by Kaylee, Katy
Realizing I wasn’t going to get to my work done, I pulled out the information I had about McAdams Enterprises. I paid Beth and Ben a pretty penny for his share of the club, but it was clear from the reports I was looking at that it wouldn’t cover the debts the company was being strangled by. I was more bothered than I probably had a right to be that neither of them came to me for help. Yes, I betrayed Ben by sleeping with his sister, assuming he knew about that now. And yes, I hurt Beth by leaving the way I did six years ago. But I was a friend and business partner to Ben. Why hadn’t all the good times and success we had offset my few mistakes? I guess the answer was I’d hurt them more than I thought. But still, their hurt and their pride were destroying their father’s legacy, because I was sure I could help. In fact, with Raven Industries behind them, they could build their father’s company beyond what it had been at its heyday.
My ruminations were interrupted when Alex knocked on my door and poked her head in. “Hey, Ash. Your dad is in today and has called a meeting.”
I sighed, wondering what strange new rule or mandate he’d come up with during his business travels abroad. I followed her to the conference room. It was strange not to see Chase in my father’s chair this time. He’d been running things while my father was out of town, and while I wouldn’t admit this to him, he’d been doing a good job. Not only was he on top of the company, which was a surprise since he’d enacted a new work/life balance deal and spent more time at home with his pregnant wife, but also, he kept all us Raven boys in line. Well, Hunter and I toed the line pretty well. Kade was a lost cause.
I sat next to my immature brother, Kade. Across from me sat Hunter, looking calmer and more relaxed than I’d ever seen him since he returned from Iraq. Grace was a Godsend for sure. Chase sat next to him near my father. My father looked like the king of the world in his expensive suit, perfectly coiffed silver hair, and steel-gray eyes.
“I see you boys have kept the ship afloat. And I understand Raven Industries is getting its own foundation,” my father looked over at Chase and Hunter.
“It will be a good tax write-off,” Chase said. “Plus, it will improve our image.”
“Does our image need improving?”
I rolled my eyes.
“We’re seen as a bunch of rich entitled celebutantes who don’t care about regular folk. This will prove otherwise, and people will feel good about going to a Raven owned business because they’ll be helping others,” Chase explained.
“And it keeps the new additions to the family busy spending our money,” Kade said.
“Chase is right,” my father said ignoring Kade.
“Of course, he is,” Kade said under his breath. I couldn’t blame him. Chase always was the wonder boy. The chosen one.
“But I want to see the plans for this foundation before we start forking over money willy nilly.”
“Of course,” Chase replied.
“You’re pretty quiet over there, Hunter.”
“It’s your company, you can do what you want. You’d be a fool to miss this opportunity and input from Sara and Grace, but that’s not for me to say.”
I snorted.
“Very well.” My father handed us all folders. Opening it up, I saw it was information about his acquisitions in Bucharest, Romania.
“Are we going to start selling kitschy vampire crap now?” Kade asked as he looked through the papers.
“At one time, Bucharest was considered the Paris of Eastern Europe. Since the fall of Ceaușescu, it’s become a great country to visit. It’s beautiful, isn’t it, Alex?”
“Yes,” Alex said. She’d traveled with my father as he worked to expand his empire. She kept her post at the edge of the room. I think she sat there so as not to be noticed, but to my mind, she was always lurking. She was like my father’s henchman. A pretty young henchman, which I supposed was why she was so effective.
“Chase, the hotel has a French and art nouveau feel, but it needs work to get it to our standards. I’d like to keep that old-world charm of France.”
“Perhaps you could let me review and offer my own thoughts,” Chase said. His voice was pleasant enough but there was no mistaking his annoyance at my father inserting himself into Chase’s expertise. “I can fly out—”
“You have a baby coming,” Hunter said. I wondered about his overprotectiveness toward Sara until I learned that he’d blamed himself for her abduction and loss of her first baby right after she and Chase got married.
“I can do it in a day. She’s got that baby shower weekend coming up and I’m supposed to be gone anyway.”
I wished I could have Sara invite Beth. Maybe if she saw that our family wasn’t only filled with rabid Raven men, she’d feel better about me.
“You work it out. Kade, I want a stellar restaurant there,” my father continued.
“Of course.” He frowned. “What do they eat in Romania?” For once he wasn’t being snarky and instead pulled out his phone presumably to research Romanian food. His passion was food, and being a pain in all our asses.
“There’s no club per se, Ash, but I think there’s space.” I looked over the specs. “Is this the only building you bought?” Why all the big hoopla for one place?
“No. We’ll be doing the same thing in Riga.”
“What?” Kade said.
“Latvia?” Hunter asked.
“Yep. Listen. This is a big project. We’ll be creating the premier spot in both cities. Hotel, restaurant, and club all in one spot. It’s taken much of our available cash to make it work, with a payoff in a couple of years. I need each of you to tighten up a bit and perhaps look for faster cash turnarounds here.”
