Take It Down A Notch

by Weston Parker

  “Who are you, and what have you done with Declan Hobbs?” He reached across the table and rapped his knuckles against my head. “Declan? Are you still in there? Who body-snatched you?”

  I knocked his hand away, laughing as I shoved him back by his shoulder. “Cut it out, man. I’m being serious. The only thing I’ve ever wanted was to find something to do that would be meaningful, and this is it.”

  “How did you even come up with this idea? It’s not exactly the kind of thing that comes out of nowhere.”

  Busted.

  By the knowing smirk that reappeared on Finley’s face, he knew it too.

  “Lawson suggested that I should own a library. I laughed it off at first, but then I got to thinking, why the fuck not? I love books and reading. I have a newfound but massive respect for community programs and the kids enrolled in them. Plus, I was born and raised here. Giving my hometown something like this is nothing to laugh about. It’s a goddamn honor.”

  He was quiet for a long minute, his eyes squinting at me. “Are you high? Is that it?”

  “No.” I chuckled, folding my arms over my chest. “Why is this so hard for you to believe? I don’t know if I should be insulted or not.”

  “You shouldn’t.” Finley shook his head. “I’ve always known you have something like this in you. I just wasn’t sure I’d ever see it come out. Now it’s like this massive explosion of passion and capability, and I’m not sur—” He cut himself off mid-word. “Wait a second. You fucked her again, didn’t you?”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  He chuckled, ice-blue eyes dancing that happy, catchy Irish dance again. “Everything, buddy. It has everything to do with everything. You’re finally applying yourself, and it just so happens to be after you start fucking some woman you only met a couple of months ago? Yet you believe she has nothing to do with it? Go spread your lies somewhere else.”

  I glared at him for a few seconds before finally just shrugging. “It’s not a big deal, okay? I’m applying myself for the first time because I finally have a reason to. I’m not saying they’re not part of that reason. I’m just saying they’re not the whole reason.”

  Well, okay. If I was being honest with myself, they were a pretty big fucking part of the reason. But Finley was already gloating. He didn’t need to know this, too. Not yet anyway.

  Chapter 28

  Raeanne

  “Okay, so what do we have this week?” I asked Tessa as I sank into the chair across from her desk.

  She smiled as she looked away from her laptop, tucking her hair behind her ears with excitement shining in her eyes. “I finally heard back from that family. They’ve given the go-ahead for the story about them, so we’re good to go.”

  “The rich family?” I cocked my head sideways, trying to remember if she’d mentioned anything about any other family.

  “Yep.” She popped her lips on the P, pride making her chest swell. “You wouldn’t believe the hoops I had to jump through for this one.”

  I laughed, shaking my head as I imagined all the roadblocks those rich folks must have put up for her. “You’d think they would jump at the chance to get the attention. Aren’t people with money always chasing the spotlight?”

  She gave me a noncommittal shrug, pressing her lips in at the corners. “That’s what I thought too, but this particular family is supposedly full of fuck-ups. I guess they don’t really want the world knowing about everything going on behind closed doors.”

  “Fuck-ups how?” My eyes narrowed. “And aren’t all of the super-rich families that way? From what I’ve heard and even what I’ve experienced, it kind of feels like they are.”

  “I don’t know.” She drummed her fingers on her desk as she thought. “I think there’s always a black sheep or two, but that could be said for any family.”

  “What makes this one any different or special then?”

  Her four fingers rubbed across her thumb when she lifted her hand. “They’re richer than the royals apparently. I’ve been doing some research on the family in preparation for the interview, and the father seems to be the only one who has really made something of himself.”

  “He didn’t inherit his fortune?” I rolled my eyes. “Maybe he just wants people to think he’s made something of himself when really, all that happened was that the previous generations of his family died.”

  Tessa snorted on a laugh. “No. As far as I’m able to tell, he made most of it himself. No doubt he inherited enough to get himself started, but the rest seems to have been made by him.”

  “What does he do?” I tried to think of any noteworthy people in the area that were self-made billionaires, but since I really didn’t give a crap about rich people, I didn’t really keep up with the society pages.

  Swiveling her chair so she was facing her laptop again, she pulled a page up on the screen and read from it. “Russell is a jack of all trades, a savvy businessman who has made all the moves and has had the gods of luck on his side on more than one occasion.”

  I scoffed. “What do you think are the chances that he’d tell us what sacrifices he’s made to those gods for them to always be on his side?”

  She tossed me a wink before carrying on with the article. “I don’t think there’s any chance of that happening. Rich people don’t get or stay rich by sharing their secrets. It’s like they think that if the gods smile on anyone else, they’ll lose everything they have.”

  I nodded my agreement but didn’t interrupt her when she started reading again. “Russell made his first million at the tender age of twenty-one after developing security software for an arms company at a time before any other developer could equal his genius.”

  It was my turn to snort. “I wonder how much he paid whoever wrote this article to say that about him.”

