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Chapter Fifteen
Nash set Emily’s jacket to the side on his brother’s pristine white couch.
The doorbell rang, sending Lizardman into a frenzy of excitement. The squirmy puppy barked and howled as one of his brother’s staff opened the door. A man in a tight turtleneck strode through the entrance into the foyer in fitted slacks and expensive cowboy boots.
Lynch!
Nash groaned. His brother’s friends were appearing consecutively more diabolical. At least he’d left his bodyguards behind. “You need West?” Having every intention of retreating into the back rooms while he and West did business, Nash reached down to take Lizardman’s collar. “I’ll get this guy out of the way.”
Lynch shook his head. “I’m here for you.”
Nash stopped short. Was this a continuation from the other night? Lynch hadn’t even gotten down to business, he’d been so busy with his lady friends.
“You’re a very difficult man to track down,” Lynch said with a raised brow. “Are you aware of that? But then again, you’ve been a little busy with your songbird. How’s that going?”
How did Lynch make asking after Emily seem so sinister? Nash cleared his throat. “She’s well.” That was all he was willing to say about her. The uncomfortable silence between them stretched out a few moments too long.
“We never finished our talk from the other night,” Lynch said. “Do we have somewhere private to discuss business?”
No, no. West wasn’t going through with these cold arrangements. Nash wanted nothing to do with the womanizer. “Here is fine.” It was nice and public. He licked his lips then asked the question that had been burning through his mind since the last time that they’d crossed paths. “How’s your lady friend?”
Lynch’s smile turned tight. “Who?”
“The one who puked into your plant,” Nash bluntly reminded him. Of course, Lynch knew exactly who he was talking about. “She was crying when I left.”
“Let’s just talk about business,” Lynch said sharply.
Nash’s eyes narrowed on him. He hated this guy. A lot. What else was West covering up for this guy?
“We all have our skeletons in the closet,” Lynch said. He settled down on the couch while Lizardman sniffed his boots suspiciously. “It seems your cold fireworks did the trick of winning over your crush… not Mia. I gather she’s not who you were truly trying to impress the other night.”
This time, Nash didn’t join in his laughter.
“Emily Mackenzie, is it? She’s a real pretty girl.” Her name in Lynch’s mouth seemed sacrilegious. “Does she know that you were behind that little surprise?”
Lynch would be talking out of the other side of his mouth if he thought he could try to use that against him. “I told her,” Nash said stiffly.
“She’s going to reach superstardom sooner than you think. It’ll be hard to compete with her adoring fans. If you’re not careful, you’ll just end up being another pretty face.” Lynch’s brow wrinkled as he glanced up at Nash as he seethed. “Please, Nash, sit down. Let’s talk shop. Let’s make this visit worth our time—there’s a piece of land that we need you to appraise for us. A widow wants to sell it off so she can finally retire. She just wants to get it off her hands, now that her husband is gone. We need you to look at it and work out a deal with the sweet old lady.”
The land would be a drop in the bucket for a man like Lynch. Was there something more to this for Lynch to be paying Nash a special visit?
Then he remembered. “You said that this was about oil?”
Lynch leaned back against the couch. “Not this time, unfortunately, but it’s still a pretty good chunk of land—fifty-six hundred acres.”
That was huge! It was five times the size of the Slade ranch.
“And we have some foreign investors that are interested in setting up some casinos.”
“That’s illegal here.”
“Their lobbyists are working on getting the laws changed, as well as a few other things. Anyway, it’s not my problem what they do with it. Horse racing, maybe a resort. Ha—they could set up a whole town there if they liked. None of this is a secret—the widow who owns the place knows what we have in the works, so give the woman a fair offer and let’s get this deal off the ground.”
On paper this sounded fine, and yet… something still felt off. If Emily hadn’t come into the picture, Nash might’ve left this town behind. And now that she was in his life? He definitely didn’t want to be involved with any of West’s sleazy moneymaking schemes. No matter how legit they sounded, there was always something shady going on.
“Sorry,” Nash said. “I think you should find someone else.”
Lynch blinked in surprise. “I’m sorry… but what are you saying? West seems to think that this will be your big break. Was he mistaken? You would get a fifteen percent commission. That’s in the millions.”
