“Not when it comes to the shit Calder gets up to,” I answer. “Our hotel guests don’t normally get their arms broken for upsetting the wrong person.”
My brother lets his body slant toward Grace. “Nothing to do with me. I’m a puppy dog,” he says, extending his arm so it rests on the back of her chair. “Some people just react badly when a man touches what’s theirs.”
“Calder.” Rory says it as a warning before I can react.
Calder removes his arm and takes an orange and red card from his inside pocket. He places it on the table in front of Grace. “I’ll just leave this here,” he says. “It grants open access to our VIP area for you and… Would your husband be joining you, Mrs. Hamel?”
“I’m divorced.”
Calder glances at Rory. The question was planted. “I see.”
Rory slaps a hand down on one of the project files. “It might be a better use of your time to visit Brimstage. Corbyn House is going to be one of our most prestigious destinations,and Duke must rate you very highly to go to such lengths to get you on board.”
It sounds like a compliment and maybe I’m being paranoid, but this pincer movement from my brothers has put me on edge. “She’s more than qualified.”
“It’s going to be challenging,” Rory continues. “I swore to Maddie the renovations would be sympathetic to its history, and that the spa would have a positive impact on the small community of Brimstage.”
“She’s connected to the Griffins, isn’t she?” asks Grace. “They sound…interesting.”
“Interesting is one way of putting it,” he says with a chuckle.
“Each of the brothers has their own individual quirks,” adds Calder with a smirk. “The broken arms Duke mentioned, that was Mace, and those guys got off lightly. There was this one time–”
“They occasionally deal with bad people who do bad things,” Rory interjects, firing a look at Calder to shut the fucker up, for which I’m grateful. Grace has enough to process. “Ash is the oldest and he and I go way back. I’d trust him just as much as I would a brother.” His gaze flicks to Calder. “In some cases, more.”
Calder stifles a yawn, like the insult is old news. Which it is. “I sometimes wish they’d adopt me.”
“So do we,” I add, cocking an eyebrow.
“They sound scary from what Duke’s said,” Grace admits.
Rory nods as he digests what she’s implying. I’ve trusted Grace with our family’s secrets. “They’ve helped a lot of struggling communities over the years, and rescued vulnerable women from unspeakable dangers. They refuse to berecognized for their good deeds. In fact, they’re only really known for their whiskey label.”
“Whiskey?”
His chuckle is an indulgent one. Whiskey is his favorite subject. “It’s a passion Ash and I share. You must have heard of Griffin whiskey. We stock it at all our hotels, including the Exemplar. Maybe you saw it when you were there.”
Which brings us back to why Rory and Calder have ingratiated themselves into my meeting. They know she’s the girl from Philly. “About Corbyn House,” I say. “Rory, I’m aware of our commitments to Maddie, and I’ll go through everything with Grace. You don’t need to be here.” My gaze flicks to Calder. “And he most definitely doesn’t.”
Calder looks far too smug for his own good. He came in here wanting to press my buttons and he succeeded.
Rory’s got what he wanted too. He’s had his suspicions confirmed about Grace and now it’s time for them to fuck off, but Rory hasn’t finished with me yet.
“I was speaking to Hunter earlier,” he says. “He and Maddie are making a whistle-stop visit to Brimstage this week. They’ll be dealing with paper mill business during the day, but I’ve persuaded them to extend their stay into the evening so you can meet them. Both of you.”
“We haven’t discussed visiting the site yet.” Grace says, eyeing me with suspicion. She thinks this is a set up. If it is, I’m not party to it.
“No, we haven’t,” I agree. “But…” Escaping Chicago and my fiancée sounds damn near idyllic. I just need to persuade Grace and my twitching cock that I’ll keep my promise about not hitting on her. “We do need to get out there.”
Grace doesn’t look convinced and it’s Rory who nudgesher in the right direction. “Maddie won’t be able to return to Brimstage for a while. There’s a Griffin baby due very soon and none of them will want to be away from home for a while.”
The baby in question isn’t due for another couple of months and Brimstage isn’t so far away that the family couldn’t be recalled at a moment’s notice. It’s an outright lie, and I think I might just love my big brother a little more than I did two minutes ago.
This is Rory’s way of easing his own conscience. He was the one to put my name forward when Ash was looking for a volunteer to act as Katarina’s fiancé. The visit to Brimstage isn’t going to be a permanent fix, but it could heal some of the damage between me and Grace. And I’ve been on plenty of business trips since my engagement so it shouldn’t raise suspicions with Katarina or her goons.
“I’m not sure…” Grace says. “Who else would be going? It would make sense to take O–”
“Just us,” I interrupt. If mentioning Olly was her way of testing me, I’ve failed. To reassure her my intentions aren’t completely dishonorable, I add, “We’d only have to be away one night.”
