Samuel (Samuel's Pride Series)

Samuel

Samuel’s Pride Series Book 1

By

Kathi S. Barton

World Castle Publishing, LLC

This
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of
the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed
as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or person,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

WCP

World Castle Publishing, LLC

Pensacola, Florida

Copyright
© Kathi S. Barton 2013

ISBN:
9781629890173

First
Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC October 15, 2013

http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

Licensing Notes

All
rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in articles and reviews.

Cover:
 Karen Fuller

Photos:
Dreamstime & Shutterstock

Editor:
 Eric Johnston

Chapter 1

Samuel leaned heavily against his car as
the big earthmovers smoothed out the ground once again. They’d been working
hard since he’d gotten there over thirty minutes ago, and he was about to leave
when a cruiser pulled up behind him and the officer got out.

“Sheriff.” The man nodded back to him
and leaned against his car with him. Neither man said anything, but Samuel didn’t
really care. He’d figured that sooner or later the new owners would call
someone to have him run off. But he had one more thing to do before he left
this area, and no one was going to stop him. He wasn’t his father, and the
sooner these people figured it out, the better.

“He’s a bit nervous. Says he’s afraid
that you’ll change your mind or some shit.” Samuel nodded, still not saying
anything as Sheriff Ross continued. “I don’t know what the hell you’d change
your mind about, but there you have it. Some people are just plain stupid if
you’d ask me.”

“He doesn’t have a thing to worry about.
I’m done with this area as of the moment we signed off on it.” Samuel glanced
at Ross when his radio squawked. “Tell him I’m just making sure, that’s all.”

Ross walked away, but Samuel could still
hear him. He had a keen sense of hearing, so it was no problem for him to hear the
sheriff telling someone that he was there now and nothing much was going on. Smiling,
Samuel thought the man sounded as irritated as he was about the whole thing. When
his mom touched his mind, he welcomed her like a warm blanket.

Is it gone?
He told her it
was.
Good. Nobody will have to feel the nightmares we went through while we
were imprisoned there. You make sure that it’s destroyed for me, for us, son.

He can’t hurt us anymore, Mom. I swear to
you. He’ll never be able to hurt either of us again.
She sniffled,
and he felt the pang in his heart that had been there for many years with no
sign of relief until York Enterprises had made him an offer on the place that
he couldn’t refuse. He had only his father to deal with now, and Samuel wasn’t
worried about him in the least.

See that he doesn’t. I’ll kill the
fucker if he touches you now.
Samuel might have thought that funny if
he didn’t believe her.
I’m not taking his crap any more. The state of Illinois
can have him now.

The house and the ninety acres around it
had become his the moment his father had defaulted on the loan. Then there were
the unpaid taxes that Samuel had paid off, too. The city had been more than
happy to have his name on the paperwork, and then fifteen days later he’d sold
to York. The city was still trying to find his father for a great many other
debts he’d incurred before skipping town over three months ago.

When will you be coming home? I’ve been
getting used to this house, and I think I can live here.
He had to
laugh. His mother had fallen in love with the big house the moment he’d shown
it to her.
The staff you have here is really nice, too. I like Butler. He
makes me laugh.

He’s a good man. And when the rest of
them get there tomorrow, you’ll have to sort them all out again. I won’t be
able to get there until next weekend. I have a buyer for my condo coming in,
and then I have to pack up my office.
He stood up when Ross came back to
where he was standing.
I have to go, Mom, you know how to get in touch with
me if you need me.

I do. I love you, Samuel. You be safe
and keep an eye out for him. When he finds out what you’ve done, he’s not going
to be happy.
Samuel hoped his father wasn’t the least bit happy; in fact, he was looking
forward to it.

Getting into his car after telling Ross
he was leaving, he drove to his condo. There were boxes of his crap everywhere,
and if truth be told, most of them had been sitting in the same place since he’d
moved in over five years ago. Samuel didn’t spend a great deal of time at home
when there was work to be done.

