Tomin clapped his hands together and rubbed them in keen anticipation. “Well now, let me tell you what I’m thinking.”
Melinda walked behind the men, half listening to their conversation and half concentrating on the wayward thoughts careening through her mind.
“We’ll need at least two front loaders with the large buckets,” Sean told Rafe that afternoon in a conference call. “The guys here have a bulldozer and a forklift, but we’ll need the scraper too and an extra forklift would probably be a good idea along with everything else.”
“Got it.” Rafe made notes, then looked back into the webcam. “We’ll round up a couple of crews, offer them room and board, plus their pay for the duration of the job. Shouldn’t be hard to get a lot of volunteers to sign up for work on a tropical island. So how’s it going out there?”
“Not bad,” Sean said, leaning back in his desk chair.
The hotel suite he had set up as a temporary office was roomy and efficient, but damn, he felt as if he spent every waking moment in the Stanford hotel. If he wasn’t in this office, he was in the restaurant or the bar or, God help him, trying to sleep on that hideous couch in the suite he shared with Melinda, wondering what she was wearing to bed.
How pitiful was that?
“Yeah, you do a great job of selling that,” Rafe said with a snort. “I really believe you.”
Sean gave his brother a snide smile. Sarcasm. Another thing the King family was known for.
“Fine. Work’s great. Everything else, not so much.”
“Told you not to marry that woman,” Rafe muttered.
A flicker of temper ignited inside Sean at hearing his brother call Melinda “that woman.” He didn’t ask himself why his protective instincts kicked in. He simply accepted it. “Just what I needed. I-told-you-so’s are so helpful. Thanks.”
Rafe blew out a breath and tapped his pen against his desktop. The sound was so clear, the action so familiar, that for a second or two, Sean could almost believe he was sitting in his brother’s office at their headquarters in Long Beach. Though, if he were at home, things would be a lot simpler in his life.
There wouldn’t be a Melinda making him insane, for one.
“So, I heard from Garrett.” Rafe watched him, waiting for a reaction.
He didn’t wait long.
Sean jolted forward in his chair. “What the hell kind of family loyalty is that? I talk to our cousin, and he talks to you?”
He had only called his cousin, Garrett King, the day before and already the word was out? Some security expert, he thought with a sneer. Garrett and his twin Griffin owned and ran the country’s foremost security company, and in between working for the idle rich, spoiled celebrities and the occasional royal…they did jobs for the family. But Sean hadn’t known about Garrett’s whole unable-to-keep-his-trap-shut issues.
“Relax, he didn’t come to me about you. I called him about having him look into a series of thefts at the warehouse.”
Stunned, Sean stared at him. “Why haven’t I heard about this? What? I’m on an island so I’m not a partner anymore?”
“That’s not it, you idiot,” Rafe muttered with a shake of his head. “Lucas and I just figured you had enough going on right now.”
“Great,” he said snidely. “Thanks for doing my thinking for me. What’s this about?”
Rafe shrugged, but Sean could see the anger in his brother’s eyes, belying that casual action. “Just what I said. Somebody’s broken into our warehouse down at the harbor. Made off with a few things.”
“And how much are these ‘few things’ worth?”
Rafe shoved one hand through his hair. “So far, we’ve lost about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars’ worth of equipment.”
“Damn it Rafe, you should’ve told me.”
“Why?” his brother snapped. “You know who’s doing it?”
“No, but I have a right to know what’s happening to our business.”
Sean might as well have been on Pluto, he thought. Being on the island put him out of the loop and away from the business he and his brothers had built up from nothing. He didn’t like knowing that there were things happening that he couldn’t help with. He didn’t have a hell of a lot in his life except for his family. And it was irritating as hell to be shut out—even if it was well meant.
“Yeah, well…fine.” Rafe snorted. “Excuse me for cutting you some slack while you’re off in paradise. From now on, we’ll keep you posted.”
That was as close to an apology as he was going to get from Rafe. “Good.”
“Now, about Garrett. You’ve got him looking into your wife’s old boyfriend?”
Sean sighed. He had known Rafe wouldn’t let that go. There wasn’t a single member of the King family who knew when to butt the hell out. “Yeah. Call me curious. I want to know about this guy. Who he was. What he was. The way Melinda says his name, it’s like he was a combo of Mother Teresa and a superhero.”
“Pisses you off?”
“Damn straight,” he admitted. But there was more to it than that, and that part, he kept to himself. He wanted to know how to fight the late, great Steven’s memory. He wanted to be able to purge that guy from Melinda’s mind, and to do that, he needed to know what he was fighting.
“You know, I wasn’t going to tell you this,” Rafe said, “but Lucas bet me a thousand dollars that you wouldn’t last out this idiotic marriage.”
Insult shot through him. “Hope you took the bet, because that’ll be the easiest grand you ever made.”
Rafe smiled. “I’m not an idiot, unlike our brother. See, I know that you never go back on your word. And, that you got the lion’s share of stubbornness from Dad.”
“Thanks, I think.” Being compared to their father wasn’t exactly a compliment, but good to know that at least one of his brothers had faith in him. “You can tell Lucas for me that I’m not going anywhere until the two months are up.”
“I will,” Rafe said with another grin. “He won’t believe it, but that’s his problem. So now, why don’t you tell me what your problem is?”
Irritated, Sean snapped, “Not looking for a father confessor here.”
“Not offering. Just trying to help.”
“Nothing you can do, Rafe.” The only thing that was going to solve Sean’s current and ongoing problem of aching groin and miserable temper, would be to finally get Melinda into bed. Under him. Over him. Surrounding him. Taking his body deep and holding him there…