Chapter 5
We are the granddaughters of the grandmothers you couldn’t run over last year.
— Keely to Dima
KEELY
“ Hello ?” I answered, belly quivering.
“ Hey ,” Cutter’s voice sounded…odd. “ You got a minute?”
I looked at my watch.
I had to work tonight.
Which , I might add, I was reluctant to do after the night that I’d spent worrying myself to death.
The only thing that’d calmed my ass down was an email I’d finally gotten around to checking an hour ago.
I’d gotten two emails from weird email addresses that at first, I’d thought were spam.
One had been a clean bill of health with the subject line reading: I’m safe.
After reading, then rereading the email and the ‘clean bill of health,’ trying to find the name of the man that’d clearly been redacted, I’d decided that I was going to believe the man.
And , to be honest, that particular thought hadn’t even crossed my mind until I’d received the email.
The second email had been what’d really calmed me down.
Which was crazy, because the email had been a video from a security camera from the club that I’d been in last night. The security camera was pointed directly at where we’d been last night, and it had night vision.
Meaning , I got to see the entire freakin’ thing all over again.
Which had me deciding that though last night had scared me, it hadn’t been in a way that I wouldn’t do it again.
But it made me realize that I needed to be a lot more careful.
What kind of fucked up person was okay with a complete stranger fucking her? Also , what kind of person was okay with the fact that she was okay with it?
Needless to say, my head was a freakin’ wreck.
Normally , I’d head to breakfast with one of my brothers when I was feeling out of sorts but today was different.
This morning sometime I’d gotten a text from Chevy that something had happened and he was heading to Montana .
I’d called him and he’d sent it to voicemail, only to send me a long-ass text message saying that something had happened with Milena . She was okay, but Cutter needed some backup.
I’d left it at that, trusting them to tell me when they got home.
Likely , they didn’t want to tell me something bad had happened so I didn’t worry.
That was the way of my brothers, though.
Always keeping me in the dark because they thought I was too fragile to learn the truth.
“ Are you there?” Cutter asked.
“ Yes ,” I said. “ Are you all right?”
“ We’re fine.” He sighed. “ I’m sorry for the secrecy.”
I hummed. “ What was the secrecy about?”
There was a pause and then, “ Can’t talk about it over the phone.”
Meaning , he’d done something illegal, and he needed to make sure he didn’t say anything over an unsecured line.
“ Okie dokie, smokie,” I said. “ What did you call for then? I’m not ready to go to the board meeting yet, or I would’ve called.”
The ‘board meeting’ was something that I did once a month.
The board that the meeting was for was my father’s brainchild, Castanon Enterprises .
When my mom married my dad, he’d been a Castanon , and he’d owned a multi-million dollar real estate empire in the middle of Dallas . He’d been the top of the top and had made his business into one of the world’s largest companies that bought and sold both residential and business real estate.
When he’d died, Granddad had taken over the day-to-day crap until I’d graduated college. When I was done, he’d transferred all of his shares—both his and my dad’s—to me for safe keeping.
I’d vehemently refused at first.
Should’ve kept refusing to be completely honest.
But my brothers and my granddad forced my hand.
God , I couldn’t wait until I could put that board and the Castanon empire behind me.
The day that Copper got out, that vile place was all his.
When he’d been younger, our ‘father’ had started grooming Copper to take the whole thing over one day—when he was very old and couldn’t cognitively run it anymore because God forbid he give it up earlier than he had to.
The rest of the family— Chevy , Cutter , and I —hadn’t once been asked to join him when doling out that knowledge. Which had caused us all to not want anything to do with it.
They’d —my well-meaning family—said that I deserved it. That I could either run it into the ground or make it even better.
According to them, I was going to get the money from that stupid place, and I was going to live happily ever after with it.
What they didn’t know was that I hadn’t touched that fucking money. None of it.
It felt dirty to me.
Like a consolation prize for my father’s abuse.
But , in the beginning, the reason I’d agreed was twofold.
One , I would make sure this stupid business was thriving and ready to go for when Copper got out and could take it off my hands.
Second , it was because of my father’s aide, Alexander Pettigrew .
Alexander Pettigrew would’ve taken it all over had I not taken it.
He was on the fast track to taking it right out of my grandfather’s hands because he was ‘too old’ according to the company’s by-laws.
And he’d have flourished in the position.
He was just the kind of shark that that place needed to thrive.
However , if there was one thing that I would not do, it was let that man win.
Alexander Pettigrew was just as bad as my father.
Though he hadn’t hurt me like my father had, he’d watched plenty of times. He’d turned a blind eye. He’d sat down and watched while my father had tortured me endlessly and laughed when I’d done something to protect myself and my dad had retaliated.
He’d even offered suggestions.
I’d been too fucking scared that he’d retaliate and take it out on Copper if I told the world that he was a willing participant in my childhood abuse.
As it was, he’d fought tooth and nail to make Copper pay. Then he’d fought to ensure that we got nothing after my father’s death.
Luckily , our grandfather had fought just as hard and won on our behalf, and everything had become ours that was owed to us.
My brothers got the lakefront property.
I , on the other hand, got the company that I hated, the dividends that I refused to touch, and a headache once a month because I was forced to sit in on a meeting that could’ve been an email.
