Chapter 1
one
Andrew
After rubbing my eyes, I lean my head against the back of my chair.
The headache I woke up with this morning is in full bloom.
My temples pound, and the pressure in my head makes me want to rip my hair out.
Popping acetaminophen like candy all day hasn’t helped, either, because it’s all stress.
They say it kills, and I’m on board with that.
I’m sure my blood pressure is through the roof, has been ever since I received that cursed email last week.
That’s why I’m staring at the Enki Inc. contract again. I’ve read it so many times in the last week, I have every word memorized—even found a typo we’ll need to fix before we use this template again. At least, that’s a win.
My fingers slide through my shoulder-length hair as I reread the page I’ve been reading all day.
The words don’t change, only my frustration levels.
With a final yank of the strands, I shove them behind my ears since all my hair ties have disappeared again.
I swear they get up and hide while I’m sleeping.
Maybe it’s time to find Adam’s wife, Rebekah, and get her to cut it all off.
She did a great job on Aaron’s hair. After heaving another sigh, I push more strands behind my ears.
Cutting my hair won’t fix my irritation.
It’s perpetual these days, even my brothers have noticed.
The need to fill them in on the situation adds one more thing to the shitshow, but I wanted to ferret out what the hell was going on before I brought them in.
Now that Adam, Aaric, and Asher have found their women, I don’t have the heart to pop their happiness bubbles.
Honestly, it’s been great to see them so in love—to see them settle down and find peace.
Not that I haven’t been jealous, too. I know Aaron, Adrian, and I want to find our forever woman.
I have to put faith in the universe that it will happen one day.
Still, the last thing I want to do is drag anyone into this clusterfuck. But fixing the dumpster fire I've been glaring at will not be easy. If we’re lucky, it is a non-issue. Except I don’t believe that for a hot minute. Something is going on, and I won’t rest until I get to the bottom of it.
The Enki Inc. agreement should have been straightforward, like all the others.
Each contract we draw up includes a clause stating that our products are forbidden from being weaponized in any way.
Every damn one of them—until this one. Somehow, the Enki contract includes an addendum nullifying that clause.
I didn’t agree to it. I would never agree to it in a million years.
Yet, my signature is at the bottom of the last page, mocking me.
Not wanting to involve the family, I contacted the IT team to dig into it.
They’re good—not as good as Adrian, but I hoped they’d find anything that would explain what’s going on.
But after four days, they found nothing.
It’s why Mr. J. Tanner, the sender of fucking email, is now on his way to the mountain.
They verified the email came from Tanner’s computer in the contracts department.
He was hired a little over three months ago and is assigned to Ronald Snyder’s team.
Snyder’s worked for us for at least ten years, with no hint of an issue.
So why is there a problem now? In the past, I would have had Snyder figure it out, but my gut’s telling me to keep this quiet.
The dead end forced my hand. I sent our plane to San Francisco to fly him here yesterday without telling my brothers.
It will be up to us to figure this out; I’ve put off telling them as long as I can.
Adrian is going to kick my butt for not bringing him in as soon as I received the email.
I have no excuse why I haven’t either—no good one, anyway.
“I’ve been looking for you. Why are you at your desk so late?” Adrian asks from my office doorway.
I smirk. Apparently, all I have to do is think his name, and he shows up.
“Just some paperwork. What’s up?” I answer, meeting his gaze. Even to me, my voice sounds strained, and my lame excuse causes his eyebrows to pull together.
“I just got a call from the car service we use. Do you want to explain who he picked up from the airport and why? Oh, and he’ll be here in less than an hour.” He strides into my office as he’s speaking and sits in the chair facing my desk.
I curse under my breath as I check the time on my laptop. How have I been sitting here for almost three hours? And fuck, I’m not any closer to an answer than I was before.
After running my hands through my hair, I sigh. “Yeah, I guess I do, but I’d rather just explain once. Can you call a family meeting? I’ll meet everyone in the great room in fifteen minutes.”
The slight parting of his lips and narrowing of his eyes tell me he’s on the verge of asking more questions. Holding up my hand, I stop him. “Don’t make me pull rank. Just do as I ask, please. It’ll all make sense soon.”
Adrian stands and heads out the door. Before he’s fully through the doorway, he turns. “Whatever it is, you know we have your back, right?”
“I know.” I do know. We will always be there for each other, even when one of us does dumb shit—usually Asher, though.
Though he’s better since he met Emma. She won’t let him kidnap and interrogate those he finds on the mountain anymore.
Thank God. I don’t know how many people we had to pay off to avoid lawsuits. It was getting out of hand.
After Adrian leaves, I print out copies of the last few pages of the Enki paperwork and the email I received from Tanner.
As the printer spits out the source of my anger and frustration, I stride over to my office window, staring out at the setting sun.
It’ll be dark by the time Tanner arrives.
Thinking about him makes me growl. Just when things were going smoothly, this asshole drops a boulder into the calm waters.
Dammit.
I reach for the bottle of bourbon sitting on the nearby table, I pour a shot and down it.
The burn of the alcohol sliding down my throat eases a bit of the tension knotting my shoulders.
I’ve put this off long enough. It’s time to face my unsuspecting family.
With a sigh, I set the glass down and grab the papers from the printer.
After striding out of my office, I head toward the great room where they’ll be waiting.
My steps are quiet as I walk down the hallway, leading away from our offices, and toward the main part of the homestead—the main house on our property.
None of us live here. At least, not since the fire that took our parents’ lives over ten years ago.
We use this more as our Gallant Mountain Headquarters and a place for guests to stay when they visit.
