“It’s ours.”
“He knows that, and he wants us to sell.”
“No.”
Everett’s been a thorn in my side since day one. There’s nothing I want that he hasn’t wanted just as much. He turns every purchase, every business decision, into a pissing contest, and I’m so tired of it. The land in question looks like a setting out of a post-apocalyptic movie. After the accident, I told everyone to drop what they were doing and walk. No one, including me, has been on that construction site since the accident. It must be driving Everett stark-raving mad to see land he wanted sit there gathering snow.
“Then what are we going to do with it?”
“Nothing.”
The thought of stepping onto the property that almost took my life and did kill two of my men churns my stomach, the coffee sloshing around bitter and acrid. There will never come a day when I’ll want to clear it out, or worse yet, resume the project. The site can sit there until I die. I don’t care.
“Rick, you can’t leave it the way it is.”
The hell I can’t. “Why not?”
“First of all, it’s not safe. You don’t live here anymore, you don’t see the hazard it’s become. Kids exploring, homeless people looking for shelter. Someone else is going to get hurt if you don’t do something.”
“It’s supposed to be fenced in.” I ordered the site locked down, but because I was in the hospital at the time, half out of my mind in pain, the other half in shock because Renata didn’t have the decency to wait until I’d healed to walk out on me, I couldn’t see what type of fencing had been put up or how safe the area was. Beau had taken care of it, and that was good enough for me.
“Itisfenced in, but you know people. Determined punks with wire cutters, jackasses brave enough to jump the fence despite the barbed wire. Come on. You know this. Don’t play stupid because you don’t want to face up to what’s going on.”
“Is OSHA done? The inspections?”
“It’s been done for a long time. No fault.” His voice is quiet.
There is fault. There is blame. It was all my responsibility, and I dropped the ball.
“I’ll think about it.”
Beau sighs. “I guess that’s about as good as I’m going to get out of you, but Everett plays dirty, Rick. If he wants something, he won’t let up until he gets it or hurts people trying.”
“There’s nothing he can do to me.”
He scoffs, and he sounds mad. “Now you’re being obtuse. Maybe you think there’s nothing more he can do to you, but what about me? Renata. You may not love each other anymore, but I don’t think you want him targeting her. If you care about your employees as much as you say you do, then think about them. If you don’t want to do anything with that land, sell it. Doesn’t have to be to Everett. At the very least, let me clean it up. It’s a hazard.”
“Okay, okay, but there’s nothing we can do until April at the earliest, and that’s if we have a decent spring.”
“I’m glad you’re seeing it my way. Don’t sell it if you don’t want to. It’s prime land, and after the stink and the sting wears off, maybe you’ll decide to keep going. It was going to be a fabulous hotel, Rick.”
“And now it will be built on blood.”
“You don’t have to look at it that way.”
“No, I don’t, but I will.”
“Yeah, you will.” He agrees quickly because he knows me. This will haunt me for the rest of my life. “How are you feeling? Back still giving you trouble?”
“Yeah, some. I was in a tight spot, pardon the pun, yesterday, and Devyn was able to work it out. I would have needed the ambulance if she wouldn’t have been here, and God knows if they would have made it up the hill through the snow.”
“Devyn? You have a woman staying with you? How did that happen? You meet her in town? Is it the pretty woman from the bakery you told me about?”
“No. That’s Jessica, and she’s married. This one’s a reporter. She thought she could wrangle an interview out of me. I tried sending her back to town, but she sat outside crying, and you know how blizzards roll in. By the time I found her, there was no place she could go. She’s not so bad.”
“Devyn. A reporter. Why does that sound familiar?” Beau asks, then whistles. “You’re not talking about Devyn Scott, are you? Jesus, Rick. Throw her out of your house.”
I lean forward, his words jarring me. “Why? What has she done?”