Page 10 of Lush

“You are here to remind this town why the Kings are indispensable. We made this fucking town, and our mayor, Dante is forgetting it. People are now threatening that.”

“How is our power being threatened?”

“He’s bringing in outsiders, cutting us out of deals, making the economy less family-dominated. He and others are trying to erase the past. Eraseus. I will not let that happen. Augustus King’s legacy will remain intact.”

“And why would they trustme?”

She smirked, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You’re mydaughter.That still carries weight. Serena doesn’t have the same…charm as you do to help me with this. It requires finesse.”

“What do I get out of helping you?”

Mama’s smirk deepened. “The money your grandfather left. It’s all yours once you’ve proven you can still deliver.”

I stiffened. When I left, Mama all but scrubbed me from the family’s websites, boards, and social connections. The money I had saved wasn’t a fraction that was left in my trust.

That money could fix everything for me. It could finally get me the gallery I’d been saving and working for.

“Deliver what?”

“I need you to get close to Dante. Make him trust you. Find out who he’s working with, what he’s planning—where he’svulnerable,” she said simply. “I taught you to be the best, and only you can do this for me, Laurene.”

She paced in front of me.

“He won’t talk to me. I need to stay ahead of Dante. So, our only option is the Ashbournes,” Mama said sullenly, as if the words themselves left a bad taste in her mouth.

I stared at her. “The Ashbournes? You’re telling me we need to team up with them? Again?” I scoffed. “You’ve hated them for decades.”

She didn’t flinch. “I hate them, but right now, they’re the only ones who can help us. Dante’s carving up our territory—securing votes, locking in contracts, flipping our allies. The Ashbournes have connections we don’t. Leverage we need.”

“We’ve got to cozy up to the Ashbournes to fend off Dante?”

Mama waved her hand dismissively. “Harold Ashbourne’s old, but he’s not blind. He sees the writing on the wall.”

My chest tightened. “The Ashbournes, the very people who’d love to see us fall. What’s next, you want to make a deal with the devil himself?”

She shot me a cold glance, her lips curling into a tight smile. “Sometimes, Laurene, you’ve got to make the devil your ally. Harold’s greed makes him territorial, but even he knows this is no longer a one-family game. If we fall, they fall next.”

“Desperation doesn’t look good on you, Mama.”

What the hell had happened to Lush?

“Why can’t Serena help you with this takeover plan? Are you—” Realization hit me. “You’re asking me to?—”

“You will honor the arrangement with Conrad.”

Ice ran through my body. “He’sdead.”

“Yes,” she said, “but the contract still stands.”

“Who am I marrying?” I said slowly, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.Please, please no.

“You’ll marry the brother.”

The brother.

The man I once loved, the man I trusted, the man who wasnow my enemy. And she expected me to walk down the aisle with him?

“I can’t marry him. You can’t ask me to do this. Not with him. Not now. Not ever.”

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