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“So what do we do?”
Her smile is cool and she looks at me like I’m not Ryder Sinclair. She looks at me like she might look at her UPS guy. Actually, I’m betting she gives him a far warmer welcome. For some reason she doesn’t like me, but I really don’t care either way.
She gestures to the door. “I’ll courier a contract to you tonight. Sign, make the first payment—”
“You don’t think I can pay?”
“I think you might need to learn others follow protocol.”
I nod. “I can do that. Time is short, though.”
“After you courier it back to me, we’ll get started.” Elliot Perry once again gestures at the door. “Lena will get all your details I need.”
And then, like I no longer exist, she sits back at her desk and starts working on her laptop.
The next four weeks are going to be interesting.
The Lower East Side upscale bar we’re at is one of those faux grunge places that border the East Village and all the rich, cool young things are here. Along with my brothers.
Magnus is with the little sweet thing he’s chosen to marry in the next few months. My black hearted, career-oriented brother found an actual heart, and a reason for having one. Zoey is also as steely as him and stubborn beneath the sweetness, and my brother still occasionally gets a look like he doesn’t quite believe what happened to him.
Then there’s Hudson and Scarlett, who are married, in love, and judging from the hovering he’s doing and her alcohol-free zone, I’m betting there’s a future Sinclair baking away in her oven.
There’s only me and Kingston who remained blissfully untethered.
King’s as cynical as they come, and his interest in the jewels is purely monetary. He’s already got plans of a display if he can only talk the other two into lending the pieces that adorn both Zoey and Scarlett.
“You’re really gonna do it, Ry?” he asks, taking a swallow of his whiskey.
I raise my own in a silent salute. “Yeah, it’s four weeks and I’m intrigued what mother dearest’s role is in this.”
“She needs a hobby,” says Magnus, whose comment earns an elbow in the ribs from Zoey, who sits on the arm of his sofa-like chair. “Well, she does, Zo.”
“I’m betting a thousand he can’t.”
Scarlett looks at Hud. “Well, I don’t know. Ryder might be made of stronger stuff. Team Ryder.”
I’m about to thank her when a hot woman walks in. She’s got short black hair and a roll to her hips that does things to a man. Her smile sets off mine and Hudson says, “Actually, make it five hundred thousand.”
Kingston smooths out the letter on his jean-clad thigh and he looks at it and then at me. “You gotta stop that shit if you want this. Maybe the company is sitting on something huge we don’t know about.”
“Like what? We’re board members. No, this shit is nothing more than games with things we care about—I care about.”
“Not against what’s happened to me, and I think I speak for Hud, too,” says Magnus, “but our father always liked to play stupid games.”
“Maman,” I say, with a heavy emphasis on the sarcastic as she prefers mother for reasons of her own, “also does. You can’t tell me she’s hands free.”
“Not with you, that’s for sure.” Hud laughs. “You got it good over that scandal.”
“I warned you to quit that shit,” says Mag.
“Yeah, well, I’m thirty-two. What the hell does what I do have to do with how I perform in my work roles?”
“Father from beyond.”
“Thanks, King.”
He shrugs. “We’ve been waiting for the next one. It’s you, and if you want the necklace and to keep the company, then…”
