The idea alone is enough to bring a sour taste to my mouth, but I try to choke it down.“You’re asking if my girlfriend’s non-ex can be trusted?”I scoff.“Sure.They bake cookies every other weekend with Quasimodough.Why do you ask?”
“Who’s Quasimodough?”Roman interjects.
I wave him off.“My step-child.Now answer the question.Why are you asking if Bryan can be trusted because if you’re saying what I think you’re saying, we’re going to have a problem.”
“Tight Ass’s account isn’t connected to the money, it’s mine,” Hawke points out.“Which means that the physical proof we have access to isn’t enough to dethrone Tight Ass from the board.”
He’s right.Fuck me, he’s right.
“So, what?We need a witness?”I laugh.They can’t be serious.
Can they?
The blood drains from my face as my brothers stare at me, waiting for the dots to connect.
Fuck.
“We need a witness,” I realize.My feet take me from one end of the large room to the other as I search for a different option.A different answer than the one swirling through my brain like a massive shit swirls down the fucking toilet.The problem is, I can’t find one.“Shiiiit,” I seethe, stopping in front of Jagger.“Don’t make me ask her.”
He lifts his hands.“Only looking at our options.”
Sure, he is.
“You want my girlfriend to reach out to her ex and ask if he’d be willing to betray a billionaire who literally owns this town and has more connections than all of us combined?”I demand.With another scoff, I scrub my hand over my face.“Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.”
“Ford,” Jagger starts.
“What if he can’t be trusted?”I spin on my heel to face him.“What if it puts June in danger?What if June talks to him, shows our hand, and Bryan goes running back to Daddy Dearest before spilling everything we know?”
Can’t they see how insane this is?
“Ford’s right,” Hawke mutters, albeit grudgingly.He rests his forearm on the mantle and stares at the different shades of oranges and yellows dancing in the fire.“That’s a hell of a lot of pressure on June.”
It is.It also means she’d likely have to lie her ass off, tell Bryan we broke up, and open the door to him hitting on her, touching her, and who the fuck knows what else?Bile glazes my throat, and my hands tighten into fists.
“Ford’s right about Bryan potentially reaching out to Titas after his date with June, too.”Shifting forward, Jagger rests his elbows on his knees.“But if she asks to talk to Bryan while we talk to Titas, it would cut out the possibility of Bryan tattling to him about what we know, and we’d keep the upper hand.”
“Maybe we don’t need Bryan to go up against Titas at all,” Roman interjects.“Maybe all we need is a recording of him admitting it that we can use against Titas.”
“And there’s the pressure on June again,” I spit.
“Unless you think you can do better, June’s the only option we have,” Jagger growls.“If we can get Bryan to admit it, that he took money from Titas to cover up the fire or to start it or whatever the hell happened, we can use the recording to make our father step down from his position at Mercer Consulting, which is what we all want.”
“And if he doesn’t step down?”I grit out.
Jagger shrugs.“Then we go to the board with Bryan’s confession.”
I throw my hands into the air.“So, you’re saying it all hangs on June seducing Bryan.”
Silence.Every fucking one of them stays quiet.None of them wants to be the bearer of bad news.And the worst part?I can’t even blame them.It’s a shit situation with a shit game plan.I know it, and they know it, too.
“Yeah,” Hawke finally replies.He squeezes the back of his neck, looking like a kicked puppy.“Yeah, I guess we are.”
My head hangs.“Fuck.”
“I’m sorry,” Hawke offers.
Sorry?He’s sorry?That’s all he has to say?
