32. Chapter 31
Tucker
“What the fuck does he mean, you pulled a gun on him?” I had to be hearing Potter wrong. Where the hell would Ari have gotten a gun, and why the fuck would she be carrying it with her to school?
My wife rolled her eyes at me. “I think you meant to say, thank you for protecting my family, baby. I’m so glad you were there to make sure my cousin didn’t end up with his throat slashed like Jack the Ripper’s victims.”
“Why would you take a gun to school to begin with, Ari?!”
“Because my knife throwing isn’t as accurate as my shooting.” Her tone said duh, like I was an idiot for asking the question and I pinched the bridge of my nose in exasperation. This was what I got for marrying a mafia princess.
Potter, however, apparently thought my wife was hilarious.
“You gotta admit man, that’s solid logic.
” His face dropped and a seriousness that was rare for him came over it.
“If we’re being one-hundred percent honest, I probably would have died today if it wasn’t for her.
Bradley was seriously unhinged. She’s not wrong in saying we need to take him out once and for all.
” Before I could protest, he raised his hands in surrender.
“I’m not saying we kill him, but we’ve got to at least get him locked up or something, man.
Imagine if he’d gone after Leyla. Or Karly. ”
Fuck.
Out of all of my family at that high school, Karly was definitely the weakest link. I was going to have to make sure Dad sent security with the girls until Bradley was appropriately handled.
Ari scoffed. “I’m definitely all for killing him. His father is a very prominent business man. It’s unlikely you could get any charges to stick. It would be almost like if he came at you with fabricated evidence.”
Potter nodded in agreement. “She’s not wrong. I mean, I may be good, but I’m not sure it would be good enough.”
“Even if it was, his father owns the media in this country. There wouldn’t be anywhere a trial could be held that the jury wouldn’t be convinced of his innocence before they even walked into the courthouse.”
I hated that my wife was right. It wasn’t like I hadn’t killed before, so this shouldn’t have been such a hard line for me, but I just couldn’t stop thinking that there had to be a better way.
“Why don’t we call in the oldies and get their opinions?” Potter was much more of an ask forgiveness instead of permission person so the fact that he was suggesting we bring them in made me realize just how badly today had scared him.
Ari watched me closely, tilting her head to the side a little when I hesitated. “You think they’ll agree with me, don’t you?”
I scrubbed a hand down my face, hating this more than I could describe. My dad and Apollo would probably agree that he should die. Percy was a wild card, but after everything with Sterling and Caspian, it was likely he’d agree too. Atlas stood to be the only voice of reason.
“Who they agree with doesn’t matter. The fact is, Pott’s right and we need to call them in because this is something we should discuss as a family.”
Percy was the last to arrive because he had a house showing. If my dad had called the meeting, he probably would have been there sooner, but since I did, and I felt positive he didn’t take me seriously, he finished what he was doing first.
He let out a whistle when he walked into the office and saw us all there. “This is gonna be a good one, isn’t it? I mean, with Pott and Ari here too, and the state of Potter’s face, I’m guessing shit went down at school.”
We had yet to tell anyone what was going on, wanting to wait for everyone to arrive, but now that the last one was, Potter didn’t hesitate to fill everyone in. “Ari pulled a gun on Bradley.” Well, kind of.
All heads whipped toward her and like the crazy person she was, she smiled and shrugged. “I was defending my family. Sue me.”
Dad let out a deep breath. “Please, tell us the whole story, Potter, instead of just the end.”
“Bradley cornered me after school, pissed about the smear campaign Leyla’s been on, telling the whole school he has STI’s.
” My dad and uncles eyebrows all raised, confirming they really didn’t have any idea the things the older kids were getting up to.
“He cornered me in an area without security cameras and pulled a knife on me, holding it against my throat. Ari found us and put a gun to his head, getting him to release me.”
“Holy fuck. That school sure has gone downhill since I left there.” Percy chuckled. “Guess that’s what happens when you put a mafia princess in it.”
Ari flipped him off, but couldn’t stop the grin that covered her lips.
“Why did you have a gun at school?” My dad asked the same question I had.
She rolled her eyes. “Because my knife throwing skills aren’t as accurate as my shooting skills.”
My dad kept a neutral face, but Apollo and Percy apparently thought this was hilarious and burst out laughing. Atlas just looked like he didn’t know how to feel. His oldest son had been threatened at school and protected by my wife, who had taken a weapon onto school grounds.
Dad ran a hand down his face. “Let’s start at the beginning. Why did Leyla start a rumor that Bradley has an STI?”
Ari leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. “She didn’t.
Shawna did.” When my dad raised an eyebrow at her, she rolled her eyes and continued.
“He went on a date with Shawna while everyone was in New York for my wedding. One of Leyla’s minions broke into Shawna’s gym locker and rubbed poison ivy in her panties.
Shawna got an itchy rash and told everyone it was from Bradley. ”
Percy chuckled. “It’s quite genius if you think about it. She brought about his downfall without lifting a finger herself. If it were something that went to court, she’d be innocent.”
Dad cut his eyes at his brother. “If there wasn’t more to the story, Bradley wouldn’t have gone after Potter.”
Potter’s jaw ticked, making his dad sigh. “Out with it, son.”
“I may or may not have faked medical records confirming Shawna’s story and leaked them online. I also may or may not have faked clean medical records for Ley and crafted a social media post with them to make sure he was dead and buried. Socially, at least.”
