Page 2 of For the Promise (The Raider Brothers #2)

Jaxon – a man who wishes he could gag his brothers. Not permanently. He’s not a monster. Just for a few hours a day.

Jaxon

I lower the thief into the barrel through the bung hole at the top. Once it’s been fully submerged, I pull it back up with a sample of whiskey inside. I pour the whiskey into a glass for tasting before setting the thief on the table.

I’m about to pick up the whiskey when there’s a stampede. Three of my brothers – Kai, Zane, and Miles – rush into the distillery. Crap.

“Awesome!” Kai shouts. “I made it on time.”

Zane snorts. “This is the one time you’re not late.”

Miles rubs his hands together. “Whiskey tasting is nearly better than surfing.”

I scowl at him. Nothing is better than whiskey tasting.

Although, as the master distiller for Buccaneer’s Whiskey & Distillery, I enjoy the entire process of creating whiskey – from mashing to fermentation to distillation to blending to quality control – my favorite part is tasting the whiskey while creating new recipes.

I glare at my younger brothers. “None of you will be tasting whiskey today.”

“Why not?” Kai pouts. “I’m the operations manager for the distillery.”

Zane raises his hand. “As the marketing manager, it’s important I know the product in order to market it.”

Miles smirks. “Same. As the sales manager, I have to love the product in order to sell it.”

I blow out a breath. This is why I begged my brother, Eli, not to give managerial positions to our younger brothers. My oldest brother ignored me. The whole point of Buccaneer’s Whiskey is to create a business for our family, he said.

Shoes squeak on the distillery floor before my other older brother, Rhett, comes into view. There are six Raider brothers in total. Five too many if you ask me.

“Good. The voice of reason is here.” Unlike my younger brothers, Rhett isn’t a goof-off. He’s the CFO of the distillery, and he takes his position seriously.

Miles chuckles. “The voice of sexual frustration is more accurate.”

“Ah.” Kai feigns sympathy. “Is Dakota still giving you the run around?”

Rhett growls. “Dakota is Eli’s assistant. We aren’t involved.”

Zane waggles his eyebrows. “But you want to be.”

Rhett pushes him and they start to scuffle.

“Stop!” I shout. “No fighting in my distillery.”

“Dude.” Miles shakes his head. “It’s not your distillery. It’s owned by all of the Raider brothers equally.”

“Eli is the majority shareholder,” Rhett says. “The rest of us have ten percent of ownership each.”

“Why does Eli get fifty percent?” Zane asks. “He’s never here.”

“As if you are?” Miles asks.

“Oh, please.” Zane rolls his eyes. “You’re on your surfboard more than you’re in your office.”

“I get the best ideas on my surfboard.”

Kai snorts. “The only ideas you get on your surfboard is which woman in a bikini on the beach you’re going to seduce.”

Miles smirks. “Those are my best ideas.”

“Rhett,” I urge. “Can you please get rid of everyone? I need to work.”

“Your powers of concentration are legendary. They’ll leave once you ignore them.”

I indicate the whiskey glass on the table. “I’m tasting whiskey from each barrel to determine how the different flavors will work together to create a holiday blend today.”

Rhett winces. “Shit. Sorry.”

In other words, my brothers aren’t going anywhere without tasting some whiskey unless I bribe them. Relief hits me when the door opens. Eli must be here since Dakota won’t enter a room with Rhett in it unless she has to. Those two are constantly at each other’s throats. It’s exhausting.

Eli strolls toward us. He has brackets around his mouth, and his eyes are dull. This is not a man anxious to kick my brothers out of the distillery.

“What’s wrong?” Rhett asks.

“I know.” Kai practically bounces on his toes. “Someone had a run-in with the woman who hates him.”

Eli snarls at Kai. “Paisley doesn’t hate me.”

Wonderful. Another feud. Eli and Paisley used to be friends in high school. He had the biggest crush on her. But now she hates him. He should let it go. But he won’t.

Kai raises an eyebrow. “She didn’t say you are always showing off your wealth?”

Eli narrows his eyes. “How do you know? You weren’t there.”

“Dude,” Miles scoffs. “Have you forgotten what it’s like living on the island? You’ve been away from Smuggler’s Hideaway too long.”

