He knocked on Mitchell’s door and waited until he heard “Come in.”
Mitchell’s grand office was intimidating. Dark wood, hunting trophies, a desk half the size of a king bed. The marble floor of the foyer gave way to a room with hardwood floors around the perimeter and a vast, plush burgundy rug in the center. Two-story windows on either side of a stone fireplace looked out to the vast Robinson property—green grass, white split-rail fences, and a man-made lake that was stocked with trout. Today, of course, it was gray, the rain coming down steadily, the lake barely visible in the distance.
Clive was sitting across from his younger brother. Clive was actually a pretty good guy; Tom liked him. Five years older than Mitchell, but he didn’t have the business gene in the family. Mitchell was practically a clone of his grandfather. In looks, personality, and business acumen—the good and the bad. Their dad? Had no business sense at all, but unlike Clive, he didn’t know it.
“Did Presley take care of things?” Mitchell asked.
“Yeah. An hour, give or take.”
“Let me know when they leave,” he said.
Tom glanced at Clive. He didn’t want to go out alone, it was miserable out there and he’d like the company.
But Clive made no move to get out of the comfortable leather chair.
“Okay, boss,” Tom said and left.
Mitchell watched as Tom closed the door. He leaned back and said to Clive, “He doesn’t seem to be fully invested.”
“He is,” Clive said. “He just spent the last hour with Presley, she can wear anyone down.” He laughed. Mitchell didn’t find it funny. “Mitch, you know how she is. She’s brilliant and makes all of us peons feel dumb.”
His daughterwasbrilliant. Mitchell just wished she was still in college. She had been expelled for a prank. No one got hurt, but it embarrassed the university, and she was asked to leave. Mitchell got her into another college—he had many friends in high places—but then she tells him she wants to take a “gap year.”
“A year to work for you, Daddy, and teach myself. And we can travel and do fun things!”
She didn’t so much ask him as tell him what she was doing. He didn’t think she would ever go back, but he found it hard to deny his daughter anything. Her mother left them when she was six and maybe he indulged her, but she deserved it. He was building this legacy for her. Clive was content being second, and Mitchell had no sons to leave his business to. And even if he did, Presley was his firstborn and undeniably intelligent.
“Where’s Nicole?” Clive asked.
“I sent her down to the house in Dallas. She and Presley had a disagreement and I don’t have the energy to mediate.”
He would have to find a way to move Nicole along. Presley had called her stupid to her face, and Nicole was not having it. Truthwas, Nicolewasdumb, and just because she was gorgeous and wild in bed didn’t mean that Mitchell would tolerate her mistakes.
He should never have trusted her with the documents. Just because she had a background as a legal secretary didn’t mean she actually knew what she was doing.
But he needed to wait, because until he had all the contracts back in his possession, he couldn’t cut her loose. She might get angry and talk.
He’d send her to Europe, hire someone to seduce her, let her break it off with him. It was the only way to ensure his girlfriend remained silent.
Though even now she probably had no idea the seriousness of her mistake.
“Now, Clive, you were telling me where we are with Ellen McKenna.”
“She’s not budging. She’s more stubborn than John.”
“That’s not the right answer.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Mitch. I’ve been working on her for months. Hell, I got Travis to talk to her, and that was not easy. I had to lower our ask to only that two-hundred-acre plot between our land and the Coulters. He got on board, and she told him no.”
Mitchell was aware of the compromise, one he didn’t want to make, but it was the minimum area he needed to complete the project.
He would lose the contract if he didn’t get that plot of land. Of course, he’d offered to buy the entire property—it would be satisfying to take the land that his father could never purchase. But he only needed those two hundred acres.
Hehadto have those two hundred acres.
“What does she want?” Mitchell asked. “I’ve offered well over market value. I’ve offered for a small parcel.”
“According to Travis, she wants to grow.”
