LITMIR.BIZ

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because I’m pregnant. I’m taking excellent care of myself and Cruz practically hovers.”

      “Skye mentioned something about a baby shower.” Dana managed to get the sentence out without shuddering. She wasn’t really a baby-wedding shower kind of person. What was up with the strange games? And why did the food have to be cute?

      Lexi grinned. “You’ll be there, honey, if we have to drag you. Don’t think you’re getting out of it.”

      “Oh, joy.”

      “It could be worse.”

      “How?”

      “There could be balloon animals.”

      “I happen to like balloon animals.”

      Lexi laughed. “It won’t be too horrible, I promise. No color-coordinated mints.”

      “Is Skye planning the shower?” Skye might run a nonprofit foundation but she was also an expert party planner. Her system of organization rivaled any battle plan the Pentagon put out.

      “Yes. Okay. You’re right. The mints might match. But it will still be fun.”

      “If you define the word very loosely.”

      “Poor Dana,” Lexi teased. “My baby shower is only the start. Skye’s talking about getting married.”

      “We all knew that was going to happen,” Dana grumbled. Skye was madly in love. No one would be surprised when she and Mitch set the date. “You’ll be next.”

      “After the baby is born,” Lexi said. “I never planned to be unconventional, but here I am, having a baby and then getting married. I’m sure my mother is horrified. Cruz and I are talking about late spring. So you’ll have time to recover.”

      Which she would need, Dana thought. “At least Izzy is more the type to simply run off some weekend and show up Monday with a wedding ring and a new last name. She was always my favorite.”

      Lexi laughed again. “How you suffer for us all.”

      “I know. That’s me. The suffering friend.”

      “Maybe you’ll meet someone you want to marry.”

      “No, thanks.”

      “Not ever?”

      “When pigs fly.”

      The next words were spoken softly, hesitantly, as if Lexi were treading carefully. “Not all men are like your dad.”

      She and her friend had never talked about what it had been like, but Dana also wasn’t surprised that Lexi had figured it out. What did startle her was having the subject brought up twice in two days.

      “Garth knows about my father,” she said. “I don’t know if he put the pieces together and got lucky or if he’d spoken to someone.”

      “You talked about it?”

      “He did mostly. Last night. I think he was making a point—that he knew a whole lot more than I’d realized. I hate it when men are insightful. It upsets the balance of power.”

      “What do you think of him?” Lexi asked. “A card-carrying member of the evil empire?”

      Dana shook her head. “Nothing that simple. He’s so damn sure of himself. Confident he’s going to win. And just when I think he’s barely human, I remember those scars.”

      Izzy had told them both about Nick and Garth’s time in the jungle. Lexi could only imagine what the scars looked like, but Dana had seen them for herself.

      “What does he think of Izzy’s plan to bring him into the family?” Lexi asked.

      “It confuses him. Of course that’s just a guess on my part. We aren’t exactly sharing secrets.”

      “Do you like him?”

      Dana glanced at her. “I don’t hate him.”

      “Izzy would say that’s progress.”

      “It depends on how you look at the situation. I still don’t trust him. But he’s not the devil.”

      There was more. He made her uneasy. His casual touch on her back had seared her down to her bones. She’d felt each of his fingers, the pressure of his palm. She’d wanted to move toward him.

      Garth made her aware of her weaknesses and that terrified her.

      “What happens now?” Lexi asked.

      “I wait for him to make a mistake.”

      “What if he’s no longer our enemy?”

      “Then everything changes.”

      CHAPTER FOUR

      JED TITAN HAD KNOWN Brock Lyman since college. Nowadays they were both tall men with graying hair and a taste for the good life. They’d played football together and Brock had introduced Jed to his first wife. Something Jed never held against him. Now some thirty-plus years later, Brock was the chief financial officer at Titan World and the only person Jed was willing to trust.

      Which didn’t mean he had to like what his friend said.

      “He’s bought even more stock,” Brock said from his place across the conference table.

      Jed and Brock were having their morning meeting. In the past, the time had been more about sports scores than any real business, but in the past few months, they’d been scrambling to manage what seemed like a new crisis every other week.

      “Did he file with the SEC?” Jed asked, even though he already knew the answer. Damn Garth Duncan. He was always careful to follow the rules. Once he’d crossed the threshold of stock purchases, he’d done all the paperwork required. Just once Jed wanted him to make a mistake.

      Brock nodded. “Filed on time and correctly. He’s up to fifteen percent ownership in Titan World. More in a few of the subsidiaries. So far we’ve been able to keep the news out of the media, but I don’t know how long that will go on. A few major stockholders have taken notice.”

      Which was Garth’s plan, Jed thought, annoyed by how well he was being played.

      By buying large blocks of stock and holding on to them, a case could be made that Garth was planning to take over the company. That made other stockholders nervous. SEC rules required public filings when a shareholder reached a certain amount of ownership, which Garth had done. He wasn’t hiding what he was doing, and that made Jed uncomfortable. He couldn’t go after someone who wasn’t breaking the law.

      “If he wants to buy the company, why doesn’t he approach us?” Brock asked, obviously frustrated.

      “It’s not his way. He’s waiting until the time is right.”

      It was all a game and whoever had the most at the end won. Jed could almost be proud of Garth. After all, the man was his son. But things had gone too far. Garth had to be stopped.

      “What about the investigation of the oil rig explosion?” Brock asked. “Why hasn’t Garth been arrested for his involvement in that?”

      “I don’t know.” Jed couldn’t figure it out, either. Enough evidence had been planted to indict Garth. What had gone wrong? “He’s smart. Maybe smarter than we gave him credit for. We have to find his vulnerable spot. No target is off-limits.”

      “First we have to find one,” Brock grumbled.

      “We will. In the meantime, we have to buy back shares. He owns too much of the company.”

      “There’s no money.”

      “We’ll find it. Borrow it, whatever. I want to start buying back shares from anyone who will sell.”

      “If word gets out,” Brock began, then shook his head. “No one can know, Jed. People

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