by Jen Davis
***
Amanda
“Are you shitting me?” Perry’s voice rose in pitch with each word. She sat rigid and straight in her seat. “Which ones?”
Amanda paused at her receptionist’s desk. She’d never heard the woman curse on the business line before.
“Well, are they going to live?” Her hand covered her mouth and the bottom of the phone. “Okay, okay. They’ll be in our prayers, Xander. I’ll let Miss Griffin know what’s going on.”
Did she say Xander?
Her heart stuttered. Xander was the foreman of Kane Hale’s crew. Kane. Her first love. Her only love. The man off-limits to her now and forever.
Is who going to live?
A hundred questions swarmed in her head, but she couldn’t make her mouth form any of the words. She stood frozen, trying to force herself to breathe.
Perry set down the receiver with a stunned expression. “Two guys on Xander’s crew got shot over the weekend.”
The words pierced through her heart like a poison-tipped arrow. Staggering back, she stumbled over her too-high heels and landed gracelessly in one of the chairs ringing the perimeter of the room. The Cooper Construction lobby was easily five hundred square feet with stylish hardwood floors and soothing mint green walls. Walls now closing in on her.
Her eyes burned; her mouth ran dry.
The fucking biker life finally caught up with him.
“—Barlow and Will Turner. He said Brick is out of the hospital, and he’s visiting Will today.” Perry’s words didn’t completely register.
She licked her dry lips and croaked, “What?”
“Brick and Will,” the receptionist repeated slowly. “Are you okay, Miss Griffin? Do you know them? I know your brother usually deals with Xander and his team.”
She nodded absently, relief wreaking as much havoc on her body as the fear had. Now tears threatened.
But she’d never let them fall.
She searched her memory for faces to match the names, but Perry was right. She didn’t normally handle Xander’s builds, but since her brother’s car accident, she was responsible for everything. Frankly, she’d already forgotten the names the receptionist had supplied. It only mattered neither of them was Kane.
Perry looked at her expectantly. Oh yeah, she’d asked a question. “No. I don’t know them, but every member of our team is important to me. Do we know if they’re going to recover?”
“I’m not sure, ma’am.”
She gripped the arms of her chair and forced herself up. “Are the members of the board here yet?”
“Yes. They arrived a few minutes early.”
Of course, they did. They thought they could intimidate her, put her on the defensive by forcing her to walk in the room last.
Amateurs.
If people could dick her around so easily, she wouldn’t deserve to run this company. Her irritation helped her find her center. Thrusting her shoulders back and lifting her chin in defiance, she walked into the conference room like she owned it.
Which she did.
“Gentlemen,” she crooned, and the six men seated around the mahogany table sprang to their feet like their chairs were electrified. “Please, keep your seats. All our time is valuable. Let’s get straight to it.” She picked up the iPad Perry had ready for her on the table and swiped it to life. The screen mirrored on the monitor mounted to the wall. The image showed a line graph in decline.
She jumped in briskly. “Obviously, we’ve seen some decline in the past quarter, but—”
“Some decline?”
She didn’t have to turn her head to identify the voice of Tom Poole. The pompous prick never missed an opportunity to be a thorn in her side.
“Let’s call a spade a spade. We’re bleeding money out of our asses, sugar.”
The men at the table gave a collective chuckle, and she bit the inside of her cheek at his insincere endearment.
“Hardly. We’ve had a few setbacks, but nothing we can’t rebound from.” She swiped to the next slide. “In my opinion, we need to branch out. Go bigger. If you look at these projections—”
“Bigger?” This time it was Samuel Levine. “Darling, what we need to do is scale back. Cut the fat, as it were.”
“I disagree, and I would appreciate it if you hear me out.”
Samuel shot her a placating smile. “I appreciate your step-daddy started this company, Amanda, but I think it’s time you let the board do its job. We’ve been doing this a long time.”
That doesn’t make you any good at it. Gritting her teeth, she bit back the retort. “The board’s job is to advise me. Ultimately, I need to decide our best course of action.”
Tom stood. “What you mean is, the president of the company decides the best course of action. Maybe it’s time we elect ourselves a new president.”
She should’ve known.
“I suppose you’re willing to offer yourself up for the position.” Hard as she tried, she couldn’t keep the bite out of her tone.
“As a matter of fact, I am.” Shooting her an oily smile, he stroked the silk tie resting against his rotund stomach. “All those in favor?” Every man at the table raised his hand.
It was a coup. Or at least an attempt at one.
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Sorry, Tom. You don’t have the votes.”
“I beg your pardon?” he sputtered. “I have every vote in this room.”
“Too bad for you, they’re not enough. My brother and I have fifty-one percent controlling interest in this firm.”
His self-satisfied smile returned. “But Mike isn’t here.”
Leave it to this flock of fucking vultures to try and use her brother’s car accident to take control of their company. She should have never agreed to let outsiders invest in Cooper Construction in the first place. Thank God, she wasn’t the kind of woman who ever left things to chance.
