Page 174 of Lust & Lies

“My grandpa has to be handled,” Aiden stated.

I wanted to speak, but held my tongue. I hadn’t told him yet that I wanted to kill Mr. Park. How could I tell the man I loved that I wanted to kill his grandfather? How could I want to kill the grandfather of the man I loved?

“I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted him dead,” he continued. “Especially if he’s the one behind the leaks and attempts on your life.”

I sensed abutin there somewhere. If he asked me to, would I really be able to let go of my plans for Mr. Park? I don’t know. I needed that man to suffer the way he’d made me suffer. He deserved my wrath.

Call me petty or vindictive, but I wouldn’t be able to let this anger go until I’d had my revenge. I’d lost so much because of Mr. Park. He needed to lose something because of me. I wanted him to lose his life. Was that too much to ask for?

“But...” Aiden started.

And there it was. A sliver of anger and frustration threaded through me as I waited to hear what he had to say. We’d only just gotten back together, and I had a feeling we were about to have another disagreement.

CHAPTER FIFTY–ONE

NOELANI

“BUT WHAT?” I WHISPERED, attitude evident in my tone.

“Grandpa has a lot of support from the Watchdogs and in the older business circles. There are still some circles Tristan hasn’t conquered. There are some board members who disagree with Tristan’s plans for the company’s future. They’ve gone along with him so far because they trust grandpa.”

“I can change those board members' minds for Tristan,” I told Aiden.

As soon as those words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. This was precisely the reason Mr. Park hadn’t wanted me to be with Aiden. I never took a diplomatic approach. It was always, “Do you want me to kill them?”

And the thing was, I was better than that. I’d helped Tristan change the board members’ minds numerous times simply by helping him tweak the concept of his plans. The old members of the board didn’t truly disagree with Tristan’s plans.

They only objected so they could feel involved. Sometimes, they simply wanted their input included in the plans so they wouldn’t feel left out. They were old, like Mr. Park, and they didn’t like being told how things would go by someone younger.

They wanted to feel needed for more than just their money. They didn’t deserve death because of that. I took a deep breath and released it slowly before speaking again.

“What I meant to say was, I can help him come up with plans that will persuade the board to see things his way.”

Yes, that sounded more like something a sane person would say. That sounded more like the future wife of a CEO.

“We both know what you really meant,” Aiden said, smiling down at me. “And I prefer your first suggestion. That’s precisely how I want to handle things. However, we’re not the Cattaneos. We can’t threaten our board members’ lives, no matter how much we want to. And trust me, I want to.”

I smiled, knowing exactly what he was talking about. In spying on Julian, I’d also ended up watching his cousins,Orazio, Cas, Rome, and Bryce. Not only did I admire them for their taste in women, but I also loved the way they handled business. Sometimes you had to kill a few motherfuckers to make others fall in line.

“That’s why it’s a good thing Tristan handles that end of the business and not me,” Aiden added. “He’s a great businessman. And he’ll be great as the head of the family. But it can’t be an abrupt change. The older members wouldn’t buy such a shift. Grandpa’s untimely death could create problems for us in the future. Plus, we’re still smoothing things over from that case with the Clarks and our employee whose body was found in their office.”

“Shit, I’d forgotten about that,” I mumbled, realizing I needed to look beyond my anger and focus on the bigger picture.

Aiden had just explained to me what that smell had been at his site, where he’d met up with Julian Cattaneo. I think it was savage as hell how Aiden handled the situation. Sending those bodies back to the killer was my kind of revenge.

But that revenge came with repercussions. The Park family wasn’t responsible for those women’s deaths, and Tristan was able to cover up that the bodies were initially found at their site.

Even so, the fact that one of their employees was found amongst the corpses meant some in the business world would distance themselves from them until the investigation was over.

It would also affect their stocks. If Mr. Park died during this period, that could raise more red flags.Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.

“I’m not saying we won’t make him pay for what he’s done,” Aiden told me. “He’ll definitely pay. We just can’t...”

“Kill him?” I finished for him.

“It would be better if we could get him to step down from his position and then maybe put him on lockdown, surrounded by people who worked for us. That way, he wouldn’t be able to hurt any of us again.”

It sounded like he was beating around the bush. I wanted to get straight to the point.