Page 64 of Silos and Sabotage

“He’s my friend, and I’m well protected.” She didn’t see how he could argue about that.

He didn’t. At the next intersection, he made a U-turn and set their course for the medical center.

Chapter 12: Less Lonely at the Top

Avery felt like weeping as Ella was led away by her faithful hounds. Even though she was getting big pieces of her daughter back, there were times she felt she was losing her again. Like tonight.

Creston Bolander rolled his shoulders, as if needing to work out the stiffness. “Since there’s only the three of us left, I’ll serve the crème brûlée myself.”

Silence settled over the room after he walked out. As easy as it had been to scrap with him, she found herself tongue-tied now that she was alone with his son. She wished Raleigh was sitting across from her, anywhere else than beside her. There was something about him that had always gotten under her skin, maybe because he looked so much like Mick. The three of them were about the same age.

Raleigh didn’t seem to be in any terrible hurry to break the silence. He scooted his chair back a little, stretching out his long legs as he sipped on his sparkling water.

She finally thought of something to say. “Would it really have killed you to let go of those dilapidated silos?”

“No.” There was no hesitation in his answer. “But they might’ve killed the muscle-bound bull rider trying to take them off my hands. I wasn’t kidding when I said they’re falling in. I would’ve had our staff tear them down a long time ago if someone hadn’t started the rumor that they’re haunted.”

“Haunted!” A trill of laughter escaped her. “You’re kidding.” She’d been expecting him to bring up the whole sabotaged silos argument again. The fact that he hadn’t felt like a deliberately kind move on his part. It should’ve raised her hackles, but it didn’t. Maybe she was losing her edge now that she was getting older.

“Not kidding.” Raleigh crinkled his eyes at her in a way that twisted her heart. It reminded her so much of Mick that it was suddenly harder to breathe. “It’s nice to hear you laugh again. It’s been a while.”

“Almost thirty years,” she bit out. The laughter died in her mouth.

“Too long,” he agreed. “Listen, I didn’t say anything at Mick’s funeral, because you were understandably not in the mood to chat. I’ll say it now. I’m sorry you lost him. I’m sorry for how you lost him, too. He was a good man.” He spoke into his sparkling glass of water that he was swirling a little more energetically than before.

A good man?A strangled sound ripped out of her. Her hand shot out, slapping the glass clean out of his hand. It banged into the back of the empty chair next to him. Then it crashed to the floor and shattered.

His father popped his head back into the room, but Raleigh waved him away. Moments later, a woman moved into the room with a broom, dustpan, and mop.

“A good man?” Avery choked as she watched the woman clean up the broken glass. “That’s all you have to say about him? A good man? He was your brother, Raleigh!” Red-hot anger burned inside her, leaving the taste of ashes in her mouth. “Say it,” she demanded shrilly.

Raleigh straightened in his seat and swiveled her way so quickly that one of her bodyguards whipped out his weapon and trained it on him.

“Whoa!” Raleigh held up his hands, as if to prove to them he had no interest in harming her. “Call off your dogs, Avery, and I’ll do it.”

Tears burned in her eyes as she gave the signal for her bodyguard to reholster his weapon. She wasn’t even sure what his name was. Joe maybe? Did it make her an awful person that she couldn’t remember it?

Raleigh immediately lowered his hands. “He was my brother, Avery. Mick Lawton was my half-brother by birth, but he was more my brother than Billy Bob has ever been. There. Are you happy now?”

“Happy? How can I be happy when my husband is dead?” Tears stung and swelled over her eyes, threatening to spill down her face. Normally, she would’ve hated showing emotion in front of someone so despicable, but she was too distraught at the moment to care.

“Your ex-husband,” he reminded testily.

“I loved him.” Her voice shook. “I never stopped.”

“Really, Avery?” Raleigh’s eyebrows rose. “My marriage might’ve been short, but yours was even shorter, my dear.”

She gave him a dirty look, kind of liking and kind of hating the endearment he and his father seemed so fond of. “I thought your wife was on a cruise.”

“Ex-wife,” he corrected, “and, yes. She’s on a cruise. I’m not sure how you know that, neither do I care. She’s always off gallivanting in some corner of the world without me. I’ve long since lost track of the number of boyfriends she brings along to keep her company, while I keep my nose to the grindstone, running Bolander & Sons.”

“I didn’t know you were divorced.” For some reason, she felt guilty that she didn’t know. “How did I not know that?”

“We kept it out of the press.” He shrugged. “You know how my father is about maintaining the corporate image.”

“I’m beginning to.” And it didn’t raise either of them a single ounce in her regard.

He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I have tough skin and no interest in remarrying. What about you?”

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