  She raised one shoulder with a shake of her head. “Only those gods know, but you can rest assured that even he doesn’t have enough money to throw at me to make me compromise my values. There’s no way he would be able to pay me to flatter him just for the sake of flattery.”

  “And that’s why I love you.” I smiled and blew her a kiss, then leaned back against my chair. “So curious minds want to know, how did he make the rest of his millions?”

  Rolling the ball in the middle of her mouse, she scrolled down the page. Her eyes darted from left to right as she scanned the content of the article. “In a nutshell, it looks like he got awarded a couple of government contracts after that. He got out of the game when too many mere mortals reached his level of genius.”

  “Probably threatened by a little competition.”

  She laughed as her head bounced up and down, her eyes sparkling with mirth. “Absolutely. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Isn’t that what people say?”

  “Shame, poor man. Sorry to have interrupted you.”

  “No problem.” She grinned before going back to the article. “So after that, he supposedly diversified his business interests. The dude has irons in almost every fire. There’s mention of IT, property, insurance, investment, hospitality, and even fashion.”

  “Fashion?” My eyes nearly bulged out of my head as my brows lifted. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, seriously. But it looks like the fashion part is mostly because of his daughter. She’s some socialite who’s trying to be a designer, and it looks like daddy keeps trying to help her out.”

  “Well, at least that makes sense. I couldn’t quite imagine him getting into the fashion industry otherwise.”

  She turned the laptop around for a moment to show me the picture of the man we were discussing. He was wearing a tweed jacket complete with elbow patches. “Yeah, I don’t think he follows the trends much. Unless of course this is his daughter’s idea of a trend, in which case it makes sense that her company just isn’t really gaining traction.”

  A giggle escaped my lips before I could stop it. Being a bitch about other people’s dreams was really mean, and I knew it, but I co
uldn’t help myself when it came to people like this. The little socialite had probably had everything handed to her on a silver platter her whole life and most likely still felt the world owed her something. I just couldn’t support anyone like that.

  If I turned out to be wrong after we met her, I’d happily apologize for my behavior right now. At least that would mean that there were decent super-rich people out there too, not just the entitled prickish ones I’d come across.

  Unfortunately, I was pretty sure the apology wouldn’t be necessary. If my experience was anything to go by, she would be exactly the way I thought she was. As would her family.

  Sigh.

  “Okay, so that’s the daughter,” I said, clearing my throat and trying my best to put my ugly judgmental side aside. “What about the rest of them? How many of them are there?”

  She checked the screen to make sure of the answer and held up one hand with all five fingers extended. “There’s dad, mom, and three heirs to the fortune daddy has amassed.”

  “Let me guess,” I said dryly. “Mom used to be a cheerleader and has now become a trophy wife?”

  Tessa barked out a laugh before slapping her hand over her mouth. “I’d have owed you money if we had bet on it. According to the information in this article, mom cheered for a couple of football teams in her hey-day. She met Mr. Moneybags at a charity function after a game, and he swept her off her feet.”

  “More likely he showed her how fat his wallet was,” I joked, but also not really joking. “I’m sorry. That was mean.”

  She rolled her eyes, chuckling. “This is me you’re talking to. I know you’re usually the very last person to say anything mean about anyone. Besides, I’m sure this family’s skin is thick enough to handle it.”

  “True.” I shrugged. “I doubt they care about digs from us mere mortals anyway.”

  She mimed pulling the trigger of the gun. “You got that right. Okay, so we’ve covered dad, mom, and little sis. That leaves us with the two brothers.”

  I pursed my lips. “Is it too much to ask to hope that at least one of them has done something worthwhile? Redeem rich people the world over and show us that there really is hope for our kind?”

  “If that’s what you’re banking on for holding on to some hope for us, I’m afraid I can’t help you.” She blew out a deep breath. “I’m not sure which is worse, but neither of them seem to have done anything remotely redeeming. The oldest brother is referred to as a one-hit-wonder with no actual hits in another article I read, while the younger one is supposedly your typical, garden-variety playboy billionaire.”

  “The kind who smirks his way through life while fucking everything that moves and wasting daddy’s money on imported booze and expensive toys?” I could practically taste the bitter disgust that came with even thinking about that type of man. That’s a hard pass from me, thanks. Got the T-shirt, the cap, and even the baby.

  Tessa shot me a sympathetic smile as she nodded. “You’ve hit the nail on the head. That’s exactly what it looks like.”

  “What kind of article could you possibly write about these people?” I forced all the reminders of Adam and his family that this conversation had brought up out of my head. “Surely, there has to be more interesting families around to write about?”

  “It’s a puff piece.” The way she spat the words told me how much she hated that she had to write one of those. “Essentially, we’re shining a spotlight on the family to show who they are. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a huge deal that I’ve been selected for this article, but that doesn’t mean that I have to be excited about the subjects of it.”

  I bit my top lip as an idea popped into my head. “Well, then, why don’t we spice it up a little?”

  Tessa gave me her full attention, propping both elbows on her desk and drumming the fingers on one hand against the fingers on the other. “What did you have in mind?”

