Chapter 2
Kai – a goofball who might understand the meaning of the word responsibility but chooses to ignore it
Kai
I whistle as I open the door to Buccaneer’s Whiskey & Distillery, the business I own with my five brothers. Technically, my oldest brother, Eli, owns fifty percent and the rest of us share the remaining fifty, but it’s all good. I don’t need the responsibility of owning a business.
“You’re late,” Jaxon says when I enter the distillery.
“Dude.” I shake my head. “Time is a construct designed to bring the man down.”
He glares at me. “We’re expanding the distillery. There’s a lot of work to do. As the operations manager, you need to handle this.”
Ugh. I never asked to be the operations manager.
Especially after I realized the operations manager is a tough job.
The list of items on my to-do list is never-ending – manage the equipment to ensure safety and environmental regulations are met, manage the staff working in the production area, ensure production targets are met, coordinate movement of raw materials and finished products, etc. , etc., etc.
I’m exhausted merely thinking about it all.
“I thought you’d be more laid back since you got married to Blossom.”
Their marriage began as a ruse to convince Blossom’s ex to stop trying to steal from her but they fell in love and now they’re blissfully happy. My stomach sours. I want what they have.
But the woman I want, doesn’t want me. Harper thinks I’m a child. So, she’s eight years older than me. Big deal.
“I want to work less,” Jaxon says. “I can’t keep doing your job and mine.”
I frown. “You don’t do my job.”
He lifts an eyebrow. “Really? Who handled the safety inspection last month?”
I bristle. “I was here.”
“You were physically here, but you didn’t finish the preparations we agreed upon. I did them.”
This discussion could go on for hours. “I’ll do better next time.”
“You’re only saying you’ll do better to get me to shut up.”
Well, yeah. Because Jaxon can go on and on about responsibility and all the other nerdy stuff. Sometimes I wonder if he’s really a Raider. He hasn’t got a fun bone in his body. Except he does have the Raider blue eyes. All six Raider brothers do.
I glance at my wrist. “Shouldn’t we be working now?”
“You’re not even wearing a watch. ”
“Maybe it’s invisible. You know all about being invisible.” I wink.
Jaxon pretended to be invisible when he was avoiding Blossom. Why he was avoiding a woman who was chasing him is beyond me. It’s not as if he has tons of options as the king of nerds.
I wave as I saunter to my office down the hall from Jaxon’s. When I open the door, I hear a click before glitter and confetti rain down on me.
“Gotcha!” Zane and Miles, two more Raider brothers, pop up from behind my desk.
Jaxon chuckles from behind me and I whirl around to face him. “Did you delay me to give them time to set this up?”
He shrugs. “Finish the preparations for the inspection next time.”
What? My boring brother doesn’t usually participate in pranks. My jaw drops to the floor and I sputter when I get a mouthful of glitter.
“We are winning the prank war!” Miles shouts and Zane high-fives him.
There’s always a prank war going on between the Raider brothers. Usually, I’m in the thick of it with Miles and Zane. But recently I’ve been off my game.
I shake my head. “A prank doesn’t count unless five out of six Raider brothers witness it.”
Zane shrugs. “We can’t help it if we notified Eli and Rhett but they didn’t show up.”
Miles narrows his eyes. “This five out of six rule isn’t fair. Especially when the boring brothers don’t show up the way they should.”
“The way they should?” I ask. “It’s the middle of a work day. We’re supposed to be working.”
Zane rushes to me. “I’ll check his temperature while you message Dr. Allens and tell her we’re bringing Kai into the emergency room.”
“Got it.” Miles pulls out his phone.
Zane reaches for me but I bat his hands away. “I’m not sick. I don’t need a doctor.”
“Are you sure?” Zane asks. “You literally said ‘we’re supposed to be working’.”
“Words I never thought little Kai would utter,” Miles adds.
I growl at the term ‘little Kai’. I hate being the youngest brother. Everyone treats me like a child. I’m twenty-four. I’m a man. They should treat me as such.
“Uh oh. Is little Kai getting annoyed?” Zane pats my shoulder and I shackle his wrist.
“Don’t make me break your wrist.”
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” Miles shouts.
“Are you seriously fighting in the distillery?” Rhett asks as he enters my office. “Jaxon is going to kill all of you.”
“He started it!” Miles and I shout at the same time.
“Jinx,” I say before Miles can. He sticks his tongue out at me.
“Is this why you texted 911 to me?” Rhett fists his hands at his hips. “I don’t have time for your childish behavior.”
“What’s wrong? Did we interrupt your private time with Dakota?” Zane wiggles his eyebrows.
Dakota is Rhett’s girlfriend. She’s also Eli’s personal assistant and works at the distillery. Which means I had a front row seat to their courtship.
