Page 33 of His Willing Wife

As for Uncle Ed, he hadn’t taken the deaththreats he’d been sent seriously. The man had absolutely nothing, so he figured histhreats were empty.

“I bet you never saw this coming,” Uncle Edsaid. “Throw the phone on the floor. Go on, do it.”

Luca had to think of Tillie. He’d notgotten the call to the police, and he needed to keep the man distracted, so he threw thephone down on the floor.

“That’s good. Now thepoker. Get it out of theway.”

The poker joined the phone.

“Good, good. Now, fire up your computer,”Uncle Ed said.

This did make him pause, but Uncle Ed justjerked the gun from left to right. “Do you want me to use it? Endthe happy life you’ve built for yourself, using my family!” Thelast was said on a snarl.

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing,Ed, but this is not the answer.”

“You’re going to give me what is rightfully mine. That companyis half mine. You’re going to transfer a hundred million straightto me, and then we’re going to put all of this unpleasantnessbehind us.”

“A hundred million?”

“Yes, half of what the company was worth.Half of it is mine. I’monly getting what I’m entitled to.”

There was a time when the GoodwinEmpire was worth three times,if not ten times that value, but over the years it had diminished,and Luca hadn’t even paid a hundred to acquire it. They’d been sodesperate for a buyout in the hope of saving jobs, he’d gotten itat a bargain price.

“You helped ruin the company,” Lucasaid.

“Shut your fucking mouth and do as you’retold, or do you want to die? Is that it? You want to die, and do you think I won’t goup there and kill my niece?” Ed asked.

“You’ll leave her out of this.”

Ed started to laugh. “You don’t like that,do you? Well, then, let’s make it two hundred million. I’m due whatis rightfully mine, and you’re not going to take it away from me.If you do, I’ll killher. I’ll kill you both.”

Luca started up his computer and hated thefact it worked fast. Ed had stepped further into the room.

“Why did you try to ruin your brother’scompany?”

“It’s half mine!”

“Your father gave it to Andrew. The companywas in your brother’s name. He inherited it.”

Ed had gotten monetary inheritance, ofwhich Andrew had told him he’d spent in less than six months. Edwas a spender, but he’d not been much of a worker. He liked thebenefits of the money, but not putting in the hardwork to obtain it. According toAndrew, for a long time Ed had been under the belief that thereason they hired people was to make money for them, that theydidn’t need to do any of the hard work.

This is why Luca had also believed Edhadn’t been much of a threat. Now, he wished he’d taken the deaththreats more seriously. He couldn’t help but think about Tillie, upstairs in theirbed.

“Andrew was always Dad’s favorite. Healways got what he wanted, whereas I was the one always leftbehind. Andrew got everything on a plate, but I had to do everything. Go tocollege, study hard. Dad was such a fucking asshole, he hated thatI paid other kids to do the work for me. I couldn’t do that work,it was too fucking hard. All I needed were the grades on paper tomake me look good. I made sure they were well paid, compensated fortheir efforts. Transfer the money!”

“And you think you should be rewarded?” Lucaasked.

With every second that passed, he knew therewas not going to be a chance to reason with him.

“I deserve everything. I was making thatcompany shine.”

“You were driving it into the ground.Everything your father and grandfather worked toward was dying, andit was because of you.”

His hands shook. “I will kill you and thenwhat are you going to do?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tillie,but Ed didn’t. She had a vase in her hands, and she brought itright down on Ed’s head. Much to Luca’s surprise, Ed went downinstantly, and Tillie still held onto the vase.

Luca reacted, going toward Ed and takingthe gun away, stickingit in the back of his pajama pants. Then, he looked toward Tillie,who was shaking.

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