  A grin that I was pretty sure made me look evil spread on my lips. “How about using the article to show what the super rich are truly like?”

  Approval shone from her eyes before she narrowed them. “I like it, but we’ll have to be careful. As you keep reminding me, both of us need me to keep this job.”

  “We can do it in a way that doesn’t look like we’re trying to embarrass them.” I was spit-balling. I had no idea how we would achieve that, but there had to be a way.

  Tessa echoed my thoughts. “It might just work if we can come up with a way to do it.”

  “I have faith in us,” I said. “Let me sleep on it. I’m sure I’ll come up with something.”

  “Sleep on it, stand on it, or sit on it. Do whatever you need to do to give me something to look forward to when it comes to the actual writing of this article.”

  I put my fingers to my forehead and yanked them away. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

  “In the meantime, I’ll get all the information on them, and you’ll probably have to go to their house to take a few pictures of them next week.”

  “Sure thing. I’ll attend to the palace and see if I can get a shot or two of them picking their noses or scratching their butts.” I winked, smiling as I stood up. “That ought to make their lives and ours pretty interesting.”

  Chapter 29

  Declan

  After spending the morning looking at property listings online and sending out inquiries about the ones that looked promising, I was itching to get out. I hadn’t seen my parents or my siblings since my hasty departure from our dinner a couple of weeks ago, but it was like just the thought of being at the compound with them made my skin feel a size too small.

  When I’d told my parents that I’d be out by the end of the month, I’d been hoping that I’d be out much sooner than that. But finding a place of my own was proving to be more of a challenge than I’d thought.

  Since not everything my father had taught me back when he’d still been interested was horseshit, I wouldn’t buy a place I wasn’t absolutely sure of. Of course, I could simply find a house to rent in the meantime.

  But I’d been waiting so long to move that I didn’t want to sign myself into a rental contract I couldn’t get out of simply because moving was moving. I wasn’t that stupid.

  Logging out of my account on the realtor’s website, I scrubbed my hands across my face and tried to decide what to do with the rest of the day. Finley and I were already making progress on our project, but we were waiting on replies from a number of people, and until we got them, there wasn’t much I could do.

  Research had taken up most of my days recently when I wasn’t actively busy working with Finley, but I needed a break. A break during which I wanted to have some fun, and I couldn’t think of anyone I’d rather have it with than Raeanne and Lawson.

  Grabbing my phone from my desk, I decided to give them a call to find out if they were available. She answered after only a few rings, sounding cheerful and happy. For some reason, just hearing her voice like that made me feel the same way.

  “Hey, you. What’s going on?”

  A grin spread on my lips. “Not much. What are you guys up to today?”

  “I had a shoot this morning, and this afternoon, Lawson and I are going out. Why? What are you up to?”

  “I wanted to find out if you guys wanted to hang out today.” I managed to keep my voice even and casual despite the pounding in my chest as I waited for her answer.

  “Do you want to join us? We’re thinking about checking out the Harbour Town Lighthouse.”

  The pounding ceased as a sense of relief flowed through me. “Sure, I’ll meet you there. When are you going?”

  “We were just about to head out, but you can meet us whenever you can get there. We’ll be around there all afternoon.”

  “No, I can go now too.” Damn, that sounded way too enthusiastic. “I’ll meet you there.”

  A soft laugh came from her end of the line. “Sure thing. See you soon.”

  “See you.” I ended the call before I could make myself sound like even m
ore of an idiot and then mentally chastised myself all the way to the lighthouse. I’d never in my life sounded like more of a pussy-whipped bastard than I had in that moment, but it couldn’t be that.

  Getting pussy whipped wasn’t something I really even believed in, much less that it could happen to me. No, it had to be the boredom and the need to get out of the house. That made way more sense.

  Yeah, buddy. Keep telling yourself that.

  Fighting the urge to roll my eyes at myself, I parked in the lot closest to the harbor town resort area and hopped out of the car. Lawson and Raeanne weren’t there yet, so I paid the entrance fee, despite having a pass, and got our admission sorted while I waited.

  Hilton Head was, at its very core, a coastal town with immense natural beauty. There was no better place to witness it than the top of the lighthouse. It overlooked the Harbour Town Golf Links at Sea Pines Plantation and provided spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean, the marsh, and the harbor.

  I didn’t know whether they had visited before, but I hadn’t been in ages, and I was actually a little excited about seeing it all again. Almost as excited as I was when I heard my name being called and spun around to Raeanne waving at me.

  “Hey. There you are. We were just about to give you a call.” She walked right up to me and pulled me in for a quick hug, releasing me so I could hold my fist out to Lawson.

  He grinned as he bumped it. “Hi. I’m so glad you came with us.”

  “Yeah, me too, bud.” I ruffled his hair, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his mother for a long minute.

  It was freezing this close to the clear blue water surrounding the island, but Raeanne still managed to make me look twice. A navy-blue woolen headband covered her ears and brought out the blue in her eyes, set off perfectly against her pale porcelain skin and jet-black hair.