Hate to Love You (Strong Brothers 4)

He studied me for a moment. "Nothing shakes Gran."

"This did." Because I still had the other brothers together, I left his office and headed over to Hunter’s.

His door was open slightly ajar too, but because Hunter and Natalie had some unusual sexual habits, I listened before I walked right in.

"How about I come home for lunch and you can tell me all about it," he said in a voice that sounded less like having a sandwich and more like innuendo. I knocked on the door then peeked in. He waved me in.

"Listen, I’ve gotta go Nat. But I'll be home for lunch. I'm going to be ravenous."

I tried to maintain my poker face, but sometimes it was hard.

"What's up Andi?" he asked me as he set his phone on the desk.

"Your grandmother's calling a meeting. I think it's important."

He nodded and stood buttoning his coat. "Any idea what it's about?"

"Whatever it is, it's important." I rushed from his office and down to Carter's. Now that he was married and had a son, he was in his office more often than he used to be. Before he traveled a lot, taking advantage of telecommuting as much as he could.

His door was closed so I knocked and waited until he said I could come in. I entered and he had his eyes glued to the computer that I imagine was loaded with numbers. Around his desk, there were pictures of his travels that now showed him with Jess and little Tanner. There were also drawings that clearly Tanner had made for him.

"Your Gran has called a meeting in the conference room."

"Now? I'm going over these numbers from Asia. I think there's something off about them, but I'm having trouble figuring out exactly what it is."

"She says it's important, and she looks concerned. Perhaps it's about this Asian expansion. I don't know."

He nodded and stood. I didn't wait for him. Instead, I left the office and made sure that the conference room was ready for the meeting. I tagged a couple of the admin to make sure that there was fresh coffee brewed and another one I sent off to the bakery just across the street to get some pastries.

By the time I got back to the conference room, all her grandsons were there sitting attentively as they waited for her. Except of course for Noah, who was slouched back in his chair looking bored.

Margaret came in and stood at the head of the table, looking over the group that she was entrusting to continue on her legacy.

"We’re having a problem with our expansion through Asia. The supply chain logistics software is malfunctioning and it's causing severe delays and shortages. Now I've asked Phil and his people in the Hong Kong office to take a look at it and they've determined that the system is being manipulated from the outside."

At that Noah sat up a little bit, leaning forward.

"They believe we've been hacked,” Margaret finished.

"Do they have an idea by who?" Ryan asked.

Margaret shook her head. "No. They were looking at bringing in someone to take a look, but I'm thinking we need to keep this in-house. I only want people we can trust."

"I was in Asia not that long ago and everything looked okay, but I will say there is something wonky about the numbers recently," Carter said.

“Like what?” Ryan asked.

“I’m not sure. I’m still studying them.”

"Marcus Chen is working with us on distribution and he hasn't said anything,” Ryan said to Gran.

Margaret’s mouth straightened into a thin line. "I think we need to keep this all to ourselves. Somewhere along the line someone is trying to hurt the company. I don't know if it's in-house or someone outside, but we need to figure out what it is." Margaret looked at each and every one of her grandsons stopping on Noah. “I need someone that we can trust to go to Hong Kong and figure out what is going on."

Noah shook his head.

"I can go," Ryan said.

"I can go. I was the last one that was there," Carter said.