Page 116 of Mad Rivals
If she’ll even take me back at this point. Maybe she’s already moved on. Maybe she’s dating someone new. Maybe it didn’t mean to her what it grew to mean to me.
Maybe she’s clutching her sheets as some other man makes her come.
“You can head in, Madden.” Darla’s voice helps snap that image out of my head.
I stand and walk into my father’s office, and I slide into the chair opposite him. I casually cross my leg and rest my ankle on the opposite knee so I’m in a figure-four position.
“Trying to give off confidence?” my father guesses as he glances at my casual seating arrangement.
I shrug. “Don’t really care what I’m giving off.”
“What do you need, Madden? I have a lot on my schedule today.”
“Yeah, fighting off authorities, hiding illegal activities. I imagine it’s taxing.”
He sighs. “Was there something you wanted?”
“Yes.” I nod and press my lips together, and then I give him what I came here for. I uncross my leg and lean forward, elbows on my knees now. “I want you to finish extracting all traces of your illegal activities from this company today. Once you finish that, I want you to sign Bradley Group over to me, and then I want you to resign.”
“Your new season starts in a week, son. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not being ridiculous, and I’m not joking. I have plans for this company, and I want to get started on them immediately.”
“What plans?” he demands.
“As if you’re in a position to ask,” I mutter.
“Excuse me, but I’m still your father, and I’m also still your boss.” He gives me a pointed look, but it doesn’t much matter.
Like I said, I’ve already lost everything, and a relationship with my father was never on the table anyway.
“And I’m the son who was able to fairly easily uncover your underground casinos. I’m the son who knows your secrets. I’m the son who the other siblings call when something’s going on. Did you think I wouldn’t find out you’re trying to sign Vivicorp over to Everleigh? And Peoria and Geneva to Liam and Ivy?” I shake my head as I settle back into the figure-four. “Leave them out of this. I don’t know what other illegal things you’re doing, but it stops where Bradley Group is concerned. Now.”
“It’s their inheritance, Madden,” he says. “It’s my way of setting them up for the rest of their lives.”
“So you randomly choose three out of the seven of us? That doesn’t even make sense. And if it’s obvious to me that you’re extracting Mother from the shell companies, it’ll be obvious to the authorities, too. Find another way to set up the inheritance without involving three of my siblings in your crimes, and get your name off everything to do with this company before you hand it over to me. I won’t take it if it’s not squeaky clean.”
“Then I’ll ask Dex. If he doesn’t want it, Everleigh. Ford. Archer. Liam. Ivy.” He shrugs as if he doesn’t give a fuck because he probably doesn’t. “One of them will surely want it.”
“Unless one of the girls wants it, which they’ve expressly said they do not, then you’re going to be waiting more than another year to retire.”
“So you’re done at the end of this year, then?” he asks.
The truth is…I don’t know.
I want to get a feel for San Diego. I want to play. I want to get back on the field and away from all this exterior noise that’s proving to be nothing more than a distraction.
And I want to do all that with Kennedy by my side.
I have a plan, and I’m not leaving here without executing the first part of it.
I lean back a little and fold my hands behind my head. I guess maybe Iamtrying to give off casual confidence now. “Maybe, maybe not. But you’ll do what I’m asking, or I’ll go to the authorities with what I know. And if you’re paying them off, I’ll go higher. I won’t stop until it’s all uncovered.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” he hisses.
“Wouldn’t I? Tell me,Father, what have you done to ensure I wouldn’t?”
He rises to his feet to move to a power position from behind his desk before he explodes at me. “I’ve done everything for you!”
