42. Graham
GRAHAM
“So this is not what I thought would happen.” Finn grimaces.
“We shouldn’t have ignored it,” Grayson snaps. “The entirety of Wall Street is in hysterics.”
Aaron glugs scotch into glasses, some of it splashing on my dining room table.
“At this point, we’re going to have to start a war with a South American country to get the news media to stop chewing on this story,” Spencer says dryly.
“I’m fucked.” I rub my hands over my face. “I’m going to prison.”
Grayson has a fistful of my suit jacket. “Graham. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell my older brother bitterly.
“You are not going to prison.” He shakes me.
“I have contacts, and there are a number of countries that don’t have extradition policies with the US.
Spencer’s already working on purchasing a news station.
We’re going to kill this story. I’ll buy a few more politicians, kill the investigation.
Maybe in five or ten years you can come back to New York. ”
“But then I can’t stay here. I can’t be with Dani. I’ll never see you all.” I hate how small my voice sounds. It’s my own fault. I have no right to sound like a victim.
“We’ll come visit you.” Spencer pats my head.
“I’ve never been away from you all,” I say plaintively.
Ding-dong!
“Go get it, Connor.”
“Yeah, youngest eats shit.”
My head snaps up when Connor comes back in with Frank.
He stiffens when he sees us Richmond brothers staring at him as he walks into the room.
“Here to check up on me?” I spit.
Frank’s eyes narrow.
“Where’s Dani?”
“Fuck you.”
He scowls. I don’t speak to him like that. Ever. I can tell he doesn’t like it.
“Where is she?” Frank repeats.
“In Switzerland.”
He looks at my brothers for confirmation.
“They just left. Private jet,” Grayson says calmly. “Bachelorette party.”
“On my dime, because I’m nice like that,” I sneer.
Frank seems off-balance.
“I know you’re after my family, Graham. I know you had something to do with that girl.” Frank advances on me. “You got Kraig fired. Admit it. Just because you’re mad that I’m poking around.”
“I had Kraig fired”—I stand up, buttoning my suit jacket—“because he was stalking my girlfriend.”
“No, he’s not. Not my son,” Frank says in disbelief.
“Really? Then why did he have her underwear? He was carrying them around like a little trophy.”
Frank shakes his head. “No. You’re the one who’s sick. Kraig is another one of your victims.”
I feel my temper snap. I slam my hands on the table.
“I have the right to protect what’s mine.”
“You’re a monster.” Frank points a shaking finger at me then at my brothers. “I knew from day one—as soon as I saw you all scurrying around like roaches when we popped the lid off that basement—that you were just like your father. Now one of you’s kidnapped a poor innocent girl.”
None of us speak. Raised in the same insane asylum, and all that.
It seems to make Frank even more furious. “All of you!” he rages at my brothers. “I’m going to end all of you just like I did Stuart.”
“You need to be very careful,” Grayson says quietly, and he’s never sounded more like our father. “Because if you do anything to hurt my little brother—any of my brothers—I will make you disappear.”
Aaron stands silently next to him.
Frank, for the first time since I’ve known him, looks afraid. Afraid to have all six of Stuart Richmond’s clones staring him down.
He takes a step back. Then another.
“I’m onto you, Graham. I’m onto you. You’re just like your father. You’re going to make a mistake, then you’re mine.”