A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1)(62)

“Austin Ford.”

Austin nodded. “Carter.”

There was a moment of overwrought stillness while the two men observed each other. Impatient as always, Carter was the first to break it.

“What are you doing here?” he asked with an incensed shake of his head.

“You haven’t been returning any of our calls,” Austin answered, his tone calm and arrogant.

“You dipshits can’t bully me on the phone, so you decide to come down and do it in person?” he retorted.

“We’re not bullying you, Carter. These papers need signing.”

Carter pulled his smokes from his back pocket and lit one, taking a huge drag. He pointed at Austin with the cigarette still between his fingers. “Those papers were drawn up without my consent as a way of shifting me out of the picture. That, my friend, is f*cking bullying: underhanded, conceited bullying.”

“Carter.” Austin rubbed the bridge of his nose. “You don’t want anything to do with the company. You’ve said that time and time again, yet when we offer you a way out, you dig in your heels and say no.”


“Bullshit,” Carter snapped. “You’re offering me a way out because the Fords are scared shitless that WCS shareholders will find out your company is owned by a criminal. Ironic, really, when you consider the men you’ve been making deals with. Casari ring any bells?”

Austin’s eyes narrowed infinitesimally. “Carter. Rumors aside, we’re family—”

Carter’s eyes blazed. “Don’t play the family card with me, Austin.” He flicked his cigarette away, missing Austin’s left arm by millimeters. “You weren’t my f*cking family when I was doing time in prison, so don’t pretend you give a shit now!”

Austin held his hands up in submission. “Okay, okay. I get it.”

“No,” Carter continued, stepping toward him. “You don’t get it. We may be related, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t think twice about laying your ass out, right here and now, just on general principle.”

Austin refused to back down, even when Carter was nose to nose with him. “That wouldn’t be too good for your parole, now, would it?”

“Fuck you, you sanctimonious shit,” Carter hissed. “Don’t stand there looking down your nose at me like you’re cleaner than a nun’s bedsheets. I could make one phone call about your dealings with Casari and the Feds would be all over your ass.”

“And of course you have proof about Casari and me, right?”

The two men glared at each other, neither blinking nor stepping back.

“We okay here?”

Austin’s eyes flickered toward Max, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his wide chest.

“Yeah,” Carter answered, never taking his eyes from Austin’s face. “My cousin was just leaving.”

Austin exhaled in resignation. “Think about what I said, Carter. We’ll be in touch.” He headed back across the street to his car.

Carter watched the car pull away, then turned to Max with a face like thunder.

“What the f*ck was he doing here?” Max asked with raised eyebrows.

Carter slumped against the wall next to him. “They’re still tryin’ to buy me out.”

“What did you say?”

“I told him to go f*ck himself,” Carter replied with a shrug.

Max bumped his shoulder. “That’s my boy.”

Carter cracked a smile, allowing his body to calm down.