Page 95 of Ice Cold Christmas

“While you were gone, he took everything.” Dario surged to his feet. Both of his hands shoved down against the top of the table. “He doesn’t just have the business. He owns the estate. The freaking cars. Hell, I think he even owns your home, Melody. That’s what I was looking for in his office. Proof. And I found it. Deeds, paperwork. He took everything.”

The drumming of her heartbeat seemed to echo in her ears. “Do you own everything, Victor?”

A curt nod from him.

And she had a flash of them. In this room…

“You have everything you ever wanted.” She’d worn a red dress, one that left her arms bare, one that fluttered near her knees. High heel shoes. Her voice had trembled with pain.

“The hell I do.” Victor’s voice. Hard and grim. As hard and grim as his expression. “But I will.” And he let go of her wrist.

He’d been holding her wrist as they faced off in this very room. Then he’d let her go.

Victor…he had everything now.

“Did you want to destroy Mage?” Melody asked through numb lips. All of her just felt numb.

“When I started, yes. All I wanted to do was rip the company to shreds.”

She flinched.

“He’s a bastard!” Dario declared. “But we’ll fight him, Melody. Take his ass to court and take back what belongs to us!”

Her head turned toward him. “How?”

Dario blinked.

“If he has the legal paperwork…if Sebastian signed the company over to him…if—if I was gone the last year and couldn’t stop anything…” OhGodohGodohGod…no, please no. She shook her head hard. No. Victor couldn’t have been involved in her disappearance. He could not have?—

The boardroom disappeared. Darkness swam before her eyes, and suddenly, she was inside a vehicle. Back down in the parking garage. Gripping a black steering wheel and staring at the closed elevator doors.

“This is a gun, Melody. I can blow your brains out here and now, or you can start the damn car.”

Her hand flew to her temple because, just for a moment, she was sure that she’d felt the muzzle of a gun pressing against her.

“Victor sends his regards.” The man with the gun had said those words. Victor, who hadn’t come out of the elevator. Victor, who should have been there, but wasn’t. “Drive the fucking car.” An order from the man with the gun.

And, she’d driven…

Melody doubled over as pain knifed through her, cutting as savagely as any knife.

“Melody!”

Pain and betrayal coiled within her. Footsteps rushed across the boardroom floor.

“I have to get out of here.” Melody tossed back her hair and looked up just as both Dario and Victor closed in on her.

Both men looked worried. Victor, though…

Fury. It burned in his eyes.

“Dario, please,” she heard herself beg, “get me out of here.” Because she was going to be sick. Melody could feel the nausea and pain rolling within her.

Dario immediately nodded. “Yes, yes, come on. Let’s go.” He put his arm around her waist. “I’ve got you. It’s okay.”

“Get the fuck away from her,” Victor snarled.

Olivia flew for the door. She yanked it open.