“Just letting the dust settle, boys.”
EG walked out from behind the wall of suits, his usual charming smile in place. He carried his cowboy hat, wore a blue suit and cowboy boots, and looked exactly as he had the last time Brad had seen him. Exactly as Brad would have looked had he not changed his life for the better.
He felt Ethan's body clench at the same time as his, but got strength from the fact that for the first time in his life, he and his brother were opposing their father together, a unit.
A small hand touched his spine and settled there, and Brad felt the warmth, let it calm him.
“A long way from home aren't you?” Brad addressed his father first. “I thought you’d be organizing the destruction of another piece of land somewhere in the name of oil.”
His father tilted his head slightly. Brad had always loathed that particular gesture because it made him feel like an insect under a microscope.
“Thought I'd diversify.”
“Carrying your revenge a bit far don't you think, EG?”
His father's eyes switched from him to Ethan.
“I blame you for what he's become.”
The smile had fallen away and in its place was the true head of the Gelderman family. An evil, narcissistic bastard.
“A strong, intelligent, caring human, with friends and a future? Well hell, I'll take the credit for that any day, even if I didn't have a hand in the man Brad has become. He's fifteen of you now, Father, and more than likely twenty of me.”
Brad didn't blink. He kept his eyes focused on his father as Ethan talked. Inside, however, now that was another matter. He could feel something hot and fierce spreading through him at his brother's words. A realization that his brother had his back.
“You tried to mold him, but he was stronger than you and got away, and I thank fuck every day that he did.”
“You're both a disgrace to the Gelderman name!” Anger had flushed his father's face red. “I disown you!”
“Ouch,” Brad drawled. “I'm sure that will hurt later, maybe in say a hundred years or so when I give a shit, but right about now it only makes me happy.”
“I'll do this, and fight you both every step. You’ll be sorry!”
Ethan and Brad folded their arms at the same time.
“Game on, then,” Brad said.
“Who are these men, EG?”
Another suit stepped forward to ask the question.
“My sons. However, unlike me they have no loyalty.”
Brad never so much as twitched at the insult. He'd long since developed armor plating where his father was concerned, and figured his brother had too.
“You pathetic little bitch!”
Nadine Buchanan, sick of not being the focus of attention, hissed these words at Macy.
“You shut your mouth,” Brad said, pointing at her.
“She's worthless, and couldn't even keep her husband. Poor Brian, we all know she set him up.” The woman’s face was contorted and ugly in rage.
“Oh hell no, you did not just say that, Nadine Buchanan!”
Before he could stop her, Macy charged forward and slapped the woman’s cheek.
“Never speak to me like that again. You should be ashamed of who you've become, your parents raised you better than this!”