Now it was her turn to smile. “It doesn’t matter. I hold his proxy.” She navigated to the copy of the notarized document on her tablet and left it up on the screen. “Does anyone need me to zoom in on his signature? Do you need the name of the notary on the seal?” She didn’t wait for an answer.
Her voice hardened. “This is my company, gentlemen. You don’t want to hear my ideas, fine. You know your way to the exit.”
Tom’s round face grew red; the blush even peeked through the strands of his ambitious comb-over. “Arrogant bitch. President or not, you can’t expand without money, and I refuse to fork over one red cent to finance your ridiculous little fantasies.”
“Then it’s a good thing I have my own money.” Even if she hated herself for how she got it. “This meeting is officially adjourned. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”
***
She waited until the last board member was off the property before she hopped in her car for the short drive to her father’s office. It was a shot in the dark since she didn’t make an appointment, but it was a conversation she didn’t want to have over the phone.
Eleven stories high, Atlanta City Hall loomed in familiar majesty in front of her. Her father had told her stories of its history so many times, she knew them by heart. The high rise was built back in 1930 on the site General Sherman took as the headquarters of his occupation before his March to the Sea. It was on the National Register of Historic Places and served as the headquarters of Atlanta City Government.
Including the mayor’s office.
Her heels clacked across the ornate lobby with its pillars, cornices, and marble wainscoting. She no longer found it impressive, if she ever had. Only a fool would ever reveal such a thing to her father, though. He lived for the pageantry of it all.
She rehearsed her speech in the elevator. It had to strike exactly the right balance of strength and vulnerability, independence, and deference. And even then, there was no guarantee he’d give her words any more credence than he’d give to the average constituent. Maybe less, since he didn’t think
he needed to curry her vote.
Her father’s secretary gave her a stiff nod when she stepped through the double glass doors, and she walked straight to the small settee on the right. It was the most comfortable seat in the room, and she could be here waiting five minutes or five hours depending on his schedule and the mood he was in.
She went over the points in her head again. One: she was ending things with Nathan. She’d promised her father six months with the guy so he could use a private connection to cultivate political gain. Her part of the bargain was fulfilled. Two: she was going to spend Thanksgiving with her brother. Holidays at the Griffin estate were more about pomp and circumstance than family bonding anyway.
Maybe she should lead with the Thanksgiving thing. Rip the band-aid off.
“Miss Griffin?”
She lifted her head and locked eyes with the sour-faced woman at reception.
“The mayor will see you now.”
He stood from behind his thick oak desk as she walked into the room. Beauregard Griffin oozed southern charm and class. His charcoal three-piece suit was impeccable, his smile warm and practiced. An article in Atlanta magazine said he was reminiscent of Gregory Peck in his To Kill a Mockingbird days. He liked the comparison so much he had the article framed and hanging on the wall in his study at home.
His appearance was like the fancy lobby downstairs. It was cultivated to impress and intimidate, but it was really all window dressing.
“A surprise to see you, darling.”
She stepped into his embrace and offered her cheek before taking her seat. “Thank you for seeing me. I know how busy you are.” Polite bullshit, and they both knew it.
His eyes narrowed, and she pressed forward.
“I need to give my regrets for Thanksgiving. It’s important I spend it with Mike and his family.”
“Absolutely not.” He folded his arms in front of his chest.
A hint of what she was really feeling seeped into her words. A tactical error, but she couldn’t stop herself. “Dad, he’s going through a difficult time right now. You know how badly he was hurt in his car accident.”
“Last I checked, he had a devoted wife to cut up his carrots. He doesn’t need his stepsister to do it for him.”
She gritted her teeth. She never called Mike her step anything, but her father always made the distinction. “I want to be there, Dad.”
“Of course, you do.” He shot her an icy glare. “Even when you were a girl, you acted like they were your real family. You’ve always chosen them over me.”
She wouldn’t argue over what constituted a real family. Her father thought no one should come before blood. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say, no one should come before him. “I’m not choosing one over the other—”
“Right. I’m making the choice for you. I’ve already invited Nathan, and I can’t very well spend the holiday with him, without you.”
She took a deep breath, sucking back the venom she wanted to spew at the mention of his name. Things were delicate with her father; he still hadn’t entirely made good on his end of the bargain they’d struck. She tugged back on the Ice Queen veneer she wore like a second skin. Letting it slip in the first place had been a stupid mistake. “We never discussed Nathan joining us.”
Her father waved her clipped words away. “Do I need to get your approval for the decisions I make? This is an excellent opportunity to solidify the support of his political action committee.”
The thought of spending another minute with Nathan made her skin crawl, but he would be the perfect gentleman in front of her father. He always was.
Her dad kept speaking, oblivious to her masked frustration. “Besides, we’ll be done by nine. Plenty of time to visit your other so-called family afterward.” Looking down pointedly at the papers on his desk, he dismissed her. “I’m very busy, Amanda. Perhaps anything else you wish to discuss can wait until a more opportune time.”
Fine. One more dinner. She would nod and smile, give her father this last chance to secure his political support, but no more. Then he’d make good on his promises, and the deal would be done.
