Initiative (Suncoast Society #31)(57)

Heat spilled into her face. “True. Sorry.”

“Then feel free,” Grant said, “to give people the impression that she’s dating Darryl. Since Darryl and I are best friends and roommates, it’s not unusual to see me and him together.”

“Roger roger,” Kristin said, grinning. “I knew there was a reason I really liked you boys.” Her smile faded. “Don’t f*ck her over or I’ll be your worst enemy.”

Susie laughed. “They’d have to survive Tilly going after them first.”

“Who? Oh, was that your friend I met last week?” Kristin’s gaze narrowed. “Hey, she came in with two guys, too, didn’t she?”

“Yeah,” Susie said. “She did.”

“Gotcha.” She made a motion of locking her lips and chucking the key over her shoulder.

Grant kissed Susie’s temple. “Like you said, one daily stressor…gone.”

“I never thought I’d see the day.”

Kristin smirked. “Don’t be surprised if you start getting ‘thank you’ gifts from everyone on staff.”

Susie thought back to the insight she’d had while finalizing the arrangements with Jack. “I just hope he can find happiness one day,” she said. “All I know is it won’t be here.”





Chapter Eighteen


They didn’t get out of there until after midnight. Kristin stayed the whole time, helping coordinate everything.

This time, it was Susie ordering Kristin to not come in until late—if at all—the next day.

Kristin agreed to coming in at noon.

For her part, Susie awoke at her normal time and went in as usual to make sure the repairs were still underway. The men had slept at her house, as they’d already planned, and headed in to work from there. Grant would be in quarterly meetings all day with representatives from a pharmaceutical company they were doing research for and out of contact until he got out of work that evening. He’d told Darryl and Susie to go ahead and eat dinner and not wait on him.

She was actually enjoying her Tuesday morning, feeling good about life in general, when she caught sight of Marcus and Joanie Costello marching through the showroom a little before nine o’clock.

And they headed straight toward the hallway that led to her office.

Dammit.

From the looks on their faces, she suspected this wouldn’t be good.

While she had wondered if Jack would go whining to his mommy and daddy that his mean, bitchy sister-in-law had basically forced him out, Ed had warned her that she was perfectly within her rights per the will. Jack had signed an agreement to sell his shares, had accepted and already deposited the check that same afternoon—apparently before he even went to clean out his desk—and it was a done deal.

His minuscule share was firmly in her hands, meaning she now owned the majority of the dealership, no matter how that pissed off the Costellos. Before, John said he always assumed his parents thought they could rally everyone to their side to, at the very least, effect a stalemate.

Until little Jackass went off the reservation without consulting them first.

Deep breaths. Maybe they don’t want to talk about that.

But when Marcus pulled Susie’s office door closed behind them and practically marched over to her desk, she knew.

That was exactly what they wanted to talk about.

Marcus wasted no time. “You need to return Jack’s shares to him.”

Susie leaned back in her chair and templed her fingers in front of her in her best impersonation of Grant that she could muster. “I beg your pardon?” she coolly asked.

“Don’t you start with me. You cheated him out of what was rightfully his!”

“Oh, like he cheated me out of a long life and children with my husband by killing him?”

Marcus’ face went red, but he didn’t respond to that. He deftly ignored and side-stepped it. “John left those shares to Jack. They’re his.”

“And there was a stipulation that I could buy him out, if I wanted to. I can buy out any of the shareholders. I have the right of first refusal, as a matter of fact. If you’ll read the fine print, if anyone tries to sell or transfer their shares to anyone but me, and I protest the sale, the shares will dissolve and automatically revert to me anyway. That’s in the share agreements and in the will. You agreed to all of that when you signed the loan paperwork. I exercised that right of first refusal for an extremely generous amount, all things considered.”

She channeled Grant some more and let one corner of her mouth slide up a couple of degrees in a smirk. “What’s the matter, Marcus? Pissed off that there’s no way in hell for you to ever set a fifty-percent roadblock like you thought you could after John died? Mad that you didn’t read a little more carefully before you signed on the dotted line when you loaned John the money in the first place? Upset that John proved to be far smarter than you and set up a safety net you didn’t spot until now? Or does it piss you off that Jack actually grew a spine and did something without asking your permission first? He got far more for those two shares than he deserved. Mainly because he couldn’t sell them anywhere else and he knew it, just like you know it.”

Marcus looked enraged, making Susie suspect she’d hit multiple bull’s-eyes with that observation. “That’s not the point!”