Page 61 of The Tower

Before Leo could prod him again, Liam stood to pour a drink. “Tell me about Elias,” he said, bringing Leo a whiskey and keeping one for himself. He stood by the window, too wired now to sit still.

“Really? You’re changing the topic of conversation to Daddy Dearest? Do you even care?”

“Not really. Do you?”

“Hell, no. The man’s the biggest prick alive.”

Liam nodded slowly. “So he’s still alive.”

Leo shrugged. “Depends on your definition. They’ve got a medical team working round the clock, but the prognosis isn’t good. Marge and Alex are keeping it out of the media, of course. I considered tossing a bomb to The Times, but the idea of losing my inheritance gives me gas.”

“Nice. Thanks for that imagery.”

“You could leak it,” Leo said. “Nothing stopping you. Your inheritance is a joke.”

Liam tossed his hands up. “And he hits another homer.”

“Oh, please, like you haven’t already wrapped your head around that unfortunate reality and flipped Elias a double-fingered bird.”

About that, Liam really couldn’t argue.

“Like you even need family money. You’re raking it in with RS-Cyberwerx,” Leo added, referring to Liam’s cybersecurity company, named in honor of his mother, Rebecca Strait.

Liam stayed silent, but his little brother wasn’t wrong. And there was some irony in the fact that the most lucrative jobs tended to skirt the edge of the law.

Like father, like son, like brothers.

“So come on, man,” Leo pressed. “Throw me a bone. You kidnapped her and now you’re fucking her. Some sort of runaway bride thing?”

“I didn’t kidnap her but keep that under your hat. She’s here voluntarily.”

“Because you’re fucking her?”

“You’re starting to sound like the older brother, and I really can’t countenance that.”

Leo grinned, flashing the smile that had let him get away with murder for his entire life.

“Not an answer.”

Liam would never trust his other brothers to hold his plan close to the vest. Hell, they’d probably tell Reed just to fuck Liam over. Leo, however, was a good egg. Not necessarily a good man—on that, the jury was still out, but who the hell was Liam to criticize?

More importantly, Liam would trust his little brother with his life, rap sheet and all.

So he told him. Keeping it short and simple, he explained about Reed’s deal with Desmond Bane and how Sasha was the price. About how Reed had killed Sasha’s mother. And about the experimental meds he’d been feeding Sasha for years.

“The man’s a menace,” he concluded. “And with Sasha on board, we can take him down.”

“And this has nothing to do with your mom? With Victor Reed killing her?”

“Of course, it does,” Liam snapped. “You think I won’t release the balloons on Rebecca’s behalf when Reed’s name is smeared and his ass is in jail? Of course, I will. Hell, maybe vindicating her death is my primary motivation. I honestly don’t know. All I know is that he’s a worm that deserves to be trampled on.”

“And Sasha Reed is the boot you’re wearing to do the stomping?”

Liam grimaced. “Not loving the imagery, but you’re not wrong.”

“Just the boot?”

Liam shrugged. “Don’t know what you mean,” he lied, unwilling to let his little brother know how much he craved the woman sleeping in the other room. What would be the point? It’s not as if they’d ride off into the sunset on a white steed. And why the hell would he want to get twisted up with the Reed family?