Series: Webs We Weave Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 162520 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 813(@200wpm)___ 650(@250wpm)___ 542(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162520 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 813(@200wpm)___ 650(@250wpm)___ 542(@300wpm)
We aren’t in a hurry to leave. It’s not close to midnight yet.
Resting my forearms on the metal railing of his catamaran, I loosely grip a beer bottle as the sun starts to set over the water. No, at the beginning of everything, I did not think I’d be here—willingly having a beer on Jake’s boat, without any plot or scheme, like he’s become my best friend (whatever that means).
Then again, I would’ve never believed I was born in this town.
My home. Ripped away as a baby.
Standing beside Jake, a beloved figure of Victoria, a guy I could’ve grown up with in another lifetime, I feel more like Brayden Wolfe—the son and the brother who came back for his family. Who got justice for the ruthlessness they met.
I stare out, not just at the water or the sinking sun. From Jake’s slip in the marina, he has a perfect view of Stonehaven. The mansion on a lone island.
Jake places his arms on the railing beside me, pinching the neck of a Koning Lite. “What are you going to do with it?”
“I have some ideas.” I lift my beer to my lips. “I’m definitely not living there.”
“The boat ride,” he guesses. “Too far out.”
I swallow beer. “It’s haunted.”
Jake gauges my seriousness, then laughs hard. “Oh, man, of all the things you’ve encountered in your life, you choose to be afraid of the make-believe.”
“Bad luck is so far out of my control,” I say honestly. “And so are ghosts.”
His laugh sounds light. Free. He’s dropped 180 pounds of burden with Trent gone. It’s been two weeks of peace without that fuckbag, and I can’t wait to keep counting. The calm, though, is strange for me.
I swallow more beer.
Jake rotates his bottle in his hand. The label facing him. “I’m thinking of selling it.”
My brows jump. “The family business?” I let out a long whistle. “The end of the Koning dynasty.”
It’s why Trent would’ve never sold the company outright and freed himself from the headache. Not only has this been in Jake’s family for generations, but it’s one of the oldest, most recognizable beer companies in America.
It’s prestigious and known as a family company. To sell to a corporation will be seen as a betrayal to the Koning name and its values. But something tells me Jake has never upheld the same values as his family anyway.
“I never saw myself handling any aspect of the company,” Jake says. “And I want to make sure I’m there for Hailey and our daughter, not pulled to board meetings and on the phone 24/7.”
I read him. “You were always going to sell it,” I say, realizing that now. “You were never going to run the company.”
He raises the beer to his mouth. “I’ve already made calls. I think I can get at least fifty billion for it.”
Holy shit. A deep laugh rumbles out of me. “You trying to rival me as the richest man in Victoria, Jake?”
“I think I’d have to sell another company for that.”
“True.”
There was no long discussion about who the Wolfe fortune would go to when Hailey would be overridden. They all agreed, before I even said a word, that it deserved to be with the real last remaining heir.
“It was always meant to be Rocky’s,” my sister said.
I wanted it to be theirs, too. Everyone is set. I have properties to give and so much money to divide between us, it’s mind-blowing.
Since they know I’m loaded, I was flabbergasted the godmothers and godfather never asked for a penny. They only requested the money for the Koning job that was promised at the start. One million each from Jake, and they were gone.
All this time, I’d believed the worst in them, and I don’t know—some days, I start to believe the worst was the man they were running from. Maybe they really weren’t manipulative at all. Then I remember the mindfuck Everett put me through when it came to Phoebe, and I return to hating them.
After a long swig, I say, “The loft above the bookstore.”
“What about it?”
“I want to buy it from you.”
He begins to smile. “You’re going to live there with Phoebe?”
“We’ll probably renovate first.” Need to rip up some bloodied floorboards from when Trevor was stabbed. I think about my little brother. “I have a feeling Trev will stay with us until he can find an apartment on the street.” That’ll be interesting as fuck since Phoebe and he get along like a feral cat and a stray dog. I slide my fingers through my hair. “Sidney moved into your pool house?”
“Officially, yesterday.” She didn’t have the funds to cover rent at the Reynoldses’ boathouse on her own, so Jake is letting her stay for free. Always the hero.
I tip my beer to him. “Heard you lost two servers at the club, and you didn’t even need to fire them. They just walked out on you.”