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PROLOGUE
Cooper
“Don’t fuck this up,” my uncle, Walter Spade, hissed from the head of the conference room table, his salt-and-pepper hair glistening from the fluorescent lights above.
As he looked at me, squinting, the lines around his eyes deepened. His hands gripped the back of his chair as he stood behind it, refusing to sit.
When Walter was disconnected from work, he was the nicest guy in the world.
When it came to anything related to Spade Hotels—the company he had founded with my father, where my brothers and I worked—he was one nasty motherfucker.
Today was certainly no exception.
“You have nothing to worry about,” I replied. “The land will be ours as soon as I see it, assuming I deem it worthy enough to add to our collection.”
“You’d better act fast,” Macon, my youngest brother, said from the seat next to mine. His dark brown beard was coming in thick, longer than I’d ever seen him grow it. Since spendingall those months in Hawaii building one of our latest properties, he’d developed a more relaxed, surfer-like appearance. He’d also come home with a woman—something I never anticipated. “Since you know we’re not the only ones looking at it, right?”
The land he was referring to was supposedly a slice of paradise along the shoreline of Lake Louise—a lake within Banff National Park, nestled in the Canadian Rockies.
Until I saw it in person, I wouldn’t be able to confirm just how perfect it was.
“I bet all the big names are eyeing it,” Brady, my oldest brother, said from the other side of me. His hair was freshly spiked, like he’d just stepped out of the shower. If I had to guess, he’d probably fucked a woman in the backseat while his driver brought him to work this morning, then showered in his en suite once he arrived in his office. That man wasn’t just a player. When it came to women, he was a goddamn sinner. “If the realtor reached out to us, then she reached out to everyone. That means all our competitors will be viewing that property tomorrow.”
“I fully expect a bidding war,” Jo, my cousin, said with a smile, clasping her hands and aligning each finger before she tapped them together. Her white nail polish caught the light above, reflecting the illumination and shining like a mirror. “This is going to be fun.”
Walter’s daughter thrived on the anticipation of the fight and the win.
Even though she was a Dalton now—her wedding to Jenner, my best friend, who happened to be sitting beside her, was less than a month ago—she was full of Spade blood.
And the Spades always won.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, honey,” Walter said to Jo. “Cooper will arrive before any of the others, and the offer that Jenner’s going to submit will be more than fair.”
“And contingent on an immediate decision,” Jenner added, completely relaxed in his seat, unfazed by Walter’s orders. “We’re not giving the others time to counter.”
Jenner’s family owned one of the largest, most successful law firms in the country. The Daltons—Jenner and his two brothers, Dominick and Ford, along with their twin cousins, Hannah and Camden—represented all different fields of law.
Jenner had been working with the Spades long before he became part of our family and was a wild bachelor prior to settling down with my cousin.
Confident. Cocky. And a hell of a good time.
That was Jenner Dalton.
He also happened to be one of the richest, most successful people I knew.
“Which means, again, Cooper, you can’t fuck this up.” Walter wiped his mouth, like he’d just spit. “Timing is the only thing we have on our side.”
I’d been working for my uncle since I’d graduated from the University of Southern California, following in my father’s footsteps. He’d retired from Spade Hotels about ten years ago, preferring a life on the beach with my mom rather than reporting to his office every day. Walter had bought him out, and part of the deal was that when the three of us had enough years under our belt and put in our time, we would be equal owners, along with our cousin, Jo. The transition hadn’t happened yet. Walter wasn’t ready to retire.
But in the seven years I’d been employed with Spade Hotels, I’d done some remarkable things for our brand. I’d established levels of luxury that our competitors hadn’t even thought of launching. I’d hired some of the most competent, efficient general managers.
But this—this property, this acquisition, if it went through the way I hoped it would—would be my biggest accomplishment to date.
“Don’t stress. I’ve got this,” I said to Walter. “I fly out in the morning. Since the following day is Christmas Eve, I’m not staying the night. I’ll call Jenner from the property and have him process the offer, so it hits right before the holiday. We’ll have things signed and sealed before the new year.”
Walter’s knuckles turned white before he released the chair and crossed his arms over his chest.
I knew the gesture well.
