Page 33 of Love and Loathing

Brown grinned. “That’s my fault. Collins started this firm and brought me on about fifteen years ago. Liam here just moved back to town from Philadelphia, and we haven’t changed it yet.”

“I think we should leave it,” Nicholls said with a smirk.

“Well, should we get to it?” Brown asked. He pulled out theHarvest Ranch Timesand opened it with a loud shake.

Charlie let out a whimper.

Brown laid the paper on the floor.

On the cover was a full expose of Young and Beaumont Real Estate, their negotiations with Steve and Kevin, including quotes from both men saying how excited they were to get started, and pictures of the blueprints they’d sent Alex and Charlie. And because the reporter, McGee, was a good reporter, he’d done his due diligence and had contacted Dave Daley, and he had tried to contact Alex and Charlie. Dave had refused an interview, but he’d told Alex McGee had contacted him. Alex had avoided reporters after that, because he was sure the interview had more to do with who he was than the project. He wasn’t sure how Charlie missed him. And McGee had offered them a chance for a rebuttal in the article as well, though at this point, Alex wasn’t sure how helpful that would be.

Alex just wondered why it’d taken Jacob so long to out them if he’d had these all along. And he must have had them since they day they arrived, because Alex had removed them from the construction site trailer that night and put them in the villa, and Jacob hadn’t gotten in the villa.

“So, first things first,” Nicholls said, “is this true?”

“McGee got the facts correct with the part of the story he had,” Alex confirmed.

Brown leaned his elbows on his knees. “Why didn’t you talk to McGee?”

“We thought he was more interested in Alex’s filmography than the actual development,” Charlie said. “We tend to avoid reporters because of that. It’s worked well for us until now.” He ran his fingers through his hair.

“I see,” Brown said.

“Are you okay?” Nicholls asked Charlie.

Charlie’s leg kept bouncing. “I’ve been better.”

Alex sighed. “His girlfriend called him after reading this.” It hadn’t been pretty. There’d been a lot of crying, onbothsides …

“Ah,” both Brown and Nicholls said at the same time. And that right there was a pretty accurate summation of how the town had reacted as a whole. Talk about ugly.

“Can you tell us the real story?” Brown asked.

“Kevin and Steve are ideal investors, or at least they were. They told us months ago they wanted to expand, but we shut it down,” Alex explained. “About a month ago, they sent us these blueprints they’d had mocked up, and they told us they’d only work with us if we agreed to put in one hundred homes. I talked to them that night and negotiated down to fifty, but I had the distinct impression fifty is what they’d wanted all along—so I’ve been putting them off while Charlie and I have been exploring other options. We understand that a project even a fourth that size would not be good for the town, and that’s not what we want.”

“So you’re not keeping these partners?” Liam asked.

“I don’t want to,” Alex said. “Charlie’s not so sure.”

Charlie sat forward. “There’s no guarantee we’ll be able to do our eight-house development if we drop them. And if we work with them, we have some control over their movement. If we leave them, I don’t see what would stop them from purchasing the land unilaterally and going ahead as planned.”

“Which is why you’re here,” Brown said.

“We understand that you handle all the empty property negotiations along the river?” Alex asked.

“Yes, the man who owns the land put us in charge of his estate, which includes most of the land along the river,” Brown said.

“Who owns the land?” Alex asked.

“That’s confidential.” Brown grinned.

Alex fidgeted in his seat. “If Steve Howard and Kevin Lance made him an offer, would he take it?”

Liam and Brown glanced at one another; then Brown spoke. “If they made him an offer he liked, he probably would.”

Liam grabbed a Post-it from the desk behind him and jotted a note down.

“And what offer would he like?” Alex asked.

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