Brother to the Boss (Managing the Bosses 8)

Alex’s phone rang. Without looking at it, he reached over and picked it up, answering the call. “Alex Reid.”

“Alex,” his brother’s voice said, “it’s Mark. Listen. Don’t hang up. Please.”

He was halfway to hitting the end call button, but Alex paused at the request, debating internally. Jamie had told him that he shouldn’t cut his brother off, and Alex knew that she was right, but it didn’t stop the anger from rising when he thought about what Mark had done.

“If you have a reason for calling,” he said finally. “You have two minutes to explain it.”

“I know what Nicholas is up to… and I know how to get rid of him.”

Alex went very still. The hand that had been on the mouse, flicking through pages, paused. “You what?”

“I know what Nicholas is trying to do,” Mark said, too quickly. “I heard him talking with some of the members of your board.”

“You heard him talking with members of the board?” Alex said, slowly.

“Yes,” Mark answered. “At the country club. He brought some of them in.”

“He took my board members to your club?” The guy had balls. Alex had to give Nicholas credit there.

“He was going over this bullshit about how you’re having to decide between your family and your business, and how it’s not fair to you to have to carry all the weight of Reid Enterprises when you have a wife and babies at home. He’s trying to convince them to force you into setting up a partner who would have as much control as you do over the business.”

“Meaning him,” Alex said flatly.

“That was the meaning I took from it. They were eating out of his hand. I don’t know how he does it.”

“He’s an excellent liar.”

There was no answer from Mark, and in the silence Alex turned the news over in his thoughts. So Nicholas was trying to sneak into his company through his board. It wasn’t a surprise. But the fact that Mark knew was. And Mark had said he knew how to stop it.

“So what are you proposing, then, to stop him?”

There was another pause on the other end of the line, and Alex wondered if Mark had changed his mind.

“I hired a private detective,” Mark said. “And got some information on Nicholas.”

That stopped Alex cold. “You did what?”

“I looked into Nicholas’s background,” Mark said. Alex could hear the nerves in his voice. “I don’t know why you didn’t before, honestly. A guy that powerful, and that corrupt, has to have some kind of dirt in his past. He tried to cover it up but he couldn’t hide all the evidence, no matter how much money he threw at it.”

“Threw at what?” Alex demanded.

“I need to tell you in person,” Mark said.

“You think he’s going to find out if you tell me over the phone?”

“No,” Mark said. “But I’d really like to actually talk to you face to face, Alex.”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “Okay, Mark. Drop by the house whenever you have some time tonight. I’ll be home by sometime after five, or six.”

***

Mark knocked on the door at six, and Jamie hurried to open it. Alex watched from the kitchen as she wrapped his brother in a hug. Jake danced around their feet, whining excitedly. When they both walked into the room, Alex stepped forward and, after a moment’s hesitation, hugged his brother as well. Mark’s arms held him tight for an instant, and then he was moving back, grinning. The expression was a little uncertain, but it was there.

“I take it you’ve decided to let me back into the family fold?” he asked, not as much of a joke as he had obviously hoped it would be, because his voice caught at the end.

Alex looked at Jamie, who gave him a look that said he had better give the right answer, and he smiled at Mark. “Yeah. I guess I’m not as good at holding grudges as I used to be.”

Mark laughed then, and some of the weight lifted from Alex’s shoulders. Despite his stupidity, their relationship hadn’t been completely destroyed.