AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Two
Devon
Try as I might, I can’t seem to stop myself from glaring across the table at my future brother-in-law. I don’t know why, but from the moment I met Wes Holt two years ago, everything about him has just rubbed me the wrong way. As far as I can see he only has one redeeming quality, and that is how much he cares about his sister. But even that one shining light has a murky quality to it because he seems to have decided from day one that I’m not good enough for Emma.
Luckily, I have more self-confidence than to let the opinions of someone like Wes Holt bother me. It is frustrating, though; Emma is the perfect woman for me in every way,exceptfor the unavoidable lifetime attachment to the giant prat that is her brother.
“You alright there, Devon?” Wes asks, his deep, husky voice grating on me. “You’re looking particularly murdery tonight.”
“Wes…”Emma warns.
He just smirks and leans back in his seat, his arms slung over the chairs on either side of him so that the t-shirt he’s wearing—a white one with The Jam’sSound Affectsalbum cover on it—stretches tightly across the thick muscles of his biceps and chest.
I purse my lips in annoyance and glance away. Just for once could he not simply have dressed for the occasion instead of looking like a washed-up rockstar?
I honestly don’t even know how Wes fits in with the rest of the Holts. He’s such an oddity. Emma and her parents are all so poised and sophisticated and…well-groomed. But Wes? Alright, fine, he doesn’t smell bad or anything—in fact, for someone who often appears to have slept in his clothes, he actually smells pretty good. But all the tattoos and the piercings and the general aura of scruffiness just doesn’t seem to match with this family. It’s baffling.
“It’s such a shame your parents couldn’t be here tonight, Devon,” Jaclyn, Emma’s mother, says to me with a warm smile, snapping me out of my musings. “But a week in Barcelona? How refreshing for them. We should really look into going back there, don’t you think, Steven?”
Emma’s father glances up from an intense conversation he’d been having with Wes. “Hmm? What do I think about what?”
Jaclyn smiles at him indulgently. “About going back to Barcelona.”
His expression is less than enthusiastic. “I don’t know about that. So bloody crowded, and no one speaks English.”
“Because it’s Spain, dad,” Wes says with an eye roll.
“Jackie, if you want to go back to Spain, we can do it in the boat,” Steven allows.
Jaclyn’s eyes light up and she holds a hand to her chest. “Oh, that would be marvellous.”
“Just don’t let Mum go ashore by herself,” Emma says with a chuckle. “Not unless you want a holiday home in San Sebastian.”
“Don’t be a spoiled sport, Em,” Wes says, his mouth curved into a smirk. “Mum don’t listen to her—you go ahead and buy all the holiday homes you want, anywhere you want them. And when you’re redrafting your will, just keep in mind thatIwas the one who encouraged your dreams.”
“I’ll do that, Wesley. Thank you,” Jaclyn says dryly.
My phone rings just as we’re walking out of the restaurant. I dig it out of my pocket to see it’s a call from Rosh Kulkarni, my firm’s PR director. “Sorry, I’ll just be a sec,” I tell Emma and the others.
Emma just smiles and turns back to Wes, who continues regaling her with what appears to be an amusing story about one of his tattoo clients.
“What’s up?” I ask Rosh upon answering the call.
“Have you seen the news?” I can tell be her brisk, no-nonsense tone that something serious is going on. Warily, I scan my eyes over the pedestrians and other restaurant-goers nearby, but no one seems to be showing any signs of panic. Whatever’s happened must have eitherjusthit the news, or it’s not something that affects the general public.
“I’m out with Emma’s family for her birthday.”
“Oh, of course, sorry, I can—”
“What’s going on?”
She draws in a heavy breath, letting it out slowly. “Devon, it’s Hayes and Mueller. ITN just broke a story about a chemical leak at one of their testing sites a few years ago. Apparently, they’ve been covering it up to avoid paying the fines and adjusting their practices.”
“Shit,” I mutter, rubbing a hand over my face. Hayes and Mueller are a big client of our firm; we’ve been doing consultancy work for them for decades now. “Okay, well, I guess we’ll just have to distance ourselves a little. Can you manage one of those neutral statements that still manages to be socially conscious?”
“No, you don’t get it…” she hesitates for a long beat before finally coming out with it. “I got a call from ITN just before the story ran. It was someone fromouroffice who tipped them off.”
I stand there, stunned, staring blankly ahead as a black cab pulls up in front of me to let a trio of giggling women out. “Who?”I finally manage to grate out.
