Chapter 56 Keeping To The Plan

Chapter 56 Keeping To The Plan
Felicia Ardent's POV

I sat across from my secretary and tried my best not to throw the contents of my desk to the floor as I processed what she had just reported to me. The temptation was strong. The crystal paperweight sitting on the corner of my desk looked particularly throwable.
"I pay you people too much money for things like this to be slipping through your damn fingers!"
Having grown accustomed to being yelled at over the five years she'd worked for me, my assistant merely adjusted her glasses and nodded.
"Our men could only reach so close to them," she said calmly. "Mr. McKay had them very closely protected from the cabin to his office building."
I pressed my fingertips against my temple. Of course he did. Because apparently Damian McKay wasn't content with being an aggravatingly composed businessman with enough influence to make seasoned executives nervous. No. He also had the survival instincts of a paranoid dictator. I'd learned that much after the last forty-eight hours.

The truth being out in the open now had the propensity to implode my plans, my life. Peter Ramsey. That incompetent bastard. The father I'd never known. The man my mother had mourned in silence as she suffered throughout her chemo and subsequent death. The man she'd claimed had to leave us because he wanted to shape a life worthy of us. But what had he done? He had lived. Built an empire. Raised daughters. Maintained secrets. And somehow, somewhere along the way, he'd become obsessed with Damian McKay and his family.

Nothing fit. Nothing made sense. Which was precisely why I had assigned my own people to ensure that my tainted upbringing was never brought to light. Apparently, they had failed, because Peter Ramsey kept his own files, his own proof. And now....
I leaned back in my chair and stared at my assistant.
"Tell me exactly what our people were able to find out."
Without hesitation, she opened the tablet she'd brought into my office.
"Our team tracked Mr. McKay's movements after he departed the restaurant with his father. He and Miss Bennett dropped Richard McKay at his condo and then made their way back to McKay Enterprises. Detective Carter was also with them. The Ramsey sisters arrived a few minutes after with their security detail."
"They couldn't just take the files from them?"
"No."
I arched a brow.
"Are you telling me that my men, whom I chose personally, couldn't take out a small security detail?"
"They did their proper recon before they acted. The security detail was ex-military. Delta operatives."
I frowned.
"Damian hired pros?"
"Yes."
She adjusted her glasses again.
"The cabin itself wasn't difficult to infiltrate. The problem was maintaining surveillance."
"Explain."
"They were well equipped with signal jammers and frequency inhibitors. We couldn't hear or see anything that was happening inside."
I nearly laughed. What was this, mission impossible?

Everyone wealthy had security. I had security. But Damian McKay had the freaking army protecting the Ramsey sisters. My fingers stopped tapping against the desk.
"So you're telling me their security redirected routes after detecting possible surveillance." The room became very quiet. "...You're telling me Damian knew they would be followed."
"We can't confirm that."
"But."
"But," she continued evenly, "if I had to offer an opinion, I don't believe Mr. McKay missed very much."

I stood abruptly. The city skyline stretched beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows behind my desk. Ordinarily, the view calmed me. Today, it merely reminded me how little control I actually possessed. I'd built this company from almost nothing. I'd negotiated mergers. Destroyed competitors. Recovered from betrayals. I had made men twice my age cry across boardroom tables.
Control wasn't optional. It was necessary. I wasn't Peter Ramsey's only child. Bella, Portia and Elena existed. And Damian...
I crossed my arms. "What else?"
My assistant hesitated. I noticed immediately.
"What?"
"Our investigators had concerns."
"Regarding?"
"Mr. McKay."
I almost laughed again.
"What now?"
"They were trying to understand why Peter Ramsey monitored him and his family. More directly, their mother, Eleanor."

I remained silent for a few seconds before turning to look at her.
"I hired them to gather information," I snapped. "Not opinions."
"They felt the distinction mattered."
I sighed sharply.
"Continue."
"They noted that the surveillance on Eleanor McKay was more definitive. The surveillance of her family was merely because she was with them at those moments.."
"What does that mean?"
"It means her family wasn't of utmost importance to Ramsey, she was."
She met my gaze.
"What exactly are you suggesting?" I asked softly.
My assistant closed the tablet.
"I think Peter Ramsey had something going on with Eleanor McKay, and my recent digging into his arrest has brought forth some implications to her death all those years ago."
I looked at her, not blinking.
"Are you telling me that what the reporters have been saying is true? Peter McKay killed Eleanor McKay? Why?"

I lowered myself back into my chair.
"I met with my father before I decided to destroy McKay Enterprises. He told me that Richard McKay and his family fabricated all that evidence. He swore to me on my dead mother that he was innocent."
My assistant watched me silently as my emotions finally folded in on themselves, and I swiped at the contents of my desk, the crystal paperweight shattering on the floor. I took a deep breath, but the rage bubbling up inside of me would not ease. My vision blurred, and I could hear my mother's soft words as she lay on her deathbed. Your father is a good man. He did what he did for us.
" Like hell he was!"
I shook my head to clear it and then leaned my trembling body against the edge of my desk.
"I want to meet that bastard. Set up a meeting for me. Right now!"
"Yes, ma'am."

As I'm left alone in my office, I remember Damian's gaze when I walked out of the restaurant. I remember the rage, I remember the contempt. But none of that bothered me. I wasn't about to let the truth about my parentage shift my focus. Regardless of what Peter Ramsey did or didn't do was not going to stop me from getting what I wanted. And what I wanted was for McKay Enterprises to burn. And burn it would. Quite literally.....