Page 20 of The Devil’s Detail (The Greystone Family: Greystone Brothers #2)

James Greystone (nephew)

June, LA

No one ever wants to admit that their family might just be slightly weird, strange, and, at best, eccentric. With my lot, you also have to add in dangerous. Sometimes to other people. But to themselves? You bet. Such is the way when your uncles are the brothers Greystone.

And they are losing their ever-loving minds.

Initially, I thought it was just Uncle Jonno hitting some sort of midlife crisis in March.

His actions in Scotland nearly got him thrown out of the birthing party for my newest sibling, little Rio. My papa had had enough of him, begging me to try and decipher the Greystone mind. Ha! Good luck with that.

And now, Uncle Jackson. There must be something in the water.

Or maybe it is as I’ve always suspected—they are so inexplicably linked to my mother, that anything that happens to her is like a weird butterfly effect, some sort of catalyst. It ripples out and they are driven mad by it.

Caught up in it. And eventually end up in strangely similar situations.

I know them so well, it’s scary at times. They raised me, along with my mum. They nurtured me, loved me. And I them. And the insights those years have brought… well, it’s a lot.

Uncle Jackson, for example. What can I say about him?

A deep thinker, an articulate man. He portrays the polished veneer of civility and normalcy.

But underneath, he is none of those things.

He’s dangerous, dark. Gives off a wild, feral energy.

It’s thinly contained and people can feel it.

I’ve watched many men retreat from him when his veneer slipped.

It’s his eyes. They’re dead, cold, shark-like.

Too many memories of death and pain are held there.

Yes, he is a dangerous man, and surrounds himself with similar people.

Most of the people he employs are former service personnel.

And in his eyes, anyone is welcome. He’s never been discriminatory in the slightest. If you can competently do the job for him, you’re in.

You then belong to him, and therefore he looks after you.

“Uncle Jackson’s been calling. Have you had any missed calls?” I ask my adopted brother, Bucky.

He pulls out his phone to check, and shakes his head. If the Greystones ring one of us and don’t get an answer, they usually ring the other.

“Weird,” I state and shrug.

“Weird doesn’t touch it.” Both Uncle Jackson and Jonno seem to have boarded the crazy train, which is why Bucky and I have switched our ring tones for both of them to the Randy Rhoads guitar riff from ‘Crazy Train’.

“Although Jackson did seem okay the other night at dinner. Apart from all the ridiculous phone calls from Carter Maywood.” He shrugs.

“I’d get rid of him. Hard work.” He curls his lip in disgust.

“Did you think Jackson was alright?” I question his comment. “He seemed a bit off, a bit like Jonno. I’ve tried to find out what’s up with them, but no joy.”

“Brother, you are not getting to the bottom of the Greystone brothers, not those two anyway. Especially Uncle Jax. I definitely do not want to go there.” He visibly shivers.

I know what he means. Both of those two Greystone brothers are dark and murky at times. But I’ve narrowed the start to their new levels of bonkers down to a night in CAshO in March. Considering that, maybe it’s better I don’t know.

My phone rings again, I grin as the guitar riff blasts out at us. Jackson. I pull a horrified look at Bucky, but answer. “Hey, Uncle Jax, how’s it going?”

“Like shit, nephew. But how are you fixed?” His voice is jovial, so I don’t take him too seriously. But I do help out with security stuff on occasion, so I am on alert for another new request.

“I need your and Bucky’s help for a ‘soft extraction.’”

I bubble up a laugh. “What the fuck is a soft extraction?” I ask in shock.

Bucky starts to laugh. “Sounds painful, Uncle Jax,” he shouts.

“It fucking might be. I need help. Can you come over to Penny’s? ”

“The restaurant out in the sticks?” My voice sounds incredulous.

“Yep. We’ve got a situation with Carter and I need to remove it.” He must be desperate to phone us, but he sounds deadly serious.

“You’re kidding, right? Just get Carter to get up and leave. Tell him to spout off about another engagement. The man is a social butterfly.” I like Carter, but he’s so extroverted he makes my dad Marcus Russell look sedate.

“It’s not that simple.” His gruff voice has gotten so low. “There are cameras everywhere. I’m sure they’re waiting for Carter to go apeshit.” He pauses. “Gary’s turned up, and Ash says he’s gearing up to join Carter's party.”

