Brother to the Boss (Managing the Bosses 8)

Jail Time for Nicholas Again?

“I guess that’s done then,” she said, straightening up as Alex closed the browser window.

“And good riddance,” Alex agreed. He turned around to face her, standing up from the chair and wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her in against him.

Jamie tipped her head back so she could meet his eyes, the smile that had been far too rare recently on her face.

“I think,” he growled, “that you and I have some lost time to make up for.”

“Oh? Is that so?”

Instead of answering, Alex leaned down to press his lips to hers, her mouth opening to the kiss so he could taste her. Her arms reached up to wrap around his neck, and Alex was about two minutes from scooping her up and carrying her upstairs when his phone rang. Reluctantly, they broke apart.

“I’ll just be a minute, baby,” Alex said as he picked up the phone, answering without looking at the screen.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Nicholas shouted before he’d even put the phone to his ear. “Don’t try to deny it! I know it was you who sent that story to the media! I don’t know how the hell you got it, but you’re seriously stepping over a line here.”

“Stepping over a line the same way you did? Same way you had my ex-girlfriend pretend to be pregnant? Same way you tried to wiggle your way in using Gina? Same way you tried to mess with Jamie? Or do you mean the same way when you decided to try to insert yourself into my company by manipulating my board members with nonsense about how I couldn’t handle Reid Enterprises and having a family at the same time?”

On the other end of the line, Nicholas was startled silent for a minute. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said finally.

“No?” Alex looked up at Jamie, who was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest, obviously aware of who he was talking to. “Because I have it on some pretty good authority that you had several of them out to play a round of golf at Little Lake Country Club. Which, as you may remember, is owned by my brother, Mark. Or did you forget that?”

Nicholas sputtered. “Your brother’s an idiot.”

“Really? He’s the one at fault here? Did you think that it wouldn’t matter to him that you’ve been trying to undermine me for years? We’re family, Nicholas. Family watches out for each other.”

“Then family also goes down together, Alex,” Nicholas spat.

“No,” Alex said, “it doesn’t. And here’s why.” He took a few steps forward, then turned on his heel and paced the other way. “The only reason that you got away with your completely underhanded behavior is because you’re rich, and because you had a good reputation. But it doesn’t matter how much money you have now, Nicholas. My board isn’t going to let you anywhere near them. All those people who would have followed you when you left Mark’s country club before this happened aren’t going to go anywhere with you now. You didn’t just commit some kind of business faux pas. You killed someone. And while a few police officers might have looked the other way because you waved some money under their noses eight years ago, they can’t now. The whole country is watching them; they want to know that even rich men aren’t above the law. And the mother of that kid you killed? She’s not going to go away.?

? Alex shook his head. “I almost feel sorry for you, actually. Because you’ve lost all your leverage. Your stocks are already tanking. Your reputation is ruined. And by the time you get it all back together again, you’re going to be enough of a nobody that there won’t be a thing you can do to me or my company.”

“Why?” Nicholas hissed. “Why do it like this, Alex?”

“Because you wouldn’t stop. I tried to be nice about it, even after what happened with Gina, but you kept coming after the things and the people that I care about, and I couldn’t let that keep happening. So I stopped you.”

There was silence on the other end of the call.

Then Nicholas laughed, a short, sharp sound. “I guess we all do what we have to,” he said.

The call ended.

“I guess we do,” Alex said quietly. Nicholas had nothing. No leverage. Nothing to retaliate with.

“Do what?” Jamie asked, coming forward from her place by the door.

Alex looked up from the phone in his hand and smiled at her, holding out a hand and wrapping his arms around her as soon as she came close. “What we have to,” Alex said, “to keep our families safe.”

She looked up at him. “So it’s over?”

“It’s over,” Alex answered. “For real this time.” He grinned down at her, drinking in the lines of her face and drawing her closer to feel the warm press of her body against his own.

“And I think that you and I had something we were in the middle of.”

Instead of giving her a chance to answer, he gathered her up in his arms and carried her upstairs to the sound of her laughter.

Chapter 15