"But you could earn your license back more quickly," Hunter said. "I went down to the city to try to negotiate your fine. Judge Edna said she would give you your license back if you played Macbeth in the play. She'd count it as community service."
"Isn't that illegal?" I asked. "It's basically bribery."
"Small town," Josie said. "Also, Edna really doesn't want Ida to play Macbeth in drag, and Art has that bum foot."
"And a drinking problem," Mace muttered.
"So you know she's a little desperate."
Archer snickered and scooped a large spoonful of grilled eggplant onto Nate's plate. "Garrett doesn’t want his license back. He clearly likes being driven around by the cute redhead."
"Why don't you and Meg play the Macbeths?" I shot at Hunter. I did not want the conversation to derail to the state of Penny's physical attributes, as impressive as they were.
"Please," Mace snorted. "Meg still hates Hunter. Aren't a whole bunch of people murdered in that play? Meg would probably stab Hunter for real."
I needed to bring those two back together. It was the only way to keep my quality of life from deteriorating any further. Mace handed me a plate of food, and Davy crawled into my lap as I ate.
"Remington, would you please come fetch him?"
"He's too short to sit by himself," Remy said, beaming at me. "Why don't you take him to work with you tomorrow?"
"You should take us!" Oscar said. "We need to learn from the best about how to run a company."
"Flattery will get you nowhere," I told him. "Besides, you have school."
"But we have a real business plan. We almost have a prototype for our product," Billy said.
"You can show me when you're done," I promised him. "But not for a few weeks. Sebastian from Thalian Biotech is arriving in a few days. We need to make a good impression. My sources tell me his meeting with the Holbrooks went very well. We have the added disadvantage that we're not in Manhattan, so he would be moving his employees."
After dinner, I walked outside. It did really feel like autumn. The season always made me feel slightly anxious. When my father had kicked us out of the cult, Hunter, Greg, and Remy had made it seem like we were just camping. It had been the middle of summer, it was warm, and we hung out in the brush and fished and hunted. Then fall hit, along with the bitter cold, and it suddenly wasn't so much fun anymore. The change in the weather brought back the anxiety of being a child and listening to my older brothers' panicked whispers at night when they thought we were asleep.
Remy came out onto the terrace, Davy draped over his shoulders.
"He should be in bed," I said.
"It's not that late, it just turns dark early. Davy wanted to see the stars. I told him you knew all of the names of the constellations."
I looked up at the night sky.
"Hazel made cookies. Here, I brought you one."
"I don't care for sweets."
"But it's a happy bat, for Halloween!"
Remy was probably my favorite brother. He stayed in his lane and didn't get in my way. He was a military veteran, and his money had been what Hunter and Greg used to hopscotch our family net worth into the tens of billions. Now he puttered around the estate, ran his foundation, entertained the kids, took care of the grounds, and generally annoyed Hunter, which I wholeheartedly approved of.
"You can eat it, Remy," I told him.
He took a big bite of the cookie, crumbs tumbling down his beard. "Having a bunch of bakers in the family sure is convenient," he said around the treat.
"Sure is."
He rocked on his heels. That was what he did when he was going to ask for something he knew I did not want to say yes to.
"Davy and I were talking earlier today—"
"Oh, you and Davy were having a conversation, were you?" I said. "That's interesting, especially since Davy can barely string together sentences."
