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He sighs. “You can do that. I’m aware. But I’m also aware you usually crush someone like this woman to get what you want.”
“Crush is harsh.” It’s true, but I follow the line of the law. I’ll skate close to the edge, but it’s more pleasing to see how I can push rules. And… I frown. “If I crush her, then all my good work is moot here.”
“So, you don’t need to move yet on your project.”
“If you want the damn earrings, you can have them.”
Ryder gives me a contemplative look. “I’m not sure it works that way. They’re marked for you.”
“I don’t have anything to wear with them. Besides, my ears aren’t pierced.”
He takes a long swallow of his tequila. “You’re funny, dickwad, really.”
“Hey, you’re the one who’s mostly obsessed with them.”
“Yeah.” He stares into his glass for a long moment. “But you notice how things shifted after Hud got his ring? We’ve all discussed this, but our father’s up to something.”
“He’s dead.”
“That’s not going to ever stop him making a point.” Ryder laughs softly. “And you know what I mean. There’s something bigger and the fact these up until recently only rumored about family heirlooms are turning up, tied into the Sinclair flagship, I don’t know…I don’t want any of us to fuck this up.”
“By that, you mean me.”
He sets the glass down and stands, hands in the pockets of his jeans as he goes to the window and leans against the frame, looking out into the dark. “I think you’re doing something morally…not okay.”
“Not okay?” I take a swallow of my drink. It should warm me, not send a shiver of ice through my blood. “As in reprehensible?”
“I think you doing this might negate whatever good you’re going to do to show you have heart.” He breathes out. “Whatever the fuck that means.”
He’s got that right. “So I let this be until after all of this?”
“It’s only two weeks.”
“Our mother met her.”
“I know.” Ryder turns and looks at me. “What are you going to do?”
It’s a good question, and I do have answers. I’m going to take Zoey’s place. But perhaps I can hold off, no matter how I go from wanting to eke it out to rushing it so I’m not stained by her goodness. That shit eats down deep.
“I have a foundation ready to go. I have charities. I’m giving all over the place. Some of them I’m not even going to use for taxation purposes.”
Ryder rolls his eyes. “That’s what accountants and business managers are for. The bottom dollar matters, I know that, but don’t screw up and lose our heritage.”
Now I stand, too, and go and pour myself another tequila, straight. “I’m not about to. The Sinclair name, our family company, they mean something, and they add something to all of our brands. They give us depth. I’m not about to let a little curly haired creature get in my way.”
My brother just gives me a look that says the world. And I get it, I do. Zoey has a way of getting in the way, of sliding down deep, of causing the kind of trouble I never expected.
Zoey can be a backburner project for the next two weeks. I can manipulate things to my advantage, go in less until this other situation is dealt with, and then finish with a perfect landing.
Actually, knowing my mother, I wouldn’t put it past her to keep an eye on the Zoey thing, even talk to Jenson. But I can manipulate that, too. Set up something to take care of Zoey. Make it look like my plan was that all the time.
And the more I think, the more I start to reshape my plan, and my fake gran sits in the center, with Zoey, with the Sinclair jewels, with my father’s meddlesome ways for me to keep the balance of our heritage in the proper hands—those belonging to me and my brothers. I can use it all to show I have heart.
I smile at Ryder. “Don’t worry. I have a plan.”
It’s almost midnight when my phone rings. I think of ignoring it as I’m neck deep in work, setting things up. But it’s Georgio. I hit answer on my phone and his voice fills the room.
“We got a problem, Boss.”
