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"Yes sir, thank you, Master Cabot." Hunter fumbled a response, and then he felt Simeon's hand on the small of his back, and his nerves eased, and he was able to relax. He received a kind smile from Master Cabot, and they were led over to a couch and instructed to sit, and the Master sat across from them.
"I have something to tell you, Hunter, that is not going to be easy for you to hear." He made that statement, and Hunter felt his heart surge into his throat as he waited for whatever Master Cabot had to tell him. The Master turned his attention to Simeon, and Hunter's fear grew.
"Remi has been looking into the Rose Vineyards in Sacramento, both the business and the family." Simeon nodded, and then attention was back on Hunter. This was becoming excruciating. Simeon reached over and took Hunter's hand, and held it. He always seemed to know what he needed.
“Have you read your grandfather’s Will?” Master Cabot asked.
"No, sir, my father said it didn't concern me and not to worry about it. Everything was being left to my father, David Rose, so I didn't see any reason to search out a copy." Hunter answered and then on pins and needles for whatever was to come next.
"Everything was left to you, Hunter, and only you. Your father and brother were cut out of his Will. I will get you a copy so you can review it." He felt Simeon's hand tighten around his as his mind once again began to spin. "I hope you don't mind, but I put my legal team on securing your property and assets."
“Did you have a good relationship with your grandfather?” Simeon asked.
"No, that man hated everyone, especially family. He wasn't as overtly nasty as other members of the Rose clan, but he liked to screw with people, like destroy plans and expectations at the last minute. I figured that was where my father learned the skill. If he left everything to me, it was just to get at father, and Dave Jr." Hunter's mind went instantly to selling since he could not deal with his father or brother over this mess. Just sell out, and everyone moves on, was his primary thought.
"Selling and getting out from under is a good plan," Simeon stated as if he'd just read Hunter's mind.
"Yes, I agree." Master Cabot interjected. "But there is a more pressing issue that needs to be attended to." He hesitated and then caught and held Hunter's gaze before continuing. "David Rose Jr., with the financial assistance of David Rose Sr., hired Jakes, the assassin, to kill you while here at the convention. You were never meant to return home, and all your assets would then revert to your father upon your death."
"Breath, baby breath." He heard the frantic tone as Simeon's voice broke through his shocked daze and brought him back to awareness. He took severe, deep, ragged breaths as his lung seemed unable to expand.
When he finally pulled out of the shock, he found himself in Simeon's arms with a cool compress on his forehead. He glanced up at Simeon, hoping that he'd misheard what Master Cabot had said, but the look of sadness on his face told him that was not the case.
“My father and Dave hired someone to kill me?”
"Yes," Simeon replied with just one word.
"I don't believe it . . . no . . . it can't be." He struggled with accepting, and then he experienced clarity. "Strike that, I do believe, and I know that my father, at least, is more than capable and willing to do whatever is necessary if it meant keeping Rose Wines. My brother was hard on me, but he wouldn't kill me." He began to sit back up, and Simeon assisted him. It was a shock, but now that he thought about it not really that shocking.
Hunter felt himself going from being devastated by the news to being incensed by the news. “I am so stupid.” He burst out as he remembered how hard he tried to get his father’s approval and never ever succeeded. It had been a losing game from the start.
“You’re not stupid.” Master Cabot noted. “If you were stupid, you would be dead by now, and they would have control of the winery.”
“The only reason I’m not dead is Simeon. He saved my life twice in one day.” Hunter reminded.
"You were smart enough to keep him with you and smart enough to trust him, and that speaks well of your instincts." Master Cabot extended the much-needed praise, and Hunter treasured the validation.
“My lawyers working on your behalf are presently getting everything put in your name. It will alert the father and brother that you are aware of the contents of the Will and that you have assistance. They may escalate or try to cajole you into giving them the business. We’ll wait and see.” Master Cabot was so calm and rational when Hunter was feeling neither his instincts were telling him to dump the entire enterprise. He didn't give two shits about that place or his father, for that matter.
"I don't want it. I'll sign it over to you. Have your lawyers write it up, and I'll sign." Hunter rushed. He was so done with the Rose Winery that his only desire was to get rid of it. Both Master Cabot and Simeon were shaking their heads.
"Don't make any decisions right now, my love. Give it a day or two." Simeon had his arm around him, and Hunter leaned into the warmth and steadied his outburst so as to be understood.
"I'm not being reactionary. I really do not want that place. It's not my home, and I've never been happy there a day in my life, so why would I want it? If you don't want it, then instruct the lawyers to find a buyer and get rid of it as soon as possible. All it is to me is a place of bad memories, and now, with what they have done, it's even more tainted." He turned and implored Simeon to empathize with what he needed, and he did.
"Whatever you want to do, it is your decision." He said and pulled him a little closer. Hunter loved being tucked under his arm. It gave him such a feeling of safety.
"I'd like for you to have it, Master Cabot because my father envies and despises you for your success and your ability. He has hated the fact that I come here every year to learn from Cabot Wines, and that is the primary reason I come every year. For you to have Rose Wines would . . . it would drive him insane, and that is exactly where I want him to be." Hunter finished with heat and anger, but both men knew where he stood on the subject.
“Very well, I will pay you a fair market price.” Master Cabot kept a close scrutiny weighing and measuring Hunter’s expressions and reactions. “I’ll get the paperwork together and send my people out immediately to assess and take command.” He ended with a satisfied smile. “Cabot Wines is expanding to California.”
Hunter couldn’t just imagine his father’s face when the truth hit him. He would be evicted, and he could go spread his bullshit and hatred somewhere else. “I hope I never have to see that man again.”
“What about your brother?” Simeon enquired.
"Dave Jr. will go wherever our father goes. He doesn't have a life or a thought of his own. I just want to be rid of both of them." Hunter was finished with his family and the winery.
"You will always have a home here." Master Cabot announced, and then Simeon followed up.
