AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterOne
Jericho
Irest my head against the club’s soft leather chair and press my phone to my ear.
“It was you, wasn't it?” Knight's voice is boardroom-meeting stern. The firmness brings out the slight hint of his French accent, making him sound more like me. “You put the paparazzi on Bastian, didn’t you?”
With a triumphant smile, I glance at the newspaper on the glass-top table between me and my best friend Luc, who arrived moments before Knight called.
The damning words on the front-page headline flow into my mind with sinful delight:
Bastian Grayson exposed for his sexual relations with Governor Teddy Jameson's seventeen-year-old daughter…
Beneath the headline is a clear picture of Bastian, naked in bed, with Lana Jamison at his beach house.
As if to the add dramatic effect, the club lights bounce off the words and the music below on the dance floor changes to the song “Your dirt will come back to screw with you.”
“I don't know what you're talking about.” I feign innocence, but I know it won’t work with Knight. In all my twenty-nine years of my life, it’s never worked, so he already knows I’m guilty as fuck.
When the scandal hit the national news and the evening press earlier, I expected this call from him. He’s my superior in the Grayson empire.Andmy older brother.
In times like these, because of our one year-age difference, he always thinks he should take the moral high ground with me like some patron saint. Despite the fact that I know he wishes he had the balls to do half the shit I do to men who cross me.
Even if said man is dear old Bastian, our half-brother and arch nemesis, second to our father.
“Jericho, Iknowit was you.” Knight’s tone is reprimanding, but he should also be aware that I don’t give a fuck.
Yes,of courseit was me. The same way business is business, war is war, like any conqueror, I simply removed an obstacle from my path.
My mission is to get my billion-dollar legacy, which includes the CFO position at the Park Avenue branch of Graysons Inc. and thirty percent ownership of the company.
I’m the senior investment analyst and infrastructure architect at Graysons Inc., but as Bastian works in the company’s finance department, my role crossed over with his.
Months ago, he gave me the weapons to remove his ass as my competition when he threatened to ruin Knight’s marriage to his wife, Aurora, and leak dark secrets that could have gotten her father killed. I retaliated by finding dirt on Bastian that fought fire with fire when I came across pictures and a sex tape of him and Lana Jamison.
The deal was we’d keep it quiet if Bastian ceased and desisted any actions he sought to ruin Knight and his family.
Bastian played by the deal, but he didn’t realize I was the devil lying in wait for the right moment to expose him. I don’t believe in swapping evil for evil. It also didn’t sit well with me that Bastian—a grown man of twenty-eight—was fucking around with a young girl of seventeen. I knew that couldn’t have been okay with Knight either.
On the contrary, I had a huge ulterior motive, which was to remove Bastian from my path when the time was right. That time is now.
I guessed that Bastian wasn’t going to stop seeing Lana, and I was right. All I did was wait for the right time and place to tip off the press.
“I did nothing wrong.” I widen my smile. “I wasn’t the idiot who got involved with a minor. Let alone Teddy Jamison’s daughter.”
Luc laughs, and I grin back at him. He continues listening on with keen interest. He’s heard and seen enough to get the gist of what’s happening.
Knight sighs. “This might come back to bite us in the ass. Somehow, someway.”
That comment there is the perfect illustration of the differences between us. People tend to think because we look so similar with the black hair, muscular build, and six-feet-four stature, we have the same temperament, but we don’t.
Knight is as ruthless as I am, but he thinks too much. I, on the other hand, am the rebel. I don’t waste time thinking about shit. I take action and dole out vengeance before a motherfucker can think of screwing with me.
“Dear Knight, I think you’ll find that neither Bastian nor Father can do anything to us. They’ll be more scared than ever because I have the sex tape.”
“I know, but I’m sure you understand my worries. You can never tell what either of them will do, especially if they suspect you.”
“Believe me, they won’t do anything, even if they might suspect I’m involved. The press caught Bastian live and in action in bed with Lana. On this occasion, Bastian dug his own grave, lay in it, then buried himself alive.”
