Worth had manipulated me from the very beginning. I went to him as a patient and he convinced me I didn’t need his help — at least not in the sense of his being my doctor. He flirted and pressured me to be his girlfriend, and later, his wife. Once I was his wife, I had been conquered and he was on to his next challenge.
Worth had to learn that the world was not his oyster. His narcissism needed to be taken down a few notches. I knew just the person for that job. Me. Worthington LaViere, III had finally met his match!
CHAPTER TEN
Auggie
I sat across the table from the devil himself.
The man who lay behind my nightmares sat opposite me and what was more, I was trying to convince him to take me on as a partner. Hell had frozen over.
Linc sat back in his chair, his foot balancing on his opposite thigh as he chewed a toothpick and considered what I’d just proposed.
“Let me get this straight,” he said in a voice that dripped of sarcastic skepticism. “You expect me to believe that you want to help me? Why would you do that?”
I was ready for this. “I’m not going to lie. If I told you it was because you were my brother and I cared about you, you’d know I’m lying. No, I’m out to teach a lesson and oddly enough, you’re the best candidate to help me do that. You get what you want, and then some. I get what I want. This is a weird alliance, these ties between Worth, you and I. They don’t write soap operas this complicated.”
“Damned right,” he allowed, putting his feet flat on the floor and signaling the waitress to bring him another drink.
I continued on. “So, as I see it, there’s something in this for everybody. To begin with, I’m sure you’re having regrets about moving Mother in with you. She’s like drinking a glass of acid before breakfast.”
He was looking down at his glass, but I didn’t miss the fact that he rolled his eyes.
“It’s okay.” I continued. “She has that effect on everyone. The only one who can even remotely control her is me. I’m the mouse the cat likes to paw at, only I don’t let her get to me. That infuriates her even more. I know how much to let her have her way so she feels in control. We need her, though. As tarnished as she may be, she’s still a socialite and carries some power — even if it is the threat of exposure for all the secrets she knows. Nonetheless, we can keep her in position and use her when the time is right.”
He nodded, sipping his drink while deep in thought.
“Then there’s me. I need to pay someone a little lesson about manipulation and a little pay-back for the fool he has made of me. There’s probably no one on this planet he hates more than you right now. That makes you perfect.”
He nodded again, enjoying my admission of his power over Worth and my acknowledgement of his owning it. He was a combination of my mother and Worth’s father, that much was obvious. Fortunately, I knew how to feed them both until they thought they were full, but their bellies were never satisfied.
“My son is mine. I don’t want him touched. That’s a hard rule. I’m going to do my level best to straighten out the core of bad genetics before they have a chance to take hold. I want him to be the first legitimately good LaViere since the damned name planted its first seed. I won’t compromise on this, Linc.”
“I understand. Don’t really give a shit about the kid. Just want what’s owed me, on my terms.”
“Then we come to you. I’ll help you get what’s owed you, and it certainly wasn’t Mother or a farm that you don’t have the money to properly run, much less the knowledge. I know the same people Worth does. I can put you in that inner circle and you can run rampant for all I care. They’ve all got secrets in their closets somewhere. That’s what Worth was after and I can see now it’s a genetic thing. So, I’ll put you in the position you want and you and Worth can go at each other like the battle of the tyrants. I really don’t care.”
He looked highly skeptical. “And just how do you plan to accomplish all this?” he asked with a humorous snarl.
“You’ll leave that to me for the most part, but you’ll see the progress as I go, so just be patient. I don’t like people looking over my shoulder. You can ask Mother about that. She’s tried it all her life and all it got her was to be more and more ignored. What you do need to know is that we’re going to turn the LaViere farm into the country’s premiere breeding facility. It will be state of the art, reservation only and I’ll bring in the people you want to fleece. I’ll get you into the circle and you take it from there.”
“That simple.”
“Of course it’s that simple. The best plans are always simple. Look, I’ve laid out the roles here. You can be yourself, Mother can be herself and I can as well. That’s why it works. Everyone is doing what they always do. It will only be me who combines the ingredients in a way that keeps everyone satisfied with the outcome. Everyone that is, but Worth, and he won’t know about it until it’s too late for him to stop me.”
“He trusts you?”
I met his eyes. “Yes.”
“And you’d throw that all away to get back at him?”
I looked down at my drink. “I’ve never had him. He’s always been a one-man team.”
Linc nodded and the deal was sealed. It was time for the mind games to begin.
***
Worth was home early that night. He seemed to sense that I wasn’t my normal self and I believe he’d come home to have time for observation. He sat in the kitchen, playing with Ford on his lap, but watching me while I moved around, making dinner.
I was wearing one of my shorter miniskirts, full with a peasant blouse tucked in. I made sure I bent low to put things in the oven and Worth caught a full view of my lack of underclothes. He never questioned it. I knew he thought I was doing it to tantalize him for dessert.