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CHAPTER 1
Rhett
“Are you fucking with me?”
I stared at my older brother Grayson, wondering if he was pranking me or some shit. Catching the glance Grayson threw our younger brother, Wolfe, let me know that they’d planned this all out beforehand. On top of that, knowing Grayson like I did, I knew it wasn’t a joke. The man didn’t have a funny bone in his entire body. Sitting in his ridiculously oversized dining room, I felt ambushed by this surprise meeting.
“No, I’m not fucking with you. What makes you think that?”
“Her name’s Scarlett.” For some reason, that annoyed me more than anything else. It was only slightly less annoying that I’d been dragged out to Grayson’s new house by the river in Esperance. What the fuck was wrong with our corporate offices in Raleigh? A lot, apparently. Since Wolfe had married Esme and Grayson was engaged to Stef, it seemed they spent all their time in the shittiest little town this side of the state line.
“And? We’re not asking you to marry the woman. We just need her to back off, so we can get this development approved.”
Wolfe shifted in his seat. “Scarlett Wright is one of the top environmental attorneys in the state. If we don’t get her on board, she could tie us up in litigation for years. It’s just been headache after headache with this particular property. We need to be able to move forward on it.”
Blowing out a breath, I looked back to Grayson. “Why can’t you do it?”
“Conflict of interest.”
“What the fuck?”
“Scarlett is a good friend of Stef’s. It wouldn’t be fair to my fiancée to know I’m in an adversarial situation with someone she’s close to. Especially after everything she went through with the hacker. She wouldn’t have got through that without Scarlett.”
Fucking hell, I couldn’t argue with that. “What about you?”
“She’s also become friends with Esme.”
“Convenient.”
“I also figured you owe me.” Grayson put in.
“What the fuck for?”
“You cost me a very capable head of security.”
“You’re holding that over my head? She knew what she was getting into. It’s not my fault she caught feelings and decided she couldn’t work with me anymore.”
Grayson’s jaw tightened as he exchanged another look with Wolfe. “Rhett, this is serious business.”
I scoffed, raking a hand through my hair in frustration. Of course it was always “serious business” with them. Honestly, life was way too fucking short to spend the whole time with your head stuck up your ass. But that was my older brother for you. Not me, though. I loved my playboy lifestyle and had no plans to settle down anytime soon. Maybe that made me look irresponsible, but what’s a guy gonna do? “Is she at least pretty?”
“Jackass.” Seems like Wolfe was catching our older brother’s vibe.
“Why? Can’t I have something to lighten the load?”
Clearly deciding that ignoring my bullshit was a good strategy, Grayson slid a folder across the table to me. “You have a meeting in half an hour, at her office, here in Esperance.”
I flicked open the folder, running my eye over the first page. “Frogs?”
“Yeah.” The tone of resignation in Wolfe’s voice was not surprising. This was such an unnecessary irritation. This project had been nothing but a shitshow from the moment our father had indicated he wanted to buy the land. Now we’d finally secured the purchase and couldn’t get development approval because of some fucking frogs!
Grayson glanced at his watch, then got to his feet. “I have to go. I’m taking Stef out.”
“Me too. I promised the kids I’d get them from school today and take them to the cake shop.”
“What, so that’s it? You assholes are taking the rest of the day off and I’m stuck with this?”
“Lock the door behind you. And text when the meeting’s over.”