Page 11 of Stolen Voices

“I’m tired. My mom just dropped a bomb on me. With how fucked everything has gotten, she’s moving herself and Penny to England. She said they need a chance to start over without my father’s tainted past haunting them. I get it, but taking Penny? I’m having a hard time accepting it. How am I going to go without seeing my baby sister every day? I feel like she needs me, you know?”

“Damn. I’m sorry to hear that. But hasn’t it been hard on Penny at school?”

Penny just finished her first year of high school a couple of weeks ago, but the rumors—that are more fact than fiction—have made her a target for her peers the entire year. While she’s a tough kid, there is only so much one person can take.

Harold’s seedy indiscretions still follow me and Hudson around, and we are nothing like that creep. I had always looked up to Harold, but learning the truth about who he was behind closed doors messed with my head. It was still hard to rectify the man and mentor I knew with the predator he truly was.

He nods in agreement. “Yeah, but…”

“I know. She’s your kid sister.”

Despite being grown men, my brothers and I still struggle with not being around each other every day. With Jace and Mason in Oregon, that just leaves me and Cameron here at home in Los Angeles, and even then, he travels eight months out of the year playing for the Evaders.

Now that Cam’s secretly dating his worst enemy’s sister—a woman that I recently met and really like for him—we hardly talk. I might give Cam shit about needing me too much, but the truth is I love it. Being able to provide him or anyone I love with help is something I enjoy. I’ll even admit that being needed is my love language.

“It’s fucked, and… Well, I need a favor, E.”

Hudson has never asked for a favor, and the way he’s staring at me makes me nervous. He might as well be one of my brothers, and there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him.

Back when I started in this business, I learned really quickly that the Hollywood adage was absolutely true. It’s all about who you know, not what you know. Aside from Hudson, I didn’t know a single person. Sure, I got my foot in the door starting at the Campbell Group, but I wanted to make a name for myself.

When a friend and fellow intern called me asking for help, looking to get in touch with a client on our company’s roster, I told him he’d owe me one. He easily agreed, so I gave him the phone number.

After that, I started going out and making more connections, bartering information with fellow agents and leveraging anything I could. Eventually, in my world, the saying became, “It’s not who you know; it’s who you owe”.

Long story short, about a year later, I needed the name of a certain baseball scout, and I reached out to him. Let’s just say that celebrity couple is still together, and my brother is on the Los Angeles Evaders.

Over time, I have amassed a small fortune worth of favors. I know that sounds shady, like I’m blackmailing people or something. I’m not and would never. I like to think that when I trade favors or cash them in, I’m helping the person I’m working with.

Full disclosure: I do like holding favors over my brother’s heads, just to fuck with them. I don’t plan on cashing them in because I know my brothers would do anything for me, like I do for them.

Hudson is like a brother to me and falls into the “nothing owed in return” camp, so I easily answer, “Anything. Name it.”

“I want to take a few weeks off. Help my mom and Penny move. I know this comes at a stressful time, but can you run this place without me for a while?”

“Fuck, of course. Goes without saying.” I get up and close the door before I bring up my idea. “Since you brought it up, I wanted to talk to you about hiring another agent. We could really use the help.”

“We do, but—”

I cut him off before he freaks out. “I want to promote Dez. He knows this place inside and out. He trained Reenie, and she’s an exceptional assistant because of it. We can start now with a trial period and hire a temporary new assistant. Dez can run your desk while you take as long as you need, and I’ll be here to support him the entire time. When you get back, we can discuss his promotion. I trust him. Implicitly.”

“Hell yeah. I love this idea. I’ve thought Dez should have a bigger role here for a while now. I just wasn’t sure you would let him go.”

I blow out a rumbly breath. “I don’t want to, but I can’t hold him back and I don’t want to lose him.”

A wide grin takes over Hudson’s face. “It’s done, then. When I come back, we tell him, and then we’ll celebrate.”

“Perfect.” I grin at Hud. Dez is going to be so excited. He’s so fucking ready for this promotion.

I pull out my phone and send Dez a text.

“You’re a genius, Eli. Now, you only have to take care of Callie, and Dez can handle everyone else so you won’t have too much extra work.”

My eyes snap to Hudson, and I almost drop my cell. I must have misunderstood him. “Wait. What?”

“I need you to take care of Callie,” he repeats slowly.

“You want me to take care of…” My throat closes around her name, and my heart hammers in my chest.