14. Harrison
Chapter 14
Harrison
‘Hey guys, it’s me,’ I say, driving down from my house and the hills and trying my best to stay calm. ‘We’re going to need to bring forward our plans. Yup. That piece of dirt Nico has shown up at the site. This isn’t good.’
I end the call and refocus my energy on driving.
The winding hills that take me to and from my home are a thing of beauty – but in an emergency like this, they’re not exactly ideal.
As soon as I hit the straight road that will take me to the Las Malvinas site, I know that I’ll be flooring the accelerator and pushing my Maserati to its limits.
It was only fifteen minutes ago that I was working away on some new designs for a free to use skatepark over on the other side of town. That, along with my Las Malvinas project, is a huge part of my plan to spend the next two or three years focusing almost exclusively on community driven projects for Los Torros.
But then my peace was interrupted by an irate message from Xander. Xander’s message was quickly followed up by one from Taylor too - this message not irate, but certainly concerned in the extreme about what was happening on the site.
Apparently Nico and a whole team of lawyers, investors, and security had arrived on the site and were acting like they were judge, jury, and executioner.
There’s no way I’m letting this fly. It’s one thing being challenged in the courts, by fair means or foul, but when people come onto my site and try to physically stop my projects… that’s a real no-no.
I have to take action, and that’s precisely what I’m doing.
My phone call to Reece and Trent might be the answer to the Las Malvinas situation, but unless I get down to the site and make my presence felt, I fear that I could have a construction crew walkout on my hands to deal with.
As I pull out of the final pocket of the hills, I’m suddenly on a mission to break the speed limit and fly through more red lights than I’ve ever done.
With the engine roaring and my adrenalin pumping, I know I’m in danger of taking things too far and exploding in rage when I see Nico and his gang of big city assholes.
I need to stay at least someway calm.
Taylor will be at the site, and the last thing I want is for him to witness me absolutely lose my shit. I pride myself on being a tough businessman, but a real tough guy doesn’t lose his cool – that’s when mistakes happen.
I know that in a situation like this, where the stakes are about as high as they could be for me reputationally, I have to handle this in the right way.
So while the temptation might be to pick Nico up and toss him into the nearest rock crusher, I know that I need to show some control and set him straight as clearly and calmly as I possibly can, no matter how hard that might seem.
I’m about ten minutes away from the site.
If I have a clear run with traffic, I might even make it in seven minutes.
Whatever the timescale, I know that by the time I arrive I need a fully formed idea in my head for what I’m going to say and how I’m going to say it.
Hopefully both Reece and Trent won’t be too far behind me either, and I know that when everyone hears what the three of us have to say then it will become clear that from now on, Los Torros is a city that no one will mess with – especially not shark investors like Nico and his employers.
* * *
I pull up at the Las Malvinas site and turn the Maserati engine off.
‘Breathe, just breathe,’ I say, my blood pressure rocketing and my heart thumping inside my chest.
I look around and can’t spot either one of Reece or Trent’s cars.
I guess they must be on their way, potentially stuck in traffic having come over from the opposite side of Los Torros to me.
And my suspicions are immediately confirmed when I look at my phone and see a message from Trent…
Yo, I’m in the car with Reece. Traffic is out of control. But we’ll be there soon. Don’t do anything crazy before we get there, bro. TRENT.
‘I’ll try,’ I mutter, getting out of the car and shutting the door.
It doesn’t take me long before I spot the hubbub over on the westerly side of the site. I can make out an exasperated looking Xander, surrounded by his crew who don’t look too impressed either.
As I stride towards them, I’m scanning my eyes and looking for one person and one person in particular…
‘Nico!’ I roar – so much for staying calm. ‘Nico, you sneaky sonofabitch. What the fuck do you think you are doing?’
Nico begins to tell me all about how I’m in a non-win situation.
Frankly, I’ve heard it all before.
My upbringing was tough, and I had to battle the odds to make a success of my life. I know what it looks and feels like to be the underdog, so I’m not about to collapse like a house of cards the second that an opportunistic grifter like Nico tells me to.
And the way that Nico is trying to tell me to simply give up and walk away is pushing all my buttons in a way that Nico might live to regret too…
I step toward Nico and find myself towering over him. The fact that he’s smaller than me means nothing right now. He betrayed me back in the city, and it seems more than clear that he’s just as twisted and amoral now too.
‘Come on, hit me,’ Nico smirks. ‘You can use the money you get from the sale of this site to pay for your legal fees and my compensation payout!’
