“Oh, Christ,” her father interrupted in a voice redolent with disgust. “Jax Morrow. This is your place?”
Shock broke over her. She’d stumbled into a bar and into the arms of Jax Morrow? Holy freaking God. No wonder he’d seemed somehow familiar. His face wasn’t as recognizable as that of his brother Donovan since he kept himself firmly out of the spotlight, but his name was a fixture in the newspapers, magazines, and gossip columns of the city.
“Jax Morrow?” she said faintly. “You’re Jax Morrow?”
Hunt/Jax’s intense blue gaze flicked to her, a brief searing glance. Then he returned his attention back to where her father stood. “Garret,” he said calmly. “Yeah, this is mine. How the hell did you get up here?”
Pandora stood there, still stunned. He would know who her father is, of course he would. The Morrows and Garrets were rivals from way back. Which meant …
He now knows who you are.
Oh Jesus.
“The locks on your door aren’t as strong as they look,” her father was saying.
Jax’s face had darkened with anger. “If you’ve broken anything, so help me—”
“Relax. The door is fine. I, however, am not.” Her father’s cold stare got even colder. “It appears you’ve taken something of mine.”
Oh, shit. They were talking about her. “He didn’t take anything,” Pandora said hotly. “I asked him—”
“Be quiet,” Nick ordered, cutting her off. “You need to do as you’re told and get into the car. Or shall I get Danny to pick you up and carry you?”
Pandora’s heart felt like it was going to come out of her chest. Nick wouldn’t hurt her but the thought of the bodyguards dragging her kicking and screaming out the door was humiliating. So, either do what he said or be forced into it? Not much of a choice there.
“She’s not going anywhere.” Jax Morrow’s voice was rough and dark and absolutely certain.
“The hell she isn’t.” Nick stared at him. “She’s my daughter and she does what I tell her.”
Menace permeated the air, the bodyguards tensing. God, she should just do what she was told. Nick looked angry enough to do Jax harm and she didn’t want to be responsible for that.
“It’s okay,” she croaked. “I’ll do it.”
Jax turned his head, his gaze scorching her. “Do you want to go?”
“No.”
Hell, no.
“Then you won’t.” He looked back at her father. “I’m not one of your minions, Garret. And you can’t intimidate me, either. She’s not going anywhere.”
Nick was silent, not taking his eyes off Jax. “You want her?” he asked finally. “Then you can have her. But I demand compensation for what you stole.”
“Compensation?” Pandora said. “Dad, I’m not a possession you can just—”
“You’re my daughter. And I had plans for you. Plans that have been severely disrupted by your little escapade.”
She folded her arms tightly over the nausea that sat in her gut. “Don’t tell me: Sergei.”
He neither looked surprised she’d guessed nor did he try to deny it. “An alliance with him will be good for all of us.”
“Not for me it wouldn’t.”
“It’s for your own protection, Pandora. There will come a day where I can’t do that for you anymore and I—”
“Oh, spare me,” she cut in, suddenly, blisteringly angry. “Don’t try to dress it up. I’m just the bone you’re throwing to one of your dogs.” She’d never said things like that to him before and part of her couldn’t believe she was saying it now. Normally she just nodded her head and went back to playing World of Warcraft or Second Life, or working on one of her coding projects. Not today though. Today she’d discovered an inner core of strength she didn’t know she had.
Her father’s gaze could have frozen fire. “You will not speak to me like that. Not after all I’ve done for you. Get in the car. I won’t ask you again.”
“What compensation?” Jax said before anyone could move. “And who the fuck is Sergei?”
“My daughter is promised to an associate of mine.”
“Promised?”
“The engagement is to be announced today.”
Pandora gritted her teeth. “I knew it. I knew that’s what you were going to do. Happy birthday to me.”
Jax blinked, as if he couldn’t quite understand. “What is this? You have a fiancé you didn’t tell me about?”
“No, of course not.” She took a ragged breath. “I would never—”
“I’ve arranged the marriage,” her father interrupted, “in return for territory and numerous other advantages.” He stopped, his eyes calculating as he stared at Jax.
And Pandora began to get a very bad feeling about what was going to happen next.
“But maybe I’ve changed my mind,” Nick went on. “Maybe I could do better than Sergei.”
