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“Don’t worry. I wasn’t moving anyway,” I said.
“Good. Because I’m not ready to leave.”
And his words brought me comfort. Because neither was I.
CHAPTER 18
Brian
I woke up to my cell phone ringing on my nightstand. I groaned and reached for it, ready to silence it and roll back over. Amanda was pressed into me, and Lanie was still asleep, and I wanted to treasure this rare kind of morning. If I played my cards right, I could slip myself right in between Amanda’s luscious thighs and wake her up with a mind-blowing orgasm.
But when I saw it was Jack calling, I picked up the call immediately.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“We’ve got a problem,” Jack said.
I slid out of bed, leaving Amanda to sprawl out as I walked into the bathroom.
“One of our warehouses was burned to the ground.”
I splashed some water on my face before I searched for my robe.
“Which one?” I asked.
“The one near you. With all the new fucking materials we’d just bought for our full-time guys. They were being held there until we could get them shipped out.”
“Why didn’t you ship that shit right to L.A.?” I asked.
“We didn’t have the warehouse space cleared out yet. So we used the one near you as a holding tank. You need to get down there, Brian. I’m in fucking L.A.”
“It’s all gone?” I asked.
“From the sounds of it, yes. But I won’t know until you get down there. Look, I know you’re not working right now, but it’ll take me hours to get out there. I just got the call.”
“Isn’t some of that shit supposed to be fireproof?” I asked.
“Not when you add an accelerant to it.”
“So it was arson,” I said.
“Yes. The detectives are sure of it from what they told me over the phone.”
“Jack. I’m going to ask you a question, and I need you to be honest with me. Did you take my name off the company docket?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“When I asked you to take over my position, I know you kept me on it. But two years ago, I told you I had no intentions of coming back. Did you take my name off of shit?”
“No. In case you wanted to come back. If you came back and your name was gone, it would’ve been a hell of a lot of paperwork. You still hold majority stock, Brian. It would’ve been stupid to remove your name.”
“Shit,” I said.
“Brian?”
I whipped my head up and saw Amanda standing at the door. She was wrapped in nothing but a sheet, with her hair mussed and her neck covered in red marks. She was a vision, an angel dripping with seduction. I walked over to her and wrapped my arm around her, pulling her to my chest.
Then, I heard Lanie beginning to stir.
“I’ve got her,” Amanda said. “You do whatever you need to do.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Brian?” Jack asked.
“Am I needed in L.A. after this?” I asked.
“No, but you need to get to that warehouse. I need to know how bad the damage is. Pictures. Get me pictures so I can send it to the insurance company. And all the official paperwork you can get from them now would be awesome.”
“File the insurance claim, and when a check is cut from them, re-purchase all of the equipment and ship it right to L.A. I’m getting dressed and going to see about the warehouse.”
“You call me the second you get there,” he said.
“I will.”
Hanging up the phone, I began to throw my clothes on. I knew exactly what had happened. Lanie’s fucking father. Whoever the hell this man had working for him, they were digging into me and digging deep. They were trying to hit me where it hurt.
At this point, the man had declared war, and I was going to come at him with everything I had.
Lanie was sitting at the table eating breakfast as I rushed past. I gave her a quick kiss before I shot Amanda a grateful look, then I was out the door. I drove like a bat out of hell into town and raced through Asheville, all the way to the other side of the city. But it didn’t take long before I came upon police cars, ambulances, and multiple fire trucks.
And our warehouse fucking burned to the ground.
I got out of my car and approached the fire truck whose hoses were still on. I presented my I.D. to the police officer before he let me through. Jack was right. The entire thing was a total loss. It was nothing but a pile of rubble with a metal skeleton looming over the whole damn thing.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Jack as I surveyed the scene.
“How bad is it?” he asked.
“As bad as you think. There’s nothing left.”
“Fuck.”
“I’m going to talk to the fire chief and see what I can figure out. I’ll call you back when I’m done.”
