Sadly that would never happen, not now. Linc stood up and held out his hand for her to shake. “Nice doing business with you, Piper. I’ll get your money to you by the end of the day.”
Linc squeezed her shoulder as he followed Beckett out of the room. Jaeger just sat where he was, one ankle on his knee, his face a thundercloud.
When they were alone, she stood up and pulled her bag over her shoulder. She was suddenly exhausted, emotionally and physically wiped out. Wishing Jaeger would say something and then hoping he wouldn’t, she pushed her chair under the table and turned to leave.
“My lawyers will contact you with regard to custody of Ty,” he said.
Piper stiffened. That was too much. He was not going to take her son from her. He wanted custody? Oh, hell, no!
Piper felt white-hot anger flash over her as she went into full, rabid momma-bear mode. She slapped both hands on the conference table, her face burning.
“Know this, Jaeger Ballantyne. No matter how much I love you, how much I want you in my life, if you ever so much as mention taking my son from me again, I will take every cent of those millions and I will vanish! I will go so deep and so dark you will never find him again. No one, not even you, will come between me and my son!”
Jaeger sat up straighter, and a small frown appeared between his eyes. “Whoa, hold on—”
“My mother loved me, but she loved my father more. My father didn’t love me at all. Ty is my only family, my world. I love you, but God, I will fight you with every breath I have if you try to take him from me.”
Piper lifted a shaking finger in the general direction of his face. Tears burned hot passages down her cheeks as she continued, “I should’ve told you about him when I first saw you again. I know that now. I know you hate me, but please, taking Ty from me would be a death sentence for me. Please don’t make me do something drastic to keep him. I’ll share him with you—he deserves to know you—but please don’t try to take it all. Don’t make me do something irreversible.”
“Piper, I—”
She couldn’t withstand any more. Piper felt the last chunk of her heart rip into shreds. She dashed her hands over her wet cheeks and whirled around, seeing the blurred outline of the door. Needing to escape, to run, she bolted from the room, ignoring Jaeger’s command for her to stay.
Earlier, when she’d walked into this room, she didn’t think the situation between her and Jaeger could get worse, but it had.
Be strong, Piper. Be brave. Your love wasn’t enough, not this time, not for this man.
There was no point in thinking about what-could-have-beens. No point in mourning a future she’d wanted but he didn’t. It was over. By threatening to take her son from her, he’d killed the last fragment of hope she’d been clinging to that they could work something out.
What they had, what they could’ve had, was impossible, a shattered dream.
Piper walked out of Ballantyne and Company for the final time and begged her hopes, her dreams and her love for Jaeger not to follow her home.
Twelve
Jaeger pushed his hand under his suit jacket and felt the padded outline of the stones he’d just purchased. There was another fortune in jewelry in his briefcase, but he felt the need to keep the three cabochon-cut sapphires, twenty-five carats of corundum, on his person. With the addition of these stones purchased an hour ago from Piper’s cousin Maeve, the Kashmir Blues collection was as complete as they could hope it to be.
Linc was excited, Beckett quietly thrilled, Sage loudly ecstatic.
Jaeger felt like his head was about to explode.
He pulled his SUV into the fast lane to pass a slow-moving sedan and, through his expensive shades, glared at the asphalt of Route 27. A headache pulsed behind his right eye and his chest felt tight. He instructed the on-board computer to find a radio station playing hard rock, hoping the strident music would distract him from his thoughts. He made it through the first verse before shouting at the computer to turn the music off.
He was losing his temper with technology, a new low.
He eased his foot off the gas and pushed his free hand through his hair. He wasn’t sleeping, he was mainlining coffee and he couldn’t remember when he last ate. His office felt claustrophobic, his apartment like a sophisticated jail cell. The sun seemed to be dimmer and the air thinner and...