10. Graham
GRAHAM
“Someone’s got a case of the Mondays.”
“Fuck off.” I look up when my brother Finn waltzes into my office.
“I need a discount on a hundred thousand microchips.”
“No.”
“I’m signing your name on this order.”
“No.”
“Hey, I do a pretty good job of forging your signature. Thanks, bro. I’ll take it to accounting. Where’s that little stamp thingy you use to make everyone know it’s legit?”
My phone goes off.
Ryan: You still coming to sibling lunch?
Ever since Ryan found out that my paternal half-siblings (God, my life is more complicated than the Svenssons’) have lunch every Tuesday, he’s wanted to start a maternal sibling lunch.
It’s terrible.
I hesitate, about to give an excuse for why I can’t make it.
Wait—I could use Dani as an excuse…
Finn blatantly reads over my shoulder as I type then delete the message.
“Wait—Dani actually wants to see you, like, socially, even after you kidnapped her?”
“Shut the fuck up,” I hiss. “The walls in my office are glass. I can’t have people knowing I kidnapped a girl. Especially not one like Dani.”
“I’d be more worried about the fact that she’s got your balls in her hands and she’s squeezing.” He makes a fist in front of my face.
“Yeah, really. I mean, I’d be impressed if it wasn’t ruining my life.”
“You are two peas in a morally gray pod.”
I scoff.
“Aw, you didn’t start to fall for her, did you?” He ruffles my hair.
“Fuck no.”
“I don’t care what Grayson and Aaron do. I’m never falling in love. I’m never getting married. I’m certainly never bringing a kid into this shit show. And me—I know what I am. I’m a monster, just like Dad. Literally like Dad, though.”
“Literally? I mean, you literally failed to keep a girl locked up, so I think you’re not like him.”
“Dani is different.”
“Let me guess.” He paraphrases Dad. “You two have a special connection?”
“No! Even if I got a brain lesion and was dying, Dani would be at the bottom of my list. She’s… There’s something wrong with her.”
“There’s a reason why guys like Dad pick certain types of girls to kidnap.” Finn sits on the edge of my desk. “Didn’t you read all those FBI reports? Predators always target the ones with a certain type of personality profile. Your stepdad literally wrote the book on it.”
“Yeah, I fucking know.”
“And nowhere in that book does it say psychos kidnap high-paid investment analysts from rich families. Spencer says she lives in one of the fancy doorman buildings.”
“With her parents. Okay, so I mean, I think she fits some of the criteria.”
“Sounds like she comes from a loving, involved, nurturing family.”
“Instead of giving me shit, can you help me figure out how to get her to accept the bribe?”
Finn shrugs.
“Girls like that want the fantasy, right? Like Beauty and the Beast.” He pokes me. “So give her the beast. And make sure she knows that you’re never turning into a handsome prince.”
“Stepbro didn’t want to get in on this?” Ryan asks me when I walk into the restaurant.
“I don’t know.” I shrug.
Like I’m willingly going to talk to him.
I sit down to cheers from Sean and Max.
“G-dogg!”
“Free food!”
“Didn’t Mom and Dad give you money for food?” Ryan sighs.
“We want to buy video games with it.”
Our parents never gave me money when I was their age, but I keep my mouth shut.
I shouldn’t have come. I don’t know why I did. But I was so lost in thought about how to show Dani that she really wants nothing to do with me that I was on autopilot walking out the door.
“So we meet again… for lunch! Muahahaha!” Hannah skips over. “Ooh, bread!”
“That’s ours!” the teens wail.
“They’re on their third basket.” Ryan grabs the bread from the teens. “Graham’s paying, so he can have some bread.”
“Ooh, you didn’t already tell Graham the good news without us, did you?” Bridget sits across from me and steals the bread.
If Ryan and Claire are pregnant, I’m going to get up, walk out, and drive until I hit the Pacific Ocean.
“They haven’t told me anything,” I say, tense in my seat.
“Okay, so we have a great idea.” Ryan grins.
Not pregnant. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. God knows what I really would have done with that news.
Get Dani pregnant.
That’s—no, that’s despicable.
Could be nice… She looks slippery and lush in the bath.
Lush?
Stupid word.
“—Party,” Bridget is saying when I rip my thoughts away from Dani in the bath, talking to me while her breasts floated in the water under the mounds of sweet-smelling bubbles.
“Yeah, sure—how much money do you need?” I murmur.
“Well,” Ryan says anxiously, “we thought it could be like a group-planning thing.”
“Then why isn’t your other half brother here?”
“Bridget said not to invite him,” Max pipes up.
“I don’t think he wants to help party plan”—Bridget looks guilty—“but you like to plan things. You’re superorganized,” she tells me. “And I think Mom and Dad would be happy if we all planned it together.”
