AllFreeNovel
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The theory is valid. But there are some holes.
I shrug. "It was a coincidence that I was in the elevator at the time, I just happened to be coming up from the parking garage. And I sure wouldn't have come down to the lobby if I was in the office and heard he was down there."
"Okay. Let's assume he thought he might have been able to get you to come and meet him by causing some kind of commotion. What about the punch? What the hell did he say, exactly, to get you to do that, man? That's not like you?"
I flick my eyes to Damien's video. He's barely said a peep the whole meeting. Just sitting back, arms crossed, watching me like a hawk through the whole exchange.
"He was just talking shit about taking over the company. Making threats when I said over my dead body."
"It's nothing you haven't heard from him before," Damien finally says pointedly. "It feels like a pretty strong reaction from you."
"Yeah, well, maybe this time I was sick of hearing it," I say by way of explanation, guilt niggling in my chest.
"And that's it? Nothing else?"
"What else does there need to be? Matthias practically ran him over with the car when he saw Gerry talking to Clarissa last year in New York," I cut in, my defensive at a peak.
"Yeah. Because I was protecting her!" Matthias pipes up.
"Exactly," I say, before I can stop myself, knowing I've let more slip out than I intended.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Damien probes, his face deceivingly disinterested, but his eyes focus on me, razor sharp.
I stop talking.
Despite all of our private declarations, Luna and I haven't come close to talking about what and when we're going to do when we make our relationship public. And for all Gerry knows, he was just taking a shot in the dark alluding to a relationship between Luna and me.
As it is, I'm not ready to talk to my brothers about it yet either.
"I just meant... I was protecting Baxter, okay? Anyway, look, let's see what happens with the share price when the LSE opens, and what the board thinks of everything. There's nothing we can do until then. Except try to figure out what his game is here. He's been quiet, but now that he's out, I bet we're going to start hearing more about his moves."
My brothers make sounds of agreement, and then one by one, sign off until only Damien is left.
"Your hand feeling alright?" he asks, rubbing his hand over his five o'clock shadow.
I look at it, knowing it's an ugly purple under the layers of bandage. "It's felt better. Did you know there were people who regularly make a thing of going around and punching people in the face?"
Damien snickers. "That sounds like a thing our clown brothers might be into and less of an us thing."
"That's what I said to—"
"To...?"
I clear my throat. I'm going to need to be better at not running my mouth off. Which has never been an issue before a certain little pixie came into my life. "Er, no one. Just to Marcus."
He digs his tongue into his cheek but doesn't press. "Right. I gotta go. My-Linh made me promise to go to dinner with her parents tonight."
"Sounds like married life is bliss."
He rolls his eyes, but a soft smile stretches across his lips. "It's something."
"Well, whatever it is, it looks like it agrees with you," I say, genuinely happy to see him happy. I couldn't love My-Linh more if she was actually our biological sister.
"I wouldn't have thought it would but maybe it's less about marriage, and more about the right person."
"Waxing poetic, Damien the cold-hearted?"
I expect him to argue but he just looks a little sheepish.
