Pound Of Flesh

CALLUM'S POV.

"You are Shane Anders' daughter." I declared flatly.

"Yes." She nodded back with a shy smile and a coy glance from underneath her eyelashes. 

My jaw ticked as the situation became clearer. Shane's proposal was beginning to make a lot more sense. For a long time, I have had the reputation of being a lifelong bachelor. No woman could pin me down, not even Alex. It seems Miss Anders wants to be Mrs Gray so bad, she was willing to get her father to blackmail me into it. 

Fine. 

She wanted a wedding? That she will get. 

She wanted to be famous, on the first page of all magazines and news sites? By god she would get it. 

She wanted to gloat and parade how happy she was in her scheme? Hell to the fuck no. 

By the time I'm done with Miss Anders, she will be nothing but a husk of pain.

I didn't even know of her existence until a week ago, and even then I hadn't bothered to learn her name. She was just the amateurish designer who'd puked on me and then spent most of the meeting making moony eyes at me.

It was par for the course where women and I were concerned. The moony eyes part, not the puking. That was all Miss Anders.

Her father Shane, he I definitely knew very well. That piece of work has caused me more agony than anyone else in the world. My father was on his deathbed, and I had Shane to thank for it.

I couldn't even pay the man back for everything he has taken from us and still continued to take, because he held all the cards.

The one thing my father held dear above all else, his family name, is in Shane's grasp. 

I descended from a long line of English lords, and our family seat was in Guildford. We owned Clearwater villa, more than half the lands surrounding it and the village itself was named after our family.

Life had been good until our family business began to lose money. Our competitors were already selling our products even before we were ready to launch and company secrets were being leaked. Then I took ill. I had a hole in my heart that hadn't been a problem until my tenth birthday.

Father was at a loss what to do. With the company now facing bankruptcy, getting money for my surgery was going to be a problem.  

Then my father met Shane Anders in a casino, and things went from bad to worse. Asshole was a loan shark, and in order to save my life, dad had borrowed money from. He was given a document to sign, and he swore to me he had his lawyer read the document before signing it.

Father paid for my surgery and it was successful. Two months later, the family company was beginning to show signs of life and dad went to Shane Anders and paid him back. Two days later we were thrown out into the street. Heavy bodyguards toting military grade firearm barred us from not only the villa, but the village as a whole. 

When father finally saw the asshole responsible for it, Shane had simply flung their agreement in father's face. Now the document spotted a new clause, plus an agreement that hadn't been there before.

Instead of a twenty percent late fee should my father fail to pay up, the document now stated that all of Clearwater villa, including the name, would belong to Shane Anders should my father fail to pay on the sixteenth of February. Dad had paid Shane ten minutes past midnight.

He was ten minutes past the due time and Shane took it all. 

With nothing left and a family of five to feed, my father had relocated to America, a new land we've never been to before. Father regained his wealth, returning to his status as one of the wealthiest men in America, but that was not enough. Father wanted his name back. Gray was an adopted name, not truly ours, and it felt like a piece of us was missing without our real name. But Shane wouldn't sell, no matter what. The day after my meeting with Miss Anders, then he suddenly calls me up with a new deal. One that sees me taking his daughter as my wife. And I had no choice but to accept. My father is not long for this world, and he wants to be buried in the family cemetery when he dies.

I flicked out my tongue between my teeth, weighing my choices again as I stared at Shane's little princess. Maybe this could be karma giving me leeway here. Shane hurt us, took everything without a single trace of apology, why shouldn't I pay him back in his own coin? If I can use his daughter to get my pound of flesh, all the better.

"I think we should-" Talk? So you can feed me lies and pretend you didn't know I was coming?

Not likely.

"That is not necessary, Miss. I believe you have been informed of our proposed union already. I'm simply here to finalize a date with your father. I'll be back for you once it's done." I moved past her swiftly.

"Shane." I called as I entered the hospital room. Why exactly in a hospital room? When I'd spoken to him three days ago, he'd been just fine.

"Ah, Mr Gray, my son in law to be!" He chortled, his eyes brightening as he sat up.

"You have the papers, I believe? My lawyer is here and we've gone through everything."  He produced sheafs of paper, but I held my hand up. I wanted no familiarity.

"Let's just get this over with." I muttered.

"A direct man, I see." He produced a pen but I shook my head.

"There will be no signing of papers today. We will read it out, and you will agree to the terms. What we will be using today is a verbal agreement." I gestured to my lawyer who produced a small camera for this farce of a deal.

"Why?" His face furrowed, his eyes narrowing.

"Because that's how I want it." Once bitten, twice shy. 

I will not fall into the same trap he'd set for my father.

One hour later, I shut the door behind me as my phone pinged with an incoming message. It was my P.A. He'd sent the phone number of Cheryl Corey, Vanessa's boss, as I requested.

"Hello?" The voice was smooth and raspy.

"Good day miss Corey, it's Callum Gray. I have something that I need you to do for me."