13. Beckett
BECKETT
To-Do:
- Dinner with my “friend”
- Toss the word out of her vocabulary
Patience had never been my strong suit. An argument could be made that it was due to my upbringing. If I wanted something, I got it. Just like that.
But I wasn’t in a position to snap my fingers and conjure Sawyer on my doorstep, and as hard as I tried to show up on hers, she wasn’t having it. Instead of moping around like I wanted, I dove headfirst into research instead.
It seemed like the new land development administrator, Richard Cochran, had a prominent digital footprint.
The guy posted everything on his social media accounts.
From parenting woes and fights with his wife to grilling recipes and cute puppy videos.
It wasn’t hard to track his movements and see exactly why my father was able to dig his claws in so fast.
I’d wager there weren’t many applicants for the position because there was no way this man was qualified for his role.
He worked as an admin in the building for the last three years, but prior to that, his resume was erratic.
Most of his jobs were part-time, and he rarely stayed in one place longer than six months to a year.
Richard also made poor financial decisions.
There were so many embarrassing Facebook posts endorsing various cryptocurrency schemes that I lost count after only fifteen minutes of scrolling.
He reeked of desperation. I was willing to bet he’d lost his household a lot of money on some get-rich-quick ploy.
It was funny how quickly his tune changed when he stepped into his new position.
Then, suddenly, his new title afforded him not only a luxurious new truck for himself but also an SUV for his wife.
They just got back from an extensive European vacation, even though he’d barely been in his new role for a couple of months.
My father had clearly reached into his own pockets to entice the man to his side, a move that would be difficult to circumvent.
Especially as mine only went so deep. I had access to an account set up by my mother’s parents with very few strings attached.
It wouldn’t be hard to pull a bit from there.
Then there was the trust my father created, but that had to remain untouched.
If I dipped into it for anything, there would be questions.
What I needed to find was a point of weakness my father couldn’t possibly fix with a flash of his black card. That was a problem for future Beckett because the present one had a hot date to get to.
I’d been agonizing over seeing Sawyer since I convinced her to go out with me.
It’d nearly been a week since we made our plans, and I’d spent every goddamn day planning our date.
Sorry, “dinner.” Where should I take her?
Small towns had fewer options and almost zero variance.
I wanted to take her somewhere that would impress her, but I wasn’t sure that existed around here.
I even briefly considered pulling something together at the cabin I was staying at—the same one she ran away from months ago—to impress her, but ultimately decided against it.
She had been adamant that we were just friends, and taking her back to the place where we had some of the hottest sex of my life didn’t seem like it fit the bill.
If we were in New York or California, we’d have a million options. Concerts, Broadway, more museums than I could count, Michelin-starred restaurants—but Pinecrest didn’t have any of that. My research showed they had approximately four restaurants that weren’t fast food related or Frank’s Bar.
Clearly, the last option was out.
I could’ve easily asked her what she liked to do, but she deserved better than to plan our first date.
Or second, really. Maybe I needed to revisit the whole bucket list thing so that I could understand the appeal of small town living better.
After all, I was going to be around for a while. Might as well do as the locals do.
I needed to understand what made Frank’s so important to the people here. The bar was on everyone’s lips. I heard it mentioned any time I went into town. Every time I drove back to my cabin, I noticed the parking lot overflowing with cars.
Which, of course, had nothing to do with looking for a certain gold Camry.
The bright orange neon sign stood out against the evening sky like a damn lighthouse guiding me to shore.
The moment I pulled into Frank’s my phone rang.
Edward Montgomery flashed across the screen, pulling a groan from my chest. My father had been calling incessantly since my meeting with Duke and Olivia earlier in the week.
I’d been putting off responding for the last few days, citing how busy I was with potential clients and promising to get back to him over the weekend, but clearly that answer wasn’t cutting it anymore.
Clicking the green button, I let my head fall against the seat. “Hello, Father.”
“Now the boy answers,” he grumbled. The telltale clink of ice against crystal in the background told me all I needed about how our conversation would go. I wondered what had put him in such a foul mood now. “Where have you been the last few days?”
“I told you. I’ve been busy.” Busy avoiding him. “There are a lot of brilliant opportunities in this area that we could capitalize on.”
“And what about the Bennetts?” he asked before taking a loud sip from his liquor, hissing at the burn. “What’s the status on them?”
My chuckle was dry. “Well, they hate you. That much hasn’t changed.”
“The feeling is mutual. They’ll hate me much more when they can’t carry out their plans for that poor excuse for a bar.” He swirled the ice in his drink. “I look forward to the day they have to come crawling to me to undo the mess they’ve made.”
My father may have been an asshole, but he was a shrewd businessman. He had an ability to read people better than anyone I’d ever known. How else does one come to be at the forefront of the biggest property development firm in the world? But where there were strengths, there were weaknesses.
When it came to his pride, my father often became overcome with the need for revenge.
So much so that he often underestimated his opponents, which was precisely what was happening now.
Duke and Olivia were not only successful in their own right but also adored by this town.
Although there were other factors at play, I truly believed it was one of the many reasons Frank’s was seeing exponential growth while others were shutting their doors.
He was operating under the belief that their hubris matched his own, but I knew for a fact that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“I don’t see how this is their mess when you’re the one who is threatening to hold their plans hostage.” The number of times I called my father out in a business scenario was slim to none, but he couldn’t feasibly tell me I was wrong. Not that it would stop him from trying.
“If that little bitch had sold me what I wanted months ago, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” he barked.
“And her husband made my vendetta personal. That’s why going after the bar is brilliant.
She clearly loves it, and him, enough to walk away from her family’s legacy.
” The smug satisfaction was clear in his voice.
He didn’t give two shits about the bar. He only wanted to strike where it would hurt them both.
Two birds with one stone. “Let’s see if she loves him enough to let go of things she swore she never would. ”
If I genuinely thought my father would walk away if Olivia caved, I’d urge her to do it.
Going toe-to-toe with him wasn’t for the weak.
Even though Olivia was the perfect opponent in theory, he wouldn’t let her off easily.
He was perfectly content to drag out this little war until they both stood on the ashes of everything they loved.
Neither of them was going to back down now.
Not at this stage of their game. Therefore, it was up to me to be Olivia’s secret weapon.
Not only did I know more of my father’s dirty secrets than even his longest business associates, but I could be just as ruthless.
He made sure to mold me in his image so that I could take over his company someday, beating lessons into me until it was all I knew.
There was something almost poetic about that being the cause of his downfall.
Was it wrong to admit it brought me some semblance of joy to think about? Probably.
Did I care? Not even a little bit.
“Is it just a pride thing?” I asked. Anytime I tried to talk to him about it before, he turned me down. Said I couldn’t possibly understand, and he would’ve been correct. Of course, there was no way for me to know what was driving him if I didn’t have all the information.
My father huffed. “I’ve already told you.
Her uncle’s portfolio is vast. He owns most of the land in the godforsaken town, and even more along the mountains.
I’m talking prime fucking real estate that could make us a lot of money if we’re smart.
Folks from the city want to escape to somewhere that feels rural while still having access to the staples they know and love in the city. ”
That was it? His ego trip was all about turning Pinecrest into a fucking tourist trap? I thought there would be something sentimental about it, considering the lengths he was willing to go to. That was my mistake. I should’ve known my father only cared about something if it lined his pockets.
“There’s more land we can buy. Why does it have to be theirs?”
“Because John Hart was a pain in my fucking ass when he was alive, and his niece is proving to be the same. She deserves what’s coming to her,” he sneered.