Page 1 of Bargain With The Boss (Crescent Cove: The Moguls #2)

Xavier

Two Years Ago

March came in with a howl of wind and unseasonable temperatures for Crescent Cove. I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my peacoat as sand shifted under my boots. I climbed the hill toward my biggest acquisition.

Once upon a time it had been a strip mall of sorts. At least that was the best name I had for the husk of storefronts that sat above the best stretch of beach on Crescent Lake.

It had been a year since I bought the land on a lark with Gavin Forrester and Jude Keller.

Truth be told most of my acquisitions were on a lark. Well, that was until I hooked up with Gavin and Jude. Once we discovered how well we worked together, we made it official.

FHK Property Group had been born.

Now we owned and rented out properties all over Crescent Cove.

We started out with shops on Main Street, then added rental apartments, new build homes, and warehouses.

Thanks to our combined capital we’d diversified and grown exponentially in the year since we’d bought Lakeview Terrace.

Not that our property deserved that snazzy name at the moment.

It was a damn wreck. The smudged glass that used to read Brantley’s Delicatessen had a spiderweb crack coming out of the corner thanks to one of the storms this winter.

The storefront beside it had changed hands a dozen times, all of them trying to sell everything from beachfront trinkets to T-shirts, but nothing really caught on.

The most successful of them was the corner gallery.

However, without the foot traffic from the beach, all the businesses had faded into obscurity.

Most people spent time on the watercrafts and sunning on the docks on the other side of the lake these days. A Jet Ski or sailboat had a lot more lure when it came to the massive expanse of Crescent Lake.

But we had a vision for this bit of land. The crown jewel of our property—our beach—would bring foot traffic back to the area as soon as we made it hospitable. It had untapped potential on a number of levels.

Finally, above the storefronts was perfect for apartments for young professionals who weren’t ready for the baby fever that afflicted my hometown. I’d lived here all my life and didn’t remember such a baby boom in all my thirty-two years.

An old memory scratched at my brain and I pushed it back where it belonged. The what-ifs always sent me into a spiral. The past needed to stay in the past. Period.

I’d seen the proof of surprise babies blow up this town in the last few years. My sister, Luna, had been one of the unplanned moms. In the end, it all worked out, ending with my witchy tarot and aura reading sister marrying a Catholic school teacher.

Life had one helluva sense of humor.

Fate’s sense of humor included the insane number of setbacks we’d had since we bought this stretch of real estate. We’d been fighting to get permits approved to start building and were blocked every step of the way.

I had a feeling Arthur Maitland had a hand in that particular problem. He was our direct competition when it came to the future of Crescent Cove. Where we wanted to build community and create spaces for entrepreneurs and bring in local businesses, Maitland wanted to cash in on the lake view.

His plans for high-end spas and a resort would price out a lot of the families that called the Cove home.

He’d already come to us offering to take the property off our hands —at a loss, naturally—so we didn’t lose any more money fighting the red tape we were dealing with.

The Hastings family had a lot of pull as one of the founding families, but my parents were more involved with banking and money.

The fact that I’d been focused on real estate instead of following in their footsteps had been another bone of contention which didn’t help the cause.

My father thought my little side project would fade away.

Instead, I shut up about it, preferring to fly under the radar.

I wanted my family money to build up Crescent Cove, not just make stacks of cash on loans and investments.

The sound of Gavin’s truck rolling on the broken blacktop dragged me out of my musings.

Instead of a power suit, he was in his foreman gear.

Jeans, layers of thermal and flannel, and steel-toed boots that could break a bone.

His long-legged gait ate up the patchy parking lot as he met me near the lone picnic table under the still-to-bloom red maple creaking in the harsh wind.

“You called an SOS?”

I tipped back on my heels. “Only way to get us all together.”

We both turned to see Jude rolling up in his latest rental car. He still hadn’t pulled the trigger on moving from Seattle to New York, but disentangling from his family’s business was proving more difficult than he’d planned.

Jude’s dark hair was tousled from the wind, leaving him looking a bit less austere than usual. Since he’d been on the East Coast for business, I figured it would be a good way to get us together to figure out how to get our waterfront project moving.

He met us at the picnic table, his hands jammed in his suit pants. “Didn’t get the memo it was spring?”

“It’s been a brutal winter. Persephone’s not quite ready to come back out to play.”

Jude snorted. “The things that come out of your mouth.”

I grinned.

He glanced at the broken window. “When did that happen?”

I shrugged. “The wind has been just as brutal all winter.”

“Sure it’s not kids?” Jude frowned.

“Could be, but then they’d probably have broken in to fuck around. No sign of that.” Gavin turned so we all stood side by side looking at the rapidly deteriorating strip of buildings. “Is that roof lower?”

I sighed. “Pretty sure that snow storm in January didn’t help there.”

“Shit.” Gavin raked his fingers through his bark brown hair. “Probably water damage.”

“It’s going to be a full gut job.” I jutted my chin out to gesture to the corner of the awning over the old gallery. “Pretty sure there’s rot there too.”

