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The chances of Parker getting his way left Lucian light-headed with worry. He wouldn’t break his word, couldn’t. It was written into his bones to always stand true to his vow. But nothing had ever tempted him more. All he had to do was go back on his word and he could fix this. But if he wasn’t a man of his word, he was only another step closer to being his father.
Parker had played his part well. The way Evelyn described him, she saw him as an innocent man, carefree and understanding, nothing like himself. Lucian knew better. Parker was not one of life’s players simply moving the game along. He was nobody’s pawn.
He had come from a long line of impressive men. Crispin Hughes was a name Lucian had grown up hearing from the time he was a boy. It was said by many that Folsom was run by two men under the presumption they were Christ: the two Christs of Folsom, the Gods of the city, Christos Patras and Crispin Hughes. The irony that he now was coming head to head with the son of his father’s nemesis only left more of a bitter taste in his mouth. He was too afraid to actually appreciate the irony of it all.
Just as Lucian had been groomed to someday take over Patras Industries, so had Parker been groomed to take after his own father. The only difference was Patras was still a name people respected, trusted.
The Hughes scandal was huge. Crispin Hughes tried to swindle conglomerates like Marquee, Velázquez, and Typhoon Industries. The minute he was caught in foul play with one, he was caught by all. Everyone stopped to analyze their doings with Crispin Hughes, and once one lawsuit came, the rest followed.
Lucian was a young man when the news broke of Hughes. Police had swarmed their family’s mansion and taken him out in cuffs and a smoking jacket. Every channel reported on how the man never dressed, because he was certain they had no case. Within a day the courts commandeered his possessions and all of his computers were confiscated. Once the investigation started, Crispin Hughes lost a bit of his cocky attitude. The trial went on for years, and then one day, the news broke that Parker’s father shot himself.
Loretta Hughes was a sweet woman, far too gentle for the likes of her husband. The bulk of the Hughes family had left Folsom during the trial, leaving only Crispin’s wife and young son to handle the press. Parker was far younger than Lucian, but he remembered seeing his picture on the front of the Tribune and thinking, he’s just like me. That could have been me.
Lucian had been going through his own grief at that point, still mourning the loss of his mother and trying to overthrow his father in a bout of misplaced anger and revenge. Men like his father and Crispin Hughes loved the industry. They were the visionaries of their time, gifted beyond measure when it came to business and cursed to the depths of their souls when it came to love. If something couldn’t be measured in material worth it didn’t exist in their eyes.
After years of watching the mockery of his parents’ marriage, Lucian had no intention to follow in his father’s footsteps in that realm. He would date, perhaps cohabitate, but for the most part he’d always intended on remaining untethered.
Evelyn changed all that. He didn’t want anyone else and was certain he never would. He sensed her antipathy to the finality of marriage. He knew she wasn’t ready. He likely would have never proposed so soon had it not been for Parker’s interference.
The man had placed him in a stranglehold, forced his hand in matters where she was concerned, and while Lucian assumed proposing marriage was a precise way to avoid separation, he had been wrong, an outcome he now believed Parker had predicted.
It was beyond frustrating to think Parker knew Evelyn. He knew Scout, some confused kid, a scrapper looking for something more.
Lucian knew Evelyn, the eloquently spoken beauty whom any man would be proud to stand by. True, Parker had him at a disadvantage and had somehow managed to manipulate him and take the upper hand, but Lucian had faith in Evelyn. She was better than him and she was better than Parker. She would be the only one capable of ending this, and he had to believe she would make the right choice. She wasn’t Scout anymore, and surely she realized that.
The light behind the curtain switched out and with it, Lucian extinguished his hope that this was just a nightmare. Twenty-nine days to go.
***
Lucian looked over the portfolio Jeff Burnet placed in front of him. He had been staring at it for over five minutes now, seeing the man’s expertise in advertising displayed beautifully in the contrasting colors highlighting the plans and drawing buyers’ eyes to the pros of the project, yet all he wanted to do was tear it to pieces and demand he come up with something better.