Going to his bedroom, he pulled off his
tie and tossed it to the chair. He wanted to think he could leave it there and
not bother with it, but went to pick it up and hang it on the tie rack before
he finished undressing. He had two meetings in the morning, and one of them was
going to make him twice as rich as he was now.

His father, Sam Payne, had beaten the
shit out of him for the last time on his seventeenth birthday, and Samuel had
only gone back three times in all the years since; twice to visit his mom, and
the last time to stay with her at the hospital when his dad had knocked her
down a flight of stairs. She was hurt so badly that she was now confined to a
wheelchair for the rest of her life. His dad had hurt her for the last time
that day; Samuel was going to make sure of it.

Samuel had come up from nothing about
ten years ago when he’d decided that he’d had enough of working for others and
branched out on his own. Now he had more money than he could spend in two
lifetimes and would soon have a great deal more. Life was suddenly going right
for him and his mom.

By ten o’clock, after going over all his
notes twice more and making sure the contract was perfect, Samuel went to bed. He
closed his eyes, smiling about how happy he was going to be to start again,
this time with the much-needed capital he’d had to scrape for before. He was
asleep in ten minutes. Rarely dreaming, this time was no different than before.
He wasn’t a sound sleeper, but he did rest well.

He was up forty minutes before his alarm
sounded, and out the door well before his offices opened. Today was going to be
a great day. Samuel contacted Lilly, his secretary, from the back of his limo
on the way in.

“Have coffee and other things sent up to
the conference room. I don’t think the little shit will eat any of it if he
shows, but someone there might want to fortify themselves with something. Oh,
and make sure that the liquor cabinet is locked and nothing is out where he can
get into it.” Lilly laughed as he continued. “I really hate this little fuck.”

“Yeah, me too. But I like his dad. He’s
a good man.” She asked him a couple more things, and then told him that Shriver
and his lawyer were on their way in. Their estimated time of arrival was forty
minutes.

“And this will ensure that you’re going
to have all the employees working even after you take over.” The little man,
August Shriver, sat at the table across from him. Samuel wanted to punch him in
the face just on principle. He nodded at the contract and signed his name to
his with flourish. Once again, Samuel glanced at Shriver’s attorney, who did
nothing but play on his computer. Neither man read the contracts being signed
once.

“You should know that I’m only buying
this from you because my daddy said I had to find gainful employment or he’d
cut me off without a dime.” He laughed. “I guess he wasn’t aware that my employment
was going to cost him so much.”

Samuel had a feeling this was going to
end badly. He almost felt sorry for the elder Mr. Shriver but let it go. You
reaped what you sowed, and it seemed that this man had done nothing to curb his
son when it came to ethics. As soon as the last signature was put on the right
line, Samuel put all of his copies in the file and watched in horror as the
other lawyer shoved them into his briefcase without any thought to where they
ended up. As soon as the check was in his hand, Samuel stood up.

“You’re staying around to help me make
the transition, right?” Shriver seemed to be more interested in his nails than
Samuel’s answer, so when he didn’t say anything, the man finally looked at him.

“I already did that. The last two weeks
were for you. I cleared my calendar for you, and you never showed.” Samuel
moved to the door as he finished speaking. “I’m afraid other than cleaning out
my office, my time here is finished. You should have shown up when you said you
would.”

“I was busy. Did you know that if you go
to another country and you have your own plane you still need a passport? I
didn’t. But I do now.” The man grinned, and Samuel opened the door. “You really
aren’t going to help me, are you? I’ll just have to tell Dad to cancel payment
on the check.”

The lawyer leaned over to him and
whispered in Shriver’s ear. It was the first time the man had said a word the
entire time. And now he was explaining to the idiot that had just given him a
four million dollar bank check that there was no way to do that. They were
still arguing over the check when Samuel walked out, closing the door behind
him. He looked at Lilly Jacks and rolled his eyes.

“I gave my notice this morning.” He
nodded at her, thinking that it was a smarter move than he’d thought it was
last week. “And Mr. Shriver senior is on line one. He said not to tell you if
the son was around. He said it’s important.”

