He’s been nonverbal since birth, and while he can hear us, he never speaks. According to various reports, doctors couldn’t fix his speech impairment because his vocal cords were damaged beyond repair as a child. However, there were certain rumors floating around a few years back that he could speak. He just prefers not to.
Either way, that’s his business, and for him, we all learned sign language. Enough for us to understand him, at least.
“It’s the most important night for the club. As a silent partner who made all of this,” he swirls his finger in the air, “possible, you think I wouldn’t come and check on all of you?”
“We came up with the idea, concept, and all business decisions,” Von fires back, shaking his glass before taking a long sip. “Yet you make it sound as if this club exists because of you.”
A smile curves his mouth, while his eyes stay cold, and a warning ignites in them. “You had a concept and limitedresources because you wanted to keep it under wraps. You came to me asking for help and huge investments. I created the financial plan and executed it so well that no one could ever trace it to you all. Especially your fathers who seem to have you all in a choke hold since you are so afraid of them finding out about your little hobby on the side.”
“Our fathers are powerful men in their own right, and we respect them. We never said we fear them. We wanted to have something of our own.” Wyatt joins the conversation, and his harsh tone tells me he has little appreciation for our guest’s jab. “And last time I checked, you have a huge percentage in this business, but not the majority of shares. So why the fuck are you sitting here and acting as if you own us?”
Yeah, Kings do not react well if someone tries to wield their power over them.
Too bad my best friend prefers to walk the law’s narrow line and never commits a true crime because it goes against his principles.
He might torture someone for days, but he won’t ever kill them, for death is not something we can decide on our own, according to him.
High morals and all, it’s admirable to an extent.
Among us all, he has the least amount of blood on his hands.
Our partner drinks his whiskey, holding Wyatt’s gaze before replying. “Yet you guard your secrets well from them. My point still stands. If I withdraw my support, this whole establishment will crumble. So yeah, to an extent, I own you all. You might not like it, King, but it’s a fact.”
“Careful, Braiden. You have absolute reign only in Chicago. New York is our ground. Don’t provoke us in our territory, or you might not like the consequences.” Our eyes meet as we face off one another because his words are largely aimed at me.
After all, my father is the underground king of New York, who has had issues with his father and uncles for years. And while they have the cold peace right now between them, since many of my uncles are friends with them, the resentment stays strong on both sides.
Whenever we ask what the fuck happened, no one says a thing.
Octavius and Isla Reed adopted Braiden when he was five or six, so he’s older than us. We never became friends during the rare meetings when all our families got together, but we acted civil toward one another.
The guy is a genius, and he tripled his two trust funds three years ago, so once we decided to open our club, we knew we needed him on board for it to be successful. When we approached him, though, he told us to fuck off, so I had to persuade the only person who could convince him to help us.
We used to go to the same art class during our summer vacations in France and bonded over our love for English literature, although most of the time she yapped about her dreamy prince who ignored her. Still, she planned to marry him someday.
Despite finding this whole thing redundant and pathetic, it spoke to my obsessive nature, so we kept in touch, even though her family was less than thrilled about it. I think her father assumed I had a crush on her, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Braiden did not appreciate the fact at all and told me to keep my friendship to myself and never fucking approach her again, per his warning.
It was hilarious to see him so riled up over the whole thing. I’ve seen Isabella Price ten times in my lifetime, but it got him on board, so I had to act like I was making such a great sacrifice in cutting contact with her.
Apparently, the Four Dark Horsemen and their heirs love going after the forbidden fruit because she was seventeen when he made that warning. That’s all I’m going to say about their fucked-up age-gap dynamic.
I’m not one to judge, all things considered.
“If stating facts is provoking you all, then so be it,” Braiden signs, then traces the rim of his glass with his finger. “Either way, I have no time to measure whose dick is bigger. I’m here to talk about business.”
Kane groans, finishing his drink and pouring himself another. “Please fucking do so we can go and enjoy our night. Compared to you all, I actually look forward to indulging in all the mayhem.”
“Income quadrupled this year, and we have people offering countless millions at this point to join the club. Whatever marketing you all do on the side, it’s working. We’re on track to make a few billion this year.” We have no reaction to that because most of us already have this amount in trust funds alone.
Even Kane, not that he knows about it. Uncle Eudard created one for him as well. They practically adopted the guy.
We are all so fucked up, we’d be a dream team to some shrink.
“Great. If that’s all—” Kane gets up, only to sit back down when Braiden shakes his head.
“What are we doing here?” We all furrow our brows at this. “For a business to flourish, one must put energy, resources, and time into it, and none of you seem to grasp this fact. They are focused on their music and about to go on tour.” He points at Von and Kane, who clink their glasses at this. “This one makes it his mission to bully an innocent girl while trying to locate his brother, and has family drama to last him a lifetime. What’s theend agenda in this anyway?” Wyatt grits his teeth, and Braiden looks at me. “And you.”
