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One

CHAPTER ONE

Bran – Four Months Earlier

Tom Jameson droned on and on, but I wasn’t listening to his report on the quarterly sales. I could read it later. My mind was on my sister Harper and how she’d so effectively cut me out of her life.

Like I was a cancer. I’d known she’d be pissed, but I’d truly believed she’d understand why I did what I did, and we’d go on like before.

But now, weeks later, I was beginning to worry that the rift between us was permanent. I couldn’t bear the thought of that.

Harper was the only family I had. Everything I’d done since our parents died fifteen years ago was to care for her. She had no one but me. I had no one but her.

Well, that wasn’t quite true.

She had her friend, Anne Francis, who I blamed for turning Harper against me.

It made me rue the day I brought Harper to dinner with me at the MacLeod estate when I was trying to do a deal with Dane MacLeod and his father. I’d asked her to come because I wanted her to become more involved in the business.

That night, Anne was there as Dane’s date and she and Harper hit it off. I didn’t mind that Harper had friends. I minded that Anne was too much in our business. I didn’t trust her.

There was no doubt in my mind that she’d been after Dane because she wanted a rich husband to give her back the life she’d grown up in, but lost when her father disinherited and disowned her.

She must have done something really bad to piss her father off. I know if I had any influence, I’d cut her off myself because she was the bane of my existence.

If I apologized to Harper, she might forgive me, but I couldn’t bring myself to be sorry. How could I apologize for protecting her against a stalker?

A stalker who kidnapped another woman, thinking it was Harper.

All I was trying to do was keep her safe? Was I a little heavy-handed?

Maybe.

But it was her life I was protecting. She didn’t see it like that. She accused me of keeping her a prisoner in her home. And now she avoided me like I was the bad guy.

It hurt that she could so easily cut me from her life. But she was alive. I’d done my job.

“Mr. Erickson?”

I jerked my attention to Tom. “Yes?”

The rest of the team looked at me expectantly. Shit. “I’ll review the reports and get back to you.” I stood, tired from sitting in meetings all day.

This had been my twelfth, and I still had one more to go. Luckily, this one was at MacLeod Capital Investment. The drive over would give me a chance to clear my mind.

As my drive wove through the streets towards downtown Los Angeles, I called Harper again. And again, she didn’t answer.

“It’s Bran, your brother. It’s been so long. Perhaps you’ve forgotten you had a brother. This is starting to get childish, Harper. If your goal is to hurt me, you have succeeded. Call me.”

I hung up and shoved the phone into my pocket to keep from hurling it across the car. So much for clearing my head.

My driver pulled up in front of the MacLeod Capital Investment building. I stepped out, buttoning my coat as I made my way into the building. The initial project I’d wanted to do with MacLeod Capital Investment didn’t work out. I’d questioned Dane’s business acumen, and he’d taken offense.

In my defense, he’d spent over twenty years as a Navy SEAL before returning home to take over the family business. He hadn’t ever intended to run the business. As it turned out, he was a good businessman and apparently, he’d fixed whatever rift he’d had with his parents. Maybe I should ask how he did that, so I could fix things with Harper.

I stepped out of the elevator and made my way to Dane’s office. Outside it, his administrative assistant, Lane, sat holding a baby. Ethan Wheatly, Dane’s right-hand man, and his wife, Lucy, were there as well.

Inwardly, I groaned. There must be something in the drinking water here that so many of the people who worked in this building were getting married and having babies. First Dane, who didn’t fall for Anne Francis, but instead married his employee, who weirdly enough was his best friend’s daughter. They now had twins.

Then it was Ethan, who I had expected would take over his grandfather’s business, but instead was choosing to stay at MacLeod Capital Investment.

He also married the woman who worked for him and now they had a baby. I suspected it was the one Dane’s admin was holding, who also had just gotten married to Archer Graves.

He was the one I initially hired to protect my sister, but I didn’t like how he worked or his attitude. In the end, he got Harper’s stalker, but only after he’d taken Lane.

He blamed me for that because after I fired him, I hired a bodyguard for Harper, but didn’t hire anyone to watch the stalker.

It was unfortunate what happened to Lane, but it wasn’t my fault. In fact, it solidified my belief that Archer wasn’t the man to protect my sister. If he couldn’t protect his own woman, how could I have trusted him to protect my sister?

“Archer and I are working to give Emery a brother or sister,” Lane said. “How wonderful. All our kids will be close in age,” Lucy, Ethan’s wife,

gushed.

I wanted to puke.

Don’t get me wrong. I think families are wonderful. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be working so hard to keep mine with Harper intact.

But love and happily ever after seemed like a hoax perpetrated by romcoms and greeting card manufacturers.

Sure, Dane and Ethan seemed happy now, but it was early in their marriages. I wasn’t so sure my parents’ marriage would have survived if they lived. At the time of their deaths, there had been a lot of fighting. I suspected that when Harper left home, they’d have split.

“Bran. Right on time,” Ethan said when he saw me. I shook his hand. “I’m ready to finalize this deal.”

“Don’t you mind us,” Lane said, cooing at the baby. “Dane is waiting for

you.”

Ethan gave his wife and baby a kiss and I did my best not to roll my eyes.

I followed him into Dane’s office.

Dane was holding his phone up as if he was making a video call. “Look at you, Diana. What a big girl.”

Good God. He was talking to one of his kids.

