Diamond (Rare Gems #2)(39)
It wasn’t like he thought the desk had all the information he needed, but his brother was the biggest thing these people would ever see, and Ward could not understand why they didn’t care who he was either. She’d looked at him like he was a blot on a wall when he’d explained to her twice who he was. Nothing, not even a little bit of recognition. Stupid cow. Ward ended up having to take a cab to his hotel, and that, too, had been a complete let down.
No limo service was available to him. Not even being Ward Galloway had impressed them enough to call someone in to do it. How was that even possible? Didn’t these Podunk people know to have one in reserve for rich people like him?
Ward was checking into the hotel when he saw a newspaper lying on the counter. He snatched it up so quickly he knocked several copies to the floor. When the clerk at the counter came to pick them up, he stopped her by putting his foot on the copies.
“Is this true?” Ward pointed to the headline. “This says that my brother bought a house here. Why the hell would they print a lie like this and think to get away with it? He’d no more live in this nasty town than I would.”
“You are not a nice person, are you?” She stood up and took the paper from him. “No, it’s not true. We have the paper lie for us every day so that we can watch the reaction of people on a daily basis. It’s a lifelong goal of mine to make someone have a heart attack one of these days.”
He wasn’t amused and nearly told her so when he looked into her face. She was scary. Her name tag said her name was Diane and that she was with guest relations. Well, not when his brother found out about her.
It took Ward an hour to find out where his brother’s new house was. It might have taken him less time had he been able to get any of the hotel staff to help him, but every time he called down to the desk, he was either put on hold for a long time or hung up on. He’d finally had to read the entire article himself, which had listed the address right on the page. Ward decided it was time to pay his brother a little visit.
The cab ride took nearly forty minutes, and through the most run down parts of town. He supposed these people didn’t see it like he did, as he had the eyes of the rich and famous, but none of the houses were up to his standards and Ward wondered, not for the first time, what the hell his brother was thinking.
There were several vans in front of the mansion as well as a few pick-up trucks with the name of a security firm on them. Now this was a house he could live in and vowed that he would. Ward decided that he’d move in now if it had any staff in it. He walked up on the front stairs and started to enter, but was blocked by a man that looked like he lifted trucks for fun.
“You don’t belong here.” Ward nodded at him and reached for his wallet. “Unless you want me to rip your arm from its socket, you’d better just stand the f*ck still.”
What scared Ward the most about the man’s threat was that, first of all, it wasn’t one. A threat implied that he might do it. He had a feeling this man would do it with pleasure. And secondly, the way it had been delivered. No hard voice or even all that much inflection in his voice. He could have been telling Ward that it was going to snow in an hour. But there was no doubt that the man could and would do what he said.
“I was going to show you my identification.” The man nodded, but Ward still didn’t reach again for it. “I’m…my brother owns this house. He’d tell you if you’ll call him out.”
“You’re not going in unless someone tells me you can, and if Mr. Galloway is your brother, he didn’t mention it to me. His wife didn’t either.” Before Ward could tell the burly man that Thad wasn’t married, he corrected himself. “Future wife I mean. And Miss Erickson didn’t say a single word about you showing up either.”
“My brother is not engaged.” The man didn’t say anything to him. “I would know if he was engaged, and our kind does not marry women from Ohio. We marry princesses from other countries and actresses. We do not marry below our station.”
The man shoved him in the chest and Ward went flying off the front stairs. He might have tumbled over a few more times but he hit one of the other men who’d been going in and out of the house without anyone stopping him. Ward started to stand up but decided the view was better from there, and the man standing over him didn’t look as if he was going to let him stand up anyway.
“You get yourself back into your little car there and tell that driver to haul your skinny little ass back to wherever it is you hatched from. We folks from Ohio don’t care for your kind either, and just as soon you didn’t f*ck with our pretty little women who, by the way, could eat you for dinner and never break a sweat.”
Ward reached into his pocket and pulled out his notepad. He’d been keeping notes on his phone, but since someone had shut it off, he had to resort to keeping his lists this way. He glanced up at the man
“What is your name? As soon as my brother hears about this, he’s going to be pissed. And when he finds out who you are, he’s going to have you fired.” He was ready for the man to beg him for forgiveness, but when the man snorted, Ward looked up at him.
“You think I’m afraid of you?” He moved down to Ward’s level, yet still managed to tower over him. “Samuel Mac Tire is my name, and in the event you don’t know, that’s Irish for wolf.”