Then, she could put this madness behind her and get back to the shreds of her life she hadn’t managed to ruin quite yet.
***
13 years ago
September
AC/DC piped in through the speakers mounted in the backyard for her parents’ Labor Day barbeque. Though technically speaking, Charlie Cooper wasn’t her father, he never treated her as anything less than his daughter. As soon as she and Kane cleared the patio door, he swept her up in a hug.
“I’m so glad to see you, Baby Girl. You know it’s not a party until the family’s all here.” He smelled like Old Spice and barbeque sauce, home and safety.
Her mom bussed Kane’s cheek and accepted the KFC bags in his hands.
“I hope you don’t mind my contribution is store bought.”
Mom peered into the bag and grinned. “Why would I mind? Corn is corn.”
Kane let out the breath he’d seemed to be holding, then slid his hand around Amanda’s. The heat of it warmed her even more than the late summer sun.
Is this how Charlie makes Mom feel?
She couldn’t imagine her father ever inspiring warmth.
The knowing look on her mom’s face made her cheeks burn brighter.
Mom cleared her throat. “Your brother is already in the pool with his friends, if you two want to go join him.”
Sure enough, Mike waved like an idiot from atop a giant floating yellow duck. “Come on in, y’all. With you two, we’ll have enough people to play water volleyball.”
Kane’s forehead wrinkled. “I don’t really play sports,” he said into her hair.
She wrapped her arms around his trim waist. “It’s not a real sport, I promise. It’s only an excuse to splash around in the water and get the girls to jump up and down in their bikinis. No one cares how well you play.”
“If you say so.” Or at least that’s what she thought he said. Her attention was frozen on all the skin he flashed as he pulled off his shirt. Flawless and tan, it stretched across his wide shoulders to a tapered waist. A trail of hair led from his belly button to the treasure hidden beneath the button fly of his jeans. Her breath caught.
Hell, yes.
She couldn’t resist the urge to touch him. “Maybe after this, we can sneak back to my dad’s house. He’s out of town.” Her fingers slid down his arm before entwining with his.
He winced. “Your dad hates me.”
“My dad hates everyone he doesn’t personally select to be part of my life.” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t care what he thinks, and neither should you. This is my real family, and they think you’re awesome.”
Kane opened his mouth, but whatever he was going to say got lost in the whoosh of air her brother knocked out of him when he tackled Kane into the water. The sneaky bastard had managed to maneuver himself out of the pool and onto the deck without her noticing.
Now Mike and Kane were splashing it out while the girls around them protected their faces from the flying water.
Warmth bloomed in her chest seeing how easily he fit into her world here. She glanced over her shoulder, quickly spotting her mom’s red hair resting against Charlie’s broad chest.
That’s what love looked like.
She rubbed at her sternum.
And this is what love feels like.
She could have it. What they had.
She didn’t have to endure a society marriage simply because her father expected one. Half of her friends from the upscale private high school she attended were already engaged, their buttoned-up fiancés, each an heir to his father’s fortune. Their marriages virtually guaranteed to be loveless, lifeless, and devoid of laughter.
Amanda knew her father considered this a rebellious diversion from her real future, but it doesn’t have to be. She could have this forever. The realization made her sway on her feet.
As Kane and Mike
wrestled and dunked each other underwater, she could see dozens more holidays, exactly like this one, sharing them with Kane and her family. Maybe one day, their family. She swallowed against the emotion rising in her throat.
How did I get so fucking lucky?
A hand on her shoulder made her jump. “You’ve got it bad, sweetheart.” She hadn’t even seen Charlie coming.
Laughing at herself, she didn’t even try to hide the truth. “Beyond bad.” She sighed as Kane blew her a kiss. “I think he could be The One.”
Charlie lifted his thick, dark eyebrows. “The One, huh? Does he feel the same way?”
She didn’t even have to think. The answer was in a hundred secret smiles and gentle touches, whispered words and shared dreams. “He does.”
“Well, nothing else matters.”
“You’re not worried about his family? My father—”
Charlie held up one of his big, calloused hands. “The things your father finds important aren’t the same things I do, and you know it.”
Understatement of the year.
“Your mom’s parents weren’t too keen on me either.” His gaze sought his wife across the yard and softened when she blew him a kiss. “It’s about more than where he comes from. He can’t help who his daddy is any more than you can help who yours is. All I care about is whether he loves you and he treats you with the care and respect you deserve. From what I see, you’re getting everything I’d want for you.”
“I wish you were my father.” She’d thought it a hundred times, but this was the first time she said it out loud.
Charlie’s brown eyes grew suspiciously damp. “Aw, Baby Girl, in my heart, I am.” He looked over at Kane and Mike, now fighting over sovereignty of the giant floaty-duck, and he grinned. “If my blessing is what you’re looking for with Kane Hale, you’ve got it. You’re old enough to know your own mind and your own heart. Any man worthy of your love is welcome in this house and in this family.” He swatted her butt. “Now get your ass in the pool before lover boy drowns my only son.”