“Dad …” Pandora began.
“Far better,” Nick murmured, ignoring her, his gaze on Jax, an acquisitive gleam in his eyes. “You wanted to know about compensation, Morrow? How about this for compensation then. I want you to marry my daughter instead.”
*
At first Jax couldn’t quite understand what the man was saying, not when he was still reeling from the discovery that his Snow White was Pandora Garret, daughter of Nick Garret, head of the most notorious crime family in New York and once the Morrows’ greatest rival.
The virgin daughter he’d screwed over his couch and whom the guy now apparently wanted him to marry.
“No,” Pandora was saying. “No, Dad. He’s got nothing to do with this.”
But Nick Garret was staring at him with the same dark eyes as Snow’s, his expression that of a man who has just uncovered his mortal enemy’s weakness. An analogy that wasn’t out of place given the situation.
The Garrets and the Morrows had been rivals a long time ago, when crime was big business for both families. Except the Morrows had eventually chosen the path of legitimacy while the Garrets stayed in the underworld, making money and gaining influence on the sly.
Shit, even if she hadn’t been a complete stranger, even if he’d been in love with her, he would never agree to marry her. Be associated with a crime lord’s daughter? Not a good business move at the best of times let alone now, with every sordid aspect of Morrow’s past plastered all over the headlines.
“You’re crazy,” he said curtly. “I’m not marrying anyone. Now get out of my apartment before I call the police.”
“You’re not going to do that,” Nick Garret said, a slow, cold smile turning his mouth. “It’s a tricky time to be a Morrow, isn’t it? Lots of secrets coming out. But those aren’t even the bad ones. I know of a few more that won’t make your life any easier should they get into the press.”
Jax thrust his hands in his pockets, a thread of ice winding through him. “You’ve got nothing on us. We would have heard about it years ago if you had.”
“Perhaps I’ve been saving them for a rainy day. Waiting for when I could use them to my advantage.” That smile widened. “And I can see that advantage right now.”
Jax went cold. Of course there were secrets, there always were in a family like his, and it really shouldn’t surprise him that Garret would know about them. But still … it wasn’t like his father to leave such loose ends lying around.
“What do you want?” Jax forced the words out, anger and frustration beginning to burn away the cold. Jesus, where the hell was his usual detachment? His logic? Because he damn well couldn’t afford any stupid emotional reactions now, not with Nick Garret staring at him like a hungry snake.
“I told you what I want. An alliance with Sergei will give me territory but it won’t give me the protection the Morrow name could. Or the respectability. So, marry my daughter; make her a Morrow. Extend your respectable image to my family and in return I won’t tell the world about a few inconvenient murders here and there.”
Oh Christ. The guy was nuts.
“I’m not marrying any-damn-one!” Pandora folded her arms, angry tension in every line of her figure. “This is the twenty-first century, Dad! You can’t make me.”
“Oh really? And where are you going to go for help?”
She paled. “There’s the police. They’ll—”
“You think I haven’t got every police officer in the city in my pocket?” Garret’s voice was derisive. “No, sweetheart. You don’t get a choice.”
How had it gotten to this? How had a simple one-night stand gotten so complicated? Jax should have known not to trust the desire coiling in his gut. He should have held strong.
The anger spilled over and before he quite knew what he was doing, he’d walked forward, getting in Garret’s face. “If you think you can intimidate me—” he began.
The bodyguards closed in instantly, guns at his head.
“Easy boys.” Garret flicked his fingers and the men stood back. “I’m not intimidating you, Morrow. I’m blackmailing you. I want Morrow protection, respectability, and I’ll do what I must to get it.”
“So you can keep on doing what you’re doing?”
“Of course. You’ll keep the heat off. I think it’s a fair trade, don’t you?”
“Dad,” Pandora said quietly, though her vibrated with fury. “Don’t do this. Why can’t you just … leave me alone?”
“I’m a businessman, sweetheart. I always have been, I always will be.”
“Is that all I am? Just business to you?”
Garret stared at her, his expression unreadable. “I do what I have to do, you know that. And like I said, it’s for your protection.”
“Dad—”
“Well, Morrow? Do we have a deal?”
