Chapter Five

Blake

“Hello again,” the cab driver greeted Blake as he climbed in. “Small island,” he added with a friendly chuckle as Blake blinked in surprise at the familiar face.

Blake laughed and settled into the seat, even as he realized that he didn’t know the name of the gorgeous woman he’d just set up a date with. “Apparently. Remember where I’m going?”

“West Side?”

“Please. The Magnolia development.” He leaned back in the seat and this time looked at the island as it slipped by the windows, full of palm trees, colorful flowers, and various large birds that he couldn’t identify, lazily meandering on an ocean breeze. “Not a bad place to call home, I guess?”

“There are worse,” the cabbie agreed. “Then again, I was born and raised here, so I’m biased. Only left for a few years when wanderlust hit and I wanted to see some big cities. Came back when I decided my big buildings needed to have some ocean waves in the background.”

Blake mulled over the idea of retirement, not because he had any intention of doing so in the next forty years, at least, but because he knew there was a thriving community of snowbirds here. They could potentially be Magnolia customers, if he ensured the resort catered to more than just tourists.

They turned a corner and the heart of the island fell away, so they were driving across a more natural landscape, framed by rolling dunes and seagrasses. It took longer than Blake had expected to get to the development, which raised concerns in his mind. He wanted the place to be exclusive, and somewhat set back from what was sort of Element Island’s Vegas-style “Strip,” but at the same time, it couldn’t be so far that people wouldn’t visit it.

“Here we are.”

Blake turned his gaze from the ocean, and stared at basically nothing. “What is this?”

“Magnolia development,” the cabbie replied, looking at him sympathetically as Blake stared at what was basically an empty lot. Hawk had been in charge of following up on the development …

“No fucking way,” Blake said in disbelief, as he climbed out of the cab, staring at the property, or lack thereof. This was a building that was supposed to be half complete. There was no possible way for him to micromanage every single aspect of Parker Industries, but how the fuck had this happened?!

“Want me to wait?” the cabbie offered, and Blake nodded, walking in somewhat of a daze toward a shack that looked like it might hold some possibilities. But when he got to it, he found the door locked.

Leaning his head back, Blake cursed a long blue streak before pulling out his phone. Cole answered on the third ring.

“Yo.”

“Did you know?”

“Huh?”

“Did you know?” Blake repeated, jaw so tense his teeth ached. “That there’d been almost no work at all done on the property.”

He could almost hear Cole wince down the line. “I had an idea. I mean, you put Hawk in charge.”

It was all Blake could do not to hurl the phone into the nearest sand dune. “What the fuck does that mean? I can’t be everywhere and do everything! Goddammit, Cole. If you and Hawk want out so badly, then get out. I can’t keep doing this shit. I can’t!”

He sagged against a lonely, wind-battered palm tree, so angry that he was almost shaking. “You realize that we can’t take another financial hit. If this property tanks, we’re done. And while you and Hawk may have other lives to run off to, I don’t. This is it, Cole. This is my whole fucking life you’re pissing all over. There’s nothing built. Nothing!”

He dropped the phone and cursed and cursed and cursed some more before finally retrieving the device.

“Got it out of your system now?” Cole inquired, his mellow tone almost enough to set Blake off again. “I messed up. You asked me to watch Hawk, and I got distracted by my new wife. I own that. But this doesn’t have to be as bad as you’re thinking, Blake. You and I both agreed that we should’ve done way more research into the property before deciding to build. If Hawk hadn’t been up to his ears in his mess, we probably would’ve been more diligent. This is a chance to do things right. We weren’t planning on opening till next year anyway. If you straighten things out, there’s a chance we still might, without losing revenue.”

“I’m not God,” Blake said bitterly. “If I were, maybe you might occasionally listen to me.” It wasn’t a fair assessment, because Cole had invested plenty of his own sweat in the company, even if he wasn’t nearly as invested as Blake in it. Nevertheless, the realization that both his brothers had very nearly torpedoed the family business—again—left a foul taste in his mouth.

“Stay down there as long as you need to, to make sure things get really underway,” Cole said. “I’ll take care of things over here. I swear I will. Yeah, Dana might be pregnant, but it’s not like she needs me at her side 24/7. I’ve got this end, Blake. I’ll follow up on all the other properties. You just focus on the island. You’ve been split in so many different directions lately, it might even be good for you.”

“Good for me,” Blake repeated wearily, staring blankly at a whole lot of nothing beside some half-assed rebar seemingly just stuck randomly in the ground. “Yeah. This is just great for me. The vacation I’ve always needed.” He ended the call without saying goodbye and slowly made his way back to the cabbie.