Chapter 1

My cousin's company was turning ten, and Saul Dickerson, who was running the anniversary gala, wanted to rent the hotel under my name.

Since we were family, I gave them the at-cost rate: fifty thousand for half a day, all inclusive.

But my aunt, Agnes Whitney, cursed me out for being a heartless crook squeezing money from her own relatives, screamed at me to cancel the whole thing, and turned around and handed the gala to her brother's little hotel instead.

The gala turned into a disaster, and there was even a safety accident.

And Agnes didn't go after her own brother for damages. Instead she showed up at my door raising hell, saying I hadn't warned her in advance, demanding I admit they only switched venues because I cancelled on them, and ordering me to bring my people over to clean up the mess for her.

I turned her down flat.

She'd trashed my venue as worthless, and now I was supposed to wipe her backside? There's no such sweet deal in this world.

......

My cousin's company was throwing its tenth-anniversary gala, and they'd rented the hotel under my name.

Three days out from the event, I was walking the space with my team for final checks when Saul's mother, Agnes Whitney, suddenly came charging in, cursing me for being a soulless leech bleeding her son dry.

"Mason Dickerson, do you have a conscience at all?" She stormed into the half-decorated venue, jabbing a finger in my face, spit flying as she screamed, "We're family, and it's just half a day, and you're charging my son fifty grand!"

Agnes had always been a penny-pincher, so I made myself stay patient and explained. "Aunt Agnes, fifty thousand really isn't a lot. Look, the gala isn't until two days from now, but we started setup today. There's the LED screen build for the whole event, the lighting, the staging, the dinner, the servers, all of it at cost. And after the gala, the crew fees to tear down the decorations and the big screen, plus the cost of the venue being tied up, I didn't even charge you for any of that."

"Bull!" Agnes shrieked at the top of her lungs, not caring who heard. "I already asked around. My brother's hotel could do it for ten thousand. You really are rotten to the core, cheating your own family!"

"I know exactly what a ten-thousand package is. That's usually just one day's venue fee. It doesn't cover the setup days beforehand, or the dinner, and it definitely doesn't include the screen build or the service I mentioned. What I gave you is genuinely the all-inclusive cost price."

"Oh, cost, is it?" Agnes curled her lip in contempt. "Mason, who do you think you're kidding? This hotel of yours is dead empty most days, not a soul in sight. It's sitting there anyway. My son renting it is doing you a favor! Setting up early? Isn't that your job to begin with? What, you throw a few things around and you've got the nerve to charge me for it?"

She jerked her chin at the decorations around her, working herself up. "And that meal package of yours, who even wants it? Who actually sits down and eats at a gala? Everybody's carrying a glass around toasting people!"

The setup was already underway and couldn't just be stopped, so I drew a deep breath and kept arguing it out with her. "Aunt Agnes, our hotel does great business. If it weren't for my cousin's company gala, I'd have rented it out already. And about the dinner, the regular employees still want a real, decent meal. Our ingredients are all fresh, the dishes are all five-star standard—"

"Don't waste my time with all that." She waved a hand and cut me off, contemptuous. "Just tell me, we're family, aren't you going to give me an honest price?"

"This is already the lowest price. If I gave the same thing to anyone else, it'd be at least a hundred and fifty thousand." I told her the normal quote.

"A hundred and fifty thousand?" Agnes hollered, pointing at me. "Mason, put your hand on your chest and ask yourself! When your dad got laid off, you ate plenty of meals at my house, didn't you? Now that you've made it, you turn around and don't know your own people, huh? Aren't you ashamed of being this heartless!"

Out of options, I pulled out my phone and called my cousin Saul.

After hearing my side of it, Saul hemmed and hawed on the other end. "Mase, my mom keeps insisting it's too expensive, there's nothing I can do... How about... you knock it down a little more?"

I got it. This wasn't just Agnes's idea.

I looked straight at Agnes and said it out one word at a time. "Fine. If you think it's too expensive, then let's renegotiate. We cancel the three-tier lift stage and the computerized light array we'd agreed on, and I'll do it for thirty thousand. That work for you?"

"No, no, no, wait—" Saul panicked on the phone. "That won't do. Our boss is all about putting on a show. If you pull the lift stage and the light array, how's the chairman supposed to take the stage?"

Before I could say anything, Agnes was hollering again. "Don't try to threaten me with that. I already asked. My brother does it all-inclusive for ten thousand, lift stage, lighting, sound, everything! And a professional planning team on top of it! You just won't cut me a deal! Cheating your own family!"

My assistant, Zachery James, couldn't stand it anymore and took half a step forward. "Ma'am, Mr. Dickerson and Manager Dickerson already went over every detail. We really aren't overcharging you."

"You shut up!" Agnes shoved Zachery so hard he nearly went down. "I'm talking to my own nephew. Since when does an outsider like you get to butt in?"

She turned back and fixed her eyes on me, hands planted on her hips. "Give me a straight answer. Ten thousand, yes or no? If not, forget it! If you weren't family, I'd have gone with someone else long ago!"