Page 94 of Unwillingly His

“Because Stella is in there planning the party of the century, and when she is done, I am taking her to lunch,” I answered, leaning on my car, enjoying the warm sun on my skin.

I rarely got time to enjoy the outdoors during the week. The only time I got any sun was when I was on the field with my team, running drills or playing polo matches.

“Okay, but why am I here? What did you need to talk about in person? I don’t know if you realize, but I am a busy man.”

I chuckled at his arrogance. Like father, like son.

He was a busy man, and I had raised him well.

When I was ready—and not a moment before—he would take my seat at the table and be a formidable boss. But my god could he be self-righteous, and I knew the conversation we were about to have was only going to make it worse.

“Because I wanted to talk to you somewhere I knew for a fact wasn’t bugged.”

“You think your office is bugged?”

“A man in my position has many enemies who would love to sneak something into my office, and since your mother-in-law managed to sneak in without me there, who knows who else could do it.” I shrugged.

“What does Mary Quinn want now?” His head went back like he was already frustrated and done with the shrew. I could relate.

“Nothing of importance.” I waved it off. “But she isn’t why we are here. I wanted to talk to you about the measures that need to be taken to keep everyone safe as we completely sever the company’s ties with the O’Murphys.”

“I thought I already had.” He clenched his fists by his side, as his jaw ticked.

My son was a brilliant businessman, but he needed to work on his poker face.

“Some things have recently come to light, and I am inclined to agree with you that it may be best to sever ties with the Irish mob entirely. But doing that does put us at considerable risk. Your mother-in-law also made some thinly-veiled threats against Stella.”

“Would she follow through with them?”

“She followed through with the threats against Harrison’s wife,” I pointed out.

“True, but that’s because she didn’t think Edwina was good enough for Harrison. She was trying to force his hand.”

“I may have insulted Mary Quinn to her face. I may have implied that she could learn from Stella’s intelligence, humility, and grace.”

“Oh, yeah, she’s absolutely capable of going after Stella.” Luc rubbed his hands over his face as he figured out what I had already known.

His mother-in-law was a problem we could no longer ignore.

She had already used my connections to do her bidding once, and cutting off the O’Murphys may make them more inclined to work for her.

“Exactly. The one thing we should never do is underestimate that woman’s need for petty revenge.”

Luc nodded in agreement. “When are you severing the ties?”

“Immediately. I caught one of the men Ronan had working for us bad-mouthing Stella and making accusations, and I didn’t take it well. I fired him on the spot, and I may have told him to tell Ronan to go fuck himself. That he would no longer be using our distilleries, our charitable foundation, or anything else to launder money or whatever else he was using our empty warehouses for.”

“Whatever else… you don’t even know what they have been doing on our property?”

“My property. It isn’t yours yet. And no, I preferred having plausible deniability.”

Luc gave me a look that made me think he saw through my bullshit, but unlike my son, I had a good poker face. I was not about to admit that it had all gotten out of hand.

“All because some douchebag insulted Stella?” Luc crossed his arms over his chest while leaning back on the car door. “That was unusually rash of you. How long?”

“How long what?”

“How long until you announce the engagement?”

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