Page 28 of Love by Design (Club Rapture: Risk Aware #1)

MARSHALL

C ory was, as I expected, more than agreeable about meeting with Silas.

He’d also read the article so Silas’s creativity was clearly only lost on his father.

I texted Silas to let him know how to get in touch, then tried to focus on work.

I went ahead and submitted the final draft of the bid on the Cahuenga Pass project because, with Silas out at Ayres, I had far less to worry about.

It was a shame—from a business perspective—that Silas didn’t want to come work for me, but I also appreciated how that was one too many relationship lines between us.

Knowing the bid was done and Silas was safe with Lincoln on my couch, my mind reluctantly traveled to other obligations that I’d been shirking since taking on both.

The biggest of which being Hunter’s revelation about a new brother.

I’d looked him up a couple of times and didn’t find much of him on social media.

Andrew Calavert.

There’d been a long-abandoned Facebook profile and a LinkedIn page that hadn’t been updated since he’d graduated—from USC—with his J.D.

a couple years after. If he had a job, I didn’t know where it was.

It wouldn’t have taken more than a couple phone calls to find out, but I didn’t want to make any assumptions.

He was willing to meet with us at some point, and I could ask him then.

I glanced at my watch, knowing the end of the day was approaching faster than I would have liked.

For the first time in my life, I was torn between two things that both deserved priority—Silas and my brothers.

So I called Hunter, since he was the only one who knew about our unspoken agenda for the night.

“Hey,” he said, already sounding weary. “Are you ready for tonight?”

“Not entirely.” I paused. “Do you think we can table it?”

“The conversation?”

“Dinner,” I said.

The quiet between us was thick. “Does this have anything to do with that boyfriend of yours?”

I’d never lie to any of my brothers, especially about something like this.

And I’d already told Silas I’d be home after dinner, but if there was any way I could adjust that schedule to get back to him sooner, I wanted to try it.

The revelation about our fifth brother was groundbreaking, but Andrew wasn’t going anywhere.

From what Hunter had said, although he’d agreed to meet us, he wasn’t chomping at the bit to do so.

We could put the reveal off another week…

“Yes,” I told him, “But not in the way you’re thinking.”

“How am I thinking?” he asked.

“That I want to ditch out on you to get laid.”

Hunter chuckled. “Don’t you?”

I let my mouth tug into a smile, since my brother couldn’t see it. “Of course, but he’s going through something right now.”

“Smith is about to be going through something too,” Hunter interjected, “when he finds out there’s another one of us. ”

Scrubbing a hand down my face, I leaned back in my chair and stared up at the ceiling like I could find the answer there. “You’re right,” I agreed. “Do you have any other information about him?”

“I have his phone number.”

“Have you talked to him?”

“Just the first time. He knows about you and Smith and Finn. He knows we’re telling them tonight, but nothing else.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll see you at six then.”

“Marshall, I know you like this kid, but being there for your family is the right choice.”

“I can do both,” I told him, hanging up the call and frowning down at my cell phone.

The rest of the day passed with the frown in place.

So downturned, my jaw ached from it. The only reprieve from my day were the intermittent text messages from Silas about what he and Lincoln were doing and how they were feeling.

He sent me a picture of the sandwiches the two of them had made for lunch, and he let me know he’d made plans to meet with Cory on Monday about a job.

He assured me he felt a thousand times better than he had the night before, but I still didn’t feel right about abandoning him to deal with the fact my father couldn’t keep his cock in his pants.

This was fine.

It was as expected because I’d already told Silas I was going to be late, and Lincoln had already committed to staying there until I got home.

The only thing that powered me through the rest of my day was knowing Silas had his best friend with him, otherwise the nagging nerves over Andrew would have eaten me alive.

By the time dinner rolled around, I was beyond ready to get out of the office and into our usual corner booth.

My normal wine tasted like it had gone a bit sour, but I imagined that was more on account of my nerves than it was any fault with the restaurant itself.

Hunter showed up next, which was out of character for him, and we exchanged a nervous glance.

“I’ll tell them,” he said, glancing past me, jaw tight.

Finn and Smith arrived within seconds of each other, taking their usual seats and getting their usual drinks. By all accounts, this should have been a standard Friday night dinner between brothers. I hated that I knew otherwise.

