The Perfect Stroke (Lucas Brothers #1)(76)

“Whatever. I’ll use all the money I have to bury every damn one of you,” Riverton growls.

“That might be difficult,” Ida Sue says, and Jansen comes beside her and hands her an envelope. “Consider yourself served, Mr. Riverton,” she says, handing it to him. “Of course I don’t trust you to say you didn’t get it, even with all these witnesses, so the sheriff’s office will be hand-delivering one to your corporate offices this afternoon.”

“What are you talking about, you old bat?” Riverton snarls, tearing open the envelope. Gray makes a move to hit him again and Janson pushes him away.

“He’s not worth it, son,” Janson says after pushing him back a few feet. Gray doesn’t look happy, but he steps back. “Besides, it’s my woman he’s going on about,” he adds, and then he grabs the back of Riverton’s collar and uses it to slam him head first into the wall. “You need to learn how to talk to a woman, son,” he says as Riverton falls to the ground, completely out.

Cammie is crying, and she looks down at her father and then back at all of us. “What’s in those papers?” she asks, apparently more concerned with that than her father. Of course David Riverton doesn’t exactly inspire family loyalty.

“Those would explain that I am now fifty-one percent owner of all stock concerning Riverton Industrial. They’ll also notify you and your daddy that there will be a stockholder meeting next week to talk about a change of leadership.”

“What? You can’t do that.”

“It’s already done. I’ve been talking it over with Cyan and he feels like he might enjoy restructuring the company.”

“Mom? How did you do all this?” Gray asks.

“You know those oil wells that Blue let them drill on that pasture along the Northside, just to alienate our neighbor?”

“Yeah?”

“He’s been giving me the money, and I’ve let Cyan handle investing it. Turns out, I can buy and sell Riverton.”

“There’s no way!” Cammie says, stomping her foot.

“But I did, Cammie darlin’. Who knew you and your father could be bought so cheaply?”

“Me. I definitely knew that,” Maggie says.

“Boys, drag this piece of trash outside,” Jansen orders, and White and Cyan jump to do his bidding.

“But if you do this? What will we do? What will happen to me? Gray! You can’t let them do this! What will I do?” Cammie cries as Maggie all but pushes her out the door.

“Try getting a job,” Maggie suggests, then closes the door once her brothers come back in.

“Now that’s what I call a family meeting,” Ida Sue says. “Now how do we take on the stuffed shirts over the tournament? Because come hell or high water, my boy will be knocking balls into holes tomorrow morning and doing it better than any man out there.”

Everyone starts laughing and all I can do is look up at Gray. He’s laughing too, and he seems okay, but he’s tense. I see it in everything he does.

Does he think I took advantage of his mom? How will I ever get the money to pay her back?





I close the door behind my crazy family and just stand there holding my hand against it for a few minutes, trying to get my emotions in check. It’s been a f*cked up day, the least of it being the fact that my woman’s naked body was plastered in every gossip rag coming and going. Seth is working on that as we speak, but that will never go completely away—and that’s my fault. I failed her. Apparently I’ve been failing her a lot and didn’t even know. I don’t know how I feel about the fact that my mother knew CC was in trouble and I didn’t. Did CC feel she couldn’t come to me?

“Gray?” CC asks, ringing her hands from across the room. I don’t have to see her to know that’s what she’s doing; I know by the tone of her voice.

My eyes close and I try once again to rein in the fact that I’m hurt. That’s not truly what’s important right now.

“You didn’t tell me,” I say before I can stop myself. I turn around to look at her and I see the embarrassment on her face.

“I know.”

“My mother knew that you were in trouble and I didn’t.”

“That was by accident. She was at the garage when Riverton showed up…”

“He came to the garage?”

“He was just poking at me, wanting me to know he had me in a corner,” she explains, not quite meeting my eyes.

“He harassed you? The f*cker came to your business and harassed you and you didn’t feel like that was something you needed to tell me? You let me conduct business with these people, CC!” I growl loudly, anger filling me at the idea of CC standing up against that twisted f*ck by herself. What would it feel like to have the man who is responsible for your birth treat you like garbage?

“Now wait a minute. You went into business with them way before I even came into the picture. I don’t have anything to do with that.”

“I wouldn’t have gone into business with them if I had even an inkling of an idea that he was this twisted. If you had told me he was your father…”

“He’s not my father! He may have been a sperm donor, but under no circumstance has he ever been my father. I’ve only had one of those and he died.”