23. Sawyer

“Look, all I’m saying is that if I get to be the cool uncle, then that should include midnight ice cream snacks.” Chuckling, I tossed Liam a chilled bottle of water as I passed. “And you can’t join because you’re her dad and that just cramps the style.”

“Cramps the style?” Liam tipped his head back and laughed. “I’m sorry, what year is it?” The bottle cracked slightly in his hand as he uncapped it and took a large mouthful. “So, you’re telling me that I can’t join you guys for ice cream?”

“Nope.” I dropped into the sofa across from Liam and eyed him. “Sorry, those are the rules of cool.”

“You’re so fucking old, man,” Liam snorted.

“Hey, we’re the same age you dick.”

“Until the end of the month. You gain some gray hairs, and I remain the hot, cool dad for at least another couple of months.

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Either way, you can’t be there when Marie and I share cool uncle time. So suck it up, buttercup.”

“Fine.” Liam groaned dramatically.

“Where is Marie anyway?”

“She’s at a play date. One of the kids from her old school came to the city for the summer so their parents are taking both the kids to the amusement park all morning. I think it will be good for her, y’know?” Liam’s face turned serious. “She starts a new school next month and I don’t want her to feel like she’ll be forgotten by her friends.”

“City schools are so different, that’s true.” I nodded, tossing my own water bottle back and forth. “But she’s a great kid. You should be proud.”

“I can’t take credit.” Liam settled back in his seat. “Her mother did a fantastic job raising her.”

“And you’ve done a fantastic job helping her through her grief and raising her since. Don’t discredit yourself.”

“Thanks, man.” A flash of warmth filled Liam’s eyes. “I appreciate that.”

“I know,” I smirked and pointed at myself. “Cool uncle, remember?”

“Fuck off!” Liam laughed loudly. “Anyway, any updates on the patent?”

I groaned internally, turning my thoughts to work despite my attention drifting slightly to the stunning blue sky visible through the office windows. Having floor-to-ceiling windows when the weather was this incredible was self-inflicted torture.

“It’s good! We’re in the last stage which is basically the stage where, if this were a book, we’d be sending samples to book stores y’know? The lawyers are happy, Kane is happy. I’m happy. You should be too. We’ve done a great thing here.”

“Y’know, when you wrote to me about it, I couldn’t believe you were working with Kane. Never did I think the three of us would be back in the same room.” Liam rolled his eyes affectionately. “Funny how things work.”

“Without Callie, I’m not even sure we would have stayed in the same room,” I pointed out with a smirk, enjoying the chill of the bottle against the side of my neck to combat the heat. “But the real truth? I would have done anything to make this work.”

“It’s that important to you, huh?” Liam lifted a brow.

“Yes, but when this takes off, I can finally prove to my dad that I know what I’m doing. Everything else doesn’t mean shit in his eyes because all he sees is how badly we’ve been declining.”

Liam scoffed. “It’s only a decline because that asshole, no disrespect, bloated the profits. When all you care about is money, that’s all that matters.”

“You’re right, but…” I sighed. There was one side of the company I didn’t like to talk about. My father did that enough for the both of us. “We’ve lost a lot of money and continue to do so. I know it looks like we’re on top but I’ve been using a lot of personal funds to keep this place running.”

Liam leaned forward and his face pinched in concern. “I thought we were the ones to beat?”

“Technically. If you don’t look at how much we’re bleeding each year. So much now rides on this patent, even with Kane’s help to keep the costs low. At a glance, we’re fine but if we were still in the investment market? We’d be the dregs at the bottom of a two-week-old mug.”

“Shit,” Liam breathed out slowly. “I had no idea the company was in that much trouble.”

“The cost of doing good,” I muttered, moving the bottle to the other side of my neck. “So I was prepared to do everything and anything Kane asked of me to get this to be successful?—”

“Oh my god.” Callie stood in the doorway, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open. A red binder sat in her hands, and her eyes darted from me to Liam.

“Callie?” Liam swiveled to face her.

All color drained from her face. “Crane… Crane Enterprises is in trouble?”

“Technically,” I pointed out, my heart sinking slightly. I hadn’t realized she was standing there and the last thing I wanted was for her to hear anything that would make her doubt her work position.

“But not for long,” Liam added with a smile. “With the new patent, we’ll be back in the green so fast.”

“With any transition, there are some troubled waters,” I explained as Callie turned as white as a sheet. “We went from Investment to Medical and that is a tough change, on top of keeping everyone employed, our own shareholders happy and more. We may have been losing money these past few years but this deal with Kane? It’s going to turn everything around.”