Hunter had the courtesy to wait until Smith and Finn had at least one swallow of their drinks before he flattened his hands against the edge of the booth and blurted, “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“You who?” Finn asked, head bobbling side to side like he’d made the most amusing joke of all time.

“All of you.” Hunter’s somber expression was enough to suck the amusement right out of Finn, which caused Smith to go tense to my left. I slid my leg over, knocking my shoe against his in a show of silent brotherly solidarity.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Finn muttered.

“No.”

“Just spill it,” I said.

Hunter pursed his lips, shooting me a glare before confessing to his vodka, “We have another brother.”

Finn’s eyes went wide, mouth gaping open, but he was quick to snap it closed.

He looked from Hunter to me, then to Smith, and the way his face changed at the sight of our youngest brother had me swiveling to see him as well.

Smith looked like he’d just watched a baby deer get shot, the expression on his face one of utter devastation tinged with horror.

“Hey,” I said, squeezing his thigh in what I hoped was a reassuring way. “It’s okay.”

It was easy to forget I’d had this revelation three times before. Smith was the last to come to us. He’d never experienced the grief and confusion—and later, joy—that came from finding out there was another brother to bring into the fold .

“How did you find out?” Finn asked. He’d cleared his throat and downed his vodka, raising his empty glass over his head until the waiter saw him and headed to get a second.

Smith still hadn’t moved, so I kept my hand on his leg, my foot against his.

“His mother died recently. The confession, as it were, was in her will.”

“Must have been nice to not have a mom who was willing to sell you out,” Smith muttered, and all three of us looked at him with varying degrees of concern.

The waiter brought Finn his second drink, which was gone in less than thirty seconds, but he refrained from ordering another. Smith’s drink was untouched, save for his first sip of wine.

“Go on,” I prompted.

“His name is Andrew,” Hunter said, working through the short checklist of information we had about our mystery sibling. “He lives in San Diego. He’s a lawyer.”

“How old is he?” Finn asked, still eyeing Smith.

Our baby brother.

“Twenty-eight,” Hunter said.

Finn groaned, dropping his head back against the booth. He sank into the leather and folded his arms in front of his chest.

“He knows about us,” I said, taking over for my brother who was clearly running on fumes with the adrenaline of the confession wearing off already. “He’s willing to meet with us.”

“What if we don’t want to meet him?” Smith muttered.

I knocked my knee against his. “Why wouldn’t we want to meet him?”

“He’s not…he wasn’t…”

“He wasn’t raised like us,” Finn supplied, unfolding his arms in favor of violently stirring the ice around his empty drink with a cocktail straw .

“That doesn’t change the fact we all share the same blood.”

“The world doesn’t need another Covington,” Finn said.

“Calavert,” Hunter corrected, scratching the side of his nose. “Andrew Neil Calavert.”

Finn immediately pulled out his phone, and I knew my brother well enough to know he was searching for the newest addition to our family on all the social media platforms he had. He found nothing of note, same as me, then dropped his phone face down on the table with a sigh.

“At least he’s not thirty-five,” Hunter said, in a small glimpse of levity from the otherwise most serious one of us.

“Triplets would be a bit much,” I agreed.

That earned a snort from Finn but also had Smith shaking himself away from me and climbing out of the booth. I let him go, until Hunter glanced from Smith’s back to my face.

“You should go after him,” he suggested.

“I think he wants to be alone.”

“Yeah,” Finn said. “So did I.”

Remembering the destruction a very young Finn had brought into the house after Hunter’s arrival was enough to have me out of the booth, chasing after my brother.

We shared genetics, but Finn was the one who’d inherited father’s temper.

I always assumed it had skipped Smith, but after watching him leave, neither of the twins looked sure.

I went after Smith, finding him in the parking lot of the restaurant with his ass propped against the hood of his car, hands jammed into his pockets.

“Hey, kid,” I said, standing beside him and leaning against the car.

He stared out at the street, a very tense frown on his face. It was strange to see him so unhappy. Smith had always been guarded of his emotions, stoic, falling somewhere between Finn and Hunter on the emotional intelligence scale.

“Is this what it was like when I showed up?” He kicked his foot out, scuffing some rocks before crossing his legs at the ankles.