Conklin's Foundation (Conklin's Trilogy)
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Authors: Brooke Page
Conklin’s Foundation
The second book in Conklin’s Trilogy
Brooke Page
Conklin’s Foundation
By
Brooke Page
Conklin’s
Foundation
Copyright 2014 by Brooke Page
All Rights Reserved. This book may not be re-produced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. All characters and storylines are the property of the author and your support and respect is appreciated. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
The following story contains mature themes and sexual situations. It is intended for adult readers.
Edited By: Samantha Hondorp
Cover Design By: Perfect Pear Creative
Contact Brooke Page
http://www.facebook.com/authorbrookepage
Email: [email protected]
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http://www.goodreads.com/brookepage
Title Page
Copyright
Table of Contents
First I would like to thank my wonderful family and friends who have encouraged me to write. You all are my inspiration. Thanks to my wonderful husband Andy, who didn’t mind entertaining our beautiful children so I could write more than during nap
times and at all hours of the night (even though that is the best time to write!).
Jennifer Ziesemer, you are the best book critique
person ever! Thank you for pushing me to do this and for encouraging me along the way. It’s been a crazy process and you have been there for me helping to figure out how this all works. I can honestly say I would have never gotten this far without you; you are the best!
Mom, you are the best
proof reader and proof reader ever! Yes, it was embarrassing to discuss some scenes, but you were a great sport!
I’m blessed to have such lovely beta readers,
you all know who you are, and I can’t thank you enough. Thank you for your sincere and honest input and opinion! Get ready for book three ladies because it’s going to be a whirlwind!
Perfect Pear Creative, what can I say, you are absolutely amazing. I am so fortunate to have you design the cover. Thank you for bringing Conklin to life!.
To the most spectacular editor out there, Samantha Hondorp! Thanks for spending the time to help polish my book and make me look good!
Thank you to all of the other Indie authors who helped me along the way!
I appreciate every one of you taking the time to answer my emails and put up with my fan girl comments and questions! I consider all of you my family, and I love that you are all only a Facebook message away! Angela, Amanda, Michelle, Melissa, Nickie, Trudy, thank you for always being a message away!
Angela- thank you for taking me under your wing.
I know I can go to you with any of my crazy questions and your continual support and faith in me is wonderful. I hope to pay you back one day!
To the many bloggers who took the time to read and check out
Conklin’s Blueprints
and
Conklin’s Foundation
and post reviews and snippets on your page. Without you helping to get the word out about Tyler and Becca’s story, this would not have been possible.
Anna and Tiffany- Thank you for all that you do for me with spreading the word
and helping me try and organize my crazy thoughts!
Karen- I would be lost without you! Not just because you HTML EVERYTHING for me, but because you are a valued and honest friend. You are amazing and don’t ever let anyone tell you anything different!
Most importantly, thank you to YOU the readers! I am forever grateful for your everlasting support!
RJ Conklin
I sat at my desk biting my nail, staring
with pride at the brick on my desk. An RJ brick it was called. I invented it when I was 19. Some might say I was egotistical for naming it after myself, but it was a fucking brilliant idea. I didn’t tell anyone about it at first, kept it to myself to hide my personal remedies from Mary and my parents. Mary turned into a real bitch once she got pregnant with Nathan and got pissed that I would partake without her.
I ran my finger along the edge of the brick, trying to find the small nub that would cause the concrete to slide open. It was a
pain in the ass to find, but that was the point. No one was supposed to know it opened but would think it was just a slab of cement. I finally found the nub and opened the far side, pulling out two pieces of paper.
The first piece of
paper was a note from my father Robert Conklin Sr. It basically said he loved me, that I needed to realize that family was what was important in life, and that I needed to cherish my boys, love and be faithful to my wife… blah, blah, blah.
I knew I wasn’t a good husband to Mary, but she wasn’t the best wife either. We never should have gotten married in the first place. We were too young, and although we thought we were in love, we weren’t ready for the ultimate commitment. The best thing we had was sexual chemistry, and we rarely partook in activities between the sheets anymore. Occasionally it would happen if
we were at our Chicago home, but I typically bounced around from city to city, dealing with business and building my empire.
Conklin Architecture, Construction, and Design was growing at an exponential rate, and my name was front and center. I was already filthy rich, but I wanted more. Money gave me power and control, and I needed to be in control.
