Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
I t was much too nice of a day to be trapped behind his desk.
Eric clicked his pen rhythmically, but his father either couldn’t hear it or was choosing to ignore it as he wrapped up a tedious story about his latest golf game.
When he finally came to an end, Eric leaned forward to speak into his phone, which was set to speaker. “Okay, well, if that’s all…”
But before he could hit the End Call button, his dad spoke up. “Of course that’s not all. That’s not even why I called.”
“Ah.” Eric refrained from pointing out that his father had spent the last twenty minutes talking golf, so it was hardly his fault that he’d missed the real point of this interruption to his day.
“I spoke to Fred,” his father continued.
Eric stared out the window, trying and failing to conjure an image of Fred. It was one of the lawyers, but which one? “Oh?”
His father sighed loudly, clearly exasperated, and Eric shifted in his seat. He knew what was coming.
“What’s this I hear about you backing down in the property battle?”
Eric winced. “I didn’t back down .” His tone dripped with disdain. “Why would I back down against the Kings? They’re no match for us.”
“Maybe so, but I’m expecting you to see this through, Eric. Developing the shoreline is huge for Blue Sky. Are you sure you can handle it?”
Eric’s temper flared, and it took everything in him to keep his voice steady as he resisted the urge to thump his desk and bark like a rabid dog.
Instead, he managed to clear his throat and softly grit out, “You know I can.”
“It’s not just about the business,” his father snapped. “It’s about family. Loyalty. Protecting our name and standing strong against the enemy.”
The enemy? He was making the Kings sound like a terrorist group.
“Dad—” he tried to interject but was immediately cut off.
“I need someone I can trust in the driver’s seat on this one, Eric. And if you can’t deliver the way I’m hoping, then I’ll just need to find someone else. I’m sure your sister could step into the role if it’s too much for you.”
Eric’s nostrils flared, vile words bubbling in his throat as he clenched his jaw and silently seethed.
His sister? After all the time and energy he’d poured into this place?
Improving it, making it run more efficiently than it ever had?
Thanks to him, they were busier than ever.
People had to book more than a year in advance to get into this place, and his father thought his sister could just swan in and take over?
His head started to pound, his heart pulsing a deafening beat as he tried to clamp down his emotions. And his father kept barreling on, only amplifying Eric’s torrid anger.
“I’m still the boss, you know? You may be managing that resort and everyone thinks I’m retired, but it’s still my name on the company paperwork. And I won’t see this family lose a stretch of land that is rightfully ours because you dropped the ball.”
“I haven’t dropped anything,” he bit back before his father could rile him up any further. “I know exactly what I’m doing.”
Ugh. It felt like he was playing a part onstage. And he’d never been much of an actor, but he sucked in a breath and reminded himself to be cool, detached, in control.
“So what’s this about, then? Why the delay?” his father demanded.
“I’m being strategic.”
His father finally shut up, and Eric felt a flare of triumph.
He might not be a good actor, but he knew his father and could bluff with the best of them.
“We could just bulldoze over them with legal paperwork, of course.” Eric’s tone suggested that this was an idiotic plan created by a simpleton.
“But that would mean wasting money on our own lawyers and drawing this out.”
“Hmm.”
Eric leaned forward again. He was close to ending this conversation, so he let disdain fill his voice again. “Of course Fred and the others want a legal battle.”
“And I suppose you have a better plan?”
“Of course I do.”
“And I suppose you don’t care to share?” His father’s tone was sarcastic.
“Not yet. I’m still doing my research.”
His mind flew back to the forest and a blonde fairy with wayward curls and a stack of letters clutched in her hand. Love letters, written by his ancestor, Rose Spencer.
His thoughts keep drifting, moving back to the past, trying to piece together the emotions written clear as day. Forbidden emotions that had no place in a raging feud between their families.
He was so distracted, he nearly missed his father’s next comment. “Just so long as that family is taken down, once and for all.”
Eric’s eyes narrowed. It wasn’t so much the statement as the vitriol behind it. There his father went again, making the Kings out to be the epitome of evil.
A year ago, it might have made him chuckle, hearing his dad lose his cool over some centuries-old family feud. But lately…
His mind flicked back to Rose’s letters again. To some of the sweet words she penned to her secret love, Charlie. And then, before he could stop it—an image of Willow filled his mind so completely he temporarily forgot everything else.
He swallowed hard and tuned in to his father, still talking.
