White Knight Husband: Chapter 4

Tonight, the odds were in my favor. Sometimes, the universe lined things up too perfectly to ignore, because the tall, blonde angel of wrath from my fated cab ride strode straight into the dining room like she’d been conjured just for me.

She paused when our eyes caught, like her brain short-circuited at the sight of me. Yeah, she recognizes me, alright.

She might’ve even been putting the pieces together already while Zach introduced Colin and a woman, Nora, who I assumed was their mother, to Douglas, Nate, and Will. The rest of our brothers were off doing their own thing, which was fine.

We didn’t need everyone here for this. This dinner was meant to be casual, friendly, just a little reconnaissance. What I’d wanted was the chance to scope out the fault lines widening beyond repair over at Thayer Steelworks and to meet the family who used to be in charge.

“This is my sister, Jane,” Colin said proudly, smiling at her with a deep sense of respect and admiration that made me straighten up a little. He looked at her like he trusted her with his fucking spine, but then he said, “She’s the COO at Thayer.”

Fuck.

She’s the COO? The angel of road-rage vengeance with perfect hair and a glare that could char drywall? Well, yeah. Actually, that kind of tracks.

I stepped forward and extended my hand. She hesitated for half a heartbeat before she took it, her grip firm and her eyes locked on mine. She didn’t blink or soften in polite deference. Her chin even lifted slightly as our gazes held.

Yeah, she’s got some spirit in her.

“I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again,” I said before my brain had caught up with my mouth, and I was still holding her hand, gripping it like I’d never let go.

The corners of her mouth twitched, but not into a smile. This was something much sharper. Her manicured nails pressed slightly into my skin, just enough to make me let go, and I honestly had to wonder if she’d burned me.

Amazing. She’s just… wow.

“You know each other?” Nate asked. If we weren’t currently being watched by every pair of eyes in this room, I would have kicked him under the table.

“We’ve met,” she said with a gracious smile that fooled absolutely no one. Well, it didn’t fool me, anyway. “Thank you for having us in your home.”

She turned to my father and offered him the same charm, as dutiful, gracious, and polished as I would have expected from a woman with her last name, but to me, she was a trained killer hiding in pearls and a curated dress that had probably cost more than the cab she’d accused me of stealing.

Unsurprisingly, my father was more than pleased by her attention. His interest zeroed in on her like a spotlight and I felt the heat of it aimed at the side of my face. A silent question. A warning. Or maybe just that quiet, Westwood brand of don’t screw this up.

When he released her hand, he smiled at her mother, waving her into the seat beside his at the head of the table. “Nora, please come sit.”

Nate and Will immediately took Colin, one on each side of him exactly as we’d planned. Divide and conquer.

But nobody had mentioned a sister—and certainly not this sister. Someone should’ve sent a memo, but I suppose we’ll just have to improvise and adapt.

I slid into my seat directly across from her, giving myself the best view in the house. Jane leaned in close to her mother, her voice soft and her tone steady, as if she was guiding her through the conversation, which was a little odd.

Occasionally, her fingers touched her mother’s wrist, but I couldn’t tell if she was grounding her, giving her a gentle command, or just plain reminding her not to spin out. Honestly, Nora looked fragile.

Or maybe just out of practice. Like social niceties had once been her kingdom and now she just didn’t trust her standing in it. But Jane filled every gap seamlessly.

At times, she turned to Colin to add clarity to anything business-related, but my brothers had been doing this all their lives—business, acquisitions, mergers, and corporate rescue missions.

It was a dance we all knew and I watched them perform it with perfect, choreographed moves as we ate. Except Jane saw every step coming.

Before Colin even realized where the conversation was headed, she’d already rerouted it. A quiet nudge here or a shift in tone there. A single question dropped in at the perfect moment. She wasn’t just participating. She was steering, reading the table the way some people read sheet music.

Every time she sidestepped one of my brothers’ subtle probes with an answer that gave away nothing and revealed even less, something coiled low in my chest. Intrigue. Admiration. A little bit of fear and a whole lot of interest.

Perhaps the simplest thing to admit to myself was that I was amazed by her—and totally, completely sure she was about to ruin everything before it’d even begun.

She was too sharp, too fast, and too damn aware. The way she kept glancing around the table, taking in every shift in tone and every angle of attack?

Yeah. She’s going to blow this whole thing up before we even get through dessert if I don’t get her out of here. So I stood, pulling my napkin off my lap and dropping it on the table.

“Jane,” I said, trying to keep my voice casual, like we were old friends and not two people mentally circling each other with knives. “I just realized I never showed you that thing I mentioned the first time we met.”

A lie. Obviously. I hadn’t mentioned anything other than the weather getting worse and a wine bar down the street, but she caught on instantly and rose, not asking what thing I was talking about, or pretending to know for the sake of politeness.

