Page 108 of Point of Contention

My shoulders rocked back from the weight of her words. I blinked as they sank in, then I breathed deeply and tried to calm my racing heart. My hand clenched into a fist at my side, the other hand squeezing the life out of my replacement cell phone. “Who?” I asked through clenched teeth.

She squeaked and stepped forward but I raised my hand and the guard approached her.

Stella dropped her head. “I can explain.”

“Was it my father?”

She lifted her gaze, eyes meeting mine again, then she shook her head.

I exhaled as relief coursed through me, then closed my eyes on a long blink before saying, “Tell it to your lawyer, Stella.” I turned and walked to the private elevator, done with this conversation and done with her. If the betrayal hadn’t come from my father, nothing else mattered.

“It was Gage Magnusson.”

That stopped me dead in my tracks, my finger hovering near the elevator call button. I cracked my neck slowly, tipping it from one side to the other. I’d have to inform Mina, but again, this was a job for her legal team, not mine. her lawyers could handle Magnusson and Stella. Their transgression had stemmed from inside The Rabbit Hole, which made this club business. I needed to separate myself from it as much as possible. I had far too much on the line right now with my father, and Reed Enterprises—

I pressed the call button and looked up at the numbers above the elevator doors.

“Cabot?”

“No,” I snapped.

“Roderick Rombauer paid Gage.”

I cursed under my breath as that news hit me with the force of a freight train.

The pieces clicked into place in my brain, loud and fuckingimpossibleto ignore, like boulders falling into a quarry.

Roderick Rombauer.

He’d forgotten this little piece of information when he’d divulged all of his secrets, and I hadn’t been shrewd enough to put two and two together on my own.

My teeth clenched so hard I had to rub my jaw to force my muscles to relax.

Closing my eyes on a long blink, I took a deep breath. The elevator doors opened and I stepped inside, pushing thedoor openbutton. “Upstairs, Ms. Whitney. Now.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Mr. Reed,” I corrected for the second time today, glaring at her over my shoulder. “Yes,Mr. Reed.”

She’d also lost the privilege of calling mesir.

Glancing at the security guard who stood between Stella and the metal detector, I gave a quick jerk of my head and he stepped aside to allow her through.

We rode the elevator in silence, my mind spinning as I processed this information. I’d known Roderick was after me, but I had never imagined he’d hit me where it hurts. I was a wealthy man, only son of one of the wealthiest men on the East Coast—people would always be envious, calculating. It came with the name. They wanted what I had, what I could give them, planned ways in which to use me…

But I’d never imagined Roderick would go after the very heart of who I am.

Exposing my Dominant lifestyle had been a direct attack on the very core of Cabot Reed. It called into question my character and competence, two things I’d spent nearly forty years cultivating.

And how had he gotten to Gage?

Frowning, I realized how easy it must have been. If he’d tracked me down to the club, figured out my secret proclivities, it wouldn’t have been difficult to find someone within the walls of The Rabbit Hole willing to turn on me.

Gage’s betrayal, I could understand. I didn’t like it, but the guy owed me nothing, and he’d been after my job for some time. He was also just a fucking prick, so moving against me probably didn’t even warrant a logical reason.

But Stella…

Stella’s betrayal was a fucking wound.