Page 36 of By His Vow
“If this merger wasn’t happening, would Warner be in trouble?”
“It could be rescued with a little restructuring, but it wouldn’t be easy.”
“So when Richard read the will and explained that Dad was leaving me this,” Miles says, holding his arms from his sides, “he was basically fucking me in the ass just as hard as he is Tate.” He glances at me. “No offense,” he mutters.
“He was desperate,” Kian muses.
“Desperate to ruin our fucking lives. The only one that’s come out of this looking good is Mom. But then I guess she deserves that after putting up with him for so long.”
I swallow nervously, remembering what Kian told me last night.
“What he’s left her isn’t as healthy as you might believe.”
All the blood drains from Miles’s face.
“How do you know all this? We only discovered the merger yesterday.”
“I got access to the accounts the second I was told. I knew it was too big for there not to be something going on. And I was fucking right.”
“This is fucked up,” Miles mutters.
“You want to go day-drinking?” I offer, not knowing what else to suggest right now.
“Think I might have had too much last night. I woke up with this chick I have no fucking memory of,” he confesses.
“She was the server from Maxies,” I point out.
“How do you know that?”
“Because you were dry-humping her at the bar when I came to pick up my wife, seeing as you weren’t looking after her.”
His teeth grind. “Don’t call her that.”
“Oh, sorry. My fiancée.”
“Kingston,” he growls.
“What? Would you prefer me to refuse and leave her out on her ass?”
“I wouldn’t let that happen,” he argues. “Her position here is safe, and I wouldn’t take a cent away from her.”
“That’s not what she really wants though, is it?”
Tatum’s dream of moving to England to live in their late aunt’s cottage isn’t a secret.
She spent all her summers there as a kid while Miles and I were here, being forced to learn the family businesses.
I remember her constantly drawing and painting that little house. It was all she talked about.
It’s why I know that I’m not risking much by agreeing to this marriage.
She doesn’t want to be here. She doesn’t want this life.
Once our year is done, we’ll both be able to go our separate ways.
She’ll get what she wants, and in turn, so will I.
Merging Callahan and Warner has been something Miles and I have talked about all our lives. Working side by side, being CEOs of our own empire, outdoing our fathers, and being the number one hospitality and tourism corporation in the country, has been our dream.