Page 175 of The Renegade Billionaire

“What’s your deadline for this?” Carla asks.

I really don’t see the issue. Effective immediately means now. “By midnight tomorrow, at the latest.” She doesn’t say anything for a long moment. “Carla?”

“Yes, sir. I—heard you. But we have to go through the legal teams for both Omni-Reyes and Montgomery Media. That can’t be done overnight.”

I look to Grey who nods. Fuck, he agrees with her.

“Fine. Just do it as quickly as possible.”

“Yes, sir.” She sounds slightly relieved, and it pisses me off.

“Thank you,” Grey adds. “We’ll be available if you need anything.”

With that, he ends the call.

“You’re so much better at this shit than I am,” I say. It’s the truth too.

“Funny you should say that because I’ve been thinking about our future,” he says, reclining in his desk chair.

“Is that so?”

A Cheshire-like smile slides across his face.

“How do you feel about an expansion—a new business venture that includes some people in Happiness, Georgia?”

I know exactly where he’s going with this, so I hold up my pad of paper to show him my notes. “We’ll be following the Reyes men before us—giving the amazing ladies in our lives the platform they need to show the world just how great they really are.”

“In your life. Not mine.”

I wonder how true his words are though. He may claim Savvy’s the enemy, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and those two are more combustible that propane.

Studying him, I nod in agreement to keep the peace. “I like the way you think, brother.”

We both stare at each other. I’d meant it in a yo-bro kind of way, but the deeper meaning hits us both now.

“Yeah, that’s going to take some getting used to,” he mutters.

“But it feels so right, Greyson Reyes. Brother to brother, we’re going to shake up this entire industry, aren’t we?”

“Feels that way.” His tone is bored, but he can’t contain his smile.

Laughing, I rub my hands together. “Let’s get started then.”

He chuckles, but it does feel right. We’re on our way to happiness, which is exactly what Ace always wanted.

40

MADISON

“There’s at leasta hundred of them,” Clover says, tugging her cardigan around herself so tightly the threads holding it together are pulled to their limits. “The media vans are parked up and down Main Street.”

It’s two hours before the Cozy Cup Festival is set to begin, but we’ve called an emergency meeting at town hall, and dozens of Happiness business owners are sitting on benches, awaiting direction.

“And they’re all waiting to get into the festival?” I ask.

Clover, Blissy, Chief, and I are huddled together at the front of the room, attempting to keep this from becoming a disaster.

“Yes, they’re lined up around the corner,” Blissy blusters. “I had to fight my way through them just to get out of the Chug this morning.”