Page 5 of For the Promise

Miles chuckles. “The voice of sexual frustration is more accurate.”

“Ah.” Kai feigns sympathy. “Is Dakota still giving you the run around?”

Rhett growls. “Dakota is Eli’s assistant. We aren’t involved.”

Zane waggles his eyebrows. “But you want to be.”

Rhett pushes him and they start to scuffle.

“Stop!” I shout. “No fighting in mydistillery.”

“Dude.” Miles shakes his head. “It’s not your distillery. It’s owned by all of the Raider brothers equally.”

“Eli is the majority shareholder,” Rhett says. “The rest of us have ten percent of ownership each.”

“Why does Eli get fifty percent?” Zane asks. “He’s never here.”

“As if you are?” Miles asks.

“Oh, please.” Zane rolls his eyes. “You’re on your surfboard more than you’re in your office.”

“I get the best ideas on my surfboard.”

Kai snorts. “The only ideas you get on your surfboard is which woman in a bikini on the beach you’re going to seduce.”

Miles smirks. “Those are my best ideas.”

“Rhett,” I urge. “Can you please get rid of everyone? I need to work.”

“Your powers of concentration are legendary. They’ll leave once you ignore them.”

I indicate the whiskey glass on the table. “I’m tasting whiskey from each barrel to determine how the different flavors will work together to create a holiday blend today.”

Rhett winces. “Shit. Sorry.”

In other words, my brothers aren’t going anywhere without tasting some whiskey unless I bribe them. Relief hits me when the door opens. Eli must be here since Dakota won’t enter a room with Rhett in it unless she has to. Those two are constantly at each other’s throats. It’sexhausting.

Eli strolls toward us. He has brackets around his mouth, and his eyes are dull. This is not a man anxious to kick my brothers out of the distillery.

“What’s wrong?” Rhett asks.

“I know.” Kai practically bounces on his toes. “Someone had a run-in with the woman who hates him.”

Eli snarls at Kai. “Paisley doesn’t hate me.”

Wonderful. Another feud. Eli and Paisley used to be friends in high school. He had the biggest crush on her. But now she hates him. He should let it go. But he won’t.

Kai raises an eyebrow. “She didn’t say you are always showing off your wealth?”

Eli narrows his eyes. “How do you know? You weren’t there.”

“Dude,” Miles scoffs. “Have you forgotten what it’s like living on the island? You’ve been away from Smuggler’s Hideaway too long.”

Eli left the island after he graduated from high school and he’s hardly returned in the ten plus years since. He was too busy building the business ofApparoointo a multi-billion-dollar enterprise.

“I’m here to stay now,” Eli says. “The distillery isn’t some hobby.”

I purse my lips. “Of course, it isn’t. I create award winning whiskey.”

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