Page 58 of The Southern Thirst Trap

They’ll never understand unless I lay it all out for them. This is the start of the changes I have to make to ensure that Harlowe gets the very best of me, not what’s left over. I need to lay bare the ugly parts of myself to my brothers so I can be the father Hendricks needs, not just an accidental sperm donor who misses out on my child’s entire life, all because I’ve put business first.

“I should’ve changed five years ago when I fell in love with her the first time. I fucked it up. I missed out on keeping the best thing to ever happen to me. I missed watching her carry our child and getting to know my kid.” My voice cracks with emotion and I run my hands through my hair as I turn pleading eyes on Hayes. “I fucking envy what you get to have now. You get to experience your wife carrying your baby, watching her grow, feeling that protectiveness, knowing you made something with her while I was empty, heartless. The woman I loved was alone and scared, doing it all by herself because I was selfish and cruel. I lost out onthat.”

Hayes’s face softens as it always does when he thinks about Paige. “Okay, I get it. But we still have Kanisarek to deal with. We needed you available to work on the deal last night.”

I point a finger at him, anger fueling me now that appealing to his new, softer side has failed. “And Harlowe needed me celebrating her accomplishments. Some things will be changing, starting now. Harlowe will be my first priority. If she says jump, I’m asking how high. She tells me to leave work, I'm out the door. She wants something, she gets it. If a deal is on the line and Harlowe needs me, I’m going to her. That’s going to be my new normal, and we’re going to have to figure it out. I’ll get this deal settled today and we won’t have to bend an inch. I told you they would come crawling back, and they did. Just trust me to make this happen, but know going forward that when I leave work for the evening, I’m going home to my kid and the woman I love, and I don't want to hear shit about work, got it?”

Payton starts clapping slowly, a big ass grin on his face. “Bravo, Zand. I thought Hayes would be the one to renounce his workaholic ways for his wife and kid first, but you beating him to it is really something. Seriously, I didn’t see this coming with your fuckboy ways and all. It's going to take me a while to wrap my head around the idea of you as a family man and in a committed relationship.”

Hayes shakes his head slowly, like he doesn't know what to make of me, but finally, he nods once with a look of respect. “I guess we could all use a little more of those changes. Now, make the Kanisarek deal happen, and don’t make me write any more zeros on those checks than I have to.”

That’s as good of an acceptance as I’ll get from them, and I take it. For us, it’s as good as gold and a promise they will respect my new boundaries, even if they don’t understand how I got to this point so quickly. I keep my face neutral, but I feel a fierce pride and warmth toward my brothers in this moment for their approval, begrudging or not. I nod back and that’s the end of it.

“Call in the team and get Kanisarek on the line. We’ll start by offering less. Remember, they walked away from the table first. It’s good we made them wait overnight. If they want our original offer, they’re throwing in their subsidiaries, too. We’ll get their electronics capabilities, which is our end-game, anyway.”

“They never had that on the table. We know they were intentionally splitting heavy manufacturing from electronics to make this deal,” Payton says, fingers tapping swiftly on his phone, sending out messages to the team.

“If we want to get Pegasus off the ground, this is the only way. We can have manufacturing up and running within the week and at scale with their capabilities. That’s even faster than the Rosenthall deal would have been, and only because of the electronics. We targeted them due to the subsidiaries and this possibility.” I level my brothers with my most confident glare.

“This is going to cost us. There is no way they are throwing in another portion of their business without getting more from us.” Hayes cracks his knuckles and looks lethal. So much for our brotherly bonding over our expanding families.

“I said trust me, Hater. They’ve played into our hands exactly as I told you they would, haven’t they? I can see the bigger picture. Dream with me, here.”

“Well, you did it, and I’m still not sure how they left with smiles on their faces despite losing their fucking asses,” Payton says, leaning back in his chair after the Kanisarek group has left the conference room following hours-long negotiations. “Normally that kind of deal would result in the kind of mine collapse and cyber attack-style retribution we’ve seen from Rex’s friends.”

“It wasn’t a hostile takeover and we’re not scrapping the whole outfit. They got a more than fair price, and we got what we wanted. I’d call that a decent deal,” I respond, rubbing my temples with my thumb and forefinger. I’m ready to see Harlowe, to decide where we’re sleeping tonight, to start planning for our future.

