My feelings with Gramps are complicated.
Yes, he lied to me.
Yes, he roped me into a fake engagement that wound up smashing Hattie’s heart, but his letter showed nothing’s cut and dry.
When the truth first hit me, I didn’t want to be like him at all.
Now, maybe I’m more like him than I’ll ever want to be.
And maybe that’s okay.
Especially if I learn to own up to my mistakes a whole lot quicker than Gramps ever did.
“Let’s be real,” I bite off. “We both know this is a ‘gotcha.’ A trapdoor you built for me to fall through at some point, knowing I don’t have your experience, or my grandfather’s. Just admit you want the land—all of it—and this was never a sincere partnership at all.”
Cooper exhales slowly.
“No such thing, Blackthorn. Look, I don’t pretend to know what you’ve been going through lately, but I think it’s getting to your head. All I wanted was to work with a Blackthorn, one on one. I wanted to work withyou.”
Absolute bull.
But that fails the first test—common sense isn’t working.
Fine. On to phase two.
“And if we litigate?” I ask. “If Blackthorn won’t forfeit the land at your insane reduced rate?”
“Thatwouldbe regrettable,” Cooper says in a wooden voice that isn’t sorry at all. “Particularly with the trouble you’re in. In a few weeks, you’ll wish you’d just resigned openly, I think.”
What?
His tone gives me pause.
My body reacts before my brain, tensing like it knows he’s about to drop an atomic bomb.
“What trouble is that?” I wrap my hands around the mug so I don’t lunge for his neck.
“The Taylor Rollins case. So tragic for Portland, losing her so young.” He gives me a carnivorous smile, even as he shakes his head with practiced regret. “I remember reading about it when it happened. Just awful, and written off as a freak accident, I believe. But what if it wasn’t that simple?”
My blood freezes over.
The way he looks at me—he can’t know.
Can he?
I think of Hattie, but she never would’ve told him.
Margot, my parents, they never knew.
Even Hardass Holden wouldn’t have ratted me out—if Gramps ever filled him in. His bodyguard is loyal to a fault. I can’t imagine he wouldn’t die first unless he’s that hard up for money.
Shit.
What else is there? Who else knows?
Or who made it their business to find out?
Then again, I never knew who Taylor told about us.
