AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The only way she wouldn’t sell the company was if she understood why it was so valuable and why those stupid shareholders would never let it see its full potential.
Admittedly, when Dom had explained the idea to me at first, I hadn’t gotten it. I’d given him the cash for the startup, but it was more a gift than an investment because I didn’t think someone like Dom would be able to see it to fruition. But I underestimated how intelligent my friend was and how driven he could be when he set his mind to something.
General Earth Fuel, his renewable energy firm, had been one of those instances. And then, when I’d finally gotten it, the point of Dom’s baby, I realized he was a genius.
It would be difficult to get a layperson to understand its true value, much less someone like Emily. They would lowball her with millions, and she would think it was a good idea to sell.
And then those vipers would probably run the business into the ground because they had very little fundamental understanding of how it worked and only cared about their bottom line.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I got up and stretched, cracking my neck. I needed more information before I proceeded. I needed to know how best to use my new toy.
I immediately called Ansel, my private PI.
“Yes, boss?” he answered.
“Send me a file on Emily Jane,” I said. “The new employee.”
“I thought I already gave you one,” he stated. I ordered a generalized background check on all my employees, and the one on Emily didn’t reveal anything I didn’t already know.
“Dig deeper,” was all I said before I hung up.
Now, it was time to wait. Thankfully, Ansel was usually very quick with what he did. I paid him enough for that.
As I was driving back home, I received a call from my brother.
“More bad news?” I asked when I picked up, dreading the news of another dead body.
“No,” he said. “I just wanted to talk.”
I frowned. “About what?”
He sounded almost as uncomfortable as I felt. “I don’t know. I just feel like we should talk more about what happened yesterday. You know, at the meeting.”
This again? “What’s there to talk about?”
Once again, Chase was silent, irritatingly so.
“Alright, good talk, Chase. I’m going to hang up.”
“Wait, look…” I could almost see him scratching the back of his head. “I know you were originally supposed to be the sole head of The Brotherhood.”
“For fuck’s sake, not this again.” I wonder how many times I would have to repeat the same thing. “For the last fucking time, I don’t fucking want to be the head. I have never wanted it. To be more specific, I would rather cut off my left ball than do what you do.” Okay, maybe not literally, but close enough.
“Are you sure?” Chase asked, sounding doubtful.
“Yes,” I said exasperatedly. “How the fuck do you not know this already?”
“It’s just…I don’t understand why you don’t want to do it.”
I shook my head. Chase thought our childhoods had been similar, but they couldn’t be more different. Chase had been born as my dad’s illegitimate child with his second wife, Katy. The elders hadn’t approved of my dad’s relationship with Katy since she was an outsider, but my dad fought them for Chase.
Chase had always been doted on by his mom and dad—as much as the old man could love something—but he’d always been treated as second by the rest of the members of The Brotherhood. Because, as far as tradition went, only the firstborn child of the legitimate wife could inherit the position. So all the attention and respect of The Brotherhood had gone to me, even from a young age.
I think part of them overcompensated with their affection to cover up the fact that I’d killed my mother and was loathed by my father, but that was another thing.
At first, I didn’t mind. I knew that was the expectation set of me, but then it started to chafe. I didn’t want to do it. I would have been happier being born into a normal family with two loving parents and never having to worry about dead enemies and shady businesses.
