Page 36 of Defiant Queen (Mount Trilogy 2)
My mind rewinds the last few minutes of our conversation about GWSC, and I let myself dream for a minute. I pull up the registration website on my computer and read over the details.
If I could go, I would have a shot at some of the best networking of my life. It could be the difference between Seven Sinners thriving like I want, or continuing to eke out an existence. My father would say I’m an idiot for even considering it, but he came from a different generation. Work hard. Play hard. Move on.
I don’t want to continue the family tradition that way. I want to build a whiskey empire.
God, listen to me. I sound like Mount.
I shove away from my desk and stand, my shoulders, neck, and back protesting how long I’ve been sitting, and my stomach growls.
Good thing I own a restaurant. I step out of my office to find Temperance striding down the hall in my direction.
“Oh, good. I thought you forgot.”
My mind races to figure out what she could possibly be talking about. “Forgot what?”
“Shit, you did forget. That’s okay. It’s fine. You’re not late. I was coming to get you so you wouldn’t be.” She leads me in the direction of the elevator, and I still don’t have a single clue what she’s talking about.
“What am I missing?”
The elevator door opens and we step inside. Temperance hits the button for the top floor. “Your meeting with the head of the tourism board.”
“Oh crap!” She’s right. I completely forgot.
“This is kind of a big deal, Keira. I was hoping you’d be excited instead of writing it off completely.”
I open my mouth to tell her that my life has been a little chaotic ever since Lachlan Mount decided I was sufficient payment for a debt. And then there’s the whole he killed my husband thing that I’m apparently not upset about, which also threw me off my game. I snap my teeth together with a clack, because there’s no way in hell I can tell her any of this.
I can’t tell anyone, except maybe Magnolia. She lives in the world I’m partially inhabiting, and would understand more than anyone else.
“I’m not writing it off. Truly. It’s just been a crazy few days.”
“It’s okay. You’ll be fine. It totally falls in line with the thing I’ve been telling you we should do,” she says.
“What thing?” I ask, acknowledging to myself that I’m basically a shitty CEO today, but I’m giving myself a pass.
“The tours and the gift shop. We need to bring more people through. Get them personally invested in Seven Sinners. If they see how we make it, meet the people who are responsible for bringing the world’s best whiskey to life, and then taste it right afterward, they’re a hell of a lot more likely to become customers for life. It’ll be the experience they never forget. The one they post about on social media with awesome hashtags. We need this, Keira.”
She hands me a printed sheet of paper, and I stare down at the bullet points.
“Oh. That thing.”
I inhale through my nose and exhale slowly, because I know there’s merit to what she’s saying. She’s absolutely, one hundred percent right. But my dad went ballistic after he found out I started a construction project to create the restaurant as soon as he signed the company over to me. If I start bringing tour groups through the facility and showing them exactly how we make our whiskey, he’ll lose his goddamned mind and be out of retirement so fast, my head will spin.
Our process isn’t crazy unusual, because all whiskey is made in a somewhat similar process, but we have several special steps that are proprietary. Bringing tours through would put the secrecy surrounding them in jeopardy.
“You know I’m right,” Temperance says as the elevator door opens on the restaurant level, and holds the button to keep it open as I step out.
“I know. But my dad—”
“Your dad isn’t in charge anymore. How many times do you say that to people on a weekly basis?” My silence is all the answer she needs to continue. “You took on a massive construction project without his approval because you bel
ieved in it. This isn’t even that big of a deal.”
“But our intellectual property—”
“Will be safe. We can structure the tour in a way that everything works.”
“What about liability? The lawyers would lose their shit.”
