Brother to the Boss (Managing the Bosses 8)

He shook his head. He was making excuses, but he couldn’t help himself.

As though on cue, the door opened and Erica stepped in. She was whistling cheerfully, as though she had no idea that something had gone down that afternoon between Mark and Alex. The sound frayed on Mark’s nerves. He knew that she knew. No one had heard the argument, but people had seen them go out together and saw Alex leave a few minutes later. Mark knew exactly what kind of gossip went around among the restaurant staff.

“Could you stop?” Mark asked, jaw tight. “I have a wicked headache right now.”

The whistling cut off, and then there were footsteps moving across the floor and Erica's slight weight settled down on the couch next to him. One of her arms wrapped around his shoulders.

“Hey,” she said gently. “What's wrong?”

Mark choked out a bitter laugh. “What's wrong is that my brother basically just disowned me. Again.”

“He what?”

She sounded shocked enough that she must not have heard enough of the gossip. Or maybe the rumor mill just didn't have enough raw material. He was pretty sure no one knew what he and Alex had said to each other, but the fact that Alex had decided they weren't family any longer wasn’t something to take lightly.

He lifted his head so that he could meet her eyes. “Alex,” he said, “has decided that since I'm betraying him by letting Nicholas and his buddies play here, I'm no longer family. I'll need to repay the loan he gave me to purchase the land for the country club.”

Erica made a choked, shocked sort of sound. “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Mark answered, voice flat. “Alex and I have history. He had something happen to him in high school. My dad basically kicked him out and he walked away. We only started talking again not that long ago. This isn’t something to joke about. Alex is dead serious. Not only am I losing my brother again, but I’m going to lose this place as well.”

Erica pushed off the couch and stood up, pacing across the room. “That's ridiculous,” she said as she spun toward him. “It's not like you helped destroy his company, for fuck's sake. All you did was not throw out some richy-rich who spends way too much money on expensive drinks and tipping the staff. What did he expect you to do? Take a chance on losing a bunch of your best clients because his business is more important than yours? Nothing that Nicholas does here is going to have any bearing on him.”

Those were exactly the thoughts that he'd been having since the argument with Alex, but Mark shook his head. “It’s a matter of loyalty. I should’ve known better,” he said. “My first instinct was to kick him off the property, and I should have stuck with it.”

“Better than what? You didn't do anything, Mark.” Her voice was insistent. “You didn't do anything that anyone who isn't crazy would be angry about.”

“My brother,” Mark said, fingers curling against the couch, “is not crazy.”

Erica's stared at him. “Um. I'm pretty sure the way that he came in here and yelled at you for running your own business the way you want to run it and not the way that he does is nuts. What exactly would you call it?”

“I’d say he's having a problem, and instead of helping him fix it I just made it worse.”

“How are you supposed to help him fix it, exactly?”

“By not letting the person he hates most play golf at my country club?” Mark suggested, sounding more sure of himself as he said it. “Nicholas is done as of today.”

Erica threw up her hands. “You're really going to do what he says on this? After he disowned you? I'm sure that there are better ways to do your weekly good deed, if you feel like it's required.”

“He's my brother,” Mark said, standing up from the couch and moving away from Erica. “I don't know what you expect me to do. Not care about him?” He shook his head. “Nicholas really is kind of a slimy bastard.”

A growl of frustration foll

owed him as he moved toward the door, but Mark didn't turn to acknowledge it. If Erica was going to take issue with him running his business how he wanted to, then that was her problem, not his, but he wasn't going to sit around and do nothing while secretly hoping that Jamie would talk Alex out of not-so-secretly hating him all over again.

“Are you sure?” Erica asked, catching up with him despite his longer strides. “I mean, are you really sure this is the best idea?”

“It's probably not the best idea,” Mark said. “But it's what I can do, and that’ll just have to be enough.”

“Nicholas hasn't done anything to you!”

“No,” Mark agreed, “he hasn't. But he's hurt my brother, and that means something to me. Even if I apparently don't mean all that much to Alex anymore. He’s my brother. My family. I’ll do whatever it takes to get him to see that.”

“That's ridiculous,” Erica snapped. “Listen. What good is it actually going to do anyone for you to ban Nicholas from the premises? Sure, it might satisfy Alex’s petty desire for revenge, but Nicholas isn’t going to care. He’ll just find somewhere else to chat and play golf and drink wine with his buddies. And once he does that he’s out of your reach.”

Mark paused mid-step and turned to look at Erica, eyes narrowed. “Are you suggesting that I keep allowing Nicholas access so I can spy on him?”

Erica met his gaze. “I'm simply suggesting that if you actually want to help your brother deal with the underhanded businessman trying to undermine his business, you might have to be a little underhanded yourself.”