Chapter 56 The Vane Counter-Strike
The office at the Vane estate was cold because the heat had been turned off for years, but Alex did not even notice the chill as he sat in front of three different laptops with his tie pulled loose and his eyes bloodshot from staring at blue light for eighteen hours straight, and he watched the numbers on the screen flicker as he moved the quiet wealth of his mother’s family out of safe bonds and into a concentrated strike force.
He was done playing the role of the polite consultant at the Harrington Group because that role had only led to Sarah being humiliated at a gala and Mark being used as a prop for a fake family reunion, and he realized that if he wanted to kill a monster he had to use a bigger sword than the one his father had given him.
His fingers moved across the keys with a hard, mechanical rhythm, and he felt a cold sort of joy as he authorized the liquidation of the Vane timber holdings and the overseas real estate, because he was building a mountain of cash that he was going to use to buy the very bank that held the predatory debt on Sarah’s firm, and he wanted to own every penny she owed so that he could tear the contracts up and throw them in his father’s face. He was not sleeping and he was barely eating, and the only thing keeping him going was the sharp, jagged need to win and the memory of Sarah’s face when she had walked away from him at the gala, and he did not care if he burned his own inheritance to the ground as long as it bought her freedom.
"Mr. Harrington, the transfer to the shell company is complete, but if you move the rest of the equity tonight it will trigger an internal alert at the central bank," his lead lawyer said over the speakerphone, his voice sounding small and nervous in the dark room, but Alex did not even blink.
"Trigger the alert, I do not care who sees it as long as the money is in place for the takeover by Monday morning, and I want the legal team ready to file the hostile bid the second the markets open," Alex said, his voice sounding like gravel and ice, and he ended the call before the man could argue because he did not have time for caution anymore.
He drove to Sarah’s house in the middle of the night, his truck swerving just a little bit because his hands were shaking from too much caffeine and not enough rest, and he let himself in with his key and found the house completely dark. He walked up the stairs and into the bedroom, and he saw Sarah lying on her side with the moonlight hitting her face, and she looked so peaceful and so far away from the war he was fighting that it made his chest ache with a physical pain.
He sat on the edge of the bed and the weight of his body made the mattress sink, and Sarah woke up instantly, her eyes wide and full of a startle that turned into a deep, sad worry the second she saw him.
"Alex? What time is it? You look like you are about to collapse," she said, sitting up and reaching out to touch his face, but her hand stopped when she felt the heat of his skin and the rough stubble on his jaw.
"I had to finish some movements, I had to make sure the funds were ready so he can't hurt you anymore, Sarah, I’m almost there, I’m going to buy the debt and I’m going to shut his mouth forever," Alex said, and he didn't wait for her to respond, he just collapsed into her lap and wrapped his arms around her waist, clinging to her like a drowning man clutching a piece of wood.
"You are shaking, Alex, and you smell like coffee and I haven't seen you in three days because you have been buried in that office," Sarah said, her voice sounding thick with tears as she ran her fingers through his messy hair.
"I’m doing it for us, I’m going Full Vane, I’m using the inheritance to launch a strike that he will never see coming, and then we can go back to how things were before the suit and the cameras," he whispered into her stomach, his grip on her so tight that it was starting to bruise her skin, but he didn't even notice because his protective nature had turned into a desperate, hungry clinging.
"We are never going back to how things were, Alex, look at you, you are becoming a ghost and your eyes are hard like stones and you talk about hostile takeovers like they are the only thing that matters," Sarah told him, and she tried to push him back just a little bit so she could see his face, but he wouldn't let her go, he just pulled her down onto the bed and covered her body with his, his weight feeling heavy and suffocating.
"Don't pull away from me, I need you to stay right here, I need to know that I’m winning for a reason," he growled, and he began to kiss her with a frantic, exhausted passion that felt more like a plea than an act of love, and Sarah felt her heart breaking because she realized that her love for him was the very thing that was giving him the excuse to destroy himself.
They spent the rest of the night in a heavy, silent struggle, and Alex held her so close that she could feel the tension in every muscle of his body, and every time she tried to talk to him about his health or his mind, he would just shut her down with a kiss or a command to be quiet.
Finally, Alex fell asleep.
"I have to save you from yourself," she whispered to the quiet room, but Alex didn't hear her, he just groaned in his sleep and reached for her in his dreams, his hand clenching the sheets where she had been lying.
___
Alex left before she was even fully awake, heading back to the Vane estate to finalize the bid, and Sarah spent the morning trying to focus on a design for a small kitchen, but her mind was a mess of numbers and lawyers and the look in Alex’s bloodshot eyes. She was sitting at her desk when her laptop chimed with a notification from an encrypted email address, and she frowned as she opened it because she didn't recognize the sender.
It was a file from a private investigator, and when she opened the attachments, her breath caught in her throat because it was a detailed log of Alex’s bank movements over the last week, and it showed millions of dollars flowing out of the Vane trust and into a series of accounts that were linked directly to her firm’s creditors.
There was a note from the investigator at the top of the file that said,
"Thought you should see the paper trail, it looks like the young Harrington is trying to buy your loyalty and your company behind your back, just like the old man predicted he would do if you stayed with him."
Sarah stared at the numbers and the names of the banks, and she felt a cold, hollow feeling in her chest because even though she knew Alex thought he was saving her, the paperwork made it look like he was just another Harrington buying a woman he wanted to own.