Read Online Takeover: A Step-Brother Romance (The Legacy Series Book 1) by Lana Grayson - Free Book Online

Every initial calculation that led me to a working, testable, and experimental hypothesis rested in his hands.
    So much work.
    The entire future of Atwood Industries.
    And Darius Bennett pawed through my notes as if he didn’t even care that he held the potential for millions—maybe billions—of dollars under his fingertips.
    “Most of my family is dead, and you think you can steal the company with an insulting offer. I refuse you, so this is your solution?” I studied each of the Bennetts. “You kidnap me and steal my research. Is it a ransom? You’ll hold my work hostage until I agree to cooperate?”
    Darius thumped the journal against his hand. “We’ll find a use for it.”
    The rage tinted my vision. I traded air for the edge in my voice. It was worth it.
    “You won’t get away with this. I have patents.”
    I bluffed. Not everything had been protected like Dad insisted. After his funeral, I used the lab to mourn. What happened there was private—my own homage to him. I stopped patenting, and, once Josiah and Mike died in the accident, I hardly had the energy or time to protect my work. Half my journal pages weren’t signed. Most of the experiments hadn’t been replicated.
    If they took it, I’d lose everything.
    Darius waded through my indignation. His sneer silenced me.
    “It isn’t about the research, child,” he said. “You know why you’re here.”
    My stomach turned.
    Something had changed.
    The fire roared. It burned cold.
    The silence crackled. It hurt my ears.
    Nicholas stood. He loomed tall, strong, and utterly inescapable.
    “Ms. Atwood, we didn’t bring you to our home to steal your research.”
    Max shrugged. “That’s a windfall.”
    Protecting my journal wasn’t nearly as important as protecting me, and I suddenly realized I had no defense against my step-brothers.
    “You want my company,” I said.
    Nicholas nodded. “Yes.”
    “You’ll scare me into negotiations?”
    His eyes hardened, cracking the gold into bitter amber.
    “No, Ms. Atwood. Unfortunately, your actions have prevented a sale of the company.”
    “Then why am I here?”
    Nicholas stepped close, and I stared up at him. Trembling, though I didn’t understand why.
    He presented himself as a solid, masculine, impenetrable force. Bennett ruthlessness was legendary. He encapsulated everything dangerous and merciless that existed within the family, twisted into his own uses and balanced with a grace undeserving of such a monster.
    Because he was handsome, he seemed kind.
    And because he was my step-brother, I trusted he wouldn’t hurt me.
    But because he was a Bennett, he was neither kind nor trustworthy. And he would hurt me.
    “You’ve forced us to make a difficult decision, Ms. Atwood.”
    Nicholas’s voice constricted like every binding I expected and every threat I’d have to fight to survive. But he had me pinned already, restrained and helpless without raising a hand.
    The kidnapping. The doctor. The blood tests.
    Only Darius would be so cruel.
    Nicholas wasn’t his father, but he was a Bennett. And that meant he was the nightmare of his father, brought to life and wrapped in a false comfort, a subdued dominance, and a promised brutality.
    “Atwood Industries belongs to a male heir.” Nicholas spoke as though we were the only two within the room. As if that would gentle his intentions. “The Bennett family will acquire your company, your lands, and your wealth. Ms. Atwood, your heir will also be ours.”
    I stepped away.
    “Y—you think I’m going to... marry you?”
    Nicholas’s expression crested, almost to remorse, almost softening, as if a monster could emphasize with the fear crippling me to incomprehension.
    “No. I won’t marry you,” he said.
    “I’m not...I won’t sleep with you,” I said. “You’re technically my brother .”
    “You have no choice, Ms. Atwood.”
    “No choice ?” I stared at him. Was he dangerously proud or an unrepentant criminal? “I don’t have a choice