“I think we should sign her up for Mensa,” Dane’s wife Bridget's voice came over the phone.

Dane laughed as he looked at us. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to go. I’ll be home for dinner.”

“Say bye daddy.”

Dane switched off the phone, setting it on his deck. He grinned. “Life is fucking good.” He motioned for Ethan and me to sit. “So, where are we on this deal?”

“We’ve gotten the permits for the mixed use.” Ethan handed me and Dane each a paper. “There is some grumbling by the neighborhood about increased traffic, but I think we’ve quashed that down by pointing out the additional jobs and how the project will bring in more business to the existing businesses.”

I looked over the paper, finding everything in order.

“Troy says they’re ready to begin construction,” Dane said.

Troy Manion was Dane’s best friend and father-in-law, but he had an excellent reputation, so I had no qualms about his taking on the job.

I didn’t have a job in this project except to provide money as an investor. “Are there any changes to the budget? Any anticipated issues that could affect the cost?”

“Not so far. There is some talk about the price of steel going up, but so far, it’s within our budget allocation,” Ethan said.

“We’ve also had some interest in the commercial sections. Some of them are pretty froo froo, but I’d like to offer the spots to locals first. For one, it will smooth out any concerns in the neighborhood, but second, I’d like this to be an opportunity to help new or smaller businesses.” Dane handed me another packet. “Ethan is in agreement. Here is some data we collected.”

I took the packet. “Froo froo businesses tend to be upscale and successful, whereas new or smaller businesses aren’t so much.” I glanced through the information, deciding I’d review it in more detail later.

“True, but this section of the beach isn’t high scale froo froo.”

“Not yet,” I said.

Dane sat back and studied me. “I’m not interested in displacing people, Bran. I don’t want people to be forced out because they can’t afford to live there due to us and corporate greed.”

My jaw tightened. I didn’t like being accused of being a greedy bastard. At the same time, what the hell was the point of business if not to make money?

“Dane and I look at this as a community within the community. The residents and businesses we build in this project need to be a part of what’s already there.”

“And what’s already there isn’t impoverished. They’re just not shopping on Rodeo Drive,” Dane finished.

“Bridget’s step-mom has already been talking about creating an art center there. I can picture a lot of artisans starting a business there.”

“Are we patrons now?” I knew I sounded greedy. I didn’t mind helping people, but I didn’t want to give away my money either.

Ethan scowled.

Dane sighed patiently. “This will make money, Bran. And we’ll do it by doing good work.”

“I guess I can’t ask for more than that.” “You might,” Ethan quipped.

I glared at him. “I know you two have your families and business is just a hobby for you now, but this is it for me. My business is my family. My life.”

They both looked at me in pity. I hated it.

“Business isn’t a hobby,” Dane said. “But you’re right that it’s not the be all end all for me.”

“Me neither, although it used to be,” Ethan added.

“If you’re suggesting I need to get married and start having babies—”

Dane waved his hand. “I’m not suggesting anything, although you might find yourself happier to have someone in your life.”

I shook my head. “I know the type of man I am. It’s not one that attracts women looking for happiness. Money, maybe, but not happiness.”

Again, they looked at me in pity.

Having enough of that, I stood. “I’ll review these and get back to you.” “I need to let Troy know—”

“You can go ahead with that.”

Dane and Ethan stood, shaking my hand, and then I left.

As I drove back to my office, my initial feeling about Dane and Ethan’s sudden mushy, love-sick attitudes was ikk.

But it was hard to look down on men who were clearly content in their lives. They could still be hard noses in business, but they were easier to work with. The two things that stood out the most were how relaxed and happy they both seemed. If this deal fell through, they might be annoyed, but in the end, I wasn’t sure they’d give a fuck.

Whereas for me, this deal had to go through. Not because I needed the money. I needed it because it was what I did. I was married to my job.

God, how pathetic did that sound?

When Harper wasn’t ignoring me, I did a few other things besides work. She and I enjoyed discovering new wines, playing tennis or going for a hike, and sailing. I hadn’t done any of that since she cut me out of her life.

A family had changed Dane and Ethan. Could a family be the thing I needed to get rid of the constant loneliness and sense of purposelessness?

But a family meant a wife, and I wasn’t interested in that. Harper was my sister, but I imagined a wife would be similar. Fighting me on everything I would try to do to make them happy and safe.

So maybe I didn’t need a full family. Maybe I just needed a kid.

A child who could carry on the family business, to expand my legacy as I’d expanded my father’s.

Kids loved their parents no matter what, right?

As long as I was good and loving, my child would look up to me. Listen to me when I told them what was important.

I suspect no one would believe I could be good and loving. It certainly wasn’t something people experienced from me, except Harper.

Since I was nineteen, I’d dedicated my life to supporting her. I cared for her, looked out for her, was the loving family she needed, and how had she repaid me? She’d abandoned me.

A child wouldn’t do that.

When I got back to the office, I researched options in building my own family. There was adoption, but even with my money, I wasn’t sure I’d be approved to adopt an infant.

The next option was surrogacy. It amazed me to think there were women in the world that were willing to have a child for other people.

For money, of course.

I needed to find me one.

Not just anyone, either. She had to be smart and beautiful. It would be nice if she had the grace and elegance that came from being raised with money, but that sort of woman wouldn’t need to be a surrogate, so I’d settle for coming from a suitable home.

Once I found the right woman, I’d make her rich beyond her imagination.

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