Page 56 of Boss of the Year

It was going to be averylong month.

Still, he knew his brother, and there was no way he saw any more in Marie Zola than a pretty conquest whose open adoration stroked his fragile ego.

He tried again. “Look, Daniel?—”

“No.” Daniel wheeled around to face him. “You don’t get to ‘Daniel’ me. Not after what you just did. I wasthis closeto closing the deal?—”

“Stop,” Lucas found himself barking. “We don’t need all the lurid details.”

“The point is, you swooped in like some corporate vulture to ruin everything.”

“Oh, God,” Winnifred moaned into her brandy. “I’m going to have grandchildren by a cook and a teenager, aren’t I? My friends’ sons are all marrying Vanderbilts, and I’ll have to say, this one makes eggs in the morning.”

“You have responsibilities,” Lucas told his brother. “The Hubbard situation?—”

“Fuck the Hubbard situation,” Daniel spat. “Fuck that old man, his bratty daughter, and their whole desperate family.”

“Daniel!” Winnifred’s head jerked, causing a strand of blond to fall into her face. “You cannot be serious.”

“What about Emma?” Lucas pressed. “You can’t keep avoiding the problem. The senator is already asking questions.”

Daniel’s face went pale beneath his summer tan. “I said I’d handle it. She’s just being difficult.”

“When? After you’ve destroyed what’s left of our relationship with one of the most powerful men in Washington?” Lucas stood up and crossed the room, reaching the bar just in time to close a hand around Daniel’s as he was about to pour himself yet another drink.

Broken capillaries dotted the end of Daniel’s nose, and the flush in his cheeks indicated he had already overindulged. For a moment, Lucas barely recognized his younger brother. Hedidn’t look like the charmer everyone knew. He looked like a sad drunk.

“Hubbard is sponsoring a bill that will earmark us billions in federal subsidies,” Lucas reminded him. “Billions, Daniel. Even a company as big as ours can’t afford to miss out on that. The entire future of Dad’s legacy, this family, yourlifedepends on keeping Hubbard happy.”

“So, find another senator to do your bidding!” Daniel ripped his hand away, then grabbed the bottle to refill his drink. “You have, what, fifty to choose from?”

“A hundred. Two per state.”

“Even better. So, why do I have to be the sacrificial lamb?”

“Because you’re the one who laid the altar to begin with!” Lucas hated to shout, but he was getting there now.

Winnifred moaned into her drink yet again as if she were in physical pain.

Lucas took a deep breath and sighed. “Emma Hubbard is nineteen years old and certainly deserves more than to be abandoned by the man who?—”

“Stop.” Daniel’s voice was raw. “Just stop.”

Lucas watched his brother’s shoulders shake, whether from rage or something else entirely. Maybe he was remorseful about what he’d done, or maybe he was thinking about someone else.

Someone who wasn’t as young as the senator’s daughter but was certainly more naïve.

The idea of Marie being used and discarded in the same way his brother clearly wanted to do to Emma Hubbard made Lucas’s knuckles turn white as he gripped the bar’s surface.

“This isn’t going away,” he managed through clenched teeth. “The sooner you accept that?—”

“The sooner I what? Marry a girl I don’t love? Spend the rest of my life pretending to be happy while you count your precious profits?” Daniel tossed the entire glass of scotch down his throat,then swayed a moment before looking up at Lucas. His words ran together as he spoke. “You know what the pathetic part is? I thought you might understand about Marie. Thought maybe you’d seen something in her too, seen why she’s special.”

God. If he only knew. “I told you. It’s business.”

“Right. Business.” Daniel’s bitterness flavored the air like rancid smoke. “God knows my brother, the ice man, would never feel anything as human as an actual emotion.”

He abandoned his scotch and stumbled for the door.