Eugene ignored him.“Ever since your mama died, you’ve been hard as a rock.You may know this business better’n anyone but me, but you sure don’t have the love for it that I hoped you might.”
John was incredulous.“Love?What’s to love?A business is a business.We’ve got open pits and mountains and mines and dirt.We’ve got gemstones.We’ve got receipts from the sales of those gemstones.If there’s anything to love, it’s the bottom line—which would be a hell of a lot more impressive if you would let me broaden the company a little.But you’re so goddamned narrow-minded—”
“Whoa,” Eugene warned, his face heating.
“What?I shouldn’t say that?But it’s the truth, only you’re still living like a hick so you don’t know it.”
“Watch it, boy.”
But John wasn’t intimidated by his father’s flashing eyes.“It’s been a long time since I was a boy.If I were to get full control of this company tomorrow, I could turn it into something big within a year.”
“You’d ruin it.”
“I’d build it.It’s static now, standing still, just like everything and everyone in this godforsaken town.”He couldn’t resist elaborating on that, because he knew it would irk Eugene.“No one does anything here.Small brains, small thoughts.If not for St.George Mining, these people would be living like they did thirty years ago.They don’t know what ambition is.Well, I do.I’d make something of the company that no one else around here could dream of.”
Sniffing in a breath, Eugene drew himself up straight.“You may just live to eat those words, boy.Mind you, when it happens I won’t be around to gloat, but you can bet your boots I’ll be up there, leaning against those pearly gates, watching to see which one of you does what.”
John felt his stomach tighten.“Which one of us?”He had assumed Eugene would leave something to the others, but he was thinking in terms of money or a trust.“You’re going to let Pam have a say in running the company?Or Patricia?Neither of them knows anything about this business.”
“Cutter does.”
John didn’t breathe for a minute.He was sure he’d heard wrong.“Cutter?”When Eugene nodded, he said, “CutterReid?”
“Ain’t no other Cutter around.”
John was incredulous.“Cutter Reid has nothing to do with this.”
“Someday he will.I’m leaving him Little Lincoln.”
“You’re … leaving him … Little Lincoln.”It was a statement, disbelieving, but a statement nonetheless.
“That’s right.”
“Cutter Reid?”
“That’s right.”
Talk of Little Lincoln, the mountain that John had been lobbying to open for years, was bad.Talk of Cutter Reid, who was a constant thorn in John’s side, was even worse.But it was the smugness in Eugene’s voice that broke John’s composure.
“Have you gone mad?”he roared in an uncanny and unwitting imitation of his father.“You can’t do that!Little Lincoln may contain some of the richest pockets of tourmaline we’ve found yet.You can’t leave that mountain to Cutter Reid!He’s not in the family—he’s not your flesh and blood—and he doesn’t know a thing about managementCutter Reid?You’re out of your mind!”
“I don’t think so.Neither did Joe Grogan.”
“Then that old lawyer is as crazy as you!”He turned away, sure that what he was hearing was a joke, but in the next breath he turned back, less sure.“You’re kidding, aren’t you?”
Eugene shook his head.
“Cutter Reid is a no-good troublemaker!”
“He’s a good worker.”
“He’s lazy!If he had his way, he’d have the men taking breaks every hour!”
“The others respect him.He’s a leader.”
“He’s an instigator.”
“He believes in human dignity.”