Scandalous Reunion

One

Sam sipped his black coffee and glanced at the stacks of mail on his desk. After being away for three weeks, the piles weren’t too bad. His assistant had sorted them between junk and urgent. Sam opted to go with the junk first to get that out of the way.

As he reached for the piece on the top, his cell vibrated on his desk. He glanced to the screen, but didn’t recognize the number. He set aside the piece of junk mail and answered his phone, already looking to the next piece.

Sam Hawkins.

Sam, hi. It’s Maty Taylor.

Maty Taylor. No two words could thrust him faster or deeper into his past than the woman who’d left him brokenhearted...a woman he hadn’t spoken to in sixteen years.

Refocusing on here and now, Sam struggled to catch back up to what she was saying.

...the attorney representing Rusty Lockwood, she went on in her professional tone as if he were a total stranger...as if their intimate bond had been severed forever when she left. I’m calling to set up a meeting.

Sam’s hand froze on the letter addressed to him as he gripped his phone with his other hand.

Maty.

Just saying her name seemed foreign, yet still so familiar, but he had to say it. He wanted her to nix the stiff tone and talk to him like she would if she ran into him on the street.

I’m sorry, but did you say Rusty Lockwood? A meeting? he repeated.

Yes. I called last week and your assistant said you were out of town, so I wanted to catch you first thing this morning before your schedule got too busy.

Wait...what? Was she for real? Just calling out of the blue on behalf of his main rival and she wasn’t even starting with a Hi, how are you? All of this was unbelievable, not to mention disappointing. How could she have any dealings with such a bastard?

You work for Rusty Lockwood? he double backed to ask, as he was still confused. It was too damn early for this bomb to blow up in his face. His past and present colliding to conspire against him? Oh, hell no.

When he and Maty had parted ways, he’d been in college and she was heading off to law school, set on changing the world. And where had she landed? At the door of the most crooked man Sam had ever known.

What the hell happened to the woman he knew?

I’m his new personal attorney, Maty answered, still using that professional, polished voice. Which explains the nature of my call. I’d like to set up a meeting to discuss my client’s generous offer to purchase your distillery.

Sam snorted and dismissed the ludicrous idea. He took a seat in his leather desk chair and opened the next piece of mail.

"Your client is well aware that I’m not selling now or ever, so your call and this meeting are irrelevant. He pulled open a handwritten letter and smoothed it out on his desk to read. Is that all you needed to discuss?"

Sam, she said, her tone going from poised to nearly pleading. I’m only asking for five minutes.

Five minutes. He wasn’t giving Lockwood five seconds. The man only wanted what he couldn’t have, and Sam was tired of playing this game. Sam refused to sell his distillery, and Rusty refused to take no for an answer.

What the hell, Maty?

Excuse me? Maty gasped.

How did you get messed up with a man like Rusty Lockwood? he asked. He’s not a good guy.

Silence greeted him on the other end and Sam shoved the letter aside as he came to his feet, waiting to hear a defense from her side.

My professional status or my reasoning behind my position are none of your concern, she informed him. My main focus is getting this meeting set up.

There she went again with that tone. Sam gritted his teeth and clenched his fist at his side as he turned to stare out at the mountainside and the creek running directly behind the distillery. This place was his everything and he’d be damned if he let anyone get their hands on it...especially Lockwood, even if he wanted to do it by way of Sam’s ex.

What the hell kind of game are you playing? he demanded.

Game? she repeated. I’m not playing any game. I’m simply calling on behalf of my client. Can we meet on Wednesday at one? I’ll come to you.

Sam shook his head and laughed. I’m not meeting you, Maty, but I will give you a piece of advice. Find someone else to work for instead of that bastard.

Sam disconnected the call and slid his cell back into his pocket.

What the hell was going on and what was Maty Taylor doing back in town and working for the devil himself?

Sam wasn’t the same love-struck eighteen-year-old he’d been, chasing after the sexy blonde four years his senior. He’d been naive enough to think they’d be together forever. What a joke. She chose law school over him, but looking back, her leaving was the biggest and best life lesson he’d ever had. He’d learned to guard his heart, focus on his career and build his brand.

Sam stared at the pile of mail he still needed to go through. The handwritten letter still sat there, but he didn’t care about that. No, his mind was on the woman who’d contacted him out of the blue. He knew full well that wasn’t the last time Maty would try. Rusty was a persistent bastard and Maty didn’t give up on what she set her sights on, either.

Sam looked forward to seeing her again after all these years. He only hoped she’d prepared herself because he was stronger, more powerful and much more experienced than the last time she’d seen him.

Damn it.

Maty muttered her curse, but frustration coupled with fear and anxiety pumped through her. Sam had the nerve to laugh at her and not even attempt to work with her on a meeting. Is that how he conducted all his business?

Even though he’d been a complete jerk, he still had that low, gravelly voice that made every nerve ending stand up. Damn him for still being sexy.

And she knew he was sexy because she had seen enough photos of him over the years, and time had most definitely been kind to him.

Sex appeal or not, he still didn’t have to blow off her request like she meant nothing to him. They’d shared a past, yet he couldn’t find time to meet with her?

Too damn bad. She had too much at stake to let Sam call the shots. Granted her situation wasn’t his fault, but he was the only solution. If there were any other way to save her brother, Maty certainly wouldn’t be contacting Sam again. But Rusty couldn’t be dissuaded and his blackmail scheme was impossible to get out of so she had to get Sam to see her, and then she had to convince him to sell his distillery to Rusty Lockwood.

Giving up wasn’t an option, so Maty would just have to go to Sam.

Rusty made it clear, in very certain terms, what her duties were as his new attorney. What she’d have to do to protect her brother.

