“Both are undeserved.”

“Regardless. This isn’t your company, Duncan. You brought us in when you needed money to buy out your partner. Part of the deal is you answer to us.”

Duncan didn’t like the sound of that. He was the one who had taken Patrick Industries from a struggling small business to a world-class empire. Not them-him.

“If you’re threatening me,” he began.

“Not threatening,” another board member said. “Duncan, we understand that there’s a difference between ruthless and mean. But the public doesn’t. We’re asking you to play nice for the next few months.”

“Get off this list,” his uncle said, waving the paper at him. “It’s practically Christmas. Give money to orphans, find a cause. Rescue a puppy. Date a nice girl, for once. Hell, we don’t even care if you really change. Perception is everything. You know that.”

Duncan shook his head. “So you don’t care if I’m the biggest bastard in the world, as long as no one knows about it?”

“Exactly.”

“Easy enough,” he said, rising to his feet. He could play nice for a few months, while raising enough money to buy out his board. Then he wouldn’t have to care what anyone thought of him. Which was how he preferred things.

One

Annie McCoy could accept the flat tire. The car was old and the tires should have been replaced last spring. She could also understand that little Cody had eaten dirt on the playground, then thrown up on her favorite skirt. She wouldn’t complain about the notice she’d gotten from the electric company pointing out, ever so politely, that she was overdue-again-and that they would be raising her rates. It was that all of it had happened on the same day. Couldn’t the universe give her a sixteenth of a break?

She stood in front of her sagging front porch and flipped through the rest of the mail. No other bills, unless that official-looking letter from UCLA was actually a tuition bill. The good news was that her cousin Julie was in her first year at the prestigious college. The bad news was paying for it. Even living at home, the costs were enormous and Annie was doing her best to help.