“This is a great spot, James.” He walked over to the windowed corner of my office.
The windows looked out over the turquoise ocean that was really Lake Tahoe. There were a lot of beautiful places in the world, but the clear teal water stood like a gemstone set amid a halo of evergreen forests rung around the lake, broken up by various houses, hotels, and restaurants, and yet the beauty never dimmed. Never dulled.
“Hopefully it will be when I’m done with it,” I replied.
The Arden Corporation had just closed on the purchase of the Lake Tahoe Hotel and Casino—the building we were currently in. It was one of the oldest casinos on the Nevada lakefront, and it had been failing. Badly.
I’d purchased a dozen similar properties all over the country before, but this was the first time I’d had to close on a Thursday. In the middle of the month.
Because as of this week, the LT Hotel and Casino wouldn’t have been able to make payroll.
So, here I was. In my new office. In the hotel I’d just purchased, and about to meet with my head of HR to let a dozen people go whose jobs were either extraneous now that the hotel was absorbed into my family’s corporation or that had been padded on the payroll by the previous manager while the owners were dealing with other challenges.
That manager was my first fire.
She’d been the one adding holes into an already sinking ship.
“You know it will be incredible. The location alone…” He sighed appreciatively—the same way I did each time I looked at it. “Thank God you bought it before they canceled our wedding.”
That was the reason I’d looked at the property in the first place. My baby brother’s wedding. His fiancée, Suzanne, had been vacationing in Tahoe for years and years, and had her heart set on getting married at this hotel. They’d booked it for their venue immediately after getting engaged over a year ago, and proceeded to plan everything.
And then they’d received a call three weeks ago that the hotel might not be able to keep the commitment and that their deposit would be refunded.
Five weeks before the wedding.
Refunded.
I didn’t know a whole lot about weddings, but I had a pretty good feeling that a refund wasn’t going to remake and repair all the work and plans they’d put into it.
So, Lars called me in a panic to see what I could do. I had my acquisitions team reach out for details and my finance team run the numbers. As it turned out, my little brother was one lucky son-of-a-bitch.
The LT Hotel had a solid foundation; it was just being managed poorly—intentionally and unintentionally.
Not anymore.
“You know just as well as I do these things can flip on a dime,” I said roughly, meeting his gaze.
Things had flipped for our father.
Which was why, when he died, our mother inherited a mountain of unpaid debts that grew taller by the second. And the only thing larger than the debts were all the secrets he’d been keeping from us for so long—secrets finally unearthed by his passing.
“Don’t tell me you needed to gamble to save this place already?”
I shot him an annoyed stare. “No.” Though it had been what was necessary to save my family and our business all those years ago. “I told you. I was helping a woman find her friends.”
But I hadn’t told him.
I hadn’t told him all of it—especially the last, most unbelievable parts.
There was no point at the moment, especially with his upcoming wedding. I would find Carrie and handle this on my own.
“All night?” He arched an eyebrow like he knew what I was really doing.
“Lars…” I growled at my brother to let it drop. I wasn’t in the mood.
Especially when I was married to someone I couldn’t find.
God, if only I hadn’t gone for that damn coffee.
“Okay, okay.” He put his hands up in defeat. “I came to ask what you’ve got planned for us? Mom and Suzanne’s parents get in tomorrow, and then a few of her cousins at the end of the week.”
My jaw tightened.
Lars and Suzanne had about twenty close friends and family coming out for the two-ish weeks before the wedding to vacation and celebrate with them in Tahoe. Suzanne wanted them to relax and have a full Tahoe experience, but with making sure everything was set for the wedding, she’d admitted that she didn’t have time to plan or coordinate all the activities for the group.
As the best man, I’d assumed saving their damn venue was a pretty good contribution on my part.
I’d assumed wrong.
“James…” His drawl on my name was demanding. “Please tell me you’ve got things planned, otherwise she’s going to ask Lynn, and then you’re going to be stuck dealing with her.”
Lynn was Suzanne’s best friend.
Lynn was also my ex—which made for a few years of convenient double-dates but ultimately imploded into somewhat of a disaster. Thankfully, once all the debts were gone, Arden Corporation had taken off—and taken me with it across the country, putting necessary distance between us.
Until now.
I’d heard the comments from Lars and Suzanne. I knew Lynn wanted an opportunity to mend old wounds and see if we couldn’t find our way back to each other again.
It would be easier to mend the Grand Canyon. In fact, I’d be the first in line to try and push the rock-walled crevasse closed.
No. I winced. I was done with Lynn and our relationship the day I found out she’d been having an affair with my father.
One of those pesky secrets…
Thankfully, it was one I’d been able to keep from my mother and brother. The loss and the debt had been bad enough, they didn’t need to deal with that betrayal, too.
“I’m handling it,” I replied tightly, the task lingering in the back of my mind for days, taking a backseat to the more pressing problem of finding my wife.
His arms folded and he glared at me.
“Have I ever let you down, Lars?” I demanded, glaring right back.
He drew a deep breath before dragging his hands to his hips and shaking his head. “No.”
“Good.” I tipped my chin. “Now, I’ve got to let about a dozen people go from their jobs in ten minutes, so if that’s all…”
And I needed those ten minutes to finish sending over everything I knew about Carrie to this new PI—the third one I was about to hire in just as many days.
“A dozen?”
I nodded. This was one of my least favorite parts of the job, but as the CEO of the company, I felt it was my duty to be the one to tell them. It might be bad news, but I was going to give these people the respect of hearing it from the man who’d made the decision; I wasn’t going to cower behind the many layers of staff I could ask to do the task.
“Not good or not needed?”
I shut my laptop. Clearly, I wasn’t going to finish what I needed with the PI before I had to handle this situation.
“Some not good. The manager put a lot of her friends on payroll to just sit around. But mostly not needed,” I answered. “Redundancy in finance and HR. Plus a few random positions added within the last few years. A recreation specialist. Two housekeeping—”
“A recreation specialist?” he broke in. “What the hell is that?”