No, she didn’t like being blackmailed, but she had no choice but to do Rusty Lockwood’s dirty work. Since coming to Green Valley to work for Lockwood Lightning, the world’s largest moonshine distillery, she’d heard rumors of Rusty’s bad reputation. He was allegedly skimming money off his employees’ donations to a charity for children that he supposedly supported.

Thankfully that was not her area of law so he had other lawyers, likely crooked, handling that ordeal.

No, Rusty had other plans for her, and they were only marginally related to her law experience. He’d tracked her down specifically because of her past with Sam Hawkins.

They’d been in love once, planning a future together, until she’d decided to go to law school and he’d refused to leave Green Valley. They’d had to reevaluate everything and in the end, Maty left town without looking back.

Yet here she was again after a sixteen-year absence, and if she didn’t get Sam to sell his distillery, Rusty would stop payments for the care and therapy of Maty’s younger brother.

If that happened...well, it just couldn’t happen. Maty had no other funds, nobody to help her, nothing to fall back on. She wasn’t like Rusty or Sam, both of whom had more money than they knew what to do with. She was truly alone for the first time in her life and more vulnerable than ever.

Maty pulled in a deep breath and smoothed her hand down her black pencil dress. She didn’t expect approaching Sam to be an easy task. If getting him to sell his precious distillery had been easy, Rusty wouldn’t have needed to enlist her help.

She nearly laughed. He hadn’t enlisted her help. He’d demanded it. He’d removed her from her other firm in Virginia, and he’d brought her here—going so far as to set her up in an old apartment that he knew held too many memories and making it clear her brother would have all the care he needed so long as she did his dirty work.

Rusty had to have dug deep into Sam’s past to find her. She and Sam hadn’t had a relationship since college—though she’d never forgotten him.

She’d been four years ahead of him, more eager to jump into the career world, while he’d still been finding his way and dealing with his mother’s gambling addiction.

As serious as their relationship had been, as in love as they’d declared themselves to be, so many outside circumstances had wedged between them that eventually the last tie binding them finally snapped.

Maty swallowed the lump of emotions in her throat and forced away the memories. She wasn’t that same woman anymore. There was a vast difference, a lifetime practically, between twenty-two and thirty-eight. She’d experienced heartache far beyond that of losing her first love.

Though she’d still wondered about Sam over the years. It would have been impossible to ignore the explosion he had made on the scene here in Tennessee and across the country. The youngest distiller to break one billion dollars in sales in one year and the youngest master distiller in history. She couldn’t go to an upscale restaurant or even a pub back in Virginia without seeing his signature bottle behind the bar.

But here in Green Valley? Nothing. The only place you could purchase Hawkins gin, and soon to be bourbon, was at the distillery itself. Rusty Lockwood kept those hard liquor licenses tied up with his moonshine. There was no way to touch the iron-fisted mogul, or his hold on the locals, and Sam was in for one hell of a fight because Maty couldn’t fail. She had everything to lose.

Blackmail was a crime, but Rusty was careful not to leave a trail. He was as crooked as they came and she was in the thick of his web now. Her only edge at this stage was the element of surprise. Clearly Sam had been stunned by her Monday morning phone call. She couldn’t let the momentum stop. Not only did she need to keep Sam off his game, she had to move before her fears and her memories made her call off this whole thing.

Two

An hour after he hung up with Maty, Sam stood in his office staring at the letter that he’d started to open earlier that morning.

His eyes scanned over it, then read it once more because he was positive this was a joke. Even after dissecting each and every word, he was still just as shocked as he’d been the first time through.

He had questions—so many that he didn’t even know where to start. One thing he did know, though, was that he needed to get his emotions the hell under control.

This cryptic letter couldn’t have come at a worse time. He didn’t believe in coincidences and he was going to get to the bottom of this.

Did Maty know about this letter? Did Rusty? Was Rusty going after him even harder now that the distillery was about to launch its first ten-year bourbon?

He still couldn’t comprehend how Maty had gotten tangled up with such a shady businessman.

Hearing her voice earlier had catapulted Sam into the only time in his life where he’d thought everything seemed right. For those few years when they’d been together, he’d let himself believe in a future that he now knew didn’t exist.

Granted he’d been naive and in love...but all of that was in the past. He’d certainly learned his lesson in letting people in. People had to earn his trust now and he didn’t make it easy for them. But once they were in his inner circle, he did everything in his power to keep them there. Friends and trusted colleagues were invaluable.

Some people who knew his past might believe he had mommy issues, but he’d never trusted his mother, so that certainly wasn’t the case.

No, his skepticism stemmed from one honey-blonde, doe-eyed beauty who looked like an innocent, but gutted his heart without any qualms or regrets.

As angry as he’d been at the time, looking back, Sam realized that had she stayed, neither of them would’ve been happy. They both had dreams and, unfortunately for that inexperienced, naive couple, the main component of those dreams had included successful careers before personal lives.

He’d wanted to hate her that day she left him, but even then, he’d loved her. Maybe he loved her for years afterward, but now... Well, he didn’t know her. Did she look the same? Had she gotten even sexier with time? He hadn’t looked her up on social media, hadn’t wanted to go back in time when he’d worked so hard on moving forward.

His ex coming back into town after so long wouldn’t affect him. She could say or do anything she wanted and that still wouldn’t change his answer on selling Hawkins. Sam pushed thoughts of Maty aside and focused on something he could actually control. He needed to figure out how to deal with this life-altering letter that had landed on his desk.

This letter, if what it said was true, changed absolutely everything he’d ever known as the truth.

All those years he’d asked his mother about who his father was and all she’d ever said was that the man was a bastard and they were all better off without him. But there were characteristics Sam had always wondered