LITMIR.BIZ

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your daddy and Uncle Ben and his boys,” Juniper said, and realized his whole life was about to be exposed. Ben’s sons were just a bit younger than him and had no idea their adopted cousin hid a bloodstained past.

      He crouched down to place April on her feet. May rushed forward, crowding into his arms beside her sister. Juniper hugged them both, relief warring with a deep sense of loss. Though he wasn’t related to this family by blood, they’d given him the first real home he’d ever known, sealing his place in the family the day their first daughter had been born. “Now I’ll have May and June,” Rachell had said, June being the nickname Rachell had given him, and he’d never been so honored. April and May were his sisters in every way that mattered.

      “You girls stay inside with your mama until your daddy comes for you, okay?”

      Both girls nodded, moving toward their mother as he straightened. Juniper was afraid to look at her, ashamed of the terror he’d brought into their home.

      The moment he’d taken this man’s life, his own had been stolen. Once the others reached town, word would spread about the gunslinger from Missouri.

      More would come. He couldn’t stay.

      “You did what you had to.”

      Rachell’s gentle voice penetrated the anguish welling up inside him, pulling at his emotions as he felt the door close on the people he loved, the home he’d just lost.

       Chapter One

       Spring 1883

       San Francisco

      “Admit it, Lily. Your competitiveness has finally gotten the best of you.”

      “I’ll admit nothing of the kind.” Quite pleased with her new business venture, Lily Carrington eased back into the burgundy velvet of her office chair and lifted a cup of steaming hot chocolate to her lips.

      Reginald spared her a quick glare, his thin lips set in a grim line as he continued to riffle through the box of disorganized company files atop her desk.

      “It’s no matter,” she said. “McFarland is simply being a sore loser by withholding the payroll records and turning over the company files in such disarray. I’ll sort through every page if I have to. There’s more than one way to obtain payroll records. Surely someone on-site has kept a log of employees, work hours and pay rates.”

      “Take my advice, sweetness.” Reginald tossed another file into the box, then brushed his fingers against his blue silk jacket as though his hands had been soiled. “Sell it.”

      “I will not. You’re being rash.”

      “I’m being realistic.” He dropped into the leather chair on the opposite side of her desk. A wedge of sunlight gleamed against the dark hair slicked back against his scalp. Stiff tracks left by his comb added to his look of severity. Even so, with his slight build and delicate facial structure, Regi was no more intimidating than a stern librarian or a cranky banker.

      As her second cousin and top financial advisor, it was Regi’s job to be circumspect about business matters, but Lily had run the numbers before going after the lumber company. With proper management, the Sierra lumber camp and mill would become a valuable asset to L. P. Carrington Industries.

      “Lily, it’s no secret that this entire venture is nothing but a folly to put o1’ McFarland in his place.”

      A smile curved her lips before she took another sip of creamy cocoa, the taste nearly as sweet as her victory. She wouldn’t deny the fact. The old goat had dared to come to her offices a few months ago seeking financial assistance, only to refuse to sit across the bargaining table from a woman. If that hadn’t been insult enough, he’d later publicly ridiculed her before hundreds of colleagues at a charitable ball, calling her a disgrace to respectable businessmen.

      A disgrace, was she? She hadn’t been the one sitting idly by while her stock was discreetly bought out from under her. Her initials had been the prefix of Carrington Industries for five splendidly successful years. At twenty-five years old, Lily was L. P. Carrington Industries, owning more than eighty-five percent of the company. The supposed board of trustees, her old and ailing relatives, only cared that their bank accounts were brimming.

      The fact that McFarland wasn’t making this particular takeover an easy endeavor didn’t take away from her delight at seeing the utter defeat and humiliation in his face as she had personally claimed the title of her new lumber company.

      “L. P. Carrington Lumber,” she said brightly. “I like the sound of it.”

      Reginald groaned as he reached toward the tray holding her silver chocolate pot. “Face it, strumpet, he let this money pit go because it was failing.”

      “You didn’t see his face when I walked in. He didn’t want to part with Pine Ridge.”

      “So you’ve taken the man’s prized possession. You don’t need to prove anything further.” He sat back in his chair and pulled a silver flask from the inside of his jacket.

      “Regi! It’s barely ten o’clock in the morning!”

      “And yet my head is throbbing as though I’ve suffered an entire day of your takeover activities.”

      Lily crossed her arms in disapproval as he poured a clear trail of spirits into his hot chocolate. He capped the flask and tucked it back into his jacket.

      “I don’t need to see the outstanding payroll records to surmise that this company is about to implode.” Regi sat back, sipping his potent chocolate. “The accounting records reveal plenty. McFarland took out more than he put in and had nothing left to pay his employees, nor was he willing to dip into his personal funds to compensate for the loss.”

      “Exactly. The company failure was due to his poor management. I didn’t walk into this completely blind, Reginald. The potential is there.”

      “Darling, you hardly need another source of income. And we have enough work to juggle without taking on a camp full of filthy oxen men who haven’t been paid in weeks. This lumber business will be nothing but a drain on our time and re sources.”

      “I’m keeping my new company. Success is the best revenge.”

      Regi took a deep drink, his dark eyes shining with mirth. “This is why men cower in fear when you enter a boardroom.”

      She didn’t appreciate his catty tone. “They do.”

      “Yes, love, I know. I’m the one standing right beside you as they tremble. No one is questioning your success.”

      “That’s not the point,” she said, straightening her posture. She tugged at the bottom of her fitted waistcoat, smoothing wrinkles from the black-and-gray pinstriping.

      Reginald rubbed at his temple. “What exactly is the point, love? I keep forgetting. Could it be that you need another excuse to stay cooped up in this pampered palace of an office?” He splayed his hands toward satin-lined walls trimmed with gold moldings. “Look at you. Impeccable style, flawless skin, every strawberry-blond curl swept up in sheer perfection, and all of it going to waste.”

      “I don’t care for your perspective. Looking my best is hardly wasteful.”

      “I dare say ten years ago you’d have been the belle of every debutante ball, had you bothered to attend them.”

      Unlike the rest of the Carrington women, Lily didn’t judge her worth by the size of her wedding dowry. She preferred to follow her mother’s example and shun tradition. It was, after all, what everyone expected of her, for poor orphaned Lily to adopt her mother’s reckless ways. She did hate to disappoint.

      “If you’ll recall, I was banned from such festivities.”

      Regi’s tittering laugh increased her annoyance. “I assure

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