The Rivals - Dylan Allen Page 0,71

we met. I burst into unexpected laughter, and he joins me.

“What’s up, kid?” he asks.

“I’m going to give you that, because these days, I’m good with being younger than you, especially since we’re playing at the same level now,” I say.

“You can’t even see my level.” He laughs. “You just got back into town, and you’re already talking shit,” he says.

“Just telling you how it is,” I say.

“You have no clue how it is. You need to come kiss the rings of the men who’ve been running Houston while you were eating pasta on a beach in Italy,” he quips. I laugh. I’d forgotten that he was a cocky asshole. I haven’t seen him again since that day we met in the clearing. But looks like not much has changed.

“I got your letter,” I say and don’t take his bait.

“No hard feelings, man,” he says unapologetically. “But you’ve got to know that what Kingdom is doing is very wrong.”

“You’re preaching to the choir. I’m not calling to give you shit. I’m about to do you a huge favor,” I tell him.

He whistles low and long. “Well, shit. Maybe I should sue you more often.” He laughs.

“You in the office early tomorrow?” I ask.

“Yes,” he says.

“I’ll come to you,” I say.

“You better bring coffee,” he says, then hangs up.

He’s an asshole. But I like him. And I think he’s going to be receptive to what I have to say tomorrow.

This lawsuit, since it landed on my desk, has been nothing but a headache. But now it’s presenting me with a multitude of opportunities. I want to make Kingdom accountable, but I know the board and executive committee will never back me on it. So, I’ll find another way. This company is rotten from the inside out. If I’ve got to kill it to save the family name, I will. What’s left isn’t worth the paper its letterhead is printed on. And I want the family foundation that I control to be the source of the Rivers family influence.

And, I know just the lawyer to do it.

Confidence still isn’t talking to me. She left my house that day and spent a couple of days with Cass’s family in Rivers Wilde before she left for Arkansas. She refused to see me. I followed her home, and she made it very clear I wasn’t welcome.

It’s been a month and she’s returned every email and text I’ve sent with the same message, “I will never forgive you.”

I know she thinks she means it.

I mean to make sure she has no choice. Because living without her isn’t an option for me and this distance has only made that more apparent. It’s time to take control of this situation.

KINGS MEET

HAYES

“Can I have two coffees to go? One black. One with two creams and one sugar” I ask.

“Ah, you made up with Ms. Confidence,” the man behind the counter says brightly as he rings up my order.

I’m in the middle of reading my email from Amelia, my new lawyer, and almost drop my phone at his words.

This is only my second time in here. I peer at his name tag that says “Lo”. “How do you know Confidence?” I ask quizzically.

“Oh, that girl was in here making juju dolls out of stirring straws with her friend for a couple days after the storm. They were all named after you,” he says and then laughs at whatever he sees on my face.

“What’s a juju doll?”

“Ah, that’s what we call them in Nigeria. Maybe here you call them voodoo? Like the Creoles?” He laughs.

“Oh. She made voodoo dolls and named them after me?” I ask and then glance behind me to see who was snickering.

The group of teenage girls all look away when I scowl at them.

“Yes, my man. My wife has been mad at me. But I’ve never had a doll made in my honor,” he says and hands me back my credit card. I’m so dazed I don’t even remember asking for it back.

“Thank you,” I say absently and stick it back into my pocket.

“And she took her coffee just like that, two creams, one sugar. So, I thought maybe one of those was for her.”

“No. Unfortunately, it’s not.” And I realize that I’ve been drinking my coffee like this since I met her. All of these subtle ways I’ve started to compensate for her absence in my life. I yearn for her in a way that claws at my insides.

“Well, we hope she forgives you soon and