“Get your girlfriend involved.” Sean snickers.
“I see what you’re doing,” I warn him.
“She’s organized.” Hannah shows me Dani’s Instagram, where she’s got way too many posts about planning her brother and friend’s wedding.
“She’s so fucking weird.”
“You like her.” Ryan grins at me.
“No, I don’t!” I yell back.
My half brother gives him an odd look.
“Then why are you with her?”
“I mean, I do like her. It’s just… none of your business.”
“Two weirdos in a weird pea pod.” Bridget shakes her head.
“Anyway, what do you think?” My siblings look at me expectantly.
“About?”
“What Hannah just said?”
“I wasn’t paying attention,” I admit.
“Awww, were you thinking about Dani?”
“No!” But I can feel a flush creep up under my collar.
“I told you,” Claire says.
Hannah squeals. “He’s in love!”
“Oh, the wedding is going to be spectacular!” My half sister swoons.
“We’re not getting married.”
“Mmm. Well, let me know if you change your mind—I have always dreamed of going ring shopping with a seven-figure budget.”
“I just don’t think”—I try to redirect my siblings—“Mom wants an anniversary party. I mean, we all know how she and Fran—Dad—met. They never do a lot for their anniversary. There’s probably a reason why.”
“Yeah, but it’s been over twenty years at this point,” Hannah argues. “They have a bunch of kids. A house. Dad wrote several books. Mom’s got her business.”
“I mean,” Ryan says, “maybe he’s right. Maybe we should ask them?”
“Then it’s not a surprise. It’s not like we’re making it kidnapping themed.”
“Isn’t it weird—if she didn’t get kidnapped, we wouldn’t be here,” Max muses.
“Yeah. And Graham in a different way,” Sean adds.
Ryan glares at him.
“It will be a tasteful anniversary party. More of like a thank-you—a celebration of love.”
“Unless you really think it’s a bad idea?” My half-siblings stare at me.
I shrug. “I mean, I think it could be nice. I think Mom and Frank—er, Dad—will like it.”
Well, they will if I’m not there. A reminder of what my mom had to lose so she could get her happy ending.
I’m in a foul mood on Tuesday when I park in the Svensson Investment garage.
“Fuckers—I have to pay a hundred dollars for parking? Fucking racket,” I fume.
I had my assistant purchase the most expensive gift off the registry link Dani sent me, and the box is absurdly huge, with a big gold-and-silver bow that bounces as I walk across the expansive lobby to the Michelin-star restaurant at the base of the Svensson Investment tower.
I’m early. I stand outside the restaurant, holding the box and cursing Dani, my siblings, my dad, and everyone I’ve come in contact with in the last month.
“Do you have a kidnapped girl hidden in there or something?”
I bite back a curse and almost drop the box.
Carl Svensson is staring at me.
“How could you even joke about something like that?” I demand, willing my pulse to go back to normal.
He doesn’t know. He’s just a shit-stirrer.
“What do you want?” I ask.
“I work here—this is my company.”
“I dare you to say that to Greg.”
“I run this place. And you better not be here asking for a handout,” Carl sneers.
“Hardly. I’m here for my—” I choke on the word. “Girlfriend.”
Carl’s mouth flattens. His cold gray eyes stare at me.
“You know, we wondered why Danielle Lockwood’s laptop was at your address.”
He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know. He’s just being a dick. He does not know. Be cool.
I shrug. “Do you not let your employees date? Or…” I step up to him. “Were you trying to save her for yourself?”
“We have a no-touching policy for employees. And I’m engaged.”
“You? My condolences to your fiancée.”
“My condolences to yours.”
“We’re not—”
“All her friends are engaged or married. Statistically, she’s expecting to be next.” He nods. “Presents go on the table. Drinks are not included, so open up a bar tab.”
Dani’s talking to a gaggle of boss babes who populate Wall Street—the ones who live in pencil skirts and sky-high heels.
She’s showing them pieces of identical-looking paper.
I dump the present and saunter over to her, my hands in my pockets.
“—uses recycled paper, and we could spritz it with your perfume and—”
“I’m not paying for your drinks,” I lean in and growl in her ear.
She jumps—all the paper scatters—and turns around to look at me.
“What the— Oh my gosh, why are you here so early?”
“It’s not that early.”
“It’s not?”
I show her my watch.
“Oh my gosh, where is my brother?” Dani’s furiously texting above me as I kneel down to pick up all the paper.
Of course she litters.
I grab her ankle so I can get the last piece of paper.
“You might have to go get him.”
Her friends look shocked to see me. After I stand back up and tap the cards on the table, I hand the set back to her.
The tallest girl finally blinks up at me and says breathily, “Aren’t you going to introduce us to your billionaire, Dani?”