30. Travis
Travis
“Well,” Ryan says, perusing the bar in my private office. “At least you have the good shit.”
We’re at my place just outside the city.
It’s the kind of house Bruce Wayne might have grown up in, with tall gates, a long, winding road through the woods, and several elaborate fountains situated around the circle drive out front.
It’s one of the older English-style properties with expansive gardens, and plenty of room to breathe.
Typically, I stay at my high-rise in the city. But that’s not going to be a good idea for the coming weeks.
“You really think he’s going to do it?” Graham asks, his stare burning a hole in the top of my desk. “Go full Stephen on us?”
“I don’t think anyone can do it like our father could,” I admit, swallowing down my own shot of whiskey. I don’t drink like this often—ever, really, with the way it affects cognitive processing—but right now, I need the soft burn to keep my cool.
Especially since Serena insisted on staying behind. On not coming with us.
It took everything in me not to scoop her up and take her anyway.
There were rumors, growing up, that our father did a lot more than reputation-targeting for the worst of his enemies.
That there were a few unfortunate souls staring down the barrel of a muffled gun at the behest of the eldest Oakley man.
But Alex wouldn’t do that to Serena. It would be mad. He might be a whiny, insolent kid, but he’s not a murderer. And I’d wager he wouldn’t even know the first place to go to hire a hit man. Times have changed since our father was at the top of his game.
Even so, I had Dianne contact a personal security company. There’s an armed protection agent sitting outside Serena’s house. She got home okay. And we’re going to make sure she stays that way.
“But he’s going to try, huh?” Ryan asks, giving us a wary look from his spot leaning against the far wall.
“I think he is, yes,” Graham mutters.
Ryan knows about our father. In the way that guys do, I’ve told him about it. Nothing flowery, but a simple description of the man Stephen Oakley was. The rigorous expectations. The threats toward his enemies. He ruled every part of his life with an iron fist, including how he parented us.
That is, except for his relationship with Bonnie.
My mother was not the great love of Stephen’s life. And neither was Alex’s. Bonnie—Graham’s mother and the one Stephen cheated on mine with—was a little Southern belle, the kind of carefree woman who can really only come from some sort of wealth.
She was visiting the city when my father saw her, and from that day forward, he was different.
When he was with Bonnie, he even became softer with me.
For a while, guiltily, I didn’t mind my parents’ divorce, even with the strain it put on my mother.
If it meant Stephen was nice to me, that was preferable.
Plus, my mother was happier after the separation, even if she wouldn’t admit it out loud.
Up until now, I’d never understood how Bonnie changed my father. Now, it makes a lot more sense to me. Now, knowing Serena, I understand how a woman can sweep in and change what you thought you knew about yourself.
“Do you think they’re actually going to be able to help?” Ryan asks, jerking his head in the direction of the antechamber to my office, which holds not just a large conference table, but also a small group of experts here to help us mitigate whatever damage Alex is going to try to cause.
A representative from the best publicist agency in the city. Two women with connections to every newspaper and magazine in the country. One older, bald man who understands the grim side of the Stephen Oakley method.
Together, they’re anticipating what Alex might do. Setting up roadblocks. Designing security measures. The goal is to stop him at every corner.
Alex isn’t enterprising. He’s not even clever, really.
But he is entitled. And he has access to our father’s money—the money left to Priscilla when he died. With those two things, Alex might be able to hire someone strategic enough to cause chaos for us.
Ryan is about to sign a deal for his baking show. For Graham, the designation of a new National Park hangs in the balance.
And I’ll be damned if I let Alex touch Onyx—the company I built without a single penny of our father’s money.
Ryan shakes the ice in his glass, and it draws me out of my thoughts. It seems Graham is deep in his own, as well. Of course, we both process internally, while Ryan prefers to talk things through.
“I sure fucking hope so.” I knock back the rest of my whiskey as punctuation to that statement.
“Well, I think it’s probably a good idea for us to discuss the elephant in the room.” Ryan glances at me, then at Graham.
“The elephant in the room,” Graham mumbles, staring down into his glass intently.
“What’s wrong with you?” I ask him, knowing I’m poking the bear. Graham has always been quiet and steady, but with a hidden mean streak. The biggest of us, he was always the one to stand up for Alex and me, despite me being much older than him, and frankly, capable of protecting myself.
