Page 13 of Lavish

She always wanted power. I just wanted her. I once thought we could have both.

The few times I’d seen her recently, that ass was looking tight in those old lady slacks she wore. But I also wanted to throw her through a window. Metaphorically. Maybe. Even now, I’d probably lose my damn mind if she walked through that door.

“I don’t feel anything for you, Miles.” She took a step forward, and I gritted my teeth when I felt my body heat at the brush of her against me. “But I will destroy you. Every. Single. Bit. Of you.”

That’s what she said to me last year at Café L’Amour. A part of me saw her cutting me down and thought,maybe she’s the only one who still sees me standing.

But I was the roach she couldn’t squash. The charming bastard who always managed to crawl out of the wreckage. Even now, with the building falling apart—literally—I still had pieces on the board.

“Are you even listening to me?” Carlus’s voice jolted me from my thoughts.

I blinked.

“This is someseriousshit. More shit than we’ve dealt with in the past. It ain’t a game.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, head throbbing like it had been waiting for me to notice. “You don’t think I know that? You think I wanted to get a call about this? It’s been fucking shit show after shit show. You don’t thinkIwant a break?”

Calm. Be cool, Miles.

The company didn’t need a saint. It needed a fast talker with a toolkit of backup plans and a bulletproof smile.

I was trying to make my last name mean something again. Trying to build a legacy out of the ash and cocaine residue my father had left behind. I was thirty-three and felt seventy.

I hadn’t slept through the night in years. But I smiled. I shook hands. I gave speeches. Because people expected a Whitmore to stand tall even when the world was kicking him in the teeth. I had my instincts. And instincts had gotten me this far.

I glanced back at Reggie.

“You’ll be alright,” I murmured. For him or for me, I wasn’t sure.

Carlus shook his head. “I don’t know if it will be.”

“We don’t have the luxury of falling apart over it.” My voice was sharp, but the weight in my chest was sharper. “We need a solution. Fast. Before this gets into theLush Chronicles.”

My family had been in that damn gossip rag so many times over the years, I think sometimes they just put our names in there when internet traffic got low.

“You know I’m here for you, big man. I’m not going nowhere. Don’t panic. Don’t we always figure a way out?”

My phone buzzing made me jump.

I’d been reaching out to some new investors, people I didn’t think Serena had managed to touch. If we could get some new money in, that could help this go away.

Please let it be good news.

Disappointment flooded through me as I glanced at the screen.

Not the potential new investor, but a text from Gwyn, a name that I only vaguely remembered.

Are you free tonight, handsome?

I rolled my eyes. Fucking wasn’t on my radar right now. Gwyn looked at me like most of the women in town did. Like I was still Miles, the playboy. People would always remind me.

My intention was to set things straight for my company. Not fuck up and make another mistake. Some things were beyond repair, regardless of my desire to change it.

Scrolling through my contacts, I found Serena’s name.

Sunny.

I started calling her that because she was the most serious person I’d ever met.