Chapter 1

      “I want Brooks and Johnson,” Lucius Knight told his lawyer and best friend, Adam Powell, as the two sparred in the boxing ring of their favorite gym on a Wednesday afternoon. It was one of Lucius’s favorite pastimes when he needed to blow off some steam, and today was one of those days.

      “I know. I’ve been acquiring the shares like you asked, but why?” Adam inquired as he squared off against his six-foot-two friend.

      Lucius put his gloves down and looked him in the eye. “Does it matter? I want it.”

      “Yeah, it does,” Adam said. “I’ve never seen you so focused on a company before. Why is it so important to you?”

      Lucius couldn’t tell Adam the real reason he was interested in Brooks and Johnson, an organic retail company, was its cofounder Naomi Brooks. Known for his playboy lifestyle, Lucius hadn’t been able to settle for anyone or anything, let alone a woman. But Naomi Brooks was different. He liked her story. She was a no-nonsense type of woman, a real do-gooder who not only believed in what she was selling—organic products that ranged from shampoos and conditioners to body lotion—but had also become successful in her own right. Who would have thought that the nerdy sophomore with the boyish figure and acne problems who followed him around during his senior year in high school would someday turn her basement business into a national success story?

      Lucius understood that kind of determination.

      Because he’d done the same thing. A reformed bad boy turned businessman, Lucius had experienced a chaotic relationship with his mother and had chosen to live with his grandmother in the Rose Park neighborhood of Long Beach.

      Adjusting to the neighborhood and being a loner hadn’t been easy for Lucius. He’d rebelled and gotten into trouble often in school. Eventually, he’d met Adam, and a friendship that would last decades had been formed. Lucius had gone on to obtain an MBA before investing in his first business venture, an up-and-coming technology firm. The gamble paid off, and he’d made his first million before he was thirty. And thanks to his shrewd sense for recognizing opportunities, he’d formed Knight International and was now a wealthy tycoon with holdings across multiple industries.

      “Hey, hey.” Adam waved a gloved hand in front of Lucius, jolting him from looking back down memory lane.

      “You do that again and you’ll get knocked out,” Lucius joked, effectively ending their conversation about Brooks and Johnson.

      “I doubt that.” Adam gave him a jab in the side. “Who do you think taught you how to fight?”

      Lucius answered with a blow of his own to Adam’s middle. “You did. But as in the stories of old, sometimes the student becomes the teacher.”

      Adam laughed heartily. “We’ll see about that.”

      The two men continued to spar for another hour before they finally took a break. The gym along Santa Fe Avenue was starting to fill up with locals, which signaled it was time for Lucius to roll. Even though he still liked coming to the old neighborhood because it reminded him of days gone past, Lucius also knew the hundred he’d paid to the kid outside to watch his Bentley to ensure no one would scratch it wouldn’t last too much longer.

      “How about a beer?” Adam said as they jumped down from the ring and walked toward the benches where their gym bags were.

      Lucius smiled as he reached for a towel to wipe the perspiration from his forehead. “After a shower, you’re on.”

      * * *

      “Kelsey, whatever you’re cooking up smells wonderful,” Naomi Brooks said from her bar stool as she watched her business partner and best friend, Kelsey Johnson, stir a fragrant concoction on the stove of her four-bedroom home in Belmont Shore that afternoon.

      Kelsey shrugged her shoulders, tossing her blond curls. “It just kind of came to me. I’ve been stirring this pot for an hour trying to get the consistency just right.”

      “In your condition—” Naomi eyed Kelsey’s growing belly “—you don’t need the extra exertion. Plus, we have a development team that handles new creations for us.”

      Kelsey turned from the stove to face Naomi. “I’m only six months pregnant, not completely fragile. And I kind of miss the days when it was just the two of us toiling away on our new business.”

      Naomi nodded. She remembered those days, too. How could she forget? She and Kelsey had had the bright idea of starting an organic-products business eight years ago due to the sensitive skin and allergies they had in common. Naomi had suffered terribly in high school with bad acne. It had just been a notion, but soon they were in the kitchen testing out their ideas. Their parents had thought they were crazy. They’d just received their four-year liberal arts degrees and now their daughters wanted to start a new business with no experience?

      They’d shown them.

      Naomi and Kelsey had researched the hell out of the organic industry and slowly started building their brand. They initially sold candles, shower gels and bubble baths from Kelsey’s apartment. Word of mouth about their little business began to spread in the local community, especially when they began attending farmer’s markets. Soon, they were expanding to include shampoos and conditioners. And once their business hit a stride, they could no longer make their products out of Kelsey’s apartment. There had been some serious discussion about the next steps for their growing business. They’d also decided that selling online rather than going retail was the best way to promote and market their products.

      It worked.

      Their online presence had quadrupled their sales, causing the need for an office and a manufacturer who could distribute their growing product line. Once they’d topped several hundred million in revenue, they’d moved forward with an IPO and gone public, putting 49 percent of their shares on the open market but retaining 51 percent. It was important that they maintained majority interest in their company.

      Naomi glanced at Kelsey. It was hard to believe just how far they’d come. “It was just the two of us for a long time,” she finally commented wistfully. But times had changed. Especially when Kelsey had two miscarriages and had a difficult pregnancy with her first child, Bella. Since then, Kelsey had opted to work from home, only coming into the office when needed.

      “I know.” Kelsey stirred the concoction in the pot. “But having this second