“That’s a problem,” Chase said turning to the financials. “We’ve been revamping the offices here and a few of the regional operations. Plus, we’ve been implementing a new health and wellness program.”
Cam pursed his lips and narrowed his steely stare at Chase.
Chase shrugged. “You agreed to all of it. Remember you don’t trust any of us to run this place without you.”
“Maybe you need to spend more time working instead of coddling your young wife,” my father said.
My brows shot up.
“Oh my God,” Kade said. “Does that mean your crazy inheritance plan is off?”
“He’s right,” Chase said, narrowing his own hard stare right back at my father. “Getting married and having babies was your idea too.” He looked at the rest of us. “I distinctly remember something about how all work and no play wasn’t a way to live.”
We all nodded. “Yep,” Kade said. Then he looked at me. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we were excluded.”
I couldn’t respond because the fact was, I had a woman I wanted to be with. I didn’t like my father’s rules and dictates, but I wasn’t averse to having a family the way Kade was.
My father turned his stare on Hunter. “What is this about the thefts? Has that been resolved?” I guess he wanted to change the subject.
Hunter’s jaw tightened. It was strange to me that my father wanted us to be different, but when we were, he did things to make us act like we did before. I wondered what Hunter’s fiancé, Grace, a former therapist would think about that.
“We know they worked for the linen company, but they left and as of yet haven’t been found. But security has been beefed up. We’ve rescreened our vendors and workers,” Hunter said.
“At an additional cost, I see,” my father said.
“It was either let them steal from us or make it harder for them to steal. Which would you rather?” Hunter maintained his cool, although I could see the tension building in his shoulders.
“You going to blame that on Hunter’s love life too?” Kade asked sarcastically. He really wanted out of dad’s nutty new inheritance deal.
“Since she’s working on giving away my money, maybe I should.”
I looked at Hunter. He was taking several deep breaths. “Grace and I would be happy to leave.”
I wasn’t sure that was true. I’d seen Grace and Sara talk about this foundation, and they both were very passionate about it. And since Hunter had been part of the reason Grace lost her license to practice therapy for six months, she probably wouldn’t be happy to lose this project.
“There are the tax benefits,” Chase reiterated.
“And goodwill,” I reminded him.
“Don’t want to come off looking like a Scrooge, do ya, Dad?” Kade said. As I looked around the room, I realized that for once, my brothers and I were all aligned. Granted, it was against my dad, but still. In the past, there was always one or two brothers out, assuming even two were in agreement.
“Seriously, you’re reaping what you sowed,” Chase finished.
My father looked at Alex. “This is all your fault.” He wagged his finger at her. “This whole ‘life is too important to be business-only.’ Changing the inheritance idea.”
“What?” all four of us brothers said in unison, turning to Alex.
“Is that true?” Chase asked. “You’re the one that came up with the idea that we needed to get married and have kids?”
Alex’s eyes widened, clearly not expecting my father to throw her under the bus. But she pulled it together. “You’re missing the point. It doesn’t matter who came up with the idea. The point is that it’s working.”
“Depends on your idea of ‘working’” Kade said.
“Chase is happily married and expecting a baby. Hunter is happy for the first time in years, and has a beautiful fiancé.”
“Meanwhile the business—”
“Your business is fine,” she snapped at my father.
The four of us brothers each hid our snickers.
My father frowned. “Things can turn on a dime. Take a look at McAdams.”
My heart clenched, and my brothers all looked at me.
“I heard a rumor that things weren’t good,” Chase said.
“They’re dire, son,” my father said. “I don’t want that to happen to us.”
“Maybe the answer is to go back to before and let us work to our hearts’ content and not worry about family,” Kade said.
Alex released a long pfft sound. “You’re just afraid to fall for someone because who’d want to put up with your smart-ass mouth twenty-four-seven?”
Again, the rest of us grinned but held back our laughter.
“Let’s focus,” my father said.
“I might have something,” I said, thinking of Beth and Ben’s business challenges. If I could turn that ship around, perhaps it would have the fast results my father wanted. “Give me another day to research and come up with a proposal.”
“See. That’s what I need. I can always count on you, Ash.” My father stood, giving me a pat on the shoulder as he made his way to the door.
“Suck up,” Kade hissed at me.
As Alex followed my father out, she stuck her tongue out at Kade, then shut the door behind her.
“Well,” Hunter said standing up. “That went well.”
“We should riot,” Kade said.
“How would that be different than any other day for you?” I asked.
He laughed. “It wouldn’t.”
As we walked out together, I felt a connection to my brothers that I hadn’t since I was a kid. Alex’s proposal to my father was stupid, but she’d been right. Love had changed Chase and most especially, Hunter. It had changed me too. The problem was, heartache was a bitch, and I was sure that Alex hadn’t anticipated that.
14
Beth – Wednesday
The last few days I hadn’t seen Ben. I’d been busy with Hannah and packing up the townhome. Ben was busy doing whatever he did all day. I needed to get him the contract for Jet, but I supposed I was putting that off because I knew he’d end up being upset. But I couldn’t put it off any longer so I headed to the McAdams Enterprises building.
