Acquiring Trouble

glanc ed at his watch and cursed as he saw it was five in the morning. He'd done it again. This whole week had been a blur. He spent his business hours on th e phone with the farmers discussing crop yields , t alking to banks , and lining up potential contracts . Nighttime was the only time he had to work on the grocery store proposal because his days were filled with fortifying the company .
    It shouldn’t really matter that he wasn't sleeping. It wasn't like he'd slept since that night in Afghanistan when Cade had been captured. That was almost six years ago now . Surely his body was used to getting the three hours of sleep a night he relied on.
    He welcomed the late nights. W hen he did go to bed early, it wasn't like he actually went to sleep. He sub consciously prevented himself from going into a deep sleep. He was always on alert. Always listening and evaluating every noise he heard. A t least this gave him something to do when he was lying in bed at home wide awake .
    Miles went over to his chair and slid his suit coat on.  He patted the pockets and pulled out his cell phone. He had turned it off when he visited with some of the farmers and hadn’t bothered to turn it back on. He grabbed some files and picked up his keys when his cell phone beeped. He dug it back out of his pocket and looked at the screen. He had three missed calls and two voicemails. One was from his brother, Cade , and two were from his mother.
    He locked up his office as he list en ed to his brother's voicemail first and then his mother's. Apparently Marshall had found the dog-fighting group and arrested a huge number of people. Their brother-in-law , Cole Parker, who was with the FBI, was helping out along with the DEA.
    Miles looked at the timestamp of the last missed call and saw that it was just an hour ago. Marshall was probably still on scene wrapping everything up. He'd check with his brother, get a couple hours of sleep, and then get some more work done all before he was due at his mother's for dinner.
    He had gotten a lot done this pa st week. He had received positive news from many of the farmers and was almost done with the grocery store proposal . He was waiting for his contacts to get in touch with him when one of David’s men called for information on Family Farms. He was sure they’d be checking out every business deal where his name was mentioned.
    Miles took a deep breath of the early morning air. Lexington was still asleep. The offices in the historic downtown were dark and the normally busy streets were empty. He opened the car door , placed his wrinkled suit coat on the seat next to him , and went to check on Marshall.
     
    Morgan Hamilton was in the middle of a lovely dream about running her own company. She was at the head of a long table with her employees around it . They were all facing her and listening to her morning briefing before she sent them out to conquer the world.
    Her very own executive assistant came into the room with a stack of papers. He opened his mouth and all that came out was a ringing noise. The man tried again to tell her something and again all that came out was that annoying ringing sound.
    Morgan groaned and without lifting her head from her extra - fluffy pillow she slowly reached her perfectly manicured hand out from under her comforter. She didn't bother to open her eyes. She'd find the blasted ringing cell phone in just a minute. Morgan felt her hand hit the nightstand and slapped around until she felt the phone. She grabbed the phone and pulled it under the comforte r before putting it to her ear.
    "Thi s better be good," she mumbled.
    "It is. Now get your ass out of bed." Morgan's eyes shot open as she bolted upright on the bed at the sound of her boss, David Wa shington.
    "What's going on?"
    "I need you to start an investigation for me. Tad found a company he thought might be a good prospect. I’ve l ooked over the surface material, newspaper coverage , and so on and thi nk it has potential for a takeover,” David snapped. He never sounded nice and it was particularly grating so early in the morning.
    “Why isn’t Tad doing the investigation?” Tad was an ass - kisser and David loved to pit them against each other.
    “ Oh, Tad wants it and he’ll get it if you screw up. But t he company is over in Lexington, Kentucky. You're from Kentucky, aren't you?" h er boss asked with his constant ly disapproving voice.
    "Yes, I grew up close to Lexington. I know the area