“Your business,” I said a little more gently this time. “It’s yours. Not your father’s. It’s yours, as long as you fulfill the terms of the will. Your father is no longer a part of this equation.”

He closed his eyes for a few seconds and then opened them. “I need help.”

“You have Reid.”

“He must hate me. This should have been his.”

“He knows what kind of man your father was. So do Roy and Riley. No one is blaming you for this. They’re blaming him.”

“I’m really going to have to do this, aren’t I?”

Without meaning to, I reached out and cupped his cheek. “Yes. If you want to do right by your siblings. They’re innocent in all this.” And so am I. But I didn’t add that part.

I’d tried like hell to talk Derek Wolfe out of all of this, done the best I could. I’d had my mentor and the most senior attorneys at my firm try. To no avail.

The man would not be budged.

He’d created this chaos, and he was no doubt looking up—yeah, he was in hell for sure—at us now, laughing his ass off.

I hoped Rock would have the last laugh.

“Like I said in the bar,” I continued. “Do this. Do this not just for your brothers and sister but for yourself. You’ll be a rich man, Rock. You can use that power for good. Show your father who you really are. A good man. You have what it takes to be a great CEO.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No. I’m completely serious.” And I was. “You fill a room with your presence. People will follow where you lead.”

“The only problem is, I have no fucking idea where to lead them.”

“You have Reid. He knows the business. He’ll help you.”

“And you?”

Were we back to this again? “You don’t need me.”

“Fine. You don’t need to be my personal counsel. Stay where you are.” He moved toward me, the bulge in his jeans pushing into my belly. “But if you think I don’t need you, you’re sadly mistaken, Lacey.”

9

Rock

I was so fucking hard. I wanted to pound her right against this wall, right in public.

What was it about her?

I’d had hotter women, more beautiful women, curvier women, thinner women.