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“I’m sick and tired of this,” I said, looking back at Trace. I noticed employees in the hallway, staring through the glass-walled conference room with wide eyes, but they scattered as soon as my gaze met theirs. “You’ve gotta stop this shit, or else everything is going to tank. And I mean that.”
Neither of them responded. An uncomfortable silence filled the room.
“This only works if we stick together,” I reminded them, looking from Axel to Trace to Axel again. Once Axel’s chest had stopped heaving, I was confident he wouldn’t pounce again, so I returned to my chair. “And to be honest, this shit is starting to scare me.”
“It’s all him,” Trace muttered. And honestly, I agreed. Mostly.
“Well, I know a solution,” Axel said, his voice edged with something I’d never heard before. He swiveled to face me, a strange light glinting in his eye. “Maybe you’d like to hear?”
“I’m all ears,” I told him.
Axel looked back at Trace, a sneer twisting his lips. “I want you out of Fairchild Enterprises. That way, we don’t have to worry about our differences. I’ll buy you out. We can draw up the paperwork today.”
Trace blinked about a hundred times before he finally croaked, “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”
“I’m not.”
“And this is how you treat family?” Trace boomed. I let my head drop into my hands. I felt lower than ever, and for the first time, I didn’t know how to talk my way out of this argument.
No amount of cajoling would get this meeting back on track.
“Family doesn’t do this,” Trace said, his voice louder and more commanding than ever. “Family doesn’t stonewall. Family doesn’t act like a petulant fucking child. And that’s all you’ve done recently. Should I remind you of all the ways I’ve stepped up as your brother throughout the years? What about all the times I covered for you when you’d go on your fact-finding missions even though you were grounded? How many fucking times did I finish all your chores so you could go out early with whatever flavor of the week? Not to mention all the thousands—and then millions—of dollars I made for you, to pay for your schooling, to help us start this business? What about the clients I hunted down for us, all the big names I brought your way?”
“I was the one who schmoozed them anyway,” Axel muttered.
But Trace wasn’t done. “What about all the times I stopped you from drinking yourself to death over Cora, huh? Or all the times I joined your campaigns to stamp out the bad guys, all the questionable shit I did for us just to bring Yagel down and stop him from trafficking more girls through his company? You act like I’ve done nothing but lie to you since we met, but Axel, all I’ve done is honored your cause, because you’re my brother. And you want to sit here and fault me for getting to know a blood relative.”
Axel didn’t say anything; he simply examined his nails while the echo of Trace’s words festered and steamed in the air around us.
“Un-fucking-believable.” Trace pushed away from the table, pacing the far wall. I massaged my face, unsure where to go from here.
Axel wanted Trace gone. Trace wanted Axel to understand. And I just wanted us back to the unshakeable trio we’d always been.
But this had shaken us down to our core, and I didn’t know if we’d recover.
Something buzzed, and Trace paused in his pacing, snatching his phone from his pocket. He stared at the screen a moment then swiped it to answer. “Hello?”
I listened to Trace’s side of the conversation—“Mm-hmm…this is him…okay”—as I watched his brows knit closer and closer together.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Trace exhaled a moment later.
Both Axel and I stared at Trace, curiosity so thick in the air it almost choked me.
“To Kentucky,” Trace said.
Axel and I shared a look.
“Okay. Thank you. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Trace swiped his phone off and pocketed it again, staring into space for a moment before he turned to us. Something raw and foreign had wrenched at his features, and for a moment, it seemed like he might cry.
“That was Child Protective Services,” he whispered. “I was listed as the legal guardian for a baby girl who’s recently been turned over to the state. I need to get to Louisville immediately.”
THE END
