than your company.”
“It’s not my company,” Max said, “I don’t want any part of that blood money. I’d pay the debt off now if I could, but I’m not entitled to any of the holdings until I turn thirty-five.”
“He’s got you by the short curlies,” the deputy said. “I don’t see how you can fight this.”
“If I have to expose my father for the ruthless bastard that he is or threaten to do it to get him to back off and leave the lodge alone, then that’s what I will do.”
“He’ll hogtie you legally,” Roberts said with a sad shake of his head. “I’m not saying that because I don’t want to see you succeed. Even though you might be right, the red tape will strangle you both.” After a long, sad silence, the mayor glanced approvingly at his deputy, Roberts could only shrug and add, “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” Max said in a voice that only stirred and stoked Lauren’s nervousness. “Are you sorry? Or are you in my father’s pocket too?”
The mayor and his underling exchanged glances, and Lauren knew there was something to what Max said, though she could only guess at anything beyond that.
Max went on, “I know how my father operates, I know you’ll both be beyond implication. But don’t talk to me as if I hadn’t been raised at the man’s knee. I know how he uses others to his benefit while allowing them to think they're making their own choices. His way is over, gentlemen, his time is passed. Whatever you may think now, however much power he may wield, his way isn’t the future, and you both know that. It’s not the future of Moss Creek. If you’re willing to be influenced by him now, just keep in mind that I’ll be the one controlling the influence later; me and the other voters of Moss Creek.”
Mayor Shipley said, “I appreciate that you’re upset young man, and I sympathize, but there is little I can do to mediate in such a matter. I urge you to get a qualified lawyer.” With a glance at his deputy, Mayor Shipley went on, “If you really think that’s a prudent course of action. I wish you the best of luck in any case.”
Lauren wrapped her hands around Max’s calming him. She could feel the passion of his position pulsing in his veins. He maintained his composure and seemed to allow Lauren to lead him out of the office and down to the car with minimal ill will.
“I can see why my father played things a certain way,” Max said, shaking his head.
Lauren rubbed his back to calm him.
“If others won’t play fair, and you come up to a stone wall, how better to deal with it than just to plow right through it?”
“What if the wall won’t give? What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?” she asked.
“Even worse,” Max said. “What happens when the immovable object is the unstoppable force?”
Chapter Forty
Max
On the way back to the lodge, he and Lauren looked for a way of preserving it for Moss Creek and for their own future.
“So, we can’t get a lawyer at all?”
Max shrugged. “By this time, he could have put in calls to every lawyer in Colorado. My father plays rough.”
“I see.” A mile up and some consideration later, her eyes lit with inspiration. “What if I just give the place away?”
This grabbed Max’s attention, and his heart skipped a beat just to consider such a thing.
“Nothing against your father, but I’d rather give it away than have him steal from me like this.”
Max shook his head, “Everything’s against my father, and I’m the first one on the front line to help fight him. I think it’s a beautiful idea, but will that get you out of the mortgage payments?” He gripped the wheel tighter.
“I suppose we could offer to sell the property to the city, or we could have an auction.” Max could see that selling the property was to sell out, and that was something Lauren didn’t seem ready or able to do to her parents. It wasn’t something Max was willing to help her do.
It was a good try, and she seemed to understand that as well as he did. It was fruitless, though. The closer that SUV brought them to their home, the closer it brought them to the conclusion that it would not remain their home for long. It seemed as inevitable as the changing of the seasons.
Whatever their destination,