushed away from the wall and drew his hand out of his pocket as he methodically moved toward her. On the outside he appeared calculated, while on the inside his spine started to vibrate. It was a sensation he’d grown familiar with around her, a big two-ton fuck me. He wanted her back and in the dangerous-edge kind of way. “Verbal daggers are getting us nowhere. Surely you know me better than to think I’ll give up. Hear me out; give me a chance to explain.” He played the only card he had left. “Then if you want, I’ll leave you alone.”

Allie regarded him for a long moment, then crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine, I’m listening.”

“I swear in the beginning I didn’t know.”

“But eventually you did know. And yet you said nothing. Not even when we were at the lake.” Her voice wavered. “In front of the fire.”

“I planned to tell you.”

“Making a decision is not taking action, Hudson.”

“Goddamn it, Allie.” Hudson balled his hand into a fist. He wanted to punch something, but all the fucking walls were glass, nailing them into a goddamn fishbowl. Lucky for them the conference room came with the frost-yourself special. Hudson jutted out an arm and hit the switch. Instantly the glass turned opaque.

“You really think it was all some scheme for revenge?” He laughed in a short burst. “You’re giving me too much credit. Hurting you wasn’t on my business plan.” He pivoted and ran a hand through his hair. When he faced her again, it was head-on. “You think that low of me?”

“I don’t have evidence that says otherwise. You’d lied to me the entire time we were together.”

“Not about how I felt, Allie, never about how I felt. I should have been honest with you about the rest, but the feelings I had for you were real.”

Now she was the one to let out a mocking laugh. “Feelings? Do you have any idea what it feels like to be deceived by the people closest to your heart?”

The reality of what his omission had done to her weighed heavily on him. Fuck that, he might as well have been wearing lead shoes at the bottom of the ocean.

“I lost you, I lost my parents. I lost my life as I knew it and everything I’ve ever known to be true.”

“Allie, listen, please . . .”

“It’s too late for this, Hudson. The damage is done.” She glared at him. “And this time it wasn’t me who royally screwed things up. You took care of that all on your own the day you decided to target my family.”

Hudson rubbed his temples and a vicious frown pulled at the corners of his mouth. “It wasn’t a personal attack on your father. It was business, nothing more. I was after the company, same as any other I’ve acquired, and I wasn’t seated alone in the crowd of prospective buyers. The fact that Ingram Media was on the verge of bankruptcy was public knowledge.”

“If it wasn’t personal, then why did you meet with him?”

Hudson blinked. “I met with your father to offer him a deal. The day after we came back from Lake Geneva, I was having second thoughts about—”

“Second thoughts?” Allie cut him off.

“About not salvaging Ingram Media. It’s a viable company with a wealth of potential. What I proposed was that the acquisition go through and Ingram become a subsidiary of Chase Industries. I told your father he could remain on as president.”

“He wasn’t interested in taking you up on the offer?”

Hudson paused and considered his answer. He seemed to be stepping into one pothole after another, and like hell if he was going to twist his motherfucking ankle on this one. But he swore to himself that he would never lie to her again, despite how much the truth hurt. Scratch that, he couldn’t tell her how her father had lashed out at him with anger sharper than any blade and handed him a one way ticket to “Go to hell” that read “Fuck you” on it.

“No,” he said with heavy sigh. “He wasn’t going down without a fight. He wanted a family member to man the helm and push Ingram Media into the future. Despite what transpired, the hell he was pushing you into with that French fuck, he loved you and believed in you. I believe in you, Allie.” The gravel tone of his voice was pleading, and when Allie met his eyes, there was a subtle softening; a pain mixed with an unrequited need. “I’m sorry.” The words didn’t even begin to cover it, but in the end it was the best he could do.

“It doesn’t change anything.”Allie’s eyes drifted shut. “You have to let me go, Hudson. Release me.”

Chapter Eleven

As Hudson hit the exit of the rehab facility he felt like he was being chased, which was goddamn insane. There wasn’t anyone of threat behind him, except the biography of people bottoming out after snorting cocaine through deviated septums. The similar tie to them all was that the disease was a destroyer and it had not only claimed his mother, but was a grim reaper circling, ready to take his little brother down.

Fuck if that was going to happen.

What was behind him was a coin perpetually being tossed in the air with disaster on one side and shit out of luck on the other. The trouble was, he’d been trying to bury it there and had no plans of resurrecting it. And that little family group therapy session made him anxious as fuck to get the hell away from all the Kumbaya shit.

He must have checked his watch every ten minutes. All that sharing had his heart doing jumping jacks and his palms sweating, and the closer it came to his turn for a one-on-one with his brother, the worse it got. But even once they were out of there, away from all the other people visiting their loved ones, the things said in that room still crowded between them as they headed down the cobblestone sidewalk in silence.