“And you got them to take the original offer, no extra zeros. I’m impressed, and our bottom line thanks you. Maybe Harlowe is our golden good luck charm if you getting to fuck her again had you feeling that confident and charismatic in there today to win them over so completely.” Hayes claps me on the shoulder as he stands, ready to leave the conference room.

“You’re only saying nice things because your finance department didn’t have to bend over and take it up the ass to make the deal happen after all,” I say with a smirk. He pushes my shoulder roughly.

“Shithead,” he grumbles as he turns and heads for his office to finish the day on whatever numbers call to him. I push out of my seat, intent on finishing up early, if possible. I want to see Hendricks when he gets home from school. I have some ideas for a new track to build for his cars.

“I wouldn’t start celebrating too fast,” Payton says ominously, halting our steps before we can leave the conference room and sending a feeling of dread into the pit of my stomach with the pinched expression on his face. “Looks like our competition is finally revealing itself. Something looking a fuck ton like the Pegasus engine was just announced by Nephele Industries as the latest clean energy jet engine slated for production early this year. Patent pending.” He looks up and meets my eyes.

Shit. “The next fucking words out of your mouth better be that legal worked through whatever hurdles they needed to and had this handled so it’s a non-issue,” I say slowly, knowing in my gut I’m not going to like the answer.

Payton shares a look with Hayes, who is frozen in place next to me, nearly vibrating in anger, then back to me. “The research and development team couldn’t get enough changed from the proprietary information that was stolen in the breach.Youdidn’t want us to patent something that is in the hands of who the fuck knows and is being developed as we speak.”

I lean down and grip the edge of the conference room table until my knuckles whiten, working to keep my breathing even as my heart beats erratically in my chest. “Obviously Nephele Industries thought it was fucking worth patenting the stolen plans. Why didn’t we fucking patent it immediately, so at least we could have been working on an alternative in the meantime while the patent was pending on the original?” My words are clipped, cold, but my blood is boiling with the rage that’s surging in me.

I straighten and pace along the bank of windows down the length of the conference room. I feel like putting my fist through each pane of glass, reaching into the gray day outside, and screaming my frustration into the clouds. Instead, I just glare at the rain that has lingered after the storm that screamed with Harlowe last night. I stop my pacing, pushing my hands into my hair the way she did, and try to focus on her. She deserves the best of me, not this hotheaded, angry maelstrom intent on blaming others. It takes a few minutes until my breathing is under control enough to face my brothers again and not want to take a swing at them both. I turn and approach a wary Payton. Hayes remains silent but looks prepared to throttle me if I make a move to get physical.

“Let’s get the team on this now. Have legal pull that patent and scour it top to bottom to see if there are any changes from Pegasus. If there are, we file our own patent. We’ll keep working to make the changes we need to in the meantime and once we have a viable option, we take that to the patent stage. I should have made the call to begin with, and it’s my fault we’re in this position now.”

Payton whistles. “What did getting that pussy back do to you last night? First, you’re setting new rules for your work-life balance, and now, you’re accepting blame for a fuck up?”

“No fucking kidding. She fucked the stupid right out of him. He could be turning into a… a decent human being now,” Hayes says, tilting his head and studying me.

“She’d have your balls for saying that. She doesn’t want me decent, she likes me depraved,” I shoot back, feeling a bit of humor flicker to life again. “Now stop messing around. I only have a few hours before I need to see my family. Let’s make the most of them.”

thirty-four

Harlowe

“Ineeddetails,allof them. From the minute you left the restaurant. Tell me now or I’ll keep this coffee to myself, and you look like you need it more than I do.” Paloma holds the large iced coffee hostage as I slide into the table she and Callie are already occupying at our favorite café, a super cute Tiffany blue, unicorn-themed place, exploding with flowers.

“She needs details, but I need to be caught up. Paloma won’t tell me anything other than Zander and that guy who hit your car showed up at the restaurant last night and you left with Zander. It’s not fair that I miss everything because Myles had an event and I couldn’t celebrate with you,” Callie says, big blue eyes turned toward me as she pouts. “Congratulations on the bestselling book! I’m so proud of you, babe! I got you a cupcake.” She slides a chocolate peanut butter cupcake, my favorite, toward me and reaches over to hug my shoulders.

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