It was hilarious. Dakota wouldn’t give our stuck-up brother the time of day at first. Rhett did not handle rejection very well.
I indicate Rhett’s shirt. “The buttons on his shirt are uneven.”
“Fuck,” he mutters as he fixes his shirt.
“I thought we weren’t supposed to have sex in the office anymore,” Miles says.
Rhett points at Miles and Zane. “You two are not allowed to bring women in for ‘private’ tours of the distillery that end up with the cleaning crew complaining about finding bras and panties in the refrigerator.”
“What about Kai?” Miles asks. “You didn’t point at him.”
I lift my hands in the air. “Because I know better than to piss Andy and Waylon off.” Andy and Waylon are the distillery workers.
Zane snorts. “Liar. You don’t give a shit about pissing off Andy and Waylon. You haven’t brought any women back to the distillery since you laid eyes on Harper.”
“Just because I’m not a player the way you and Miles are doesn’t mean I haven’t had any female company.”
I’m lying. I haven’t been with a woman since I met Harper. Or re-met Harper, I should say. I grew up on the island. I’ve known her since I was seventeen and trying to sneak into Rumrunner – the bar she owns .
But it wasn’t until recently that I saw her for the first time. Really saw her.
She’s strong and beautiful. I want her in my bed and in my life. But she won’t give me the time of day. I’ll change her mind. I’ll deal with a ton of shit from my brothers in the meantime, but I will change her mind eventually.
“Harper and Kai sitting in a tree. K—”
I slap a hand over Zane’s mouth before he can continue. “Don’t be childish.”
He pries my hand away. “Me? I’m the one who’s childish? You’re the baby, or have you forgotten?”
I roll my eyes. “You’re one year older than me. Big deal.”
“It is a big deal. I…”
He trails off when Dakota barges into the room. “What’s the emergency? Is everything okay? Who do I need to call? Fire department? Police department? Electricity company?”
Rhett tags her hand and draws her near. He kisses her forehead. “There’s no emergency.”
She scowls. “Then why did they…” She scans the room and notices the glitter and confetti. “Oh. The prank war continues.”
“You should go home for lunch if you don’t want to get interrupted,” Miles says.
She snorts. “Right. Home. Where we’ll have two small children and a dog to interrupt us. Great plan. ”
“How are Mira and Pearl doing?” I ask. “Am I still their favorite uncle?”
Pearl and Mira are the two children Rhett and Dakota are currently fostering. Dakota doesn’t want to have her own children due to some health issues, but she’s always wanted to be a foster parent. Although, I doubt Mira and Pearl will ever leave their care.
“I don’t know.” Dakota taps her chin and I notice a gleam in her eye. “But I bet if you babysit them this weekend, you will be.”
I groan. “You want me to babysit so the two of you can have date night.”
“Duh.” She rolls her eyes. “What’s the sense in having five uncles if they don’t babysit?”
“Fine.”
“And this time,” Rhett grumbles. “You won’t get into the paint. We spent two hours bathing the girls after the previous time you babysat.”
I hold up my hands. “It wasn’t my fault. Pearl conned me.”
Dakota narrows her eyes at me. “My five-year-old daughter conned you?”
“She’s a genius. She convinced me you said it was okay.”
She shakes her finger at me. “No paint and no glitter.”
“What about confetti?”
“Don’t make me phone Harper and tell her you wet the bed until you were ten.”
“I did not wet the bed until I was ten. You’re devious. ”
She smirks. “You have to be devious to fit in with this family.”
Rhett kisses her cheek. “You fit in with this family just fine.”
Miles grins at her. “I approve of this devious side.”
She points to the door. “Good. Because if you don’t get back to your office and answer the phone – it’s been ringing off the hook all morning – I’m going to hide all of your surfboards.”
Miles loves his surfboards more than he loves this family. He planned to become a professional surfer, but a rotator cuff injury during a competition in Hawaii ruined those dreams.
“I never wanted a sister anyway,” he mutters as he marches away.
When Dakota aims her gaze at Zane, he rushes for the door. “On my way to my office.”
“No more pranks in the distillery,” she shouts after him. “Jaxon will get mad, and he’ll complain to Blossom, and I’ll never hear the end of it. But I can’t complain. Apparently, I have to allow my best friend to vent as often as she wants.’
“Jaxon approved this prank,” I tell her.
She widens her eyes. “What did you do?”
I open my mouth to answer but she holds up her hand before I can speak. “Never mind. I’ll find out from Blossom.”
Rhett nods to the confetti and glitter. “Get this cleaned up.”
“Why do I have to clean it up? It’s not my mess.”
He doesn’t answer. He waves as he leads Dakota out of my office and down the hallway.
Typical. The youngest always gets stuck with the chores no one else wants to do. As I clean my office, I plot my next prank. If Zane and Miles think they can win the prank war, they have another thing coming.