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When the call ended, I dialed Arthur and reined in the caustic mix of fury and frustration in my chest. Just as he answered, I couldn’t get a word out before he said, “I know what you’re calling about, John, and believe me, it gets my goat too. No media house is willing to show the real tape, and I believe West might have paid them off by using his father’s influence to stop it. You know the West’s family has got shares in media.”
The pen in my hand snapped in half. “I’ll kill him.”
“As your lawyer, I officially didnothear that,” Arthur grumbled. “Believe me, I’ll get the truth out there, no matter how many gag orders and false accusations West lobbies at you.”
“The shares are dropping too, and I—” The phone beeped with an incoming call, and I saw Hunter’s name flash on the screen. I grimaced. “—Arthur, I’ve got to call you back. A call’s coming in, and I’ve gotta get it.”
“Sure,” he replied.
“Mister Portman,” I greeted. “I have expected your call for a long time but do not fear it. Before you say anything, please let me assure you everything you hear being banded around the news is pure bullshit. Pardon my French.”
“…Well, that’s reassuring to hear,” Hunter replied gruffly. “But I’m simply calling to ask if you’ll have my order in time.”
“When I can get these narcos off my property, I will have it done. It was almost finished before they came, and I project that I’ll have that shipment for you in days when they leave.”
“Hm,” he replied. “I’ve heard whispers about you and West. Is he trouble for you?”
“More like a thorn in my side,” I replied. “It’s not proven, but I am sure he hired someone to sabotage my calves, killed them with poison, staged a fight to manipulate to make me look like a bastard, and had his woman try to killmine.”
It was the possessiveness that the last word came out in that jolted something inside me. Was Rayna mine? Did I think of her that way? I was truthful when I said I loved her.
“Jesus Christ, Maxwell,” Hunter said. “I thought the man was a petty pissant but notthis.”
“He’s been a pissant for a long time,” I replied. “At any chance he got, he tried to undermine me, but he’s not gotten the best of me, and so help me God, he will never. I just need to find a way to see through his games.”
“You know, I have the name of a good security company you could hire if you feel like something is about to shift sideways,” Hunter replied. “The owner is a good friend of mine from our military days.”
I grabbed a pen. “Please,” and added, scribbling the name and number. “Thank you.”
“No problem, just tell Clarke that Hunter sent you, and he’ll bump you right up the list,” he replied.
“If I have to, sure,” I replied, rubbing my forehead. “If you would excuse me, Portman, I have to go and take care of something.”
“No problem,” he replied.
I hung up, stood, strode to inspectors’ vans, and banged on the door. When no one came, I strode inside the main stable. Ben, Micah, and Jake oversaw the government peons as they dug up my place like scumbag rats. I had had enough.
“Have any of you found this so-called evidence?” I roared, jerking the men bagging baggies of feed and chemicals for testing. “If you have not, you need to leave and get this goddamned shutdown over with! Enough is enough.”
“Sir—”
“Have you found anything?”
“Well…no, but—”
“Then get out,” I ordered. “All this is a diversion and smokescreen from one petty asshole who cannot bear to see animbeciledoing better than him. Nothing is illegal here; if you have not found it in three days, you will not find it in three more. So again, get out. Be free to take whatever samples you have and go back to your labs, but for now, I have a business to run, and you are all hampering it.”
The five men looked between each other before one of them, the head bulldog gave the orders to leave, and I stepped aside as they filed out.
I ground my teeth. “Should have done that two days ago.”
“I thought so myself,” Ben said while approaching me. “Those men irked the living daylights out of me.”
Turning to him, I said, “Now that’s done, but with them gone, we need to pick up the pieces and get ready for the fair.”
“We’re still going to that?” Ben asked, his brows shooting up. “With all the bad press and all?”
“I’m not going to make West’s propaganda scare me,” I replied. “One pretty boy with a load of cash will not scare me. I’ve been through things that would send West shivering under his bed. So no, he is not going to get me rattled.”