“Always nice to bitch about this property with you guys, but why am I here?” Jude asked.

I pulled a cold hand out of my pocket and slapped Jude on the shoulder. “Miss you too, pal.”

Jude grunted in response.

Gavin started down the incline to the parking lot. I glanced at Jude who shrugged, and we both followed.

Gavin dug keys out of his pocket and unlocked the old delicatessen’s door. I heard him swearing before I got inside. The wind died down once we got inside. Gray clouds hung over the lake leaving watery trails of light highlighting a board that had crashed into the old countertop.

Gavin hopped up on the counter, his head disappearing into the hole in the drop ceiling.

“Would you get down from there?” I hurried to the counter to peer up after him. “I don’t need you cracking your skull open to add to this shitshow.”

“Aww, nice to know you care.” Gavin grinned down at me, but hopped down then wiped his hands on his jeans.

“Just wait, you’ll love this new one.” When the both of them just stared holes into my head, I sighed. “I got another injunction against starting the renos this spring.”

The laser beams turned to fire. “Excuse me?” Jude asked.

“Yeah. This one from the city for some zoning violation. I’ve had the paperwork put in twice. Seems to get lost each time.”

Gavin growled, “Fucking Maitland.”

He wasn’t wrong. The old man wasn’t even trying to hide that he was fucking with us. “I went to the town hall and handily, his niece works there now.”

Jude crossed his arms. “I’m aware I don’t know how small town politics work, but we could file a counter suit on that.”

“Glad you said that.” I flexed my fingers inside my coat pockets, but it wasn’t helping the bone deep cold. “I have an email drafted to send to Preston, but we might need to look for a more cutthroat lawyer. He took us on as a favor, but his focus is family law these days.”

Gavin’s jaw tightened. “I might know someone.”

“Someone who doesn’t have a Maitland on their roster of clients?”

“Definitely.”

“Good. Because the longer we are on hold for this project, the longer it will take to renovate this. We only have eight good months to work on the outdoor build.” I rocked back on my heels.

“I’m aware.” Gavin’s voice was cool.

“Just saying.”

Jude peered up at the hole then stepped back over to us. “I’m working on moving out here to help out more, but my mother has locked me up in projects I can’t get out of.”

“It’s fine. Most of the time I don’t need you out here. Even Crescent Cove Bank is good with electronically signed contracts for anything we have coming up.” I shoved a curl out of my face. “I still can’t unload Hastings Investments ties, so I feel you.”

Since my sister was less than interested in the family business, it fell on me. I also needed the contacts and capital for FHK until we got this massive project moving. Evidently we’d all be splitting time.

Gavin pulled out his phone and paced away from us with a finger up.

“Sorry it wasn’t the best way to pull you back in.”

Jude nodded. “It’s fine. We haven’t had a face-to-face in a while. The red tape is killing us on this.”

“Tell me about it. At least we have six more houses in progress over at Cove Gardens to pull in some cash to cover the insurance on this place. Which I also had to readjust because of Maitland.”

“This guy is like the villain in old ’90s movies. Does he think he owns the town or something?”

I laughed, picturing an old movie I used to watch with Luna during summer breaks. She watched for Patrick Swayze’s swagger, and I just liked the action. Okay, and maybe a little bit of how badass Patrick was.

“Since I didn’t get a call for one of the auctions on the boardwalk, I’d say yes.”

“Shit. Which one?”

“The arcade just couldn’t hold on anymore.” Which had hit me harder than I wanted to admit. I’d spent many a quarter in there with my friends in the summer. “Maitland snapped it up which means he has half the boardwalk storefronts now.”

Jude tipped his head back with an oath. “Seriously, this guy must be mortgaged to the hilt.”

“Helps that his family money keeps building thanks to increased rents. Doesn’t help the stores stay open on Main or even over on Grange.”

Grange Street held the town newspaper which was a staple of Crescent Cove. The Wainwrights wouldn’t let that get snapped up by Maitland, but a few factories had been bought out by a conglomerate that made me nervous.

Grange Street shouldn’t be on Maitland’s radar, but he did own quite a few factories and empty lots prime for building. Selling them had given him more capital for the lakefront project.

As fast as properties went up for sale, Maitland seemed to have inside knowledge and beat us out more times than I could count.

Gavin came back over, stuffing his phone in his pocket. “I have to get back to the worksite. Backhoe cut through an underground line that didn’t show up on my last review from the power company. Freaking cluster.”

The conspiracy theorist that lived in me wondered if that was because of Maitland too. He really hated when we made any progress on our properties. However, Gavin didn’t need any more grief today. “Head out. I’ll take care of the paperwork. Have the lawyer call me and I’ll give him the details.”

Gavin nodded curtly. “Will do. Sorry we didn’t get to have a beer or something while you were in town, Jude.”

“All good. I have to get back to the West Coast anyway.” Jude flicked up the collar of his overcoat against the howling wind.

We all walked out together scattering to our respective vehicles.

I sent another look out over the vista and the churning lake.

This was going to be a longer fight than I thought.