This guy gave me a bad vibe, right off the bat. Not only had he taken our safety precautions as a joke, but he’d insulted one of my top foremen. Good workers were hard to come by in the real estate business and I wasn’t about to let this guy talk shit on Ron. There was also something in his eyes I just didn’t like. And I always trusted my instincts. They’d never failed me before.
“You’ll be paid through the end of the week,” I informed him. “But you are dismissed from Townsend Real Estate. You can give Dennis your hat and badge.” I turned on my heels and walked up the three steps into the trailer, and jutted my head for Dennis to take James’ belongings.
“You sure about that? He seemed like a good worker.”
I glanced up from the files I was looking through to Dennis who now stood in the center of the trailer, badge and hard hat in hand.
“Then I’m sure he won’t have a problem getting hired somewhere else,” I grunted, looking down at the files.
“I need to review your numbers,” I informed Dennis as I sat down behind his desk to pull up the information I was looking for on his screen. I scrolled through the numbers of how many lots that’d had deposits placed on them. So far, there’d been ten deposits put down on homesites, but even more stunning was the fact that four people who had put down deposits had pulled out. That was not a good sign.
“You’ve got bigger fucking problems than one employee being fired,” I informed Dennis.
He frowned, giving me a confused look. “What?” He came to look at the computer screen.
“Four depositors have pulled out over the last month.”
“But we were able to quickly replace them with new deposits.”
“That’s not the point. The problem is there is a reason why these people are pulling out in the first place. Did the sales agent bother to ask them why they were pulling out? I don’t see it in the notes.”
Dennis shrugged. “I don’t work with the homeowners as far as deposits go. Just the building.”
Angling my head, I stared at him for a few heartbeats. “You think that’s an acceptable answer?”
“Susan is the—”
“I know Susan’s role in my company. Trust me when I say I will be speaking with her.” I moved from behind the desk and headed to the door. The sales office was across the parking lot in another trailer. “From now on, I want you and Susan communicating regularly about the sales count. You need to understand what’s going on with this site just as much as she does.”
I waited for Dennis’ nod before leaving out of his trailer to go speak with Susan. I had to tear into her for not informing me of the high turnover rate that was occurring with the development. After some digging, I’d found out that three of the former depositors had heard the crime rate in the area was spiking and the school system was failing, which led them to choose another location to build. It was a total fabrication and served as more proof that someone was targeting my company.
“Susan, from here on out, I want bi-weekly sales reports and if you hear anything else about crime rates, failing schools, or any other issues, you let me know immediately.”
Once she agreed, I headed back over to Dennis’ trailer to speak with the security team I’d had Dennis call. I had them spend the morning going over every detail of the work site over the past twenty-four hours.
Before heading back to my main office in Williamsport, I stopped by the hospital where Ron had been taken. Turns out the knock to the head was rather minor but I still made him take the next few days off. I wasn’t about to risk my foreman getting re-injured because he came back to work too soon. That was bad for business. And my gut was already telling me there was a storm that was brewing on the horizon.
What happened to Ron hadn’t been an accident. The faulty wiring and loose screws at the bottom of the tractor had told me that. The number of residents who had pulled out of their deposits because of false information being spread throughout the surrounding neighborhoods was another check on my bullshit meter. Something was going down.
And whatever it was was starting to make my left hand twitch. My left hand twitched when something was wrong or I was about to beat the shit out of someone in a fight. I was definitely going to need a few rounds in the ring after everything was said and done.
Chapter Two
Joshua
“Enjoying yourself, hun?”
Despite my annoyance with the week’s events at work, my lips parted on a smile upon hearing the soft tone of my mother’s voice. I used my smile to disarm the thread of worry I heard in her voice also. She always carried it when we attended this particular charity event.
“Yes, Mother. How about you?” I asked, staring down into her cerulean eyes that my eldest brother, Carter, had inherited.
My mother’s tanned cheeks from the three-day weekend trip to the Bahamas she and my father had just gotten back from wrinkled as she grinned at me. “As long as my boys are doing well, I’m great,” she answered, turning from me to stare across the room at Carter and Aaron who were both dressed in tuxedos similar to the one I wore, with their beautiful wives at their side. I watched my mother’s eyes soften as they drifted downward to peer at my sister-in-law Patience’s bulging belly. She was pregnant with her and Aaron’s second set of twins.
I shook my head and took another sip of my champagne. I certainly didn’t envy her.
“I’m so glad they worked out their differences.”
I snorted. “Worked out? More like your second oldest bullied his wife into marrying him.” Love makes men do foolish things apparently.