‘Daddy, no!’ Taylor calls out, pushing out from the crowd and putting his body directly between me and Nico just as it looks like I might be about to swing for him. ‘Don’t let this horrible person push you into lashing out. Remember, that’s when mistakes happen…’
Taylor’s right.
I’ve got a good boy in my life, and I’m not about to let him or myself down by lowering myself to Nico’s level.
‘’Come on… hit me… you know you want to,’ Nico repeats, this time with added spite in his voice.
‘I’m not going to hit you, Nico,’ I say, a calming breeze blowing over me. ‘In fact, I’m not going to lay a single finger on you. But I am going to say this…’
At this point, I could see that both Reece and Trent had arrived and were now walking toward us.
‘Daddy? What are you doing here?’ Xander says, clearly unsure as to why his Daddy has just shown up.
‘I’m here, along with Trent, to support my friend,’ Reece says.
‘Not just our friend, but our business partner too,’ Trent adds. ‘You Littles may be the Blue Collar boys, but how does the Daddy Investment Fund sound to you?’
I bump fists with Trent and Reece and the three of us stand directly in front of Nico and his so-called investors.
‘You may or may not know this, but each one of us has significant capital and assets,’ I say, addressing Nico with total authority. ‘But the three of us combined add up to something significant. And that’s without mentioning the wider group of Daddies we have joining, with more to come.’
‘What?’ Nico says, shaking his head and clearly realizing that this isn’t going his way. ‘I call bullshit.’
‘You can call whatever you want, dork,’ Trent says, his laidback drawl only adding to the torment for Nico. ‘But the Daddy Investment Fund is here to stay, and it’s only going to get bigger. We’ve got Los Torros covered.’
‘So you might just want to tell your bosses that you’ve wasted their time,’ Reece adds, wrapping his arm around Xander’s waist.
‘Las Malvinas is ours,’ I say, my hands on my hips. ‘And your get rich quick money isn’t welcome here. Not now, and not ever.’
I can see that Nico is panicking – and not only that, but his investment fund employers don’t look overly impressed either.
‘Okay, I think we’re fucking done here,’ the lead investor says, witheringly. ‘And Nico… you’re done with us too. Permanently done.’
‘Come on, no, guys, we can put a package to beat these-’
But the investors walk away, not interested in anything that Nico has to say. He’s lost, and I hope he walks away himself now and doesn’t try to start any shit.
However this is Nico…
Nico crouches to the ground and picks up a rock and begins to charge toward me. I dodge out of his way and Nico’s momentum takes him past me and through the safety netting that outlines a large hole in the ground.
‘Shall I haul him out?’ Taylor says, pointing over at the forklift truck. ‘I’ve got a neat towing attachment on Big Red I could use?’
‘No, leave him,’ I say. ‘He can stay there and think about what he’s done for the next hour at least.’
With that, we all laugh.
Nico’s been well and truly defeated. In a way, I feel sad that he felt like he could come back into my life and attempt to take advantage and work a scheme against me again. But on the other hand, Nico is a grown man who makes his own decisions – he might think of himself as a Little, but there’s nothing sweet and innocent about him.
Taylor on the other hand…
They say that each Daddy has that one special boy who comes into their life, a Little who changes everything and makes a Daddy’s life seem complete.
Well, I know that Taylor is my special boy.
The truth is that I always suspected he was, right from the beginning. But right now, I know for sure. The very thought that Nico could come back into my life and cause chaos only served to emphasize just how important Taylor is and also how much I am willing to do anything to protect him and make sure that he’s happy.
Of course, I had my loyalty to the Blue Collar Boys too, and that played a big part in me wanting to make sure that Nico and his group of shady investors were dealt with.
And I’d be lying if I said that my own personal and professional pride didn’t come into it. I’ve built this business up. My name in Los Torros is synonymous with property, high quality, and big business. There was no way I was going to accept being hustled and pushed off my own project by a scheming little coward like Nico.
But all that being said, everything still comes back to the boy.
And I think it’s just about time that I told Taylor exactly how important he is to me. This is my moment to tell Taylor how much he’s impacted my life, and also how much I need him to stick around for the long run.
But I’m not going to do it here.
‘Come on, darling boy,’ I say, putting my hand around Taylor’s shoulder. ‘Let’s go for a drive, I’ve got something I need to say to you.’
I need to take Taylor to the one place that means more to me than anywhere else in the whole of Los Torros. It’s time to take Taylor back to where it all started for me – and I’m going to make sure that it’s a trip Taylor never, ever forgets…