Eli left the island after he graduated from high school and he’s hardly returned in the ten plus years since. He was too busy building the business of Apparoo into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise.

“I’m here to stay now,” Eli says. “The distillery isn’t some hobby.”

I purse my lips. “Of course, it isn’t. I create award winning whiskey.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You create?”

“Are you denying that I’m the person creating the whiskey flavors? ”

He blows out a breath. “No. Shit. Sorry. I’m just in a foul mood.”

Which is why he should let the whole Paisley thing go. Whenever they have a run-in, he returns to work in a foul mood.

“What are you creating today?” he asks.

I motion to our brothers. “Nothing unless you can get them to leave.”

“Why don’t we all leave?”

My brow furrows. “It’s not yet noon.”

“Lunch.” Eli nods. “Good idea.”

“I didn’t mention lunch,” I argue. “I don’t have time for lunch. I need to taste from each of these barrels.”

“You don’t have any samples.”

“I do.” I motion to the table where the whiskey glass is waiting. I scowl when I notice the glass is now empty. “Who drank my sample?”

Rhett lifts his hands and steps back. “It wasn’t me.”

I glare at Miles, Zane, and Kai.

“In our defense,” Kai begins.

“We shared the sample,” Miles finishes.

I shoo them toward the door. “Go. Have lunch.” At least I’ll have some peace and quiet while they’re gone.

“Brother trip!” Kai, Zane, and Miles shout in unison.

A brother trip is an idea Eli and Rhett developed to make sure the six of us spent time together when we were growing up after our dad abandoned us. Mom was working several jobs and didn’t have much time to spend with us as a family. Eli and Rhett stepped up in her absence.

“You can’t declare lunch on a workday a brother trip. And you need four brothers to agree it’s a brother trip.”

Eli and Rhett gaze at each other for a few moments. Those two always could communicate without words. Finally, they nod.

“Brother trip,” they say in unison.

“Does no one care about our agreement to expand the distillery?” I ask.

“I care since I’m the one who managed to procure the exclusive deal with the Velvet Blossom restaurant chain,” Eli says.

“Good. Then, you understand I don’t have time for lunch.”

“Come on.” Kai nudges me toward the door. “It’s just lunch.”

I push my glasses up my nose. “Do I appear stupid?”

“Nope. You’re your usual nerdy self.”

“Calling me a nerd is not the insult you think it is.”

“Let’s go, nerd,” Miles says.

“Fine but no one better drink during this lunch and I will be returning to work within an hour.”

“Sure, you will.” Zane winks.

We pile into Eli’s SUV. Unfortunately, it easily fits all six of us despite how tall we each are. We need the room to spread out .

“You know,” Miles says as we drive toward Smuggler’s Rest – the biggest town on Smuggler’s Hideaway. “I feel a prank war coming on.”

I fist my hand before I yank the door open to escape. Jumping out of the vehicle while Eli is driving – no matter how slow he’s driving since it’s summer and the island is full of tourists – is dangerous.

My brothers are the bane of my existence.

I don’t have time for a stupid prank war.

The expansion of the distillery is no joke.

Especially since Kai, who is supposed to be the operations manager and therefore handle the bulk of the expansion, thinks working is a construct developed by ‘the man’ to put him down.

I put on a sigh. “I guess I can postpone the development of the holiday whiskey and concentrate on a prank war with my brothers instead.”

“Whoa!” Zane holds up his hands. “You can’t postpone the development of the holiday whiskey. You promised to have it ready by Christmas. I’ve already purchased the magazine placements.”

“I can’t do everything. I’m only one man.”

“Damn,” Miles mutters. “No prank war.”

We arrive at Smuggler’s Cove for lunch and I follow my brothers toward the restaurant. Eli captures my wrist to stop me.

“When did you become this devious?”

“Maybe I’ve always been this devious. ”

Being devious is a requirement in the Raider household if you’re a nerd who wants his quiet time to study. Miles, Zane, and Kai went wild after Dad left and there was no longer an adult male in the house to control them.

I had no interest in chasing girls or pulling pranks in school. I knew with Dad gone, I had to get good grades in order to qualify for a scholarship if I wanted to go to college. And I was determined to attend college.

Thus, devious.