Page 128 of Broken Brothers

“You chose her over me,” she said.

I shook my head.

“You want the truth, here’s the truth,” I said. “I’m a fucking idiot. I told myself after you that I would never have sex withanyone in a business setting ever again. Things just got too complicated and life would just get too difficult. But with Claire, I… did. She started it, but I let it progress and eventually brought it back to her place. I’m the one who chose to have sex with her, it’s not like she raped me. And for that reason… here I am.”

“You still haven’t said why you’re choosing her over me.”

“She said her business is falling apart, Layla,” I said. “Morgan and I invested in her business.”

To say I was a fucking idiot was an understatement. My life since that fateful day she and Craig had walked in had felt like a series of comedic errors that weren’t particularly funny to me. First, I slept with the “daughter” of the CEO of the company I was dealing with—so funny! Then, when that fell apart, I swore not to fall for anyone in business, except then I slept with the actual CEO of a company—hilarious! And then, when I began to feel like “daughter” of the first CEO was someone who was forced into a situation but still not a great romantic fit, I let stress get to me and I almost fucked her—hahaha!

Oh, God, what the fuck was wrong with me? I was Chance Givens, not so hormonally crazed teenager.

Maybe you are. Maybe that’s the honest truth. You gotta get your shit together, Chance.

“That was dumb,” Layla said.

“To fuck her? I know,” I said. “But I really can’t miss this, OK? I’m sorry. I’ll be in touch.”

Feeling rushed and pulled between two opposing forces, I gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek which she lightly responded with. I thought of saying something but decided against it, quickly hurrying in the other direction. I was an idiot, but I had work to do now. I couldn’t spend time dwelling on it.

So, of course, on that long walk over, I did nothing but think about what I had done.

If I was Chance Given, awesome, mysterious, badass businessman at just twenty two years old, I had to start acting the part. I couldn’t let my emotions controlled me—a man controlled his emotions, or at least kept them in check. He didn’t cross business and blood. He certainly didn’t cross business and sex.

I had to start making some hard choices.

And the first one, I decided, was that when the time was right—in other words, when Claire wasn’t a hot mess over her current business situation—I would let her know I had to end our dalliance. As much fun as it provided me and as good as the sex felt, I could not let myself get entangled in that. I had a feeling she wouldn’t mind too much, given that she had probed me in our previous encounter.

The second was I had to press Morgan to pick a side sooner rather than later. As long as he fluctuated between the sides, I would feel in limbo. I could handle Edwin chasing me like a rabid dog, but he was a barking dog without teeth. I had no fear of him. But I did have fear of Morgan giving the dog that teeth he needed.

If I could handle those, I would let everything fall into place.

Well, I still had to figure out Layla. I had a sickening feeling, though, that what I had just done had encouraged Layla to take care of it herself—to not call me, to delete me, to never see me again.

It was a funny turn, how she had tried to get back with me, almost as an apology for what she had done to me, and then I had put her in a position where she had to reject me again. At least I hadn’t done anything nearly as severe as what she had done.

I came up to Claire’s place with my thoughts more or less settled, though I knew that didn’t mean they wouldn’t stop anytime soon. The only promise I made to myself when Iknocked on the door was I would not have sex with Claire, I would not kiss her, and I would try and do what was best for business.

Claire answered the door almost immediately. I couldn’t lie, she looked like shit. Her hair hung over her face, unkempt, she wore pajamas, and her eyes were watery with streaks down her cheeks.

“Jesus, Claire,” I said, moving immediately to embrace her. If that was a violation of what I had just said, I didn’t care. The hug was more about protecting her and making her feel safe, not about making sexual moves on her. “What the hell happened?”

“I just had everyone quit on me today.”

No. No fucking way. Only…

“Why?” I said, anger in me beginning to rise.

“They felt they were underpaid. They all said they got hired elsewhere.”

“Did they say where else?” I asked, even as I knew where they had gone—either directly to Hunt Industries or some subsidiaries of Hunt Industries.

“No,” she said. “Other than it wasn’t to the same place. But I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do, Chance. I don’t have a team. I have hundreds of thousands of dollars and no one to move it forward. I’m done for.”

Claire’s tears flowed freely again. I let her bury her head in my shoulder as I stewed in silence.

This was fucking evil on Edwin’s part. Edwin was hurting me by hurting Claire. He knew I was fucking her… so he decided to drag Claire into the picture? What kind of fucking bastard did that?