my offer to them.”
“You want me to ask them to quit school, start a tech company with your investment, and develop a program that’s locked inside your head—like someone trying to prove one of Einstein’s theories?”
He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin. “Everything except the funding part. Einstein never paid anyone to test his theories.”
Poppy took in a deep breath, filling her lungs. “You have a lot of faith in me.”
“None of it misplaced. You’ve already proven to me what you’re capable of. With your smarts and a little sweat, you’ll be running their Fortune 500 company someday.” He piled together cheese and meat slices to form a huge stack. “…Someday very soon.” He shrugged and took a bite. “That is, unless you have something against being extremely wealthy, Poppy.”
She opened her computer and cracked her knuckles. “Let’s get started,” she said, typing Damian and Eli Jones into her browser.
“One question,” said Kai.
She lifted her eyes from her computer. “Shoot.”
“How would you feel about moving to Dallas?” he said, tilting his head back to scratch the bottom of his chin.
Her eyes widened with concern—until Damian’s headshot filled her screen. Her jaw slacked and her breath caught in her chest as she studied his divine face. His eyes were the perfect blend of blue and green. “Like a brilliant peacock,” she whispered under her breath, lifting her hand to ponder the ring Kent had given her. She removed the ring from her finger and held it in the air. “Kai, how did you know Ariana was the one for you?”
“I set my sights high.” He rubbed his lips while glancing at the ring in her hand. “Set your sights higher.”
Poppy coughed. Was he telling her to dump Kent? “Higher than?” she drew out the last word.
He glanced to his side, as if avoiding her question. “I told myself to set my sights higher. When Ari came into my life, I knew there wasn’t any higher I could go. She’s perfect…at least she’s my perfect match.” He stared up at the ceiling in thought. “She freed me. When you’re married and have children, responsibilities increase but there’s still an essence of freedom. Marriage should release, not bind you.”
Poppy twisted her low ponytail in her fingers. “Release. I like that word.”
“My father and his brother got their start with venture capital money from the Grant family. Grant senior didn’t act like your typical venture capitalist, someone who hijacks a company when they don’t deliver on the investors’ timetable. Our families have been close ever since.”
“Why didn’t I know that story?” asked Poppy. The Grant brothers were her cousins on their mother’s side. She knew the Grants were besties with the Terrences—that’s how she’d gotten her job working for Kai—but she’d never heard how their relationship had started.
Kai’s face no longer registered worry. His eyes lit with a hopeful expression. “I’m optimistic the same thing will happen with the Joneses; they’re good people. I want to give them the same opportunity my father was given. Damian and Eli are prodigies. I’d like you to give them ample liberty to be creative. Allow them to work nonstandard hours, appreciate their peculiarities, and give them praise when you don’t understand them.”
She bit the side of her mouth, wondering what she was agreeing to. Was Kai asking her to move to Dallas and run a business based on an idea that was locked in his mind…all the while not having a say in how the work was executed? Her body bathed in instant perspiration, causing her skin to cool. She played off her anticipation and insecurities with a smile. “Be hands off and supportive?”
He clicked out the side of his mouth and nodded. “They’re geniuses and good men. I see their potential, just as I see yours. I hate to lose you in Costa Rica, but I envision a powerful company rising from nothing more than the ingenuity of your three minds.”
She raised a brow. “And your money,” she said, correcting him.
Kai laughed. “Yes. And my money,” he said, popping another meat and cheese stack in his mouth.
She slipped the ring back onto her finger and started typing, pushing Kent to the back of her mind.
Twelve hours later, Poppy stood on a dock in the moonlight, shivering.
Cold wasn’t the culprit; fear caused her body to shudder and her heart to race. Kai had downplayed Wyatt’s situation. Five armed men surrounded Poppy. Kai had hired the bodyguards to take them from the airport to the