Page 119 of Broken Brothers

“You may do well. But who would you rather associate with, that boy or me?”

“Dad,” Morgan said, pleading. “I know you don’t like Chance. But Mom—”

“Melanie isn’t here right now, and you’re right, I don’t like Chance. I never wanted to adopt him and I think his attitude is too cavalier to succeed in business.”

God, how I wanted to take that hot chocolate, break into Edwin’s office, and throw the drink in his face. How I wanted to curbstomp that asshole straight into his desk. Fucking fuck.

“But it’s that very same stubbornness that made you succeed.”

“Maybe,” Edwin said dismissively. “But you’re not coming back, are you? Let’s get to the point, Morgan. No wasting time.”

“I don’t intend to,” Morgan said. “I want you to accept that. And I want you to leave us alone.”

“I am,” Edwin lied. So much for telling the truth, Mr. Hunt.

“I keep getting these phone calls, these stalkers, these people who are harassing me all the time,” Morgan said. It sounded like it took more courage to say that than for him to walk into the room. I owed Morgan a nice drink of whiskey when he got out. “I feel like you’re behind it. Please stop.”

A pause came.

“I know nothing of what you speak about.”

What made me sick was that was probably true. Edwin and money in general knew how to distance itself from borderline criminal activity.

“Well, if you hear anything about it, make it stop,” Morgan said. “You told me yourself. Business has no boundaries. Like with McLaughlin, right?”

“And with Burnson, exactly.”

Fucking bingo!

Finally, I had something that I was looking for. I just prayed Morgan was smart enough to keep pushing the question.

“Burnson?”

I all but clapped my hands in excitement. I had to physically restrain my activity so I didn’t jump out of my chair in celebration at Morgan’s good thinking.

“I told you this already, John Burnson fucked me out of a deal ten years ago. I waited and bided my time, and as soon as I could, I had the deal with the Taylors all set. Poor Burnson never even had a chance. Oh, the look on his face, how delightful.”

I smiled and almost mumbled “gotcha, asshole,” but decided that appearance would not look so great.

The question was, now what? Now what did I do with that information?

One idea that came to mind was threatening Edwin with it, but there wasn’t anything incriminating on there per se. It could have just been said that Burnson’s skills had faded so bad that he never had a shot at a deal with the Taylors.

But there were two people who might be able to do something with it, one of whom I wouldn’t mind seeing, the other whom might physically kick my ass out the building.

“I see,” Morgan said, bringing me back to the moment. “My point is, Dad, if you know of or become aware of anything that’s affecting Chance and me, please stop. Please. My life is already stressful enough.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Edwin said. “In the meantime, boy, know that I think you’re making a huge mistake. Chance can barely keep his own cock to himself and can’t ever say no to a woman. That’s going to get him screwed big time. It’s already going to hurt him with that one company in your portfolio.”

I gulped. Granted, Morgan had encouraged me to sleep with Claire, but…

“What do you mean?” Morgan said.

I could tell Morgan was faking concern, which made me feel a little better, but still.

“That one young lady, Claire, I believe her name is. The minute Chance has a drink with her, he’s not going to keep his hands to himself. He couldn’t with Layla and he can’t with her.”

I had to steady my breathing. I was so fucking furious. My fists wanted to shatter his skull. I wanted to go apeshit and break his sternum so fucking bad.