Page 34 of His Captor

I would have appreciated the view more if my mind hadn’t exploded at the sight of him and probably started leaking out of my ears.

And then Ace turned around, saying, “It’s a pleasure to meet the man who’s done such a good job of?—”

He stopped dead, his eyes going wide as he recognized me.

Then his gaze dropped to my enormous belly.

Pink shock splashed over his cheeks as his eyes widened even more.

“Sorry, I was in the middle of something that really needs to get done,” Rachel said, not noticing our reactions. “I’ll just leave the two of you to make further introductions.”

She turned and marched out of the room, as efficient as ever, leaving me and Ace, er, Mr. Mason Canton—the name suddenly clicked in my head, too—gawping at each other.

“You’re here,” I said breathlessly. My hand shot straight to my belly as Junior squirmed like he knew exactly what was going on and was shouting, “Daddy! Daddy!”

Ace swallowed, dragged his eyes up to meet mine, and said, “You’re pregnant.”

CHAPTER TEN

Mason

So far, the decision to move to Barrington to start Canton Enterprises had been a fantastic idea. Barrington’s economy was thriving, I was right in my feeling that being closer to the capital would help relations with the government, and with Barrington University nearby, the pool of engineers and software developers was rich with young talent.

Barrington was great. It was everything I’d hoped to find when I left Port Lucia behind. Although a lot of what I’d left behind was still giving me a headache.

That was exactly why I was on the phone with Colin just minutes after arriving in the office and being introduced to most of the staff, save the ones who were out to lunch.

“You’re certain Colin’s lawsuit isn’t going to affect my business while it’s still active in the courts?” I asked Alex over the phone as I checked over my new office on the nineteenth floor of the Berkeley Building in downtown Barrington. “I’ve gotenough irons in the fire right now to make this launch a success, and I don’t want him interfering with that.”

“I’ve got the best people working on it,” Alex replied. “Everyone is confident Colin is shouting into the wind right now.”

“He needs to spend more time figuring out what he’s going to do next and less time trying to stop me from what I’m doing,” I grumbled, half to myself, as I opened and closed the drawers of my fantastic new desk.

I loved my new office and everything in it. The office manager Rachel had hired, an omega by the name of Hayden Kipling, had done a fantastic job of kitting out the entire office. I particularly liked the throne-like chair Kipling had chosen for me. It was comfortable and imposing.

I couldn’t wait to meet Kipling. He’d just left for lunch when I’d arrived at the new headquarters for Canton Enterprises for the first time. His desk was right outside the door to my office, but I hadn’t seen any photographs of him, or his family—Rachel had let me know when she hired him that he was expecting and would be taking maternity leave for part of the summer—on his desk or anywhere.

I had noticed a slight, sugary scent that had pinged in my brain and threatened to make me hard as I’d walked past Kipling’s desk and into my office. The scent filled me with hot memories of the best weekend of my life, but I didn’t think much else of it. Billy had smelled like soda. Hayden Kipling must have had a soda earlier. He could have still had a cup or open container in his cube now that I didn’t see.

I thought nothing of it and forgot entirely once I’d called Alex for an update.

“There is one thing you might need to be a little concerned about,” Alex went on, forcing me back from my drifting thoughts.

“Oh yeah?”

“Victory Holdings.”

My blood ran cold. I’d found out more about Victory Holdings and what it actually was once Colin and I had gone our separate ways and I’d started the process of relocating everything to Barrington. I couldn’t prove that they were mafia, but they were definitely nasty. The entire holding company was highly secretive. It was a family business, run by an aging alpha, his beta daughter, and an alpha nephew. As far as I’d been able to figure out, it was an umbrella company that had its fingers in a lot of pots. Some of those pots seemed okay, like the company that developed amusement parks. Others were impossible to trace. Victory Holdings had more shell corporations and trusts masking its activities than most people had hairs on their heads.

The whole thing was incredibly fishy. I was glad I’d dodged their bullet.

And then I’d had word that Colin might now be employed by them. I couldn’t prove it, since Colin refused to speak to me and the small bit of checking into the possible relationship proved inconclusive, but it was enough to have me nervous.

“What about Victory Holdings?” I asked Alex.

“They’ve been buying up smaller tech development companies in your same field,” Alex said. “Not only that, it looks like they might try to go after the same government contracts I know you want.”

“I figured out a while ago that Victory would be one of Canton Enterprises’ main competitors,” I told Alex.

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