DOTTY (The Naughty Ones Book 3) Read Free Page B

stare.
    “You expect me to believe that shit?”
    “What? Yeah! It’s true.”
    My ass.
    My dad is the bastard son of Elisha Summers, the great dead patriarch of our illustrious clan.
    When Grandpops found out he’d knocked up the little waitress he’d banged while on business, he did what he had to do and paid Grandma off to keep away from his family.
    Grammy is the least mercenary soul I ever met, but the woman was no fool. She knew she couldn’t provide a decent life for her child, so she took all that money and settled in a small town just outside New York, as far away from the Summers clan as she could get.
    By the time my pop was fifteen he was well aware of his parentage, and let’s just say the man did not appreciate it when his father turned up spouting some shit about legal heirs and the like.
    Instead he told him to kiss his ass and went on with life, going so far as to join the military and then a few years later meeting my mom, the love of his life.
    My old man was a great guy, but he was never one for backup plans. When he died in battle, leaving mom alone and knocked up, barely making ends meet…
    Let’s just say that when the Summers family arrived on the scene she had two choices: fight a court battle or buckle down and move in with the asses so her kid could have a good life.
    Mom moved us in, along with Grandma Pen, and that’s how the son of a bastard became the heir to the Summers throne.
    Of course I always knew what was cooking beneath the polished surface of this life. If I’m honest, I’ve always hated this shit. And my family.
    Sure the money and all the perks that come along with it are great, but I’m not a suit and I never will be. I spent summers with Grammy’s brother, my uncle Jim, working his ranch down in Wyoming and learning all there is to know about that life.
    I love the peace and the hard work and the freedom that comes with being a steward of the land. It’s been my dream since I was old enough to shovel cow shit and mend fences and I will have it.
    I just have to complete the plans I’ve set into motion since I got out of college and took over the business. You say revenge is best served cold?
    This shit will be un-thawable by the time I serve it up on that silver platter to these fools.
    I spent my childhood with my grandfather pushing me to within my limits while his wife sneered at me and never let me forget that I’m nothing but an interloper.
    I could deal with that shit just fine, but what I could never deal with was when they discovered I had every intention of taking off and going down to Texas when I was free of the contract Mom had signed when I was born.
    According to them I was theirs till the age of twenty-two, by which time the old man thought I’d be one of them and ready to take over his legacy.
    They convinced me to stick around by buying up the mortgage on Jim’s ranch and threatening to sell it off.
    I was trapped and ready to kill but I did it because in the end family is family. Hell, I went a little wild after that and partied as hard as a twenty-two-year old could and ended up with a girl I thought I loved more than anything else.
    Sarah was beautiful, smart, one of the daughters of a family friend, and everything I thought I wanted. I fell hard and fast and started making plans for the future.
    When she confessed to not wanting to move out to the boonies and smell cow shit all day I got over my need for the life I really wanted and instead actually tried to make the one I had work.
    When she started talking about marriage, I bought her the biggest ring I could find and popped the question.
    I was young, in love and so naïve that I get mad just thinking about it now.
    No one ever knew why I dropped her so hard and fast, and if I was anything at all like the man I was before meeting her, I would have made a scene and beat the shit out of Alex and humiliated Sarah publicly.
    But I now am the product of years of knowing, and I’ve learned that