As for cherishing my boys… it was a hard task for me to show. Yes, I loved them. I wasn’t going to get the father of the year award, but I was young when we had them, and I wasn’t ready to be a role model. I think we have come a long way though. Mitch and I get along; we share the same interests for the most part. He doesn’t have a lick of common sense, but he is smart around the construction site and has helped me redraft the RJ brick to make it more efficient. I pushed him to use these skills, just as I pushed my other two boys to use their special gifts as well.
Nathan and I got along fairly well also. We mainly talked busin
ess, and he was good at talking. He knew how to make deals and gain clients. My company would always be in good hands with Nathan around. He was loveable and could be manipulative, which is exactly what I needed for my marketing. He wasn’t worth a shit when it came to numbers and finance, and my head spun as well whenever account sheets were put in front of me. That is where Tyler came into play.
Tyle
r was the quietest of the bunch and showed the most animosity and resentment towards me. I didn’t fucking care. I made him a successful financial guru by pointing out his talents and forcing him to enhance them in college. He probably wouldn’t ever forgive me for making him “give up his dream” to play baseball. He was making me millions. The kid could read numbers and knew where and how to cut costs and invest like a Wall Street maniac. He was my biggest asset, and I would do everything in my power to keep him.
Tyler wasn’t
always an ice block towards me. It was mainly after he graduated from college that he brought the chill on. But lately he has been an arctic blizzard and very easy to rile. It was fun to get Tyler going, to see the steam practically pour off his face. He reminded me of Mary; she was easy to rile as well, and she was a turn on when she was fuming.
The little
Miss Becca Stine seemed to get him all flustered. I never saw Tyler with a girl, and he seemed to think I hadn’t caught on to his infatuation with Max Stine’s, the key holder to Grand Rapids, daughter. Nothing got by me,
ever.
I noticed his eyes follow her every move when Becca came up to meet with me in my office for the first time. She was a very pretty girl, and she blushed easily, another expression I enjoyed making women
show. But I wouldn’t take her too far. I wasn’t going to fuck around with our main client’s daughter, and none of my boys better fuck with her either. But then I saw the look in Tyler’s eyes as he was chasing after her at Stine’s Christmas party.
He loved her.
I knew that feeling for one woman, and it unfortunately wasn’t my wife. I opened up the other folded piece of paper and brushed it with my fingertips, leaning over my desk holding my other hand under my chin gazing at the few words on the crumpled paper.
RJ,
I’m sorry, I can’t run away with you. I can’t do that to your family. But know that I do love you. If things were different we could be together.
Love Always,
Margo
I wasn’t going to mess with Tyler and his swooning over Becca Stine anymore. Hell, I’m rooting for him. Tyler being with the city’s dominating successful business owner’s daughter would guarantee every large building in the city to be contracted out by my company. And I would need more Conklin blood to continue on my empire when I was gone. Nathan wasn’t into that, and Mitch probably had a few bastard children but would never settle down and become a father. Tyler and Becca might be my only hope to spread on the name.
Even though I wasn’t a perfect father, I wouldn’t
mess with my son being in love. Well, not too much at least. I still enjoyed making steam roll from his ears.
I sighed as I folded up the papers and put them back into the RJ brick. I would give anything to live on an island with Margo. I stood up and lifted it to put
the brick back on my shelf. The fucker was heavy as a normal brick too. Cops would never figure it out. At least they hadn’t yet.
There was one problem my supposed glorified father
created for this company. He sold the RJ bricks to the biggest drug dealers in each city where we broke ground. Yeah, it is a good idea, but now they were causing me a headache, coming into my office demanding my bricks. We had to keep them on a low profile or else the pigs were going to catch on, and then it would be my ass at stake. Although I don’t think they could ever pin anything on me. I’m not dealing with the drugs; I just sell the drug dealers bricks that double for safety boxes and key holders. How am I supposed to know what people put in my bricks?
Al
l I know is that if Lee Chino comes into my office making more demands, I might have to put a kibosh on the whole scheme and retire my lovely bricks.
I sat frozen in the middle a circul
ar room, unable to move my feet. When I looked down I couldn’t see them. They were sunken into the floor which happened to be sand. A panicked breath escaped me as I jerked my head upward, staring at myself in a large mirror. My eyes spun, and I was surrounded by mirrors, but each mirror held a different image.
The first image was
of Jamie, my best friend. She was wearing a leather dress as though she came right out of a Native American exhibit. She had her head bent down, her eyes narrowed and demonic, shaking her head back and forth. Her eyes went red as she clenched her jaw. I gasped and turned to the next mirror, afraid of her heartless expression.