Page 82 of Alpha Bait

"So you're here to spread goodwill?"

"I'm here to stop your father's legacy from being pilfered. My brother was never a good man, but he worked hard and he doesn't deserve to see his decades of hard work ripped apart by a pack of ravenous hyenas."

"Let me guess, Xander happens to be one of those hyenas."

If I had not been fond of Bryn, Xander was even less so. A mishap on a family ski vacation in the Alps had rendered them practically sworn enemies.

"Xander is not fit to run a company and neither is that idiot twin brother of his."

"You won't get me to disagree," I mumbled gruffly.

A craving for both coffee and whiskey set my hand into jitters.

"It is not safe for you in New York. The reports say your brother committed suicide but you and I both know that isn't the case. Stay at my apartment. My husband is on business in Beijing and Juliet is in San Francisco visiting friends."

She sounded as if she were making a suggestion but I knew better than to believe I had a choice.

My aunt's stern belief in me relieved me. In typical Carmichael fashion, instead of hugging me, she shook my hand and led me to her sedan. Bryn had never been one for drivers, so she slipped behind the wheel and I rode in her heated, leather passenger seat.

"You look like shit and you smell of whiskey."

I grinned. Despite her last name, she was a Carmichael through and through.

"How was it?" I mumbled in response, gazing out the window at the trees that would soon disappear.

I did not need to specify for her to know I was talking about the funeral.

"Quiet. Bitter. Depressing."

At least my brother's funerals had defied my expectations.

"And the acquisition?"

"We are fucked."

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

She sniffed, "don't look for sympathy here. You have been bred for this your entire life, Richard. You can't be weak because you will take care of our family's interests. "

Bryn adjusted the string of pearls around her neck and smacked her lips together, spreading her rose-colored lipstick just outside the lines of her thin wrinkled lips. Her icy eyes remained transfixed on the road.

"That's easier said than done. The law is not on my side here."

"This is not about the law, Richard. This is about honor."

The drive to Manhattan was long and winding. My aunt Bryn gave me every last detail that she could about everything that had happened. Tension gripped my chest as I asked her the last thing that I wanted to. How was my brother found? What were the details of his death?

He described the inconsistencies in the report with what she had witnessed. Somehow, he had committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest first and then in the head. You know, as suicides go.

Fires raged within me as I comprehended the depth of corruption and the depths of evil that had now overwhelmed my family. We were all paying for what my father had done decades ago and I had a strong feeling that we wouldn't stop paying for his actions anytime soon. Jamal was ruthless.

Bryn had a point. I had to act.

Although wary of doing so, I had to ask my aunt about Indie Holloway's car accident. She revealed the public speculation that my brother had been having an affair with her.

"I can't blame him. The only thing wrong with her is that she's black."

I shifted with unease at her comments, but I could not risk defending Indie without betraying my own position. In her death, I at least owed Indie the dignity of keeping our relationship silent. She had been through enough during her life because of me.

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