Page 2

Ares

CHAPTER TWO

Weeks later

A fucking avalanche. That is what Zeus's meeting with Madison turned into.

For years, my brother has sought revenge against the family that destroyed ours. It was a promise made to our paternal grandfather to buy the bank that belongs to our enemies, making the surname “Gordon” a joke.

My brother has lived his entire existence guided by that promise.

And then, suddenly, the most balanced of the four of us went crazy for the woman who was supposed to be an adventure only, until the time came for him to fulfill the rules of a signed agreement which would result in the end of more than a decade in search of revenge.

I could see the fucking chaos coming a mile away. The moment Zeus demanded that Madison never do exclusive dances again, performing only on stage, I guessed he was heading down a path of no return.

He decided to pay the equivalent of what she would collect from private dances, just so she wouldn't be alone with another man.

In fact, I know he demanded Madison's resignation, but it wasn’t successful, since she's not the docile type.

If he wasn't creating hell for himself, I might find it amusing to see him, always so centered, crazy about a much younger girl with no sophistication whatsoever. Nothing in my mood even comes close to that, though.

I and my two other brothers, Dionysus and Hades, as well as our cousins Odin and Christos? * , decided to get together to find a solution to the problem that has now arisen, since Zeus, even if he himself hasn't realized it yet, no longer seems willing to fulfill his part of the agreement with Gordon, the patriarch of the rival family.

Once the pact between the two is broken, we will never be able to acquire the GordonBank shares we need.

Even when I thought that Madison was just temporary in my brother's life, there was already a chance that our plans had gone to hell, because Gordon is traditional and hates scandals. Just a small leak of the relationship between Zeus and Madison would have been enough to make him back off.

A banker having an affair with a dancer? There could be no bigger scandal in New York.

When we invited him to this meeting at Dionysus's house, Zeus didn't know what we had planned—he thought it was just lunch. But as soon as he arrived, he realized that it was no accident that even Christos, who lives in North Carolina, had come.

"It's no coincidence that you’re all here," Zeus says, stating the obvious.

“No, it's not,” I reply.

He looks at me and understands that the meeting is related to Madison.

"Let's go outside," Dionysus proposes. "The nanny who’s with Joseph? * is a new hire, and I don't like the idea of her being by the pool with him without my supervision."

We sit on chairs around a table, in the shade of a tree, and soon a maid appears to offer drinks.

"I can’t stay long," Zeus warns.

"Why not?" Odin asks, even though we all already know the answer.

"I have a date," he says.

"With Madison ?" I ask, because diplomacy has never been my strong point.

"What is this? Because if you think I believe that this meeting was by chance, you don't know me that well."

"It wasn’t by chance," Hades confirms. "It's an attempt to stop you from destroying your own life."

"Conversations in code aren’t my specialty," my older brother growls, irritated.

"No, they're mine," Odin says, showing an unusually good sense of humor.

"Just tell me what you need."

"We have an alternative for your situation with Gordon."

"I’m not going to break the promise I made to my grandfather."

"What exactly was that?" the oldest of us all, Christos, continues. "As far as I know, it was to destroy their entire fortune to avenge your father's death."

"Yes, and to wipe their centuries-old name off the map. That's why I made the deal. There’s no other way to bring them down. I've been doing research for years."

"We’re buying shares in GordonBank ," Odin says.

"What?"

"For many months, we’ve been buying shares in GordonBank ," says Christos.

"That’s not possible,” interrupts Zeus. “He’s been preventing any sales linked to my surname, and everyone knows we’re cousins."

"We’re using small companies that are part of our conglomerate, mine and Odin's, but that aren’t directly linked to us," Christos says. "Separately, we don't own enough shares to have the board in the palm of our hands, but when we add our shares together, we're only one percent away from achieving majority ownership. Fifty-one percent. When that happens, we’ll create a third company that will have complete control of GordonBank ."

"And then we’ll sell it to you," Odin adds, while I notice my brother trying to absorb that game-changer.

I know his way of thinking. Zeus knows that if our cousins' plan works, we will obtain our revenge against the Gordons, he will be free from the old man's blackmail, and at the same time, he won't fail to fulfill the promise he made to our grandfather.

"Say something," Hades says.

"How long until you get that one percent?"

"It's been more challenging than we thought because the current owner isn’t a professional but an orphan girl, represented by her guardian," Christos explains.

"Offer them triple."

"We're trying, but he's resisting because it seems like it's the only inheritance left for the girl, who’s been living in an all-girls orphanage since she lost her parents."

"Either way, when my plans come to fruition, there won’t be anything left of what was once known as GordonBank," he says. "The shares will be worth less than discarded candy wrappers. Selling will be a good move for her."

"What are you going to do about the employees?" Odin asks.

"Redistribute them among my companies and my brothers' companies. I won't leave over a hundred and fifty thousand people unemployed."

"It's a high number," Christos says. "But we can also relocate them to some of our businesses. And for those who are of retirement age, offer some sort of incentive."

"Why did you do this?" Zeus asks.

"I wouldn't let you ruin your life over a promise," my cousin Odin replies.

"The penalty for breaking the contract with Gordon will be high," I say.

"No. For him to enforce our agreement, he would have to hold the majority of the shares," Zeus explains. " If Christos and Odin can secure that last one percent, he's finished. Even if he negotiates with all the other shareholders, which is highly unlikely, he'll never get more than forty-nine percent."

"It's going to be a blow to the old man." Dionysus laughs, because there is no mercy in our hearts for anyone who bears the surname Gordon. Because of that damn family, our father gave up on life.

“Gordon is made of tough stuff,” I say. "Besides, he's no better than that bastard's dead son. Emerson is nothing more than a damn blackmailer."

After weeks of being tense as hell, I finally feel a little more relieved.

If everything goes well, the promise to our grandfather will be fulfilled and my brother won't have to destroy his future for it.

* ? They are the protagonists of About Love and Revenge and The Tycoon's Obsession , respectively.

* ? He is Dionysus's son. It's important to note that, at this point, Cici, the protagonist of book 2 in the current series had not yet entered Dionysus's life.