Anyone But Rich (Anyone But..., #1)(18)

My parents arrived a few minutes after me. They, along with a modest entourage of unrecognizable faces, arrived in a convoy of luxury supercars. Despite the heat, they all emerged wearing ridiculous outfits like we were going to walk the red carpet to an event instead of tour a construction site. A dozen or so local media members were already crouched around the parking lot and snapping pictures of everyone. I still couldn’t understand why there was a market for pictures of people like us doing nothing but coming and going from places.

I only distantly became aware of the snapping of camera shutters and the glare of flashing lights. It was the kind of thing you never completely got used to but learned to tolerate.

I cut a straight path through the media and my family toward the building. My brothers were just as eager to break away from the crowd and join me.

“Nothing like slapping down a giant-ass building to assert your masculinity, is there?” Cade asked once we’d put some distance between ourselves and the crowd still lingering around the curb.

“It’s not an exclusively masculine thing to do, though,” Nick said. “A woman could do it. I’d say it’s more about having money than having a dick.”

“He has a point,” I said.

Cade made a dismissive sound. “Nick always ‘has a point,’ but it’s a flaccid one. It’s simple. There’s nothing more masculine than having a dick, dumb asses.”

“That’s not even what we were arguing about,” Nick said. “You said—”

“Maybe you were arguing. I was making a point. And there’s no bigger point than my dick.”

I snorted and Nick shook his head in disbelief.

“The scary part is that he really thinks he just won,” Nick said to me.

“If ignorance is bliss, being Cade is ecstasy,” I said.

“Fuck,” Cade said with a huge grin. “Thanks for the pickup line. I bet girls will eat that up. Maybe I’ll change the last part to banging Cade is ecstasy, though.”

“Anytime. Just let me know how it goes after you try it.”

We were met inside by Mayor Summerland instead of the project manager I’d been expecting. Had it not been for the fact that he had Kira’s eyes, I could’ve forgotten he was her father.

“Mayor Summerland,” I said, reaching to shake his hand. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“No? The Beatles are in West Valley, and they’re building their mecca. You don’t think I’d want to see it in person?” He was smiling a politician’s smile. Wide, toothy, and artificial. He even looked like a politician. He was clean cut and inoffensive in every way. His hair wasn’t too long or too short, and it wasn’t completely brown or completely gray. He wasn’t ugly or attractive. He was a perfect, unassuming medium—the kind of guy the masses could settle on as a reasonable compromise. Yet there was a predatory glint in his eyes up close that would’ve stopped me from doing any kind of business with the man if I had a choice.

“We’re hardly the Beatles,” Nick said.

“He’s right,” Cade agreed. “We make the Beatles look like Bieber.”

I shot him a look. “You can’t even play a harmonica without getting a bloody nose.”

He punched my shoulder. “One goddamn time. I told you too. It was an allergy thing. There must have been silver in it, and you know how I get—”

“It’s quite all right,” Mayor Summerland said. He still wore that plastered-on smile. “I like the bravado, actually. And hey, for West Valley, maybe you guys are bigger than the Beatles, right? Our own homegrown billionaires. It’s quite the story.” He was looking at Cade, who was eating up the praise. “I get the impression you boys like making a splash. Am I wrong?”

“We’re not here to make a—” I started.

“Big-ass splashes,” Cade agreed. “Belly-flop-off-the-high-dive-level splashes.”

I saw Nick folding his arms beside me. He was probably the most perceptive of the three of us, but he was also the least confrontational, at least when it came to matters outside the family. I knew he was already reading Mayor Summerland like a book, but he probably wanted to wait and see how the conversation played out before jumping in.

Mayor Summerland winked and reached to shake Cade’s hand again. He squeezed Cade’s forearm with his free hand and laughed like he’d said something funny. “I’ll keep my ear to the ground. Who knows, maybe some opportunities to get your name out around town in a good light will pop up.”

“I think we’ll be fine,” I said.

“Oh?” he asked. “It’s just that I’ve heard some rumblings. People upset about all the construction or the road closures while they worked on this headquarters of yours. Anger about the secrecy until now. And this isn’t coming from me, mind you,” he said, holding up his palms in innocence, “but I’ve even heard some unrest about all the techies this place is going to bring in to our little town. You know, people like their front porches and their rocking chairs. They just don’t want to see farms getting turned into strip malls with computer stores and that sort of nonsense.”

“We had all our permits approved and run through the state, Mayor Summerland,” I said a little coldly. “So you can tell them we’re operating completely legal. The employees we bring to the area should help local businesses and give a big boost to the economy around here. Maybe people should think about that too.”