Tank (Blue-Collar Billionaires 1)

Everything is still up in the air. I’m not sure where I’m going to live, where I’m going to go to school or how I’m going to pay for any of it. I know that I don’t want Tank paying for it but beyond that I haven’t got a clue. But I know that I can figure it out.

And that Tank will be with me through it all.

EPILOGUE

TANK

One month later …

I enter Finn’s penthouse balancing two large pizzas under one arm and carrying a six-pack of beer in the other. I look over my shoulder at Eli, who stands uncertainly behind me.

“Come on in. Have a beer. Take a load off.”

He waves at Finn, Gabe and Zack who are sitting on the couch. There’s already a basketball game playing on the big screen.

“Guys, this is my boss, Elliott Alexander. Eli, my brothers. Finn is in the armchair, the one who looks like my clone is Gabe and the one with the Mohawk is Zack.”

Eli waves amidst the chorus of hellos. “You guys look like you’re set. I won’t stay. I just wanted to bring you that information you asked for, Tank.”

I set the beer down on the floor and hand the pizzas off to Gabe. I take the envelope he’s holding out. He seems uncomfortable and I can’t get why. We’ve never really hung out before but I wanted him to meet my brothers. Yet, he’s acting like he can’t wait to get out of here.

“Okay, if you can’t stay I understand. I just figured you might want to escape for a while.”

He drops his head. “Yeah. I just bought the house and it’s been taken over by a bunch of women I haven’t seen since I was in Sunday school as a kid.”

“Eli just got engaged,” I mention to the others. “His fiancée is in the middle of planning the wedding.”

Zack gets up and walks to the kitchen. When he comes back, he hands a beer to Eli. “You probably need this.”

Eli laughs but stops when he sees me ripping open the envelope. “Hey, I’m going to give you guys some privacy for a minute.” He doesn’t look at me before walking into the kitchen.

Zack looks at me and shrugs. “What’s going on with him?”

“I have no idea—“ I stop in mid-sentence when I pull out the stack of files in the envelope. I asked Eli to assist with a background check that was proving more challenging than I’d expected. He’s got a magic touch with finding things that other people want to keep hidden.

My brother Lucas obviously didn’t want to be found.

Zack follows me as I walk over to the couch still scrutinizing the pictures. Gabe and Finn look up as I step in front of the television.

“I think my boss is trying to distance himself just in case any of you turn out to be closet racists.” They all look over at Eli, who is currently bent over trying to pretend he’s fascinated by the contents of Finn’s refrigerator.

I look too, trying to see him through their eyes. He’s a heavily muscled,

dark-skinned guy with a shaved head. I’ve never thought too much about what he looks like before, mainly because it doesn’t matter. He’s an exceptional boss and an even better friend. That’s all I care about. And without even asking, I know my brothers are the same way.

I raise my voice. “Eli, you can come over here now. It’s cool.”

He looks up at the sound of my voice. “You sure?” He glances over at the others, uncertainly. At their nods of agreement, he walks over and perches on the arm of the couch.

I turn to the others. “I needed Eli’s special touch to find someone. He came through, as usual.”

I hold up one of the pictures. A tall, thin young man with light brown skin and curly hair is shown crossing the street. He’s wearing sunglasses but there’s no denying that he looks like us.

“That’s him?” Gabe reaches out to take the picture. When he’s done looking at it, he passes it to Zack.

“Yeah. Lucas Brown Marshall. Age 22. Also known as Luke,” I say, reading from the typed summary sheet that Eli included. “He’s some kind of child prodigy. He graduated high school at 16 and college at 19. He owns a software development company. It says here that when he was on summer vacation one year, he created the program that the majority of the state’s hospitals use to keep patient’s digital records secure.”

“I guess he was bored that summer,” Gabe comments.