“Nothing.”
“Obviously it’s not nothing,” Ryan quips, knocking his shoe against Graham’s as he walks past. Graham scowls at him and pulls his boot back. “Here’s my guess—Graham is grappling with two things. First, how much he wants to be with Serena, since he hasn’t yet?—”
Graham lets out a warning growl, but Ryan keeps going.
My brother and best friend haven’t been around each other much, and it’s interesting to see how this dynamic plays out.
Graham is like the pit bull, or mastiff sitting on the ground, while Ryan is a playful boxer, jumping at him, not realizing what he’s getting himself into.
“—and the second thing is obviously that he didn’t realize how much Alex sucks.” Ryan pauses, shrugs, and takes another swig of his drink. “Always a bummer to find out someone isn’t who you think they are.”
I think about saying something like, And what would you know about that? But poking fun at Ryan’s idyllic upbringing isn’t going to help us now. Plus, I’m pretty sure that combative thought comes from drinking. Ryan isn’t my enemy, even if I can’t stop thinking about his hands on Serena.
Outside the windows, the night is inky black.
The city is a bright, hazy spot on the horizon, a sort of shadow light against the clouds.
We’ve been here for hours, left Onyx and came straight in this direction.
Really, we should be boarding the jet and leaving, but I can’t shake the thought that Serena might change her mind.
“Aren’t you observant?” Graham rolls his eyes, drops his head back against the couch. “Of course this kind of thing would happen. First woman I’ve liked in years, and she’s with my brother. And my brother’s idiot friend.”
“I’ll pretend that didn’t hurt my feelings,” Ryan quips, “and that you only said it because my take on you was so accurate. And—wait, are you saying that in all this time, and all these countries, you haven’t been?—”
“No,” Graham says, lolling his head over and giving Ryan a droll stare. “Obviously I’ve been with women. But there’s something about Serena…” Graham shakes his head, closes his eyes. “She’s different.”
“For the record, I was the first,” I declare, knowing I sound petulant. I’m essentially saying, I saw her first. “She’s been working for Onyx for months. Alex actually asked me to fire her.”
“Maybe he had a point, given what’s happened.”
“I never would have done a thing when they were dating.” The words come out quickly, and they’re the truth.
“And, honestly, if he hadn’t been such a fucking asshole when he broke it off with her, I wouldn’t have done anything after, either.
But he was shitty enough to her that he didn’t really deserve that consideration. ”
“Plus, it’s really hard to stay away from her,” Ryan adds. “Have you seen the face she makes when she tries something she really likes?”
“Don’t be mushy,” I mutter, even as I want to see the face for myself. “Not when we’re about to have our lives torn apart.”
Graham looks over at me, and I half expect him to defend Alex again, but instead he says something I definitely was not expecting. “Why don’t we just… share her?”
The room falls into silence.
“Share her?” Ryan repeats, propelled into motion again. “What does that even mean?”
“Well,” Graham says, shrugging one shoulder like Ryan does. “I mean—she was obviously okay being with the two of you at least somewhat overlapping. And if I was reading her right, she was interested in me, too. So maybe she would be interested in… that. Nobody has to stop seeing her.”
“We all just see her at the same time?” Ryan asks, raising a single eyebrow and looking directly at me. “Don’t you think some of us would get… jealous?”
I bite my tongue. At first, the thought of sharing her makes a hot strike of anger rip through my chest. But it’s quickly followed by a sense of… peace?
If Ryan or even Graham can make her happy too, why wouldn’t I want that?
“I think I could get over it,” I say, meaning it.
“I can’t believe we’re having this discussion,” Ryan says, pacing faster now. “I mean—it would definitely give your brother something juicy to spread around. But I like the idea. I think Serena would, too.”
“That is, if she even wants anything to do with us, after that scene,” Graham mumbles, before dropping his chin to his chest, closing his eyes, tucking down further into the chair. He is like a bear, in more ways than one, going into hibernation.
“Hey, wake up,” I say, though I’m feeling exhausted, too. “We have too much to deal with right now for a nap.”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” he murmurs, and then, “I hope she is. Interested in it.”
Ryan meets my gaze, and we both look at my brother. A man who has never expressed so much as a passing interest in a woman in years.
“Yeah, man,” I swallow, turn around, and go searching for the whiskey bottle. “Me, too.”