Percy chuckled again as he looked at his phone, then handed it over to Apollo, who laughed and passed it on. “That was fucking epic.”
Dad’s jaw clenched in an effort to hold back a smile. “You showed your hand with the whole poon and balloon comment. Leyla never would have said that. Though, I can’t be too mad. If he’d come after Leyla, this would be a whole different kind of meeting.”
He was right. Ari wouldn’t have given the little shit the opportunity to say a word if she’d found him with my sister against the wall, knife to her throat. This meeting would be about making sure that the secret of his murder went to the grave.
Potter’s face turned serious again. “I know. He was completely unhinged and I don’t think any of us are safe until he’s dealt with. Tucker wants him in prison. Ari wants him dead. We called for you guys because we needed a plan and were getting nowhere with just the three of us.”
Atlas tilted his head to the side as he looked at his son. “What was your opinion?”
Pott shrugged. “I’m caught between a saint and a blood thirsty mafia princess. I agree with Ari that we’ll struggle to get him behind bars because of who his dad is. But I also want to back Tuck, and he’s firmly against murder.”
“Backing him doesn’t mean you have to agree with him.” My dad was the head of our family, but his brothers frequently disagreed with him. “You can say what you really think so he has options to consider.”
“I don’t know what to think.” Potter ran his hands through his hair.
“I’m a fucking senior in high school. I should be concerned with getting guys and enjoying the last year of freedom before the real world is forced upon me.
I should be ruling the school with Leyla and plotting our revenge for the guys that fuck us over.
Not trying to find actual solutions to real problems.”
“If only we came from a family where that was possible.” Dad looked at his brothers, sadness over his face.
“We wanted something different for you guys, but apparently that wasn’t in the cards.
My senior year, I almost failed out of school because I was having to run the family business because my father had been diagnosed with cancer and all the treatments that were meant to save his life, and did save him, made him incapable of keeping up with the workload. ”
“Our senior year, the family was starting to drown in debt from Zeph trying to expand the business.” Atlas looked at my dad, then his son.
“It wasn’t his fault he didn’t know how to run the business or expand one at twenty.
But I ended up having to step in to help and Ap ended up in New York trying to get us favors so we didn’t lose it all. ”
I hadn’t known any of that. I mean, I knew that Apollo had gone to New York and did some shady things to help the family, but I didn’t know the rest of it.
Percy didn’t tell us about his senior year. We’d all been old enough to remember it. He’d spent the first half of his senior year fighting for a marriage contract with Sterling, and the second half in hiding.
“So, what does everyone think?” Dad posed the question to the room.
Ari was first to answer. “I vote we kill him.”
Percy nodded. “I second that.”
“He’s definitely become a bigger threat than we expected. I’m voting to kill him.” Apollo's eyes met mine. “Sorry, Tuck.”
Atlas’ eyes found mine. “He needs to die.” What the fuck?
He was the one that was supposed to be on my side.
“You didn’t see Silver when I found her after she sent that SOS to me.
And while you might have seen some of the fallout after her kidnapping, we shielded most of it from you kids.
” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “We wanted things to be different for you all than it was for us. We might not be able to do that in all aspects, but maybe that difference starts here. Removing the threat before it causes irreparable damage.”
“Okay, but can we all at least agree that doing things differently doesn’t necessarily mean murder?
You all never attempted to take Caspian down.
” I wasn’t faulting them because who would have thought things would end up the way they did?
But I also think that situation was making them a little trigger happy today.
Apollo looked at me with so much sympathy in his eyes.
It seriously pissed me off. “No, but going after him wouldn’t have done anything.
Hamilton had resources and connections, much like Bradley Sr. I don’t think there’s any crime under the sun that Bradley can commit that would put his ass behind bars. ”
“What if he didn’t have power and connections?” All eyes turned towards Potter. “You all keep saying that Bradley won’t go to prison because of his father. What if we could take away that power?”
Dad leaned back in his seat, his brows furrowed. “Explain.”
A grin spread on Potter’s face. “The Blackwood’s own basically all of the media in the country.
When he makes a call, everyone jumps. What if I could hack into his email and send out a message telling all of his companies to run with a story that wasn’t just false, but slanderous and libel.
Hurt his bottom line and get rid of some of those connections? ”
Atlas smiled. “It’s not a bad plan. But it would have to be a huge swing. It would have to be against someone major for it to make a huge impact.”
“Or…” Ari looked right at me, “hear me out before you interject.” Her attention turned back to my dad and uncles.
“What if we made it dangerous? Instead of going against one of his connections, we go against someone that would wipe him off the board in retaliation instead of going after his assets. He’d have to take his son and himself and go into hiding to make sure they were protected.
Doing that would get rid of Bradley sooner rather than later. ”
“But it would put their lives at stake. Both of them. They haven’t done anything to deserve that.”
Dad rubbed his hand across his jaw. “Actually, I’m not sure that’s true.
” I whipped my head around to him. “When you came to me at the end of the school year saying Leyla and Ari were putting a hit on Bradley, I decided to do some digging in case we got to this point. While I can’t be sure that the younger Blackwood is in on it, it appears the older one has his hands in some illegal cookie jars.
One of which is selling women on the blackmarket.
” His eyes flicked to Percy. “I think he may have been behind the auction that Archibald bought Sterling at.”
Percy’s jaw clenched and his eyes lit with fury as he looked at Potter. “Do it. Ruin him.”