Page 111 of Broken Brothers

46

“Hey buddy,” I said as I entered, finally able to drop the facade of being drunk. After all, what the hell could Morgan say if he had been an even greater mess just a few days before?

“I guess you had a good time with Layla, huh?” he said with a much-welcomed smirk. If he was back to providing playful jabs… he still looked like shit, but to say he had improved from where he was before was a very true statement that brought me gratification.

Even if what he said was… well, not wrong, per se, but not what I would have said.

“Something like that,” I said.

“Well, what did you learn from her?”

Oh, right, that’s the whole reason I went out in the first place.

I didn’t really learn much of anything. Layla seemed to dismiss the question and it just would have led to a bigger can of worms. Probably for the best that I didn’t press on, now that I think about it.

“Biggest thing she emphasized was that we can’t count on it to end,” I said, which was kind of true. “Usually, what stops people from pursuing such vengeance plots is a lack of time, money, or interest. Unfortunately, Edwin has no lack of money, we know that. Most people’s interest would fade when they realized they’re still fine as individuals, but I think you can attest to the vengeful nature of your father.”

“Yup,” Morgan said.

“And time, well, yes, he’s got to run a company, but he has an entire set of henchmen who can get things done for him to free up time. So, in short, we can’t passively wait for this to dissipate unless we have the patience. We have four options—get him out of power, wait for him to die, accept the status quo, or just surrender.”

I smiled as I contemplated the insanity of all but one of those options—well, OK, all of them were insane, but the alcohol in me was making me believe some of the ideas had more possibility to them than they actually did.

“Well, all respect, your father sucks, but I’m not killing anyone or waiting for him to die.”

“I would hope so,” Morgan said as he lowered the volume on the TV. “I’d somehow have to find myself siding with him in that case!”

I shuddered at that thought, no pretense given.

“And I’m sure as hell not quitting or accepting the status quo,” I said. “I can’t speak for you, but I refuse to lose this fight. You and I can build so much with MCH and we won’t have to rely on any inheritance to get by.”

I chose to not mention the $50 million personal fund Morgan had command of at that moment. Some things were best left out of the narrative, especially when I was drunk and didn’t have to overly think things through.

“So that leaves pretty much one option. We have to get him out of power.”

“Out as CEO of Hunt Industries,” Morgan said. “That’s…”

“Insane?” I said, leading us to both laugh. “I know. But if we want to emerge victorious here, it’s something we’ve got to do. So, how do we get him out of his position?”

For such a simple question, all of the answers seemed ridiculous or circling back on what I had said I would not do, such as waiting for him to die.

“We could buy him out,” Morgan said, causing me to laugh hysterically.

“Yes, because two boys worth, at most, a few million dollars can buy out a man worth billions of dollars, nice one Morgan.”

“Oh fuck off,” Morgan said with an added smirk. “What if Virtual Realty turns into a unicorn in the next two to three years? Not so crazy then, huh?”

“No, but do you really want to wait that long to end this?”

The look on Morgan’s face and the contrast to the smirk he had had moments before said it all. No, none of us wanted to wait that long. Frankly, none of us wanted to wait more than a couple of weeks if we could, although that seemed like wishful thinking at best. This would take time, but the idea that we’d spent a third of our 20’s under the Big Brother surveillance of Edwin Hunt was a repulsive one.

“Let’s at least keep it in mind as possibility,” Morgan said. “It’s a long shot, but wealth has been built and destroyed faster than people can ever realize.”

“Especially destroyed,” I said, thinking about how it wouldn’t be hard for Edwin to burn through his money quickly with the wrong vices and pursuits. At least, that’s what I wanted to believe—I was certainly prone to my own biases, but it was not a stretch, I felt sure, to imagine that wealth was more easily destroyed than it was built.

“OK, so we have that. You don’t think it’s an idea worth pursuing? It’ll produce the least amount of damage around.”

“But it’ll take the longest.”