I’m expecting him to deflate, huff and puff until the house wins and he slinks off back to whatever J Crew–infested nightmare he came from. But he smiles like he’s holding a royal flush and pulls his phone out of his pocket.
As soon as the audio starts, I know it’s too late.
“Fuck, man,” Manny says as makes a grab for his phone.
“Nuh-uh-uh,” Kyle says, pulling it out of reach.
I cross my arms over my chest, glad when Kyle’s smile falters as he takes in the muscles I’ve developed over the last decade.Yeah, knobhead, and I know how to use them.“All right, I get it. Stop the fucking recording.”
“Oh,” he says. “Do you want to talk to me now?”
Kyle is the world’s biggest tosser. I don’t know how he found out, but he clearly thinks he has leverage now. “What the fuck do you want?”
“Well, at first, I was going to just ask for an investment. But then I realized that’s too small. What happens when we need to raise more capital? No. What I want is an in at the company. Something high up. VP sounds good.”
He’s doing all this for a job? “Good luck with that.”
“You’re going to make it happen.”
Like hell I will.
“Or,” he says, dangling the phone from his creepy fingers. “I introduce Reed to your alter ego. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think he’s going to be too impressed with your filthy little side hustle. What’s it costing him, huh? To keep you afloat while you piss away the family money?”
At least Kyle is stupid enough to show his hand.
He continues. “And that’s before anyone from the press finds out. How are the shareholders going to feel when they discover their CEO’s brother is getting paid to get his rocks off online?”
I don’t fuck with shame, not about this. I enjoy what I do, but I also know that this is the exact reaction I’ve been trying to avoid.
Reed doesn’t want to talk at the best of times, and Mum is always looking at me like I’m lost to her. The last thing I want to do is make that worse.
So I bluff.
“I don’t give a shit. Tell whoever you want.”
But it doesn’t work. “You’d really do that to your own brother? You already made a bad enough impression when you got arrested.”
I fucking hate that he knows about that, but he is right. As much as I hate to admit it, and I never would to this tit, I’ve been keeping it from Reed because I know he’ll see it as one more mark against my name.
But it’s going to be impossible to convince him to hire Kyle. “Who says he’ll even go for it?”
“That’s not my problem, is it? That’s for you to figure out.”
Man, he’s a prick. “All right.” I shrug. “Let’s say I entertain this bullshit plan of yours. What happens if he says no? You don’t gain anything by telling him about me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I don’t get the job, sure, but I still win. Do you know how fucking annoying you all are? Think you’re so much better than the rest of us, cause Grandaddy Deacon loved you more. But you aren’t better, and I’m looking forward to seeing you knocked down off that fucking pedestal.”
Fucking hell. “And if I tell him first? Ruin your little game?”
“You won’t.” I hate how confident he is, smiling as he chews. I want to see him choke on that gum. “Otherwise, he’d already know. But sure, call him right now. Let’s see what he thinks.” I know punching him in the face won’t help the situation, but it sure would make me feel a hell of a lot better.
No. I need to buy myself some time, work out how to fix this before it blows up in my face. “Get the fuck out.”
It’s a blessing that he listens. Manny turns to me as soon as Kyle’s gone. “Bloody hell. What are you going to do?”
The last thing I want to. “I’m going to speak with my brother.”
CHAPTER37
