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2.

Ryan

" Y ou're insane."

"Not insane." I shake my head. "Strategic."

"You don't know the meaning of the word." Allison Green is staring at me like she's never wanted to rip my head off more, and to be honest, I can't entirely blame her. A lot has changed since my father passed away, and cutting projects is one of the things I've decided to tackle immediately. It's time to trim the fat, so to speak.

My father liked to fiddle. He liked to have his hands in a lot of different things. Unfortunately for dear old dad, this type of behavior doesn't exactly make a company blossom and grow. It holds it back. Despite the fact that my stepmother, Megan, is loitering in the background of everything the business does, she's strangely okay with me reducing the number of holdings my father has.

Had.

Besides, I have no real proof yet, but something tells me that my father wasn't always above board with the things he chose to do with his money or his company. There are a number of...complexities...involving the company. That's why I've called Allison here. I'm hoping she can shed some light on a couple of things that are giving me hell. Once Allison and I sort things out, I'll be able to minimize our holdings even more. Then Megan can go away, and I won't have to think about my dad's former life any longer. He left the company to me and my brothers, but mostly to me. Megan has her hands in more than I'd like, but once we finalize a little bit of paperwork, she's going to disappear.

Forever, I hope.

But before I can deal with Megan, I have to deal with Allison, and despite it being 7:30 in the morning, I've already managed to piss her off.

"You can't cut this."

"It's getting cut."

Allison Green is the project lead for an endeavor called Project Sunshine. It's a creepy sort of name and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what my dad wanted to accomplish with that project. We're a company that specializes in other companies. Shadowvale Industries owns the whole damn town. We've got the real estate market cornered. We own the pharmacies. Hell, I've even got a bid in on the local auction house, which is about to be sold simply because the previous owner passed away. We collect. We improve. We resell.

What I don't understand is why Project Sunshine exists or why my father was funding it with so much ferocity. As far as I can tell, it is – or was, I'm not entirely sure – a small project dedicated to funding animal shelters in the area. While that's noble, we have another project that does the exact same thing but on a greater level. There's no need to duplicate efforts. That's just bad business.

"Look," Allison says. "I get that you have to make cuts, but not this project." She balls her hands into fists and then relaxes them. Everything about her is screaming "lies" and "nervousness." Allison is the type of person who is always in control of everything. From her tight bun to her perfectly ironed pantsuit, I have to wonder when the last time she got laid was. She could really use someone to take the edge off of her attitude.

Not me.

"Why not?" I'm almost bored with this conversation, but I'm willing to hear her out. She was supposed to answer questions Project Sunshine, but so far, she's just complained about me and the way I'm trying to run the company.

"Your father was really passionate about it," Allison explains. She paces back and forth in front of my desk. Her heels click against the floor loudly. She's always in heels. I wonder if this was another rule my father had for her. I'm starting to discover that almost everything that happens at Shadowvale Industries was originally set up by my father for a myriad of reasons.

Maybe he just didn't want the women to be able to run away.

The thought makes me shudder.

"And can you explain to me why this project hasn't made any sort of return on investment in," I thumb through a stack of papers in front of me, "six months?" I'm not even completely clear on what it is. All I know is that it's not bringing in money, so we don't need it. End of story.

"I can give you the data," she says. "I can give you the information. It's for animal shelters, though, Ryan. The information is harder to access than if we were dealing with, say, a franchise of hardware stores."

Something in her tone sounds desperate. Shit. The sound of her voice goes straight to my dick. It's all I can do to keep from offering to fuck the information right out of her pretty little mouth. I don't, of course. I can't fuck Allison. Not that I wouldn't love to. I just keep business and pleasure separate.

Very separate.

That's another area where my father and I differ immensely. He was always sleeping with people at work. While I'm not morally opposed to that on any level, I like to keep a clear head.

Besides, I'm pretty sure Allison and my father had a thing. I haven't asked her about it, but I think she's in mourning on some level. I don't have any proof for that yet, either. I don't really care. Megan already asked me to fire Allison, so I'm guessing that if there was something going down between Allison and Dad, Megan is fully aware of the situation.

"Get it to me tomorrow." I point to the door, and she understands that our time here is over. Allison turns and leaves. She doesn't pause at the door and look longingly over her shoulder. She doesn't try to argue with me. She just goes, and when she's gone, I breathe a sigh of relief that the meeting is over.

Then a sense of dread settles over me.

Well, shit.

I don't know how long it's going to take me to get dear old dad's business completely tidied up. I've been in charge for six months now. Six long months and I'm still sorting through shit he should have told me about before he died. After college, I started working with him immediately. Taking over the family business was always going to be the plan, of course. I'm a legacy.

Like father, like son.

Unlike father, though, I won't be going through a collection of wives. I don't have any interest in making my life harder by falling in love - or pretending to. I certainly don't have any interest in raising a child or tormenting them for their entire life.

I don't want to do any of that.

Besides, my brothers have my back. Oh, they're involved on lesser levels. Phoenix, especially, doesn't like screwing with Dad's business. He spent three years traveling the world and doing good in other countries. He doesn't want to be hanging out in the middle of Siren City pretending like he's the best damn billionaire's kid the world has ever seen.

Me, though...I'm not like my brother.

I'm not like either one of them.

I like the challenge that comes from running a group of incredible businesses. I like the way that I get to spend my time negotiating and arguing and debating. These things are fun for me. They're comfortable.

But now I don't have a dad to try to prove anything to anymore. Instead, I'm stuck with a company I don't exactly love, a collection of projects I can't figure out, and an endless to-do list that seems to just keep growing and growing. Maybe having a new temporary assistant while Damien is gone will actually be helpful. It'll be nice to have some fresh blood around here.

Or fresh meat, depending on how I want to look at it. Despite resisting the allure that was Allison's desperation, I know I need to get laid soon if I'm going to keep a clear head. Dad was right on that account. He was always fucking someone. He used to say that was how he was so level-headed during business meetings. He didn't have his dick distracting him.

Once Allison is gone, I walk to the window and look out over the city. Siren City truly is the mecca of the Midwest. I know that everyone wants to launch their businesses in Chicago or New York. LA is another wonderful option, but honestly, I think my dad was really onto something. This is the place to be.

It's a mid-size city in the heart of the country, which means that it's only a few hours by plane anywhere I want to go. If I've got a craving for a good Broadway play, I can hop on a plane. If I want to go water skiing, I can hop on a plane. Need to go ice fishing for some weird-ass reason? Plane.

I can do it all.

I can do anything.

The city is gorgeous with a lovely downtown that boasts skyscrapers my brothers and I own. There are a few we don't, of course. There are always going to be a couple of outliers, but that's fine. Having a little bit of competition from time to time can make the game even more fun to play. Oscar is in the process of buying up a couple of the buildings, I know. Phoenix is...well, he's still getting over his tragic past, as far as I know. He spent three years hanging out in random countries, but now that he's back, he seems to be just as sad as ever.

I can't think about that right now, though.

I need to focus. I blink, and I look back out at the scene before me.

The city is surrounded by suburbs and then by farmland, although that's disappearing fast as the city expands more and more. I just signed paperwork for a new apartment complex that's going to take place in the same part of town where a mall will be going up. Residents will have an easy way to walk to work. They'll also have an easy way to shop and pump money back into the local economy.

It's a win on every level.

The phone rings and I'm pulled from my daydreaming. I answer without looking at the name on the screen. The only person who can call me on this line is Damien, my assistant. My father always found it weird that I hired a male assistant, but this means that I don't want to fuck him, so I can actually focus when I'm at work.

"What?"

"You have a guest," Damien says.

He didn't say visitor.

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