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dear old Dad.
    He shoved past her into the file room. A long drawer satopen. “Acquisitions,” he read aloud. He stopped and flipped through some files. The folder he picked up was full of letters with another company’s letterhead. Negotiations for the sale of proprietary research. “Tarrant buys scientific studies?”
    “Yes. It’s expensive to do them in-house.”
    “So why does he need you? ”
    “Change of strategy. He wants to stop buying outside work and leap ahead of the competition by investing in new technology.”
    “And you’re selling all that hard-won research to the highest bidder.”
    Her face turned white. “I most certainly am not!”
    “Then what the hell are you doing?” Some primitive part of his brain prayed she’d come up with a good explanation.
    She lifted a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. With some effort he resisted the urge to see if the movement pulled her blouse tight over her full breasts.
    “I’m searching for something,” she rasped.
    She wanted to say more. Her lips quivered.
    He could imagine how they’d feel under his mouth, softening and warming.
    He tugged his gaze away and fixed it on her gray eyes.
    Bella blinked. “Tarrant stole my father’s research. I want it back.” She lifted her chin.
    He stepped forward. He liked to get close to people when they were under pressure. Something subtle let him know whether they were telling the truth. The smell of their pheromones, maybe.
    “Who was your father?”
    “Bela Soros.”
    “Bella, like you?”
    “It’s a man’s name in Hungary, where he’s from. He worked his whole life developing formulas that would revolutionize the way we perceive things. He sacrificed everything, poured hiswhole self into it. He was this close to realizing his dream….” She held two slender fingers a hair’s breadth apart. “Then Tarrant Hardcastle bullied him into selling it for a song. Now he’s dead. It’s not right!”
    Her nostrils flared as her indignation rang off the stark, white walls and metal cabinets of the file room.
    “Tarrant stole his work, or he bought it?” Dominic narrowed his eyes. The raw emotion on her face tugged at something in his chest, but her words didn’t add up.
    “He paid, but with an insulting pittance.”
    “How much?”
    She tilted her chin at him. “I don’t know. I’m hoping to find out from these files. Tarrant browbeat him into it after hearing him speak at a conference. My father told him no time and time again….” She inhaled a shaky breath.
    “But Tarrant Hardcastle doesn’t take no for an answer.”
    She didn’t say anything.
    “How do you know it wasn’t much money?”
    “Because it’s all gone. There should have been enough for a comfortable retirement. My father always had a good research or teaching job and we lived well. Now my mother has nothing and she’s in danger of losing their home.”
    Been there, done that . Sympathy swelled in Dominic’s chest. Tarrant Hardcastle didn’t give a rat’s ass about the people he used. Once he was done with them they could live on the streets for all he cared.
    “Don’t you earn a decent salary?”
    “Yes. It’s good.”
    “Perhaps that’s revenge enough?”
    Bella tilted her head. Her eyes darkened. “My mother sacrificed a lot so Dad could focus on his work. It’s been hard for her, very hard….” Her lip started to quiver and she bit it.
    “And how do you plan to get money from Tarrant, now that he already bought the research?”
    “It’s not only about the money. It’s about my dad’s legacy. I’ll prove Tarrant forced my father into selling against his will and then the courts will restore his work to my family.”
    Alarm mixed with amusement made him snort. “You’re going to sue Hardcastle Enterprises?”
    She held his gaze, her gray eyes unblinking. “Yes. I know a judge will do the right thing.”
    “Sounds to me like you have way too much faith in the legal system and not nearly enough in