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“Superbike team. It’s smart business having a foot on both sides of the track. The numbers are there, Riot. We don’t see an issue with starting up this venture. If you say yes, you’ll be a busy man for now on.”

“What’s the catch?”

“No catch. We want to start a company called CW enterprises after Cypress. We would build the company with small companies trying to make it in the racing industry. Bring in all the essentials under one roof. Each division would be its own independent company with different majority stockholders. Each division can buy in or invest in the others, with all the money staying within the one corporation.”

“It’s a smart business move. If we do this, we all need to be ready for the fallout. Laurel will lose her ever-lovin’ shit when we go public with CW Enterprises.”

“She doesn’t own the rights to Cypress’s name.”

“Why now? Why not seven years ago?”

“You. We were waiting on you, brother.”

“I don’t understand.”

“This was a business idea Cypress had for all of us. He had talked to Jason about it months before the race. We just sat on it until you called and talked about the possibility of developing a new team.”

“Who are we looking at as far as riders?”

“River Wile lost her sponsor.”

“She has her pro license?”

“That’s a yes, I checked on it personally.”

“I’d like to talk to Archer Morgan.”

“Laurel has her hands on his dick right now. The kid doesn’t know what the fuck’s happening around him.”

“Can we shake her loose?”

“Not likely.”

“She’s probably holding something over his head, like she’s done the rest of us.”

“Not much longer.”

“So, D and T and the new team would fall under CW Enterprises?”

“Yes, we will keep them under the same umbrella.”

“Are you both sure you can trust me? Do you trust me?”

“No and we are working on it. How’s that for honesty?”

“I’ll take honesty.”

***

Thinking back on that meeting, he remembered how nervous he had been and when they hashed out all the hurt and reasons for mistrust. They soon realized both sides had been manipulated much further than any of them realized. Laurel Canyon was a mega bitch.

The startup of his new business venture had Riot needing to get his ass into high gear. If he wanted River to take him seriously, he needed to prove to her she could put her faith in him. He wanted a meeting with her. Dialing up Michael and Jason, he explained he would be pushing for River to meet with them. “I will call you when I have it lined up.”

Michael thought Riot sounded rough.Lord help them if last night went south and he hit the bottle again.“Sure, brother. You name the place and time. Remember the third time is either shit or get off the pot.”

“I’m ironing that out. Give me a couple days.” He ignored the later end of Michael’s comment.

“We’ll be waiting on the call.”

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