Forged of Steele Bundle (Books 1-4) - Brenda Jackson [257]
A faint smile touched Cameron’s lips. “He can fight back, although it’s rather late since Global Petroleum is now legally mine.”
“Well, I just thought you should know that he held a press conference today, and I don’t have to tell you that he painted you as someone who won’t have any sympathy or loyalty with the present workers when you clean house.”
Cameron shook his head. “I bet while he was in front of the camera he didn’t happen to mention how he messed up his employees’ pension plan or how they were about to lose their jobs anyway at the rate he was going.”
“Of course he didn’t. His intent was to make you look bad. And when I called him to let him know we wouldn’t hesitate to take him to court for slander, he made a threat.”
Cameron raised a dark brow. “What kind of threat?”
“That you’re going to regret the day you were ever born for taking his company away.”
Cameron shook his head. “He brought that on himself.”
“You and I both know he doesn’t see things that way. And there’s no telling what will happen when he finds out your connection to his company. After all this time he’s evidently put behind him his bad deeds of yesteryear.”
Cameron’s face hardened. “He might have, but I haven’t.”
“Just be prepared, Cam. All hell’s going to break loose when he discovers why you took his company away.”
“How he handles things doesn’t matter to me, X, and as far as I’m concerned, John McMurray is serving no purpose by causing problems now.”
“Yes, but I’ve always told you that there’s something about him that bothers me. It’s like he’s not working with a full deck most of the time. As a safety precaution I’m going to let Kurt know what’s going on. I want to make sure his men know that McMurray is not allowed back on the premises. If he hasn’t cleaned out his desk by now, we’ll ship his things to him.”
“I agree we should tell Kurt.” Kurt Grainger, another college friend, headed up security for Cody Enterprises.
A few moments later, after hanging up the phone, Cameron banished John McMurray from his mind. The only thing he wanted occupying his mind were thoughts of a woman by the name of Vanessa Steele.
Chapter 2
“What neighbor?”
Vanessa tapped her foot impatiently on the ceramic tile floor. “I’m talking about the man who lives next door, Cheyenne,” she said trying to hide her frustration. She had a harder time squashing the irritation she felt with herself for being so curious about the man’s identity.
It was morning and the pool workers were ten minutes late already. She couldn’t wait to gather her stuff and go back down to the beach in hopes that she would see the stranger again. For some reason he had played on her thoughts all night.
“I truly don’t know anything about a man living next door,” Cheyenne said convincingly. “That house has been up for sale for a while, but I hadn’t heard anything of a new owner. It must have been rather recent.”
After a brief pause, Cheyenne then asked, “Why are you interested in my new neighbor, Van?”
Vanessa frowned and searched her mind for a reason her sister would believe and decided to be honest. “I saw him yesterday. At least I caught a glimpse of him,” she said, deciding not to tell Cheyenne about the man swimming in the nude. “And I liked what I saw.”
“Umm, your hormones acting up, are they?” her sister asked in a teasing voice.
“You sound like Sienna, and no, my hormones are not acting up. It was the usual reaction a woman would have to a good-looking man.”
“Then do something about it. Be neighborly and go over there, introduce yourself and welcome him to the neighborhood.”
Vanessa’s