Sunset Tides: Orcas Island, #3 by Amelia Addler

Author:Amelia Addler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ANJ Press
Published: 2022-10-06T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

His dad always told him he didn’t have the “killer instinct.” Rob had spent the last ten years of his life trying to prove him wrong.

He’d found profit where no one else could. He worked hundred hour weeks, crushing his colleagues and taking promotion after promotion. He didn’t negotiate or apologize – he got results.

Yet here, sharing dinner with a verifiable orphan at the very hotel he was about to destroy, he started to feel his nerve failing him.

Rob stumbled through the restaurant, spilling on to a patio that opened up to the sea.

There weren’t many people outside, and the stars hung bright and clear above him.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

It wasn’t his fault the island was of interest to OSS and developers. If Rob didn’t get them what they wanted, someone else would.

It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t his problem.

And yet…

Claire’s story felt like a bucket of water over his head. She wasn’t some lowly employee at the hotel, like he’d tried to convince himself earlier. She wasn’t a hot-shot hotel mogul. She was nothing short of a saint, adopting a trio of girls and working a low-paying job for years.

Lucy said this hotel had given her a purpose in life.

Purpose! Rob had never played a role in taking someone’s purpose away.

Property, sure. Money, of course. But not purpose.

The coughing had stopped, but his throat was still on fire and nausea had settled into his stomach. He told himself it was the oyster, its slimy, cold blob of a body snailing its way down. He wanted to believe that, but all he could hear was his dad’s voice.

“You’re weak. I saw it when you were a kid, and I see it now. You don’t have to be weak, but you choose to be again and again.”

Rob could feel the weakness growing now as he argued with himself, debating if Claire would really miss the hotel, telling himself she’d get a fair price and be able to build something else.

It wasn’t working.

He paced the patio as sweat dripped down his back. He couldn’t go back in there and talk to Lucy. It was the first time she’d been civil to him, and it made him wonder if she somehow knew what he was doing.

Maybe she was plotting to have him killed? Arrested? Shipped off the island?

That was impossible. The letters couldn’t have gone out yet. Maybe it wasn’t too late to stop it. Rob pulled out his phone and called his boss.

Despite the late hour, he answered. “What’s the news, Rob?”

That was how Rick answered the phone when he was in a bad – but not livid – mood. Rob spoke quickly. “I was hoping you could tell me. Did the letters go out yet?”

“No.” A sigh. “We’ve run into some issues with zoning. We might have a problem.”

“What kind of problem?” Rob’s pulse quickened. It could fall apart, just like that, through no fault of his own. It was an out.

“I thought that was why you’re calling.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.