AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When my feet finally say, not one more step, I look up.
Somehow, I’ve ended up back here, outside this bar, like I did a month ago.
What now feels like a lifetime ago…
I step inside, and wonder what… and who… I’ll find inside.
Six
Kingsley
Our bar, Bottle, was one of the first joint purchases my brothers and I made back when we were still learning what to do with our unlimited funds. Now, years later, we own boutique hotels, wineries, bars, restaurants, a tea refinery—you name it—all under the blanket of our personal and discretionary businesses that aren’t under the Baxter Enterprises umbrella.
Businesses we bought out of nothing but pure love for the business, ones that might never bring in anything but a loss, and yet we’d still never let them go.
Not that they ever do tend to be losses. If there’s anything transferable we’ve inherited by being Baxters, it’s an innate sense of how to make a business work.
We regularly get offers to sell Bottle, but when everything else has burned to the ground, you’ll find my three brothers and I sitting here in our private booth, nursing our cognacs, laughing and talking about the things that matter to us and only us.
That, and taking turns annoying one another.
“If you say ‘sexcapade’ one morefuckingtime, Kylian…” Damien warns.
“Don’t. Don’t even try,” I tell him, shaking my head. “It eggs him on.”
“What? I’m just being an interested, caring brother,” Kylian insists, with the most shit-eating grin of shit-eating grins I’ve ever seen. “Don’t tell me the honeymoon period is over with My-Linh. Maybe you’re not keeping your ‘kitten’ satisfied anymore. Or is it your kitten’s ‘kitten’ you’re not fulfilling?”
There’s a low rumble from Damien’s end of the booth, and Matthias shakes his head, intervening.
“Kylian, you have a meeting about the Jameson acquisition tomorrow at eight a.m. It will probably help if your head is attached to your neck for that meeting.”
“Speaking of acquisitions, did you guys hear anything about the Farmingtons submitting a bid for The Lakes government contract?” I ask, giving Damien time to calm down.
“Yeah.” Matthias nods. “They’ll never get it. Drake will fuck it up before it gets off the ground.”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I didn’t think they’d even put in a bid. Seems like they know something we don’t.”
Matthias doubles down. “Doubt it. Deal’s as well as done.”
It’s silent for a minute, and then Matthias clears his throat, and we all know he’s going to say the things we’ve all been avoiding. “So, uh, Gerry…”
The mere mention of our uncle has us all groaning and slamming our glasses on the table.
Our uncle, who until a few months ago was the interim CEO, has been in hiding after he was ousted by Baxter’s board of directors for conduct that can only be described as unbe-fucking-coming of a CEO. The last time we saw him, he’d basically threatened us all that he wasn’t going to go down without a fight. And it’s been radio silence since then. Silencemeans one thing when it comes to Gerry. He’s in the trenches, in his war room trying to find the dirtiest way to win the one thing he’s always wanted. To be CEO of Baxter Enterprises. Not provisional, not interim, but the one truly recognized CEO. His holy grail. Something that has never been his, and always mine. A role I’ve been bred and raised to take on.
Where Gerry cares only about money and power, I care about the people of Baxter Enterprises. Always have, always will. And nothing and no one will ever change that. My brothers and I live, breathe, and bleed Baxter Enterprises. And we’ll fight to the death to protect our name and the livelihoods of everyone who works for us.
But right now, all we can do is keep our ears to the ground, and when Gerry finally sticks his slimy head out of the burrows, we’re going to knock him off once and for all.
“Last I heard he was in Paris, swinging his tiny dick around,” Kylian says, popping a cashew into his mouth.
“Okay, well, let’s ask around again this week and report back on Wednesday,” I say, hoping to table the conversation.
“I have to see you guys again on Wednesday?” Kylian pretends to moan. “I’m already sick of seeing your ugly mugs this week!”
“You can stay away. You’re adopted anyway. Let the real Baxters take care of it,” Matthias teases Kylian.
“Please, I’m Dad’s little sunshine boy, remember?” Kylian sniffs. “If anyone’s adopted, it’s you. You’re the dumbest out of all of us, after all,” Kylian says, shooting straight for Matthias’s Achilles’ heel, his history of having the worst academic record in the family.
