Why?
Damon
Present
The elevator doors opened, and I charged into Michael’s penthouse in the city, turning the corner and strolling into the apartment.
Walking into the great room, I saw Michael, Kai, and Will sitting on chairs and couches, while Rika stood near the wall of open balcony doors, a rare, balmy evening breeze drifting through.
Michael allowed the doorman to let me come up, so he must be intrigued enough to indulge me, and I was glad most of them were here.
I threw the piece of newspaper that I’d folded into an airplane on the table in front of Michael, watching him take it with very little enthusiasm.
He thought he’d have the first word. Nope. I was controlling this conversation.
I looked at Will. “Do you hate me?”
He fixed me with a guarded stare but didn’t say anything.
Then I looked at Rika. “You?” I asked.
She locked her jaw, averting her eyes.
But not answering the question, either.
I’d hurt them the most, and if they could get past this, then I had a chance.
“You’re not my enemies,” I told everyone. “I don’t want that.”
“Then what do you want?” Kai retorted.
I saw Michael open up the airplane to see the article that was in the Post yesterday about the Throwback Night being organized at The Cove this weekend, the old abandoned theme park in Thunder Bay.
I knew they were interested in buying it. It was time.
“I want for us to get back to the plan,” I answered. “To run things.”
We wanted Thunder Bay, and not just a resort. We wanted everything. A whole seaside village as our little clubhouse.
But Kai just scoffed. “We were eighteen. With no clue of the money or connections it was going to take.”
“We have money.”
“No, Rika has money,” Kai shot back. “We have our parents.”
I inched forward. “I’ll control thirty-eight percent of the hotels on the eastern seaboard, twelve television stations, and enough land to start my own state if I want to.”
“When your father is dead,” Will pointed out.
Yeah. Which would happen sooner or later.
“You, Michael, and Kai can have the premier resort destination in three years right here in Thunder Bay,” I explained, “making it the new Hamptons and drawing the elite of America’s major cities.”
“We wouldn’t even be able to get permits,” Michael told me. “Your father and my father have had no trouble convincing the mayor that any jobs a resort will create isn’t worth the business it would take away from their real estate and hotels in the city.”
I cocked my head. “What mayor?”
The four of them stared at me, looking befuddled as they wrapped their heads around exactly what the hell I’d been doing all this time as Crane helped me gather information the past couple of months. Taking down Winter’s father wasn’t just to get Winter.