Wright with Benefits

“Where I was connected to you,” he said hollowly. “Beholden to you.”

“No, never!” she cried, reaching for him again.

He stepped back. “No, I think I understand perfectly, Ashleigh.”

Real tears fell this time when she suddenly saw what was happening. “Please, Julian. Please, I love you.”

“You took the venture I loved and cared about, the venture I invited my brother to be a part of, and then you tried to destroy it.”

“That’s not what happened!”

But it was.

“And you did it for selfish reasons. Because you’re selfish.” Julian shook his head and took another step back. “We’re done.”

“No,” Ashleigh gasped, falling to her knees before him and clutching him. “Julian, no, please. Please don’t say that. I love you. I only had your own interests at heart.”

It was painful to watch. Because she had deluded herself enough to believe the words coming out of her mouth.

Julian tugged back, releasing her grip on him. “I think you believe that, but it’s not true.”

Then he turned his back on her and walked out of the party. Chase knelt down next to his sister, but I didn’t have an ounce of pity for her. Not after the lengths she’d gone to try to hurt people I cared about.

I followed Julian out of the party and touched his arm. “Hey. Are you going to be okay?”

He looked up at the stars and shrugged. “I don’t know. Two years. Two years with her and then…” He splayed out his hands.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to lay this in your lap, but…”

“No, I’m glad you did. I need to tell Jordan and Hollin.”

I nodded. “I understand. That’s a good idea.”

“How are you getting home?” he asked.

“Uh…”

“I’ll drive you,” he said, pointing out his SUV down the block.

“I can catch an Uber. It’s fine.”

“Just get in, Annie. Jordan would kill me if you didn’t get home safe.”

“Are you…are you going to tell him I was here?” I asked as we walked over to his car.

Julian blew out a breath. “You don’t want him to know that you figured this out?”

“I just…I’m not ready to deal with him.”

Julian nodded, the weight of his latest breakup heavy on him. “I understand that. I can’t imagine talking to Ashleigh anytime soon.” He opened the passenger door for me. “Guess we’ll both have to deal.”

And wasn’t that the damn truth?

38

Jordan

“Jordan!” a voice called from the front door.

I pushed away from my desk in my office and strode into the living room, surprised to find my brother had let himself in. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Why didn’t you answer your goddamn phone?”

I touched my pockets, realizing I didn’t have the thing on me. I didn’t even know where it was. I’d been distracting myself with work. It was easier than trying to learn to relax.

“I don’t have it on me. What’s wrong?”

“Well, I already talked to Hollin, but we have a problem.”

I sighed and headed into the kitchen. I pulled out two beers and dropped one on the counter for him. “Not sure I can have any more problems.”

Julian didn’t complain. He took the beer and chugged the entire thing. I narrowed my eyes at my brother. He liked to drink, but I’d never seen him chug before.

He dropped the empty beer down. “Can I have another?”

Now, I was concerned. I grabbed another one for him. “Fuck.”

“Yeah.”

He took another fortifying drink and then sank into a seat at the island. “Ashleigh and I broke up.”

This didn’t seem like a problem to me, but Julian had dated her for two years. It had to hurt.

“What happened? I thought you were happy.”

Julian pushed his phone across the table to me. I picked it up and saw it was open to an image folder. I clicked on the first one, which was a map of our winery. Pretty normal. I flipped to the next picture—the permit. The next—the offer. And then I saw what he’d clearly meant for me to see. Arnold Sinclair’s signature on these pages.

Something went cold inside me. “What the fuck is all this, Julian?”

“Exactly what it looks like. The place is haunted by the Sinclairs.”

“Why would Arnold Sinclair give a fuck about our winery?”

“Oh, he doesn’t. Those are forged signatures.” Julian took another long drink. “Ashleigh forged the signatures.”

I was silent. My mind whirring through all the possibilities of why his girlfriend would want to ruin the winery. But I came up with nothing.

“Is she out of her mind?” I asked.

“She wanted me to work for her family. She thought you were keeping me down or some other bullshit excuse that she’d invented. She wanted me to be beholden to her, and so she did this shit.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I ground out. “Man, this is…”

“Terrible,” Julian agreed.

“Manipulative and conniving.”

“Yep.”

“How’d you find all of this out?” I asked, passing his phone back.

Julian opened his mouth and then closed it. He looked away, as if he didn’t want to answer that or he didn’t have a good enough answer.