Instead, when we came back to the mountain to make it our home, we hired a company to do the basic cabin construction—except Asher.
He built his own and has been living here for years.
I still need to decide where I’ll put Mr. Tanner for the night. Maybe I should let Asher have him. He can interrogate him in the woods. I smirk, thinking about it. Ash would love it, especially after they find out what I think Tanner is up to.
From the volume of voices I hear as I reach the end of the hall, I know everyone is waiting for me. They’re curious why I called the meeting. I don’t blame them. We rarely have one these days—there’s been no need for quite a while.
Aaron is leaning against the fireplace when I step into the room. He tips his chin and raises an eyebrow when he sees the papers I’m clutching.
“Thanks for coming on short notice…”
“Not like we had a long trip,” Adam replies with a grin.
Rebekah is next to him on the large L-shaped sectional, with Hannah beside her.
Aaric is next to Hannah, cradling their baby daughter.
Adrian is in one of the larger chairs to the side of the couch, and Asher has Emma on his lap at the other end of the large sofa.
As I step in front of the fireplace, Aaron moves to another chair.
“I’m not sure whether Adrian mentioned we’re about to get a visitor,” I begin, meeting all their gazes.
“Who’s coming?” Adrian asks.
“A contract attorney from JNG.” I pass around the papers.
“What is this?” Aaron asks as he reads through the pages. “Wait, what the hell is this addendum?” His gaze meets mine, concern furrowing his eyebrows.
“It’s a problem, is what it is. One I haven’t been able to figure out on my own or with the help of the tech team at JNG.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Adrian asks. Hurt is clear in the thin line of his mouth and his narrowed eyes.
“I should have. If you give me the chance to tell you everything I know, I’ll answer everyone's questions. Okay?”
“Fine,” Adrian huffs. The others just nod and remain silent, their focus shifting from the papers I gave them and my face. I hate having to bring this to them without a solution.
“Okay, so about a week ago, I received an email from a J. Tanner from the contracts department. I know for sure it’s valid and sent from his computer at JNG.
He’s been an employee for a couple of months, working under Ronald Snyder.
” I watch the expressions on my brothers’ faces as I explain.
The women aren’t as familiar with JNG yet.
“I don’t know how that addendum was added after I signed it.
It’s not a forgery. I did sign it, but not with the addendum.
I’m not sure when it was added or by whom.
But the why is more important. Was it this Tanner guy?
I don’t know. After digging as much as I could and finding nothing, I decided to bring him here. We’ll find out what he’s up to.”
“Is he trying to blackmail you?” Adrian asks.
“The thought has crossed my mind. But why? What is his endgame? If I had agreed to the addendum, it’s not illegal, unless there’s something I missed…” What if I did miss something?
“We’ll figure it out. But you really should have come to us sooner,” Aaron says, his voice accusatory.
“Probably. But if it was just something stupid, there was no need to worry anyone. But I can’t help feeling that this is part of something bigger.”
The twins nod, but remain silent. They’re the developers, the geniuses behind our new apps, and don’t really get involved with the running of the company. That falls to Aaron, Adrian, and me.
“What are we going to do with him when he gets here?” Asher asks as he pulls Emma against his chest. I understand his protectiveness. It’s ingrained in all of us.
“I haven’t decided yet. I figured we’d greet him and get a feel for the guy. Then we’ll decide.”
“Where is he going to stay? We don’t know him. He can’t just wander around here and spy on us. For all we know, that is the plan,” Asher says. There are storm clouds brewing in his expression. I need to nip this in the bud before he goes full bear and lives up to Emma’s nickname for him.
“I don’t know that, either. I’ll probably have him stay on the couch in my cabin where I can keep an eye on him,” I answer.
Emma tugs lightly on Asher’s beard. Whatever she whispers into his ear makes him visibly relax and nod. I’m so thankful for her right now. In the past, he’d have stormed out of here and started setting up an interrogation area.
“He can stay with me or Aaron. We don’t have partners yet either.” Adrian shrugs. It won’t bother me to have the little shit in my cabin.
“Let’s play it by ear. No matter who he says with, he won’t have free rein of the compound. We can question him in the morning.”
“In the meantime, I’m going to do some digging,” Adrian adds.
“Me, too. I want to go through all of the recent contracts and look for any other red flags,” Aaron adds.
I nod in agreement. Hopefully, they’ll find something I couldn’t. But internet sleuthing isn’t my thing. Aaron is practically a numbers savant. If there is anything weird in our accounting, he’ll find it.
“Do you need us to do anything?” Adam asks.
“Actually, give me all the design requirements for the application they purchased. Can it be weaponized? If so, what are the implications for us? Our country? I guess that’s another issue we need to look at. Does this leave us open to prosecution for supplying weapons to foreign entities?”
“Will do. Aaric, I’ll take care of it. Get Hannah and the baby home.” The baby is fussing in Aaric’s arms. “I’m going to take Rebekah home and work from there. I don’t think any of the women should be around Mr. Tanner until we know what’s going on.”
“I agree. The less he knows about our family, the better. We keep to ourselves for a reason. I’m sorry I didn’t bring this forward last week, but I was trying to keep our newfound happiness going a bit longer. It’s been too long in coming.”
“Hey,” Asher cuts in, as he stands with Emma still in his arms. “This is not your fault. We’ll figure it out and fix it. You never know, it could still be someone’s innocent mistake.”
I’d like to believe that, I really would. But that extra verbiage didn’t just magically materialize on the Enki Inc. contract. Someone is up to something. Now, we just have to figure out the who, what, and why.