Page 123 of Pack Rivals: Part Two
It could make us billionaires.
This is our future.
But do we have a future without Bea?
I don’t think we do.
Axel is quiet for a moment, then he says simply, “We’ll cancel the development.”
I stare at him, relief flooding my body. I glance to Angel who nods in agreement.
“He’s right,” Nate agrees, “our little bird doesn’t want it, we won’t do it.”
“We can’t just make that decision off the cuff,” I say cautiously. “We’ll have to discuss it with the boards and–”
“Fuck the boards,” Nate snaps.
“Yeah,” Axel agrees, “fuck the boards.”
“You’re serious?” I ask. Axel is a well-oiled businessman. Sure, he’s had his fun over the years but most things he does, he does with calculation and consideration. ‘Fuck the boards’ is not something I’d ever thought I’d hear him say.
“You know me well enough by now to know that I am.”
“If the development will make Bea unhappy,” Angel says, “then we’re canceling it.”
“It will cost both businesses money,” I remind them, “a lot of money.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Angel says, stroking his hands through his beard.
The door to the cabin opens and we watch Silver emerge alone. His hair’s all ruffled out of its usually neat arrangement and his shirt is creased too but the look on his face is one of a man who died and went to heaven.
“She’s asleep,” he tells us as he pads barefoot to join us. “But still fucking needy.”
“Shit.” Hardy whistles with a grin.
I shake that thought from my mind, focusing back in on the important matter we were discussing.
“We’re killing the North Beach development,” I tell Silver. “It’s what Bea wants.”
“Why would Bea want that?” Silver says confused, before the cogs turn in his head and it all makes sense. “The beach.”
“Yeah,” Axel says, “the beach.”
“She wants the beach to stay as it is,” Silver says and we all nod. “Does she know?”
“What do you think?” Hardy says.
“She won’t want us to develop it, and that’s fine. We’ll sell it. We’re not going to be responsible for making her unhappy ever again,” Angel says.
“If we sell it,” I say, “then there’ll just be some other fucker who comes along and develops the land. Everybody has been trying to buy up that land for decades.”
“They should never have given us permission to develop it in the first place,” Nate says. “Did you know that turtles lay their eggs on that part of the beach? And it’s a home to a rare kind of crab too?”
I assume Bea’s been chewing his ear off. We really should have seen this coming.
Axel rubs his hand over his chin. Angel peers down at the ground.
The combined land our packs own down there by North Beach cost us millions. As did all the lawyers, architects and planners we’ve contracted over the years. Not to mention the team down there now doing preliminary works.
