Page 56 of The Billionaire Who Hated Me (Until He Loved Me)

“Hey, Father?”Her gaze connects with mine.“I’m going to have to call you back.Give me a few minutes.”She clicks off her phone and returns it to the back pocket of her jeans.

She takes a few steps and stands before me.I straighten, then open my legs.She walks right in.I grab her thighs.

“I have to talk to him.”

“I figured as much.”

“This is not over, Cal.”

The corner of my mouth rises.“Baby, I think it’s just begun.”

CHAPTER 29

Victoria

I take the phone to my room and call him back.My father asks for an update.More than an update, really—he asks for specific information about Jamie MacLaine and his sons.He wants to know what they spend their money on.If they’re working on deals with anyone else, and if so, who?

“Why do you need this information?”I ask.

The phone is silent for a moment.“Excuse me?I tell you what to do and you do it.This is how our arrangement works.”

There’s a new layer of nastiness to his voice.Something’s going on with him and it isn’t good.

“Are we on the same page, Victoria?”

“Of course.”I move around the room and sit on the edge of the bed, my back to the door.I don’t tell him about Evander’s accident or the trip I’ve agreed to take to San Francisco tomorrow.It’s completely unlike me to hide anything from my father, let alone something that could pose a conflict of interest.Because that’s precisely what working on behalf of the MacLaines will be.

I’m only helping them because they asked me to, I tell myself.Nothing about securing the lease could damage my father’s interests—it might even be a benefit.And then I remember… I never saw any mention of the BLM lease in the Sulfur Springs research.Did someone not want me to know about it?Why in the world not?

My head spins.My stomach clenches.I no longer want to do this deal for my father.The idea of cutting up Yosemite Ranch and taking Sulfur Springs feels wrong on every level.

I drop my head, trying to get the room to stop twirling, but within seconds I straighten again, my eyes wide open.

Oh.This doesn’t simplyfeelbad.Itisbad.

There’s something off about the entire deal.I’ve felt it since the moment I got here.What I’ve been told doesn’t match what I’ve seen, what I’ve felt in my gut.

And what did Cal tell me just hours ago?If we don’t listen to our intuition, we’re doomed.

“Father.”I cut him off just as he starts his litany of instructions.He tends to repeat himself endlessly when it comes to me, as if my capacity to remember things is limited.I don’t want to play that game today.“There’s something I want to ask you.”

“Yes?Spit it out, then.I don’t have all night.”

I’ll shoot for a happy medium.Maybe I can get some insight from him without revealing my uneasiness.

“I’ve been thinking, Father.I wonder if there’s another approach we might take to this deal, perhaps a way we could workwiththe MacLaine family instead of attempting to shave off a piece of—”

“What the hell are you talking about?”My father’s voice has gone from nasty to threatening.“Since when do you do the thinking for me?Myapproach?”His laugh cuts through me.“You don’t dictate the direction of my company.I sent you there so that you could show your chops, earn your seat at the table.And here you are, spitting in my face.”

“That’s not at all what I’m doing, Father.”I hate the sound of my own voice.I sound weak and afraid.Like the five-year-old caught feeding carrots to the horses.He doesn’t see me as an adult, which messes with my head enough that I sometimes struggle to see myself as one, too.

And that’s the only thing I can control here—how I see myself.

If he can’t believe I’m a grown-up, it’s because it benefits him in some way.If he only takes note of me when I slip up or fall short of his expectations, it’s because he’s already decided his daughter is a failure.I can fix that.

But now he’s irritated and on guard.I need to placate him enough to keep his concerns at bay.“I’ll continue to work on the Sulfur Springs acquisition as discussed,” I tell him.“I’ll keep you apprised of developments.”

“Screw your head on straight,” he spits out.“I’ll be waiting on the MacLaine information.You’re there, so make it pay off for us.”