Worth Billions (Worth It 1)

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“I was thinking of maybe heading west to get a new start. I went north for the oil, came back here to right my head a bit. I’ve been thinking about it since I saw you in the bar. You know, when we talked about you settling Anton’s estate.”

“Uh huh,” I said.

“Yeah. I figured after dabbling in the northern girls and dipping into the slices of pie around here that a bleach blonde bunny might suit me a bit. Maybe one in one of those small bikinis that lay out on the beach specifically to attract men? I’m sure you know the type.”

“No. I don’t,” I said flatly.

This asshole was wrapping around me and talking about leaving town on Anton’s dime. But he had a rude fucking awakening coming to him. My brain finally processed everything he had thrown at me and I pushed him off my body.

“The fuck, man?”

“I settled Anton’s estate, but I didn’t sell anything off,” I said.

“What? That’s what you said you were doing.”

“No. That’s what you inferred I was doing. Anton gave his properties away. He gave his things away to the people of this town because he was a decent human being. Unlike yourself.”

“Say what now?” he asked.

“We aren’t going anywhere. I’m not taking you anywhere with me. I’m wrapping up shop here, then I’m going the fuck back home.”

“You better watch your mouth,” he said. “This place is your home.”

“This place stopped being home the second my mother shat on my life and my father decided I looked damn nice as a punching bag, Andy.”

His eyes widened as I took a step towards him.

“And you? You’re nothing but a piece of shit headed down the same damn path my father walked.”

“I’m a lot of things, MacDonald. But I don’t beat up kids.”

“No. You just toss women out of your life at two in the morning with nowhere to go and no money to her name. Sounds about like what my father did to my mother on several occasions,” I

said.

I watched him raise his fist back to actually hit me, but I was quicker than him. I couldn’t take another neck injury or another blow to my head, but that didn’t mean my speed had dwindled one bit. I clocked my fist against his jaw and heard it crunch as he fell to the ground, writhing in pain and kicking up dust. I stepped over him and opened my car door, making sure to nail him in the back of the head before I jammed my keys into the ignition.

Then I pulled away from the accountant’s office and began speeding back to Anton’s.

My mind swirled with a thousand different things. Why the hell had Michelle not said something about being with Andy? And how the hell could she have ended up with an asshole like that in the first place? Did the woman have no standards whatsoever in her world? It was insane to me. The idea of a trash can like him putting his hands on Michelle before I did sizzled my vision. My hands gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles were white and my fingers went numb.

She seemed so sweet and innocent.

But I knew Andy well enough to know he never attached himself to anyone sweet and innocent.

Had it been a ruse the entire time? Fuck, I should’ve known it was. Women in my life did that. Portrayed themselves to be anything I wanted them to be so they could get closer to me. Closer to my vineyard. Closer to my wallet. Closer to my body. Andy enjoyed women who were fast and loose. He always had.

Michelle sure as hell knew how to pick them.

If Michelle had a type, did that mean she felt like I was akin to Andy? It wouldn’t shock me if she did. Apparently, I wasn’t welcome in this town unless I was being slapped across the face or used for Anton’s fucking estate money. If I was nothing but an overgrown bully like Andy, then it shouldn’t have surprised me that a woman like Michelle latched onto me.

Fuck!

I beat my hands against the steering wheel at the stoplight in front of me. The one damn light in all of Whitefish. I roared at the top of my lungs while people in other cars looked at me like I’d lost my damn mind.

Had I?