Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“We can meet up in the empty apartment above the tack room,” Kat suggested as her fingers trailed over my chest.
“I can always get a hotel room. We could go spend a weekend in Louisville.”
Kat sighed contentedly. “That sounds nice. But I wish we didn’t have to sneak around.”
“I wish that too, but it’s not an option to tell our families right now. We’re going to have to figure a way to ease into it.”
“I know,” she said dejectedly. “It’s just so stupid that something that happened eons ago should affect us. The original feud has nothing to do with you and me.”
She wasn’t wrong about that. It all began in the mid-1850s, a tale of tragic love and betrayal. Elizabeth Blackburn and Henry Mardraggon, our ancestors, were set to unite our families through marriage. But fate, laced with malice, intervened. Vicious rumors about Elizabeth emerged, as poisonous as nightshade, and the patriarchs of both families—driven by pride more than reason—drew their pistols in a heated argument. A shot fired, a life lost. Henry Mardraggon lay dead, and with him, the hope of unity.
The grief was too much for Elizabeth Blackburn. She took her own life weeks later, leaving behind a legacy of heartache and anger. The Blackburns blamed the Mardraggons, the Mardraggons blamed the Blackburns, and just like that, a feud was born, growing stronger with each subsequent generation.
And we’re still paying for all that heartache.
“It’s not just the original feud,” I pointed out. “It’s our families continually hurting one another. Hell, my father beat your dad on a land purchase not but eight years ago.”
I hold my breath waiting to see if the reminder of that unpleasant incident will enrage Kat because my dad was unscrupulous in using government favors to practically steal the land from Tommy Blackburn. The Mardraggons didn’t need it but we didn’t want the Blackburns to have it. We’ve never really talked about all the terrible things our families have done to each other, but this one deepened the hatred in these modern times.
I’m so relieved when she says, “I still say that has nothing to do with us.”
But I’m also a realist and I had to point out, “Doesn’t it? I’m going to be head of Mardraggon Enterprises one day and we’ll always have that land that your family needed to expand the farm.”
Kat lifted her head and grinned down at me. “You could give it back.”
I lifted my own head and kissed her before saying, “You could buy it from me.”
I meant it in jest since she’s the one who started the teasing, but her face crumbled. “This is why we can’t work.”
I took her jaw in my hand. “Don’t say that. We’ll find a way.”
And I kissed her again and rolled her back under me and we forgot all about the things that can tear us apart and concentrated on what we had together.
The chimes of my doorbell brings me back to the present and I set my briefcase down next to the shopping bags. I check my watch as I head to the front door, wondering who it might be. Very few people know I live here now, and I haven’t ordered anything to be delivered.
I open the door and find two men standing on the porch, their hands clasped in front of them. They’re wearing expensive suits but they look decidedly un-businesslike. Both tall and beefy, one has blond hair slicked back and the other has dark hair in a short crew cut. The blond smiles at me genially, the dark-haired one scowls, and I spy a line of tattoos creeping up past the collar of his dress shirt.
“Can I help you?” I ask, my gaze cutting back and forth between them.
“My name’s Kravitz,” the blond says, reaching out to hand me a business card. He then throws a thumb toward his tattooed partner. “That’s Bellamy.”
“Just Kravitz? Just Bellamy? Is that sort of like Madonna or P!nk?” I glance down at the card and see the name Clinton Rafferty. There’s an address and phone number, but I lift my gaze back up to the man who handed it to me.
Kravitz is amused by my questions but Bellamy scowls. “We work for Mr. Rafferty and we would like a minute of your time.”
I have no fucking clue what this is about but I was on my way out the door for what promises to be a pleasant afternoon. “I’m sorry, but I’ve got an appointment to get to. If you would like to tell me what this is about, we could set another time to meet.”
Kravitz inclines his head. “This won’t take long, Mr. Mardraggon. We’re here about a matter involving your father.”
“Then I suggest you go see my father,” I say, warning tingles running up my spine, his tone clearly threatening.