The woman ran from the room, ready to escape the chaos.
Jonas’s face was beet red now. At least he’d had the decency to pull up his pants. “Do you understand who I am? With one word, I can have you eliminated.”
“Go right ahead. I dare you. You’ll learn very quickly the only reason the soldiers stayed with the organization was because their loyalty was to the family, not you.”
“I think you’ll see that things don’t work the way you think. You’re just like your Opa. You have no idea how to move with the times. You’ll learn sooner rather than later that my methods of business are the way to go.” He walked around me, as if he were a king about to leave. “Don’t expect me to help you when things go to shit.”
“I won’t.” As Jonas went to the door, I said, “Also, the contract says if you do anything to undermine the family, all monies in the trust revert to the heir. Don’t think to mess with me, my business, or my wife.” I added the last part to emphasize that I knew how he’d treated her.
“Boy, don’t make an enemy of me. You won’t like the outcome.”
I kept my face emotionless, the best way to piss him off. I’d heard this over and over since I was old enough to understand the business my family was in.
Opa had always said power either made the man or destroyed the man. In Jonas’s case, it was the latter, but he wasn’t aware of it. Soon he would see without the Weber organization behind him, his millions would make him no different than any other man in Europe with too much money and no clout.
“Is that a threat?”
Immediately the room grew silent; the soldiers watched Jonas as if he were ready to pull a gun on me. All of them had heard about what he’d done when he’d informed me about the wedding.
As if sensing the change in loyalty with the Weber guard, he said, “It’s a warning.” And then strode through the door.
The moment he was out of view, I nodded to Lucas, who followed Jonas to make sure the asshole didn’t take anything that could cause me problems in the future.
The bastard was officially evicted.
Destroying Jonas had been my ultimate goal ever since Mama and Hannah were murdered. Jonas forcing me to marry Isa moved up the timetable, but things weren’t as simple as taking over. Now I had to set up all the pieces for the dominoes to fall.
“Search every inch of this house, especially this room and his private quarters. I want to know anything and everything he’s up to. Also scan for cameras and bugs. I wouldn’t put it past him to record everything that went on in this house.”
“Done.” Emil, one of the lieutenants in charge of the house, went to a cabinet and pulled it free of the wall, exposing a safe. “I saw it a few years ago.”
“Open it.” I moved toward the steel door.
Emil pulled out his phone and called someone and then said, “Kurt will be here in a moment.”
Kurt was a technology and security expert in the organization. I would have recruited him for other aspects of my world if I wasn’t positive he would never leave the family.
Kurt arrived a minute later with a box. He pulled out wires and a square device of some type, attached it to the safe, and then typed in a code. The electronic safe lit up, and within a few seconds, beeped and opened.
I moved in. The safe was filled with stacks of folders. I pulled out the papers, setting them in a bag Emil had brought for me. Behind the folders I found a thumb drive and photographs of Isa, of her coming out of the gym, of her visiting her friends.
The last few had my blood going cold. The images showed Isa and me meeting for coffee, us at my club, her leaving my building the week before, her eyes haunted and full of sadness.
The bastard had known about us.
It wasn’t like him to keep anything close to his chest. He loved to brag, to share his grand plans with the world.
There had to be something I was missing. Why hadn’t he used the photos to call me out to Isa? What was he trying to gain?
“Bring me a secure computer,” I ordered, to no one in particular.
Kurt pulled one out, setting it in front of me. I attached the thumb drive.
As the contents appeared, I resisted the urge to throw the laptop across the room. There was nothing but spreadsheet after spreadsheet filled with details of officials across Europe who owed the family loyalty for favors rendered.
This list, however useful for the organization, did nothing to explain why Jonas was having Isa followed.
At that moment, Lucas appeared in the office.
“Where is he?” I asked, not looking up from the computer.
“Gone. He didn’t even bother going back to his room. He had this smug look on his face as he walked out the door.” Lucas came up beside me and picked up the pictures of Isa. “That bastard is up to something, and I believe you just handed him your Achilles heel.”
I stared at the picture of me watching Isa as she watched the scene at the club. A blind man would have seen I was gone for her.
This was bad, very bad. And now I had to find a way to protect my pissed-off-to-holy-hell woman without clipping her wings.
Chapter Twelve
Isa
“Are you seriously at work the day after your wedding?” Lilly stated after slamming open my office door and plopping down on a chaise I had in the back of my office. “I distinctly remember you setting up a schedule so you could take a honeymoon or something.”
“Good morning to you. And thanks for just walking in. I’m working on projections and budgets. And you know I get crabby when I have
