Anyone But Rich (Anyone But..., #1)(56)

I waved her off. “No, I get it. I’d be the same way. But to answer your question, my parents can do more than come after your finances.” I pulled one of the other chairs at the kitchen table out and sat on it backward. “They probably know half the judges, police chiefs, politicians, and anybody else you can think of who is remotely important. And if they don’t know them directly, they have a good friend who does, or a friend of a friend.”

“You’re saying they could tow my car if they wanted?”

I chuckled. “I’m saying they could get you fired. Get you brought up on bullshit charges for something you never did. Get you fined. Make it so your taxes were never received by the IRS . . . I could go on.”

She looked a little queasy. “No, actually, that’s good.”

I frowned. “Sorry, Kira. I’m not trying to freak you out just for the hell of it. Before yesterday, I didn’t think my parents actually had the balls to do anything like this. I still have a hard time believing it. I just want you to know what the risks are. I probably should’ve made it clearer yesterday, but—”

“You don’t have to apologize. Kind of ironic, isn’t it?”

I laughed. “Actually, it’s far from irony. If there has been one constant since I’ve come back to West Valley, it’s that you don’t want my apologies.”

“Except this time, it’s because I don’t think you should have to. I’m a big girl, Rich. I can make my own decisions. I always admired people who stood up for what they believed in, even when it seemed like the world was against them.”

“It’s not the world, though. Just two crusty, grouchy old people with a lot of money and too much time on their hands.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll feel a lot more cool for doing it if we stick with my phrasing, so you lose the vote.”



I met my brothers at the construction site of our new headquarters just after sunrise. I still had the taste of Kira’s last kiss on my lips. We’d stopped for danishes. She’d gone with raspberry, and I’d picked blueberry. I didn’t even remember what we’d talked about, just that we’d talked, and it had come easy. It always seemed to with her. We shared a wavelength, and we could jump from seemingly unrelated topic to seemingly unrelated topic without needing to always explain why.

But if I was going to avoid running my company into the ground, I needed to stop thinking about her, at least for a little while.

There was a surprising amount of work to be done on a construction site of this size. During the earlier stages, we’d delegated the task to a team of contractors, but they had left a lot to be desired. Shortcuts were being taken, and corners were being cut. That had never been how my brothers and I ran our company, and it wasn’t how I wanted our headquarters to be built.

So coming to the site and making sure things were being done the right way had become our full-time jobs lately, but today, there were no cars in the parking lot. I double-checked my watch, even though I knew exactly what time it was.

My brothers were already waiting for me in the parking lot when I got out of my car.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

Cade winced. “You’re not going to like this.”

Nick shook his head. “That’s an understatement. Rich doesn’t like when waiters clean up his bread crumbs in front of him, because it makes him feel like a barbarian. This? Rich is going to hate this.”

“Can we get to the part where you tell me?” I snapped.

Cade pointed toward the main entrance, where Mayor Summerland was leaning against the door. I pushed past my brothers and headed straight for him, even though I was already fairly sure I knew what was happening.

“Where are all the construction workers?” I asked.

“I think you know where they are,” he said. The mayor wore such a smug expression on his face that it took all my willpower not to punch it off him. I needed to remember that I was also looking at Kira’s father. It was hard to believe, but I could see the similarities in their features if I looked hard enough. Thankfully, Kira wore them much, much better.

“Humor me,” I said.

“West Valley is a small town, Mr. King. And you? You’re quite the big fish for such a little pond. You don’t think word is going to travel if you rush out of a dinner date with my daughter and fly back to your place in the middle of the night? Then you drop her off at work this morning?”

“We had to work on the details of the school play. Remind me. When did this become your business?” I barely controlled my anger. I couldn’t seem to unclench my teeth, but it was better than hitting the mayor. Not only would that likely complicate things with Kira, but I also felt pretty certain it wouldn’t make any of my problems go away.

“And those details were between my daughter’s legs, I suppose?”

I took two fistfuls of the mayor’s shirt and lifted him up to press him against the door. “Careful,” I said.

To his credit, he looked down at me with calm eyes. “You sure this is the route you want to take?”

I held him there with fists so tight my fingers were digging into my palms. Not only was he threatening me, but he’d been keeping tabs on me. And from the way he’d talked about Kira, I didn’t sense any kind of fatherly love. This was a man who was using his daughter as an excuse to be a piece of shit, not because he cared.