“I quite like this one.” His tone is deliberately innocent, which immediately puts me on guard.
I narrow my gaze at him. “What’s really going on?”
Jake stops smiling, his expression shifting to mock offense. “Why do you always assume something is going on? You could stand to be a little less paranoid.”
“Because I know you. Who’re you running from?”
He glares at me with wounded dignity. “I want an office, Ethan. I don’t want to play twenty questions with you to get one. I did you a massive favor with that contract you had me draft. You owe me an office now.”
“Are you trying to blackmail me?” I stare at him incredulously. “I paid you to draft that contract.”
“You didn’t pay me to skirt around the law to do so,” my brother grouses, settling deeper into the couch. “Look, give me an office here, or my face will be parked in your office for the rest of the year. You want to smell my stinky socks all year round, fine by me.”
I shudder at the mere thought of having to spend the next year stuck with him in one office. We shared a room until I went off to college. That was enough torture for me. However, Jake doesn’t like being glued to my side either, so the fact that he’s going this far to force himself into my space must mean?—
“I’m going to ask you one more time. Who’re you trying to hide from?”
My brother gives me a petulant look, refusing to answer like the stubborn bastard he is. “I want an office.”
There is only one person that I know Jake fears greatly. “Sure. I’ll just call Megan to let her know that?—”
“Don’t you dare call her!” Jake sits up, panic written all over his face like neon signs.
I walk over to my desk and settle down before giving my brother a long, assessing look. “So you’re running from our baby sister? What is she doing now?”
My twin deflates, covering his face with his hands in dramatic fashion. “She’s trying to set me up with a friend of hers. She says being single at my age is undignified. And then she called me a manwhore when I told her that none of the ladies who grace my bed would agree with her assessment.”
I shuffle some papers around, fighting back amusement. “You are a manwhore, Jake. The whole family knows that.”
“And until now, everybody had the good grace not to say it to my face.” My twin glares at me with wounded pride. “Just because I sleep with multiple women doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings.”
I pick up a pen and twirl it around my thumb, considering his predicament. “If you want to have a heart-to-heart, I’m not free to braid your hair today. Go talk to Mom. Tell her to get Megan in line.”
“Mom agrees with her.”
I pick up the files Natalie dropped on my desk not an hour ago and begin going over them. “Then go to Dad.”
“Megan’s his favorite. I’m not taking any chances with him. Besides, everyone knows that Braxton Thompson doesn’t run the most award-winning companies. The way you bought this company from him, everything under the table, you’re going to have a hell of a clean-up to manage. You need me here.”
I lift my head, considering his words carefully. Jake’s one of the best corporate lawyers there is in New York. He’s a managing partner at one of the top law firms in the country, Edison and Wilder. He’s the only one of us who followed in our father’s footsteps. After Dad’s retirement, he took over his position. Although our father still takes on the occasional case, Jake is the one who controls the firm.
His workload prevents him from taking on more than one or two clients outside the firm, but he’s the only one I trust to handle all of my companies’ legal matters. And I’m certain Thalvyn Maritime needs plenty of legal assistance at the moment.
“Fine,” I sigh, hoping I don’t come to regret my decision. “This entire floor has plenty of empty offices. Pick one.”
“Fantastic.” His relief is palpable.
If I thought that was enough to get Jake off my back, I’m proven wrong immediately. Getting to his feet, he wanders over to me and looks down at the list of names in my hand with obvious curiosity.
“Already getting rid of people, I see?”
“This is the list of names the head of HR just gave me. She’s divided up employees according to their departments,ranking them from their quarterly performance reviews dating back to when she joined the firm. Makes things a hell of a lot easier for me, and it’s much better than the list Braxton gave me. He wanted me to fire every woman he couldn’t get with.”
“Man’s a real charmer,” Jake drawls as he leans his hip against my desk, picking up another sheet from the file that Natalie had given me. He looks genuinely impressed. “This is really well put together. I still don’t think you should have purchased this company. It’s a sinking ship. Even I know that. Rumors are that his existing clients were pulling business from this place.” He frowns at me with concern. “And even if you wanted to buy it, you didn’t have to pay Braxton’s asking fees. The bastard extorted you.”
I pick up Natalie’s resume from the scattered papers on my desk and study it, murmuring, “I think I got a good price for it.” My brother cocks his head, staring at me as I fold the resume and tuck it into my pocket with deliberate care. I lean back in my chair. “What?”
“You’re up to something. I know you are. What is it?”