“Does Kane know?” Liam asked, glancing back at me.

“He knows enough to know how important it was for Golden Dove to absorb production costs for the first eighteen months.” I couldn’t take my eyes off Callie. She looked ready to be knocked over with a feather.

“I had no idea,” Callie said weakly. “I thought— I thought the company was fine. Strong. I thought?—”

“Hey,” I interrupted gently, not wanting her to spiral. “Your job is safe. Everyone’s jobs are safe. It’s just?—.”

Anything else I wanted to say died in my throat when the door behind Callie pushed wide open, and in strode my father, Marcus Crane.

“Sawyer!” He barked so loud that Callie jumped a foot in the air and shrunk back against the wall.

Acid churned in my gut, and my heart began to pound violently.

“Father.”

“Don’t father me.” My father reached me in long strides, pausing a few feet away as I stood. “What the fucking hell do you think you are playing that?”

Given my father’s temper, there were infinite things I could have done that made him this angry. My water bottle crinkled inward under my grip.

“You’ll have to be a bit more specific, Dad,” I said as coolly as I could, keeping one eye on Callie.

“You have some fucking nerve!” He stepped forward and brushed off Liam who stood and tried to get in his way. “Not only are you dragging the reputation of this company through the mud by trying to finalize a huge deal based on a stolen patent, but on top of that, you’re still doing it in partnership with Golden Dove? Have you no shame?!”

Louder and louder he yelled, sending cold shivers stabbing down my spine and my cheeks warmed. It was a struggle to process everything in his rant when he didn’t pause for breath.

“Dad—”

“I’m so ashamed of you. I didn’t think you could sink any lower but it’s bad decision after bad decision, and I am through watching you steer my life”s work over the fucking cliff!”

“Dad! For once in your life, will you take a step back and see the good I am doing? I know what I am doing and you would see that if you could get your head out of your ass!” Anger surged and I no longer cared if anyone overheard.

“Sawyer—”

“No, this is the time for you to listen. I have broken my back trying to repair the reputation you created. I have fought to do some good with the insane profits you soaked up off the backs of unknowing people. And Kane? Kane is a great man, and we share a vision!”

My father’s eyes narrowed to slits, and his bushy brows pulled so low that they almost brushed against his high cheekbones.

“I am through with you trying to undermine me just because you don’t like who I choose to work with, so back the fuck off!”

My father stepped forward.

“Are you really that blind? You can’t see what’s right in front of you because you’re so busy trying to prove me wrong. I have decades of experience in this world, and I know how things work,” he snarled. “So, what will it take, hmm? Do you need more money to claw your way out of this mess? It always comes down to money with you because you have such a chin on your shoulder. Do you need better lawyers, is that it? What is it and I will fix things, once again.”

“This isn’t your company anymore,” I snapped, my heart flying up into my throat. “I don’t need you fixing anything.”

“It’s my name on the building, not yours!” My father surged forward and for a moment, I was ten years old again.

I stood in the kitchen with pieces of my father’s broken model in my hands. It had broken while I was playing with it, and fearing his wrath, I had done my best to put it back together again. Only, I’d repaired it wrong, so my father made me watch as he smashed the model boats to pieces and blamed me for breaking them.

He’d yelled so loud that my ears rang for days after and he’d beaten me so hard that I’d had to tell a teacher I fell down the stairs.

The moment he surged forward in my office, I felt like that little kid again and I couldn’t move. My father’s arm raised and my heart stopped.

Then, suddenly, Liam was between us and he shoved my father away.

“Back the fuck off,” he snarled. “And stop talking in riddles, old man. The fuck do you mean we’re working with a stolen patent?”

Liam held one arm back toward me, not making contact, but it was enough to comfort me briefly. After getting my thoughts in order, I realized we’d glazed over that during the argument.

My father barked out a humorless laugh, unphased by Liam.

“You can’t be serious?” His sharp eye slid to me. “It’s not a new lawyer you need, it’s a new fucking brain.”

“Explain!” Liam snapped.

“Turn on the news,” My father growled. “This new business having idea of yours? It’s stolen. PRISM has filed a patent for the same thing, and theirs dates back earlier than yours. If your plan was to crumble everything important to me? Then congratulations.”

He started to clap slowly.

“Crane Enterprises won’t survive this.”

It was almost too much to process all at once. PRISM? Fucking Eli Talbot has filed for the same patent? How was that possible?

And how the hell did his date earlier than ours?

As I opened my mouth to demand more attention, a loud clatter sounded from behind my father and we all shifted attention to Callie as she collapsed by the door.