Cat Schield - A Merger By Marriage

“Thanks for coming to the memorial service this morning,” Violet said. “I know you and Tiberius weren’t close, but lately he’d talked a lot about how he regretted all the years he kept you out of his life and how he wished he’d gotten to know you.”

Regret tightened in his chest. “I had no idea Tiberius felt that way.” JT sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

When he’d arrived in Las Vegas to run the local family operations, his opinion of his uncle had been formed by what he knew about Tiberius from his father and grandfather. Although relations between him and his uncle stayed tense for many years, after seeing how much Violet admired Tiberius, plus all the positive things said about his uncle by other Las Vegas businessmen, JT had begun to suspect that if Tiberius had done what his father had accused him of, there’d been a good reason.

“When it came to your family, he could be hard-headed,” Violet said with a faint smile. “And he really hated your dad.”

“The feeling was definitely mutual.”

Violet remained lost in thought for a moment. “Lately he’d mentioned quite a few times that he thought you’d do a terrific job running Stone Properties.”

The compliment landed a direct hit in his gut. He wished he’d had a chance to get to know his uncle the way Violet did. Now it was too late. “I’m leaving the company.”

JT heard himself say the words and wondered at his impromptu disclosure. He hadn’t divulged his inner thoughts to anyone. Not even his cousin, Brent, and they were as close as brothers. JT peered into his drink. Had Rick infused some sort of truth serum into the cocktail? JT set the glass down. When he looked up, he caught Violet staring at him in surprise.

“Why would you do that?”

“When I turned thirty two months ago, I gained control of my trust fund and the thirty percent of Stone Properties shares my mother left to me when she died. This enabled me to dig into the finances and see what my father has been doing lately.”

“And?”

“The properties are overleveraged. My father’s been borrowing too much trying to expand and with each property that gets built, our resources are stretched closer to their breaking point.” In his gut was a ball of frustration that had been growing steadily these last sixty days.

“I had no idea.” Sympathy made her voice soft. She felt sorry for him and he hated it. “Have you shared your concerns with your father?”

It wasn’t like him to disclose his difficulties to anyone, least of all someone as tightly connected to the competition as Violet. But then, she wasn’t just anyone. She was special. Through her he was linked to a part of his family he’d never known and just being around her made him feel less alone.

JT picked up his drink once more. “He won’t listen and since he controls the majority of the shares, I don’t have leverage to affect current policy.”

“If you leave Stone Properties, what are you planning to do?”

He’d never been one to show his cards, but Violet’s attentiveness made her easy to confide in. She acted as if she had all the time in the world to listen to what ailed him and offer sensible feedback. He’d be a fool not to listen to her opinion as a businesswoman. But it was her friendship he craved. And if he was honest with himself, her body he longed to devour.

“I’ve been cultivating some investors,” he said. “I’m going out on my own. My uncle didn’t need the family business to be successful and neither do I.”

“Are you sure that’s the best idea? Tiberius let your father drive him out of the business and never stopped regretting it.”

“No one drove him out,” JT corrected her. “Tiberius was caught stealing from the company and was fired.”

Her disappointment in him was like clouds passing in front of the sun. “He was framed.” She truly believed that. “By your father.”

JT sat perfectly still beneath the weight of her accusation while his thought raced. A normal person would rush to defend their father against such slander, but JT had seen the company’s financials for himself and knew his father was not telling the stockholders everything. That made him a liar in JT’s books. Nor would he ever champion his father after the way Preston had treated JT’s mother.

But he wasn’t ready to jump on the bash-Preston bandwagon either. As conflicted as JT was about his father, he put a high value on loyalty.

“If that’s true,” he said, his tone neutral, “all the more reason to break with the company and my father.”

Determination flared in her eyes. “Or you could stay and fight for what’s yours.”

While JT appreciated her spirited defense of his inheritance, he’d been contemplating the wisdom of staying with Stone Properties for a couple years. It was worse now that he had seen the company’s financials.

“I hate being powerless to stop him from taking apart all that my grandfather built.”

“I can understand that.” Without warning her gaze sharpened. “These plans of yours, do they mean you’re leaving Las Vegas?”

Was she hoping he wouldn’t? The thought of not seeing her every day made him grim. Did it bother her as well?

JT searched her eyes for answers, but saw only curiosity. With Violet, what you saw was what you got. Her openness fascinated him. She never seemed to worry about guarding herself against hurt or disappointment.

It was a major factor in why he’d never pursued her.

Not long after he’d arrived in Las Vegas, he’d run into his uncle and Violet at a charity event. Despite his instant attraction to the twenty-three-year-old, he knew better than to act on his interest. The bad blood between her adopted father and his biological one was a significant barrier. So was JT’s playboy lifestyle.

Before he’d moved to Las Vegas, JT had made quite a name for himself in Miami’s social scene. Going at life at a reckless pace whether it was fast boats, expensive cars or unavailable women, he hadn’t cared whom he hurt as long as he displeased his father.

He liked Violet too much to subject her to his unhealthy family dynamic. Besides, she wasn’t a good choice for him. Unlike the women he usually pursued, she would expect things from him. Things he couldn’t give her. Openness. Joy. Trust. In order to be with her he’d have to surrender the defenses that muffled his emotions and protected him from pain and disillusionment. She’d lure him out of his comfortable dark cave and require him to find happiness. How was he supposed to do that when his childhood hadn’t given him the tools?

His father believed anything that got in the way of business was bad. As a kid, JT had had that philosophy hammered into his head. His mother had been weakened by her hunger for love. Being ignored by the domineering husband she adored had made her life hell, and she’d started retreating into drugs and alcohol around the time that Tiberius left town. By the time he turned twelve, JT was used to being ignored by his parents, forgotten by his grandfather and alienated from his uncle. Nor was there any family on his father’s side. The only person who’d showed any interest in him was his grandmother and she split her time between Miami, Virginia and Kentucky.

Traditional family. Love. JT had never grown up with these things.

Being around Violet gave him a glimpse of what a normal personal life could be. The love she had for her sisters, her mother and Tiberius made him long to be included in her circle. But he couldn’t take the steps needed to put himself there. Nor could he leave well enough alone either. The need to connect remained. A tantalizing temptation. One of his deep, dark secrets.

So he visited Fontaine Chic night after night and sat in the bar. He craved a relationship with Violet, but had no idea how to go about having one. In casino terms, he was betting the minimum. He’d never win big, but he wasn’t going to lose everything either. Playing without risk was not how he lived. He got a rush from flinging his body into danger, but gambling with his heart was something else entirely.