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“Good I’m on my way up.”
I drag myself out of bed and go out to meet him.
He seems agitated and completely unlike his usual calm collected self. When he barges in I realize something must have happened.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Tell me you have some hardcore liquor.” His jaw clenches.
“Always. Name your poison.” I smirk.
“Rum. The one you got from the Caribbean last year.”
“Coming right up.”
I retrieve a bottle from the drinks cabinet and meet Hunter at the island in the kitchen, where he’s already set out two glasses.
“What happened?” I pour us a glass each, deciding it couldn’t hurt to have one, too.
I hate drinking before lunch but in times like these I think it’s called for. As people say, it’s five o’clock somewhere in the world.
“My dad. He called Asher and me in for a meeting this morning. Neither of us knew he wanted to havethe talkwith us.”
My eyes snap wide. The talk is in reference to the company’s future.
If Preston has had the talk it means he’s ready to move to Europe and leave the US branch of Le Blanche Global to Hunter and Asher.
“Well, damn. That’s sudden.” I bite the inside of my lip.
“I know. He didn’t even give us a heads-up.” Hunter knocks back the rum and pours himself another glass. “I mean, I knew the day would come but I just figured it would be way down the line. A couple of years or another fucking decade.”
Hunter isn’t freaking out because he’s next in line to be CEO of a multi-billion-dollar global company. My cousin is losing his shit because of the marriage clause.
As he’s the eldest he has to get married as soon as possible. Asher is twenty-nine so he has a year.
The term was set by our grandfather, who we barely knew before he died.
It states you have to get married first before being given a leadership role.
And unlike some people I know with marriage contracts, there are no get-out clauses. No six months to one year of marriage fakery. You have to be married forever. End of story.
That shit doesn’t apply to me because I renounced my right to leadership in the company in favor of playing hockey. However, the moment I retire, the New York Gladiators will become mine.
Hunter and Asher, on the other hand, have a duty to fulfill, one they want badly but have no desire to do what comes with it.
“What are you guys going to do?” I ask.
“I don’t know. It’s not like I can escape it. I assumed we’d be doing things the way we are for years, but the time has come. I want to be CEO more than anything, but I don’t want a fucking wife.”
“Sorry, man.” I feel his pain. I’d be pissed as fuck if such a bomb was dropped on me too.
“I suppose my dad will also call you in at some point to talk about your shares.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Again, this isn’t something that affects me, but it’s still big news. It means I gain control over my father’s shares in the company. “How did Asher take the news?”
“He went for a drink.” Hunter swallows hard. “In Turkey.”
“Shit. And I thought I had problems.”
