LITMIR.BIZ

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intel along the way. He wouldn’t add to the tally of his baser tactics where Angelica’s opinion of him was concerned.

      She was mulling over his words. “Becca wants to inspire you enough that you’ll back off from any takeover bid, and all the bad publicity and doubt plaguing the foundation will disappear along with you.”

      She stopped and sat heavily down on a vacant bench at a bus stop.

      “I hate that the company is suffering,” she said. “I hate that my family can barely look at me anymore.” She exhaled a shaky breath as he sat alongside of her. “It’s getting to me, Jack. Grinding me down until my head feels like it might explode.”

      “Trust me,” he said. “We’re in a good place with this.”

      “I rang Dylan this morning, a sisterly call to see how he and Jenna are doing.”

      Dylan had got involved with Jenna Montgomery, a florist in Cheyenne. Jack had heard that the couple had weathered some severe relationship storms before recently tying the knot.

      “Of course, the conversation swung onto the will,” Angelica went on. “I got so stirred up, I could have hit something. Out of everyone, I never thought Dylan would turn against me. We were so close when we were young. I thought we still were.”

      After high school, Dylan had set sail to see the world. Odd jobs in restaurants had grown into head chef opportunities in premiere establishments. Five years ago, J.D. asked him to head the Lassiter Grill Group with restaurants in L.A., Vegas, Chicago and now their hometown, Cheyenne. He’d inherited complete control of the restaurant business when J.D. died.

      “Dylan told me again,” Angelica said, “that I needed to accept Dad’s wishes. That I should bury the hatchet and get on with my life.” Staring into the noisy downtown traffic, she bit her lip and shook her head. “I needed to talk to Evan. Thrash it out. Know what he said? Evan said I should settle down. Sitting in my chair, in my office. Can you believe it?”

      As a tear rolled down her cheek, Jack fished out a pressed handkerchief from his inside breast pocket.

      Gritting her teeth, Angelica dabbed her face. “I can’t get my mind around the fact that Evan somehow conspired with my father to do this. Or maybe Evan somehow conspired against us both.”

      Jack wanted to put his arm around her. Squeeze her hand. But Angelica didn’t need sympathy. She needed firm direction. He sat forward, elbows on thighs, fingers thatched between knees.

      “Evan’s right,” he said.

      As the 302 bus growled by, she shot Jack a glance. “Excuse me?”

      “You do need to settle down. Then you need to refocus and never let that target out of your sights. You can’t afford to let emotion get in the way.”

      “Just sometimes, Jack...sometimes I wonder whether we’re doing the right thing. Whether it’s worth it.”

      “You wonder whether you ought to give up your inheritance because Sage and Dylan don’t approve?” Pulling out all the stops, Jack turned toward her. “Sage was never close to J.D. He’s a billionaire in his own right, for God’s sakes, and yet he got twenty-five percent of Lassiter Media in the will. And Dylan? Why, he’s happy as a pig in mud since he’s snagged controlling interest of the Lassiter Grill Group. Then there’s you. J.D.’s only child through blood. His little princess. Tell me how the hell it works when you get a lousy ten percent and the man you trusted enough to want to marry walks away with controlling voting interest of your father’s company.” Jack sneered. “I don’t give a rat’s furry behind whether or not Sage or Dylan or anyone else approves of your attempt to get what’s rightfully yours.”

      Angelica’s shoulders squared slightly and she blinked several times as if her eyes might be stinging.

      “I miss Dad so much,” she said. “I wish I could talk to him now. Let him make sense of it all. I’m torn between wanting to fold and being outraged that he could embarrass and hurt me like this. I worked my rear end off for that company. It was all I thought, ate. Slept.” She swallowed back emotion and brushed away another tear. “I’m just so tired of it all.”

      Jack almost groaned aloud. He’d valued J.D.’s friendship, but if he’d been alive and standing in front of him now, Jack would have plowed him in the jaw, what Jack stood to make out of this deal be damned.

      Angelica dabbed her cheek again. “I’m a wimp.”

      “Hey, would I team up with a wimp?”

      When he bumped her shoulder, she almost grinned.

      “Sylvia and I are working nonstop,” he said, “finding ways to boost our position in the company’s shares. It won’t be long now. We’re almost there. Okay?”

      A genuine smile flickered at the corners of her mouth before her gaze narrowed, searching his.

      “In the past, you’ve only ever wanted to tear down and sell off companies you’d acquired. Why is Lassiter Media any different?”

      “You really need to ask?”

      “Everyone’s asking.”

      “J.D. was a close friend. I’ve known you since you were a skinny kid with braids. I’m doing precisely, to a T, what your father would want me to do.”

      “Except it goes against his final wishes.”

      “That can’t have been his intent. Search your heart and tell me you don’t agree.”

      Her gaze narrowed again.

      “You would never betray me, would you, Jack?”

      As a shiver ran up his spine, Jack looked her dead in the eye. “No, Angelica,” he said. “I would never betray you.”

      * * *

      Jack followed Angelica back to the Lassiter family mansion, which sat on two acres of Beverly Hills north of Sunset. J.D. had bought the Spanish Colonial revival twenty years ago when he’d created the L.A. office. Built in the 1930s, the mansion retained its original wrought-iron detail, leaded glass and homemade Spanish tiles. In recent years, however, Angelica had contributed much in the way of decorating its 11,000 feet of luxury living space. It had been more her home than J.D.’s.

      When Jack and Angelica began to go over some figures and she asked him to stay for lunch, of course, he accepted. He even helped her prepare enough egg salad sandwiches to feed ten. Then they sat and ate in the lanai, taking in the sparkling pool and the flawless blue sky of late summer. By the time they had talked through everything and Angelica felt positive again about going forward, the sun was arcing toward the west.

      As she accompanied Jack through the living room with its soaring ceiling to the front entrance, for the hundredth time he considered the part he was playing in this unfolding drama. Complex and uncomfortable, even for him. Still, as he had said to Angelica earlier, they need only keep their eyes on the target.

      “I shouldn’t have kept you this long.” Angelica looked weary, resting her cheek against the opened door edge as Jack stepped onto the extravagant porch.

      “I’m here anytime you need me.”

      “Becca Stevens must be wondering where you got to.”

      “She probably welcomed the break.”

      “I doubt that.”

      When Angelica sent him a fond smile, Jack held her shoulder. “You’ll be okay.”

      “You were always a good friend to my father...to me. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

      “You’ll never have to worry about that.”

      There was a spring in Jack’s step as he crossed to his car. He had helped Angelica—or not helped, depending on which team a person rooted for. On top of that, even after having his fill of egg salad, Jack was still fanging for those Danishes.

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