The only good thing I got out of those meetings was opposing those that I hated on that board, and becoming a sometimes deciding vote to make things go the way that I wanted them.
Alexander Pettigrew had thought he’d be able to fight forever, but lady luck had finally caught up to him and taken him out of the game.
A woman had come out against him, not caring about all the money and clout he had and accused him of rape.
Things had gone to court, and Alexander Pettigrew had gone to prison because the evidence had been overwhelming.
He’d been sentenced to seven years in prison—which was a fucking joke because Copper had gotten three times that for a crime that wasn’t nearly as vile.
Luckily , at first, it hadn’t been the same prison as Copper .
But after a few years of him being in, he’d been transferred, and he’d wound up at the same prison as Copper six months ago.
That’d been why I hadn’t been visiting Copper as much.
We’d all decided that until Copper noticed, we weren’t going to tell him that Pettigrew was in there with him.
Meanwhile , Pettigrew disgusted me so much that I wasn’t willing to chance even seeing him.
He made my skin crawl, and the thought of seeing his beady little eyes again made me want to vomit.
“ I know that Alexander Pettigrew being at Copper’s prison makes it uncomfortable for you to go…” Speaking of the devil. “ But I have a package for you to pick up at the prison. Plus , in exchange for that package, I need you to drop off the bike I have on the trailer outside my house. You don’t have to go inside at all.”
I frowned, unease skirting through my veins. “ What kind of package?”
“ The kind that I can’t tell you about,” he said. “ My contact will meet you there and come up to you. You’ll know who it is.”
Cutter and his cloak and dagger shit.
“ Fine ,” I said. “ I’ll call the board and tell them that we’ll need to reschedule the meeting to this afternoon. Will I be back by four?”
“ That should do it,” Cutter said. “ Call me when you get the package.”
“ Hey , baby.”
I shivered as I waited in the parking lot for whatever it was that I needed to pick up.
Normally , I would’ve never been asked to do this particular pick up, but none of my brothers were able to do it.
So here I was.
Not that I was complaining or anything. I adored being needed.
I just wished I wasn’t needed at the prison, two hours away.
Though , it did get me out of a board meeting for a bit, which I liked.
What I didn’t like were all the creepy people here to visit their imprisoned family that might as well be in prison themselves.
“ Hey , do you hear me talking to you, sweet thing?” the same man asked for a second time.
If he came over here, I was going to stab him with the knife in my back pocket.
“ She heard you,” I heard my brother’s deep, dark voice. “ But she didn’t respond because she doesn’t want anything to fuckin’ do with you.”
I whipped my head around and…
“ Copper !” I cried out.
Copper dropped his stuff onto the concrete, uncaring that some of it might’ve been breakable, and opened his arms just in time for me to throw myself into them.
I sobbed the moment my body made contact with his.
Big , hulking sobs that shook my body.
Snot was running out of my nose, tears were all over both of us, and goddammit, my brother was free!
“ What are you doing here?” I wailed.
I was officially losing it.
“ I’m out.” He sounded gruff. “ Pardoned by the governor.”
I squeezed him tighter, likely cutting off his air supply. Though , he didn’t seem to care.
“ Fuck , but it feels good to hold you without chains around me,” he growled. “ I’ve missed you too much, Tequila .”
The rumble of his voice in his chest was like music to my ears.
“ I’m so happy right now, Copper Clayborne .” I paused and narrowed my eyes. “ But don’t ever call me that again.”
I hated, with a passion, my actual name.
Tequila .
My brothers’ names had been bad, sure. All of them cowboy names that were clearly named exactly that because of my mother’s dislike of my father. But my name?
I hated it with every beat of my heart, and would never embrace it, no matter how ‘cool’ everyone thought it was.
Not after all the crap that I’d gotten for it growing up, from both school and my dad.
“ You have no idea, baby sister,” he said, not apologizing for using the name that I hated.
I pulled away from him, and he let me go.
I brought both of my hands up to his cheeks and squeezed. “ Gosh , I’ve missed the hell out of you, Copper .”
His eyes were a bit wet when he responded, “ I’m so happy I could fuckin’ cry.”
I grinned. “ I’m guessing that bike on the back of my 4- Runner is yours.”
His eyes moved from me to where my SUV was parked. “ That’s likely true.”
“ Let’s go.”
The first stop was a diner about a block down the road where Copper ate everything under the sun.
Hamburger , french fries covered with bacon and cheese, baked potato soup, a salad, and followed up with eighteen Dr Peppers .
He ordered pie to go, and stuffed it into his saddlebags when we got back outside.
“ Are you going home? Or do you want to go to a board meeting with me?” I asked.
“ Board meeting sounds fun.” He grinned.
A gleam entered my eyes. “ How do you feel about going to them permanently?”
He tilted his head. “ I’ve spent the last seventeen years learning everything I could about running that empire. You know that I’m ready for it.”
I smiled. That’d been my intention all along.
Keep humping along until Copper was ready to take it over.
“ I’ll get the shares transferred over tomorrow,” I offered.
“ No need,” he said. “ You’ll remain with the shares that you have. I’ll get my shares another way.”
My brows rose. “ I feel like you aren’t telling me everything.”
He winked. “ Let’s go to the meeting.”