Or…fuming, really. “The Kings have a lot to answer for. Even when we returned and wanted to expand, they’ve thwarted us at every turn.
How dare they after all they’ve done? Enough’s enough, Eric.
We need to silence that family once and for all and take what is rightfully ours. They owe us.”
Eric frowned. “Owe us?”
“Of course! You know about the fire they set. As if that wasn’t enough, they accused our forefathers of thievery and cattle stealing, and then they went and destroyed our property.”
Eric’s heart sank.
“Their accusations and attempts to encroach on our land was one thing, but to set a fire that killed poor Rose?—”
“Rose?” Eric straightened in his seat. “So, Rose actually died in that fire?”
His father’s sigh was weary. “Yes, of course she did. You knew that. She was their only daughter…and the only one they couldn’t get out before the flames engulfed the entire place. Her mother never got over it.”
Eric rubbed at his temples. “I just…maybe I didn’t retain all of that when you first told me.”
“Well, I guess that’s fair,” his father huffed. “It was generations ago. I’ve just been with your grandfather, and he was reminding me of the story.”
“And…what happened?” he prompted.
“One of the King boys set the fire, and Rose died in the blaze. It broke her parents’ hearts. They never truly recovered. The place was destroyed as well, and the family had no choice but to leave.”
There was a heavy silence.
Eric’s heart started to race as he tried to put it all together.
But it didn’t fit. Not only did the pieces not line up, but it was like he was staring at puzzle pieces from three different jigsaws.
“Which one?” he finally asked.
“Hmm?”
“Which one of the King boys?” His voice sounded strained, but his father didn’t seem to notice.
“Oh. I’m not sure. Never did learn much about their family. Just how they ruined ours.”
Eric barely paid attention to the rest of the call, but he must have made the appropriate sounds, because a minute later his father was hanging up, promising to check in soon.
After the call ended, Eric paced his office. His feet itched to race up to No Man’s Land, but…
Why would Willow be there now? She was probably working.
He glanced at the clock. He should be working. But there was a weird excitement coursing through him. A thrill that came with getting a new lead.
He let out a sharp exhale. Heck, maybe he’d read too many detective stories as a kid, because everything in him now wanted to solve this.
And if the answers prove that the Kings own the land?
He flinched. He’d deal with that if the time came. And it would be better to know for certain one way or the other. Right?
His father’s threats about replacing him lingered in the back of his mind, but surely he was just saying all of that to rile Eric up. He knew how to push his buttons to force action. His father was a master manipulator. He always had been.
He headed out of his office, brushing off Sandra’s questions. “I’ll be back,” he threw over his shoulder.
Where was he going? He wasn’t totally sure himself.
Somewhere he might find more answers, or at least another clue.
He was soon heading toward the basement of the lodge. It was mostly storage down there, so far as he knew. But maybe there were some boxes of old family heirlooms, right?
Wrong.
He searched for a good hour before he came back up, his hands covered in dust, his suit rumpled—and with nothing to show for it.
He hesitated at the elevator that would take him to his office. The thought of heading back there and burying his head in work was too dismal to consider. Besides… He consulted the clock on his phone. The workday was nearly over, and he was dying to get outside while there was still sunlight.
Heading through the lobby, he doled out an appropriate amount of polite smiles to guests, gave a few side-eyes to various staff, and one silent warning to the young woman checking her phone behind the front desk.
Her cheeks turned scarlet and she quickly tucked the device away before he went out the front door and took the path to his right.
He wandered the grounds, nodding to employees, striding around like he had someplace to be.
In reality, he was pondering. Where would Charlie’s letters be?
If Charlie had kept Rose’s letters hidden away in an old hunting shed….
Wouldn’t Rose have thought to do something similar?
He scanned the grounds, as if an old hunting shed might just pop up all of a sudden. There were no old cabins on their property…that he knew of.
Crossing his arms, he leaned back for a better view of the hills that shielded the lodge from the populated downtown.
Then again, he hadn’t even remembered the story about the fire—or, at least, not Rose’s part in it. And if there was a structure in the hills they hadn’t developed…
Were there trails nearby they told guests not to hike? There were definitely areas that remained out-of-bounds for safety reasons. Maybe something was hidden away in some pocket of the property he hadn’t discovered yet.
He tilted his head to consider this possibility.
If he really wanted to get to the bottom of this, and still keep his job safe, he had work to do.