Istill spent my summers turningmy two part-time jobs during the semesters into two full-time jobsto pad my savings account and I still studied like it was my firstday of school. For three years, I’ve never veered off my path tohave a little something for myself.
While everyoneelse was looking for a senseof purpose when they became adults, all I wanted was to secure ahome so I would never be homeless or displaced everagain.
Blaineview was makingthat happen.
The only darkspot in all of this was Mason Buchanan.
Chapter 2
Mason~
“Sonofabitch!”
Bending over, Irubbed the sting out of myright shin.
“Oh, hey. Sorry aboutthat.”
I looked up at thesound of my younger brother’s voice. “What the hell are all theseboxes doing in the living room, Aiden?”
Hesmirked. “The twins told themovers to just unload everything in the living room and they’d putit all always later. And I’m not breaking my back with this shitall by myself.”
I closed my eyes andlet out a deep breath.
I spent 18years living in a house withmy three brothers, finally making my escape when I left forBlaineview, and now I was right back where I escapedfrom.
Now, don’t getme wrong. I loved my brothers. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do forthem and there’s nothing they wouldn’t do for me. But wewere still four grown men livingtogether and that dynamic always had the potential to turnannoying.
Early on, weall knew we’d be attending Blaineview for college. Our father wasanalumnus, and he contributeshis entire empire to the education he got here. But I suspected hissuccess was attributed more to the fact that his parents and theirparents before them had been wealthy and established, and so myfather hadn’t had to do much to secure his ‘empire’.
Very much likeme and my brothers were doing now.
The onlydifference was that I wasn’tan only child, as my father had been, and his father before him,and the condition placed on me to take over Buchanan Industries wasalso placed on each of my brothers.
And that wasperfectly okay with me.
I had nodesire to run myself into theground trying to maintain BI’s standards and growthalone.
I didn’t mindbeing in charge and I wasn’t afraid of hard work, but I refused tobe so business oriented that I ended up neglecting my wife andraising our children like theywere in military boot camp, later down the line.
Besides,whatever I could bring to the tablewould be ten times better with my brothers beside me.
We all had ourstrengths, and we all had ourweakness, as evident by the constant reminders by ourfather.
I had aphotographic memory and couldmulti-task with ease. I had the ability to grab and take control ofanything that was thrown at me. That’s probably why I’ve neverknocked the shit out of my father. I’ve always been able to handlewhatever he heaped onto my shoulders. And that included theshoulders of my brothers. Someone had to protect them from thesadistic bastard.
The flipside to my coin was that it was hardfor me to identify with emotions. I was cold and hard, and Istruggled with connecting to people.
At 21 yearsold, Aiden was the secondoldest…or I guess, technically the middle child, since our twoyoungest brothers were twins. Aiden’s gift was his ability to domath in his head. He could calculate numbers, odds and situationaloutcomes with his robotic mind. It was really a neat thing towitness.
Theflip side to his coin was thefemale creation. Aiden spent his teenage years struggling betweenkeeping focused on our father’s vision and sinking in between afemale’s thighs.
The twinswere 18 and our mother shouldhave named them Lucifer and Dante instead of Gabriel and Michaelbecause angels they were not.
Gabriel was theoldest by three minutes, making Michael the youngest. Gabriel’scontribution to my father’s Buchanan Industriesvision was that the kid couldread people. It was uncanny and kind of eerie how he could spendten minutes in someone’s company and then tell you everything aboutthe person’s character. He’s played a big part in keeping Aidenfrom any planned ‘accidents’ growing up. He can spot a conniving,gold digging whore from a mile away.
The flipside to his coin is that his loyaltyis absolute. If I asked Gabriel to go with me to murder someone,he’d go. No questions asked. He ignored reason when it came to me,Aiden, Michael, our mother and, unfortunately, our father. And ourfather wasn’t above manipulating that loyalty.
Last, there was Michael.Now, you would think with him being the baby of the family, hewould have been spared our father’s dictations…but he wasn’t andisn’t. I always suspected Michael got hit with my father’s demandsthe hardest because, after Michael, my father had no one left tobeat on and bully.