“Come inside so you can be a part of
this. I’m not having this man take back the money. I’ve worked too hard now to
give this up.” He would, he supposed. The younger man was going to ruin this
company and there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it other than back
out of the sale. Samuel picked up the phone and pressed the speaker button. “Mr.
Shriver, if you’re thinking to have me not sell to your son, it’s already over.”

“Good. I was hoping you’d not back out. As
much as I hate to say it, the boy is a fool. And an idiot.” Lilly laughed and
then changed it to a cough. Shriver senior didn’t seem to mind the laughter. “He’s
going to fail, and we both know it. It’s why when I lent him the money, the
clause I had was when he didn’t make it work after thirty days, I would step in
and take it. It’s my money, after all. The reason I’m calling is that I’m
sending a man over to get some information from you. I know you’re planning to
stay in town for a few more days, and I’m going to take advantage of you if you’ll
let me. I think I’m going to need to have the information sooner rather than
later.”

“You do know that you’re not teaching
your son a damned thing by stepping in.” Samuel didn’t care if he pissed the
man off or not. He was moving out now and didn’t care really how many toes he’d
stepped on. It was time to say what he thought and damn the consequences.

“Oh, but you misunderstood me. I’m not
just taking over. When he fails, and he will, I’m going to cut him off without
a cent. He was to find a job, make it work for one year, or I was done with
him. I’ve set it all up with lawyers. August signed off on the contract this
time, and there were enough witnesses that he’ll never be able to come back on
me again.”

Samuel was wrong about the son and
father it appeared. They were nothing alike. He smiled when he thought of the
look on August’s face when the shit hit the fan. And he was pretty sure August’s
father, Aggie, was going to enjoy it as well.

They made arrangements for him to send a
man to come in that afternoon. No time like the present, he told Samuel. The
man had even convinced Lilly to hang around for another month with the promise
of a fat bonus if she did. Everyone was happy when they hung up. Samuel looked
at Lilly as she sat before him.

“Do you think it’ll work out the way he
wants it to?” Samuel told her he didn’t know but hoped so. “Me too. He seems
like a nice man. I would hate to be in August’s shoes when he finds out about
all this. I mean, if it really comes to pass.”

“I think it would be worth hanging around
for.” She nodded. “Will you try to get security to videotape it for me? It
might make me laugh when I’m bored out of my mind one day.”

She stood up laughing. “You’ll never be
bored. There is always some project you’re going to work on, in the process of
finishing up or one that you want to sink those teeth into. The only time I
think I’ve ever seen you bored is when you took me to that gala thing last
weekend. That was boring, by the way.”

He worked with Tom Brinton for nearly
five hours. The man took copious notes and seemed to ask a thousand questions. Samuel
didn’t mind. They were well thought out and things he might have asked if he
needed to run this business. He handed the man some notes he’d made to give to
August if he would have asked for them.

“These will be helpful. I don’t know…. I
had no idea that you were actually the businessman here. There are…I’m sorry,
you must think I’m an idiot.” Samuel shook his head and smiled. “I’ve only been
working for Shriver Incorporated for about three months. Before that it was
with a firm where everyone else did the work and the owners sat back and raked
in the money. Mr. Shriver is the same as you about work ethic. His hands are
right in the middle of things.”

Brinton left after making arrangements
to come in over the next few days. Neither of them expected August to show up
to work, but that would just make things simpler for the rest of the staff. He
was somewhat of a night owl, Brinton had said. Samuel was headed back to his
condo when his phone rang.

“Cook has quit, sir. He said that he’d
rather live on his retirement than move to the small town. I believe his wife
is behind this move.” Samuel shook his head. A house full of people and no one
too cook for them. Butler, his butler, continued before he could tell him what
he needed to do. Sometimes he forgot the man served in three wartime kitchens. “Your
mother and I have put an advertisement in the paper. We’ve already had a call.
Apparently they put those sorts of things on the Internet quickly. We have
decided that if we get more than one applicant we shall have a cook off. Your
mother thinks it would be fun.”