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“Meanwhile the business—”
“Your business is fine,” she snapped at my father.
The four of us brothers each hid our snickers.
My father frowned. “Things can turn on a dime. Take a look at McAdams.”
My heart clenched, and my brothers all looked at me.
“I heard a rumor that things weren’t good,” Chase said.
“They’re dire, son,” my father said. “I don’t want that to happen to us.”
“Maybe the answer is to go back to before and let us work to our hearts’ content and not worry about family,” Kade said.
Alex released a long pfft sound. “You’re just afraid to fall for someone because who’d want to put up with your smart-ass mouth twenty-four-seven?”
Again, the rest of us grinned but held back our laughter.
“Let’s focus,” my father said.
“I might have something,” I said, thinking of Beth and Ben’s business challenges. If I could turn that ship around, perhaps it would have the fast results my father wanted. “Give me another day to research and come up with a proposal.”
“See. That’s what I need. I can always count on you, Ash.” My father stood, giving me a pat on the shoulder as he made his way to the door.
“Suck up,” Kade hissed at me.
As Alex followed my father out, she stuck her tongue out at Kade, then shut the door behind her.
“Well,” Hunter said standing up. “That went well.”
“We should riot,” Kade said.
“How would that be different than any other day for you?” I asked.
He laughed. “It wouldn’t.”
As we walked out together, I felt a connection to my brothers that I hadn’t since I was a kid. Alex’s proposal to my father was stupid, but she’d been right. Love had changed Chase and most especially, Hunter. It had changed me too. The problem was, heartache was a bitch, and I was sure that Alex hadn’t anticipated that.
14
Beth – Wednesday
The last few days I hadn’t seen Ben. I’d been busy with Hannah and packing up the townhome. Ben was busy doing whatever he did all day. I needed to get him the contract for Jet, but I supposed I was putting that off because I knew he’d end up being upset. But I couldn’t put it off any longer so I headed to the McAdams Enterprises building.
My brother was in my father’s office, and for a moment, I saw what he could have been. A strong, competent businessman, like our father. Like Ash. He was on the phone asking for more time to pay from one of our many creditors. He wasn’t drunk, but it was clear he’d been drinking. His eyes had that glazed-over look.
He looked up when I walked in and motioned me to sit in one of the chairs in front of the desk. When he hung up, he reached into his drawer and pulled out a bottle to fill his glass. I started to protest, but for what purpose? I couldn’t stop him.
“What are you doing here?” he asked as he put the bottle back.
I handed him the paperwork for the Jet sale. “It’s all signed and the money is in the account.”
He looked over the paperwork. “I can’t believe I let you take this over. You shouldn’t have to deal with Ash Raven.”
“We didn’t have a choice, remember? We need the money. I just feel bad that you had to sell it as I know you loved it.”
“That died when I found out what Ash did to you.”
The one thing I regretted about Ben learning the truth about me and Ash and Hannah was how much he blamed Ash. He acted like Ash had taken me against my will, which was far from the truth. I’d given myself to him willingly. Not just then, but again over the last couple of weeks. Ash had some pull on me that I couldn’t seem to resist. All the more reason to finish our business and move away.
“It’s a lot of money, Ben.”
“It’s not enough. Even if he paid all our debts, it wouldn’t be worth you having to see him again.”
I sighed. “My relationship with him was a long time ago, Ben. You need to let it go. We’re grown up now. Our lives are changing. We need to forget about the past and move forward if we want any chance at salvaging dad’s company.”
Ben shot up out of his chair, forcing it back to slam against the wall. “It doesn’t matter how much time has passed, Beth. Ash betrayed us. How could he have done that? Go behind my back fucking my sister? It’s disgusting.”
I hated that he sullied something, that at the time, had been so beautiful and perfect. And from it I got Hannah. Anger boiled in me, but I worked to control it. There was no sense in both of us losing our cool.
“It wasn’t like that, Ben. I loved him.”