My brother was in my father’s office, and for a moment, I saw what he could have been. A strong, competent businessman, like our father. Like Ash. He was on the phone asking for more time to pay from one of our many creditors. He wasn’t drunk, but it was clear he’d been drinking. His eyes had that glazed-over look.
He looked up when I walked in and motioned me to sit in one of the chairs in front of the desk. When he hung up, he reached into his drawer and pulled out a bottle to fill his glass. I started to protest, but for what purpose? I couldn’t stop him.
“What are you doing here?” he asked as he put the bottle back.
I handed him the paperwork for the Jet sale. “It’s all signed and the money is in the account.”
He looked over the paperwork. “I can’t believe I let you take this over. You shouldn’t have to deal with Ash Raven.”
“We didn’t have a choice, remember? We need the money. I just feel bad that you had to sell it as I know you loved it.”
“That died when I found out what Ash did to you.”
The one thing I regretted about Ben learning the truth about me and Ash and Hannah was how much he blamed Ash. He acted like Ash had taken me against my will, which was far from the truth. I’d given myself to him willingly. Not just then, but again over the last couple of weeks. Ash had some pull on me that I couldn’t seem to resist. All the more reason to finish our business and move away.
“It’s a lot of money, Ben.”
“It’s not enough. Even if he paid all our debts, it wouldn’t be worth you having to see him again.”
I sighed. “My relationship with him was a long time ago, Ben. You need to let it go. We’re grown up now. Our lives are changing. We need to forget about the past and move forward if we want any chance at salvaging dad’s company.”
Ben shot up out of his chair, forcing it back to slam against the wall. “It doesn’t matter how much time has passed, Beth. Ash betrayed us. How could he have done that? Go behind my back fucking my sister? It’s disgusting.”
I hated that he sullied something, that at the time, had been so beautiful and perfect. And from it I got Hannah. Anger boiled in me, but I worked to control it. There was no sense in both of us losing our cool.
“It wasn’t like that, Ben. I loved him.”
“You didn’t know love or anything about men,” he said. “Ash is a bastard for fucking us both over.”
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were more upset that Ash hid our relationship from you than you are that he left me without a word.”
He shook his head. “I’m not in a mood to argue about this again.”
“You brought it up,” I said, watching him as he began to pace.
“It just fucking pisses me off. I should kick his ass.” He stopped and looked at me. “When I found out, I wanted to rip his head off, but I did as you asked. I’ve kept my mouth shut. What I wanted to do was beat the shit out of him and burn the club down.”
“Ben, you’re overreacting.” It broke my heart to see how Ben had changed over the last two years. It wasn’t just Ash’s betrayal. Or the drinking. His change from a fun, happy guy to this dark, pessimistic man started when my father’s health declined and he realized some of the bad business decisions he’d made. People would likely blame Ben for the company’s problems and probable demise, but the truth was, my father made deals that doomed the business. And Ben, working his ass off to fix it, lost himself.
“How should I react, Beth? My best friend fucked my little sister and knocked her up.”
“Leave Hannah out of this,” I warned him. I gave him a lot of leeway to complain about my relationship with Ash, but I wasn’t going to let him turn Hannah into something sordid.
“You know what’s the worst thing about all this?” he said, picking up his glass and downing his drink.
“What?”
“I almost feel bad for the guy. I want to knock his block off and ruin him, but I also want him to know he’s a father.”
I felt the ground shake underneath me because I couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t do just that. Wheth
er because he felt Ash should know, out of retaliation, or in a drunken stupor, I lived in fear of Ben revealing my secret. I stood. “We agreed, Ben.”
“Fuck!” He threw his glass across the room, shattering it against the wall that held a picture of my father. “I should have never agreed to that. He’s a fucking asshole but he deserves to know he’s got a child.”
“If he finds out, he’s in our lives forever. Is that what you want?”
Ben picked up the contract. I’d gone to dinner with Ash to get it signed and ended up having sex with him for that. “You’re not doing a very good job of staying away from him. Maybe having him out of your life isn’t what you want.”
“I had to see him to finish the deal, Ben. That’s it.” I hated lying to him, but he was clearly in no place to hear the truth. “The deal is done. I’m packing up the townhouse and it’s for sale. The offer still stands. You get your drinking under control; you can come with Hannah and me.”
“So that’s it? You’re ready to let the business die and go bankrupt.”
I felt my anger dissipate, replaced by sadness. “We don’t have much of a choice, Ben.” I walked over to him. It felt like it was me and him against the world sometimes. “This isn’t of our making and even if it was, we need to be smart. We have our own lives to live. You, in particular, have given too much to save something dad ruined. It’s time to let that go. Take care of yourself. Get well. Find your passion.”
He looked down on me, his eyes still glassy and yet hard. “I’m not selfish like you.”