Jax glanced at Pandora, standing with arms wrapped around herself as if she were cold. Her dark eyes were huge, shadows from their eventful night marking her pale skin.
No wonder she hadn’t wanted to tell him who she was, when she had this bastard for a father.
God, he hated the look on her face, her expression closed up, all the heat and fire and challenge he’d seen the night before extinguished.
“It’s okay, Hunt or Jax or whoever you are,” Pandora said before he could speak, her voice not quite level. “I’m not dragging you into this. I’ll go home with him, it’s fine.”
“Very noble, sweetheart,” Garret said with a shrug. “I’m sure Sergei will appreciate you if Morrow isn’t coming to the party.”
Jax’s fingers curled in the pockets of his jeans. She looked so defeated. So what the fuck, what was he doing standing here? Saying nothing? Doing nothing? He always knew what to do, never had any problems with making the tough decisions. Cool and calm and detached, that’s how he worked it.
But you’re not cool and calm and detached now, are you?
No. He wasn’t. He was angry. No, shit, he was furious. And frustrated. And … possessive. Christ, he didn’t know where the hell that particular emotion had come from but it was certainly there. The thought of his Snow White being given like a thing to someone else was so not happening.
Jax looked Nick Garret in the eyes. “In that case, yes. I’ll marry your daughter.”
Pandora gazed out of the window of the limo as it pulled up to Morrow Tower, the massive skyscraper that housed Morrow Incorporated. She was still in her red silk dress from the night before and felt vaguely ridiculous. The ultimate walk of shame.
Hardly. You’re an engaged woman now, aren’t you?
She forced that thought back to the darkness it came from. No, she wasn’t engaged. Not really. This was all supposed to be for show, to get her father off her back.
“You’re insane. You know that, right?” she said, looking up at the glittering glass and steel edifice.
Jax finished sending a text or e-mail or whatever it was from his phone and put it away in his jacket pocket. He was dressed in an expertly tailored suit and tie, all that primitive, exciting masculine power firmly encased in his civilized armor. His expression was unreadable, his blue eyes opaque. “I told you not to worry. Nobody’s going to be marrying anyone.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that.” She swallowed, trying not to let the panic choke her.
“You need to trust me. In fact you probably should have trusted me last night.”
Pandora glanced at him. “What? And told you my name?”
“Yes.”
“And what would you have done if you’d known I was Nick Garret’s daughter?”
The look in his blue eyes flickered, giving her the answer she’d expected anyway.
“Yeah, well, now you know why I didn’t.” Regardless of that though, she
had
trusted him last night and that had been before she knew who he was. Now? God, it wasn’t as if she had a choice anyway. She either went back to her father and married Sergei or …
“I don’t need you to bring me back here,” she said, gesturing out the window. “I can go …” She trailed off. Because of course, she couldn’t go anywhere, could she? She had no other clothes, no money, nothing.
“Where?” Jax’s blue eyes were almost cold as they swept over her. He seemed … different from the raw, passionate man he’d been last night. Much more contained. Detached even. She wasn’t sure she liked the change.
“I dunno. A hotel or something. If you loaned me some money that is … ”
The car door was pulled open by the driver, and the sounds of the city flooded in.
“You’re not going to a hotel,” Jax said flatly. “I wouldn’t trust your father as far as I could throw him. No, you’ll be under my protection now, which means you’re staying with me at my apartment in the Morrow Tower until we sort this out.”
“Under your protection? Jesus, you’re as bad as my father. This isn’t the Middle Ages, you know! I’m not some little doormat woman you can order around whenever and wherever you please.”
“I know you’re not.”
“Do you?” All the anger and frustration that had been trapped inside her back at the apartment seemed to roll over her in one choking wave. “Do you really? Because if you think I’m going to go into another fucking cage, another fucking tower like a good little girl, you’ve got another think coming.”
He stared at her, blue eyes seeing right inside her. Then abruptly he leaned forward, putting a large warm hand over hers where it rested on her knee. “It’ll be okay.” His voice was so certain and sure. “I promise. You only have to trust me. Can you do that?”
The heat of his hand seemed to move up her arm, spreading out, somehow easing the clutch of emotion inside her. A reassurance she hadn’t even realized she’d needed. She let out a breath. “Yeah … okay. I … trust you.”