“Fucking hell,” I gasp out. Not again. Jackson’s told us about Gary—the ex-boyfriend from hell who seems to be making a living out of harassing Carter.

“Exactly. Kasey and his latest friend are with Carter. If Carter goes to leave, Gary will pounce and make a scene about him leaving on his account. To be honest, I know he’ll turn up at the next venue, so we need to get either him or Carter out, but not both.

Deal with this shit once and for all.” His voice is full of annoyance.

He’s pissed off. Carter is pissing him off.

“How did he know where Carter was?” I ask logically.

“We’ve got a leak,” he answers curtly.

“Do you know where the leak is? Carter doesn’t normally post his dinner engagements.

Unless it was Kasey, or his ‘friend’? That couple love the limelight,” I say, sighing.

You can’t trust Kasey to do anything quietly.

He’s a terror for tipping off the paps himself.

And his latest friend is a film blogger. Again, likes to be noticed.

“Yep, I do know where the leak is, and I’m a fucking good plumber,” he states with grim satisfaction.

I love it when the Greystones get pissed off. It usually means a bit of chaos and drama. Both Bucky and I love the drama.

I rub my hands together. “Okay, where do you want us? We both love joining in the fun and action. Bucky could do with some. He’s pissed off at the minute.

All this shit with Nicci is doing his head in.

He needs a nice fun distraction. And to be fair, Carter is barking mad.

” I grin down the phone, and one look at Bucky reveals he’s perking up at the potential of some entertainment.

“Yeah, fetch him, too. I need you both to cause a stir, so get in character. I want full rockstar arseholes. I want you to create a fan frenzy. I’ll leave the details of that up to you.

But it needs to be loud and out there, so no one is looking at what we’re doing.

I need every eye in that restaurant and outside of it on you both.

” Jackson sounds so grim and determined.

“Wow, Jackson, you are my favourite uncle right now. I love being James fucking Greystone. I’ll channel Dad. Works a charm every time.”

He huffs out a laugh. “Yep, if anyone can cause a riot in an empty room, it’s your dad. Always been the same, even when he was nine. Caused plenty of arguments in an empty field, as I remember. It’s a gift.”

His voice softens to one he uses regularly with Bucky and me.

He loves us, and he’s never been shy about telling us.

“Thanks though, James. I appreciate this. I know you’re both mega busy, and don’t really need to get involved in my trying to tame Carter Fucking Maywood.

But I’m trying to cull out all the traitors, whilst lassoing a bucking bronco into submission.

Carter thinks he’s in charge. He needs to know he isn’t.

And if I can use this scenario tonight to show him, it will be an easy win for us all. ”

“Yep, you just summed Carter up in one go. He is such a large personality. I’m coming, obviously, but do you really need him?

I know we talked about it at dinner, but, I mean, you make a shit tonne of money via Jonno and your cyber and tech stuff, do you need the hassle of him as a client?

He’s so high profile. If anything goes south, everyone will blame your security company, and you. ”

My concern is for my uncle. He takes security so seriously. He’s fastidious and meticulous. Carter is lucky to have him. Hopefully one day the great Mr Maywood will figure that out. Maybe it’ll even be before Uncle Jackson cuts him loose.

“Those other security guys are still sniping from the sidelines,” I advise him.

“I even saw one the other day on some entertainment site, billed as a ‘security specialist’, having a pop at you after Carter decided to distribute those superhero figures to a bunch of school kids, and got mobbed. Clearly you didn’t know he was going to do it.

He’s worse than Dad going off piste,” I let him know so he’s confident I am on his side.

“They’re dickheads. I don’t ever talk about other outfits, as you don’t generally know the nitty gritty, but that lot were terrible.

And I know Carter’s a pain, but your mother will kill me if I abandon him now.

She’s taken him into the fold. God help us all.

She needs to stop picking up stray actors. ”

I hear the grin in his voice, but then he gets serious again.

“That school was a joke. Carter was aided and abetted by one of his old team with the superhero stuff. It wasn’t sanctioned, and not on our list of events.

We had a huge row over it. So if I can get him out of this, it may help my cause in dealing with him rationally.

To be honest, I know everything he does is for the benefit of others and not himself, but he just needs to let me know. ”

I hear the softness in his voice when he says the last bit. Obviously he cares about Carter. Again, I’m surprised he’s got a kind word for him. As far as I can see, he’s just another loud actor who’s used to getting what he wants, exactly when he wants it.