She followed me out of the dining room and into the recesses of the house, her heels clicking behind me like bullets being loaded into a gun. I closed us into a small study on the first floor and she didn’t waste a second, immediately stepping into me, close enough that I could feel her breath ghosting across my skin.

“Over my dead body will Westwood and Sons acquire a single share of Thayer.” Those slate gray eyes glinted with steel. I couldn’t even be impressed she’d caught on so quickly, even though I was, but this was a first for me. Normally, it took a few dinners, a few rounds of drinks, and a few deals disguised as harmless banter and dominating handshakes for owners to finally realize they were being warmed into a sale.

But Jane had walked in, taken one look around, and assembled the entire blueprint of our intentions like she’d been briefed. She’s astonishing.

I backed up to the desk at the center of the room, bracing a hand on the polished edge. “Do you want a drink, or just to spit at me and stomp your high-heeled boots all over my family name?”

She scowled at me, and it was a truly impressive scowl, but that wasn’t enough to change the course of her company’s future. It was on a collision course and the iceberg was coming up fast.

“The business is failing,” I said. She opened her mouth, but I lifted a hand, cutting her off. If we weren’t bullshitting each other, then we weren’t going to bullshit each other. Simple as that. “Correction. Your CEO and board are allowing the business to fail.”

The statement landed hard. Her expression didn’t change. She was far too controlled for that, but her shoulders tightened and I noticed. I was noticing all sorts of things about her.

“Your uncle didn’t show up tonight,” I continued, my voice completely even and my gaze latched on hers. Those gray eyes had popped up in a few of my dreams over the last week. It was a real pity I couldn’t enjoy looking into them now that I was seeing her again. “Even though Colin said Andrew would be here.”

“He’s a busy man,” she said, her tone utterly neutral.

My head cocked slowly, my eyes never leaving hers. “Is he?”

A flicker, just a twitch, appeared on her brow, gone as soon as it’d arrived, but she still didn’t give in. She was good. I had to give her that.

But a CEO avoiding a dinner with the one family who had the financial heft to save him? That wasn’t busy. That was terrified.

“For some reason,” I said slowly, because she might be good but I was better, “your board is voting against expanding, modernizing, and digging itself out of the hole your father created. Now, with your mom’s shares, plus a few more, I could step in. Be the deciding vote that keeps Thayer running or⁠—”

“Pick it apart and sell off the pieces?” She crossed her arms under her breasts, her chin lifting. God, she really is a striking woman.

That dark blonde hair was pulled into a braid on one side of her head, but not the whimsical, romantic kind. This looked more like something that belonged on a warrior princess. A killer.

Unfortunately, now wasn’t the time for these observations. “It’s worth a lot more than its parts. I’d keep it as is and put a new CEO in place. Someone of my choosing.”

Something flashed behind her eyes, those crazy, rare, utterly otherworldly gray eyes, but it vanished before I could read it. Rage? Fear? The intense desire to strangle me? It’s hard to say.

“No.” She spun on her heel toward the door, her hair whipping across her shoulder. “Absolutely not.”

The next moment, she was gone, just a graceful, lethal glide out of the study, leaving the faintest trace of perfume and fury behind. There had been no theatrics about it. She hadn’t tried for a dramatic exit. She’d simply said her piece and left. I respected that.

For a longer moment than I usually needed to collect my thoughts, I remained perched against the edge of the desk. Finally, I let out a long breath and scrubbed my palm along my jaw before following her back out into the hall.

By the time I reached the foyer, Zach was already walking the family out. Colin and Nora were smiling and relaxed. Jane didn’t look back.

Figures.

Once they were gone, Nate appeared beside me like a ghost out of thin air, his eyebrows raised. His gaze met mine, silently asking the question we’d gotten together tonight to answer. Are we moving forward with this?

I rolled my jaw, finding it tenser than I’d realized. Like I’d been gritting my teeth the entire time and was only now becoming aware of it.

“Find out everything you can about the Thayer board,” I said, my voice low. “I want it all. The whole deal. Get dirty if you have to.”

Nate nodded once, a sharp, certain jerk of his chin that told me he would get the job done, but instead of the usual prickle of anticipation I felt before an acquisition like this one, all I could think about was the way Jane had said no like the word itself was a blade. Like by using it, she was daring me to try again.

And I would.

Not because of the dare or because of something idiotic like always getting what I wanted, which I did, but because I did, I’d never needed to brag about it. This was really much simpler than all that.

I’d been raised to play this game and to be the best at it. Thayer Steelworks was in worse shape than I’d realized. Her behavior had confirmed it, and if Westwood and Sons could pull this off, it would be the coup of the fucking century.

No one would ever doubt me again, and more importantly, not even my father would ever be able to threaten my seat on our board.

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