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“Me?” I stared like a fucking idiot because I had to have heard him wrong. I wasn’t deaf, but I was questioning my own hearing. “Me?”
“Yes, you.”
“You want me to run the mills in Cedar Harbor and Iron Falls?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I want you to do,” he affirmed.
“Why the fuck would you want that?” I exclaimed. “I don’t know a fucking thing about doing your job.”
“I’m aware,” Sebastian said rather smugly. “Admittedly, you don’t have the professional qualifications either.”
“Then why the fuck do you want me?” I couldn’t wrap my head around his offer. I was a horrible fucking pick for something like this.
“I wanted a Byrne.”
“Why not Declan? He fucking worked here for God’s sake.”
“If I wanted Declan, I would’ve asked Declan,” he answered. “I want you. I need someone with your tenacity and ambition. Someone who cares about both towns and the people in it. My company keeps both Cedar Harbor and Iron Falls well above the board economically. You have strong ties to both. Business can be taught. Motivation, however, comes from the heart. Your loyalties to both packs means you’ll make the hard choices needed to keep the company running. And of course, you’ll work closely with me—remotely once your training is done obviously. You sure you don’t want something to drink? You look like you could use it.”
Fuck, I wanted one, but I shook my head.
“I don’t drink,” I grumbled.
“Good to know,” Sebastian replied. He wandered across the room and traded out his glass of whiskey for two bottles of water. “You’ll be fully equipped to do the job, I promise. I wouldn’t just throw you to the wolves so to speak.”
“I’d survive the fucking wolves,” I retorted.
“No doubt.” He grinned. “The starting pay is easily triple what you made as a cop here in town. You’ll be given a company vehicle for travel back and forth between here and Iron Falls to cover gas, lodging, and meals. You’ll just have to keep track of everything for the accountants. Once you’re settled and ready to run both locations, you’ll receive a significant pay increase, and I’ll be buying you into the company.”
“I’m sorry what?”
“That won’t happen for years.”
“Yes, but what do you mean you’ll buy me into the company?”
“I don’t want you to just run the mills for me, Killian,” he said. “I want to hand over this division of my company to you. The lumber business is just one division of my father’s company—he got into everything he could from lumber to technology. If there was a way to monetize it, he figured out how. And now my job is to keep that going, but while I have no interest in the lumber business, I’d be stupid to let it go completely. This division is doing very well, there’s growth to be had, and I don’t see a reason to stop that.”
“You just want someone to do it for you,” I summarized.
“I want someone to work their ass off while I work my ass off elsewhere,” Sebastian corrected. “Make no mistake, Killian, you won’t be working your ass for nothing while I roll in my fucking money. You’ll make more money than you know what to do with, and you’ll have the freedom to hire whoever you need to make your job easier.”
“I need time to think,” I told him quietly. That was a fucking understatement. I wasn’t sure I’d ever wrap my head around half the shit he’d said.
“I know.” He tapped his temple. Stupid magic. “Come back to me when the hunter in town is taken care of. That takes priority.”
“What do you know about the hunter?” I asked.
“No more than there is one in town, Charlotte was killed by it, and I hope to hell you kill the damn thing before more people end up dead,” he stated. “I may hate Washington, but I grew up here. Wolf or not, I care about the people of this town. I know you won’t be able to focus until after this, so we’ll get you settled in and started once it’s over.”
“I haven’t said yes.”
“You will.”
Chapter 54
Killian
Isat in my jeep staring at the lumberyard, stuck somewhere between what the fuck and what the actual fuck. A job? Sure, I could handle a fucking job. But taking on a whole division of a fucking company? That wasn’t my kind of thing. I didn’t like people enough for that.
