Page 130 of Dream Mates
“Thank you. It’s a pleasure doing business with you.” I shook hands with the man who’d been at odds with my mother formonthsover selling his building.
A building I’d put an offer on a couple days ago and was now closing on.
“Thank you. Are you sure you want to forgo the usual inspections and closing?” The alpha frowned.
“I’m sure. This will make a great building for my foundation,” I told him. I wanted to close quickly so my mother couldn’t find a way to stop the sale.
He picked up his briefcase. “You know, I nearly didn’t call you back, based on your last name. But my pack and I stayed at one of your hotels last year and it was incredible. It’s not that I have an issue with her project. It wasn’t me being precious about this building–it’s more of a pain than a legacy anyway. I won’t be sad if you tear it down or even use it as leverage. I just detest bullies and well, I needed to sell it at a certain price, and I won’t be calledselfishfor looking out for my pack. Not all of us own lots of buildings.”
“It’s never selfish to look out for your pack, and I’m so sorry she did that.” I shook his hand again and left his office. The building had been in his family for a long time. His pack was aging, and they were selling things off both so that they could retire and to put away some money for their children and grandchildren.
That part of State Street was historic enough that my mom could rally people around ‘bringing community back to State Street’ but not so historic that she couldn’t rip nearly everything down and offer lowball prices. The project took up two city blocks, and was going to be a mixed office, retail, entertainment, and housing complex with green space and gardens–alive, work, and playproject and her most ambitious development yet.
Now I owned the last building that she needed. While I would absolutely make it the Thanukos Foundation Building, put our office at the top, and rent out what wasn’t being leased already, this building was really a chess piece.
But she didn’t need to know that.
I got on my motorcycle to go back to my office. The investigator that Terrance had originally referred me to when I’dwanted to research Grace was now researching Ian Murphy. We also had some very interesting information on him that was sent to the lawyer licensing board.
Our pack lawyer had already sent Ian several letters which had been ignored. The next step was to take legal action. Not against my mother, buthim.It probably wouldn’t end well for his career, and I felt bad about it. But what he was helping her do was wrong.
Wes had also found my accounts and changed all the passwords so that my mother couldn’t try to hide anything from me. We’d also filed a lien against what she’d acquired to make my inheritances less liquid. I’m sure Wes had done some other things as well.
I came back to my office. Terrance immediately came in and sat down.
“You bought it.” His brow furrowed.
“My pack bought it, not the company. I’m having the sign at the top changed tomorrow.” I grinned.
“How can something be funny and terrifying at the same time?” Terrance rubbed his chin.
“You’ve met my family. How is everything going with the estate project? We got a new team in there, right?” I asked, checking my email.
“Yep. Someone already tried to threaten the garden team and were run out with shovels,” he laughed.
We’d ended up flying in a team from one of our hotels to do the gardens, and we were bringing in a restoration crew from out of state. Sure, it was a little extra money but knowing that these people couldn’t be bought or threatened by my mother was worth it.
“We’ve also checked everything backward and forward; and shored up our suppliers, we’re good,” I added.
“I’m sorry, you can’t go in there,” my assistant said to someone.
“Like fuck I can’t. Brennan Brannigan Morris, how dare you?” My mother strode into my office, brushing past her.
“You are going to have to be more specific, Mother. Also, I have asked you to make an appointment.” I made my tone bored as I looked through my emails. Should I ban her from the building?
“Terrance, leave,” my mother demanded.
Terence’s look grew bored. “It really depends on what this is about. I have a right to be here if it involves our company. Also, what would people think if they knew that you were threatening single mothers with getting their children kicked out of daycare unless they gave our project issues?”
“What? As a working mom, I would never.” Her look was pure innocence.
Yeah, that was a common ploy of hers. I’d already taken measures to make sure she couldn't get Riley kicked out of Hadley Hall.
“Government phone lines are recorded, Siobhan, and the historical office is part of the government.” His look growing fierce, he played the recording.
Wow, I didn’t know he had that. This was why he was my business partner. It’s not like a lifetime of associating with my family hadn’t shown him a lot of her tricks.
She remained unfussed. “You probably got that from those hackers in my son’s pack of deviants. No one will believe it’s real.”
