“Steal it? Aren’t your parents all rich? Why would he steal?”
Malone’s eyes met mine. “To keep me from having it.”
“Do your parents know?”
“They do now, but even if they’d known then, they would’ve told me to leave anything I wanted to keep at home and to not make waves. My dad isn’t into confrontation. He’s the younger brother.”
“But he and your uncle are twins!”
“Well, that thirty minutes means a lot, Stark. At least that’s what I’ve always been told.”
“That’s awful.” You could say a lot about my mother, but she would—and indeed had—gone full mama bear on both kids and adults who picked on me. Unfortunately for me, my mama bear hada tendency to forage for long stretches of time and thus wasn’t always there when I needed defending.
“You gotta understand something about my dad,” Malone said. “He’s a college philosophy professor in a family full of businessmen. My mom has a chronic illness, and he will do anything—and I do mean anything—to stay in Grandpa’s good graces so he can be absolutely sure that he will always have enough money to take care of her. So, in the scheme of things, it doesn’t mean a whole lot to him if my spoiled-brat cousin steals my favorite G.I. Joe action figure or my original copy ofThe Death of Superman. Those are things and can be replaced.”
“What about your mother?”
“She’s really big on turning the other cheek.”
“Ah,” I said. “So not like me in the least.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes more before Malone added, “I could live with all those things. We were just kids, but then he stole my college girlfriend, the first woman I was ever serious about.”
“Ouch. Selena?”
“No, no. I didn’t meet her until much later. My first girlfriend from back when he went to Stanford.”
“Blake Malone went to Stanford?”
Malone laughed. “Not for long. By the end of his freshman year, he’d crashed and burned, but unfortunately for me, he didn’t manage to do thatbeforehe convinced Jada to dump me.”
“And now he’s stolen money but is trying to pin it on you?”
“Yes!” Malone’s response was so loud that BB looked up from where she had been snoozing between us. “Have you ever been in a competition that you didn’t want to be in?”
“No, not really.”
“Well, from as early as I can remember, my cousin has wanted to ‘beat’ me. Flag football? I’m going to end up with a bloodied nose from where he ‘accidentally’ elbows me. Comic books and action figures? Ifhe didn’t get it first, then he’ll make sure I don’t have it. Girlfriends? He’s slept with more women, and hethinksthey were all prettier. The family business? He’s gonna be on the board of directors and make sure that my company is hired only on an as-needed basis.”
“So he can steal funds.”
“Apparently.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“Because it sounds like whining, Stark.”
“Not to me, it doesn’t,” I said softly.
“Well, he’s not getting away with this one, because now my business and my reputation are on the line. Material things, I don’t care about. In a funny twist, he was the one to teach me how unimportant those things are. And I know now that any woman who wants to be with him isn’t right for me. But I’ve worked really hard to make Chateau Cybersecurity a thriving business, and I have employees who count on me. Moreover, Grandpa and his dad before him worked hard to make Malone Construction a solid business, and my greedy cousin doesn’t get to tear that down.”
By now he was standing, his chest heaving with the effort of his speech.
“You’re hot when you’re righteously indignant, Malone.”
