Page 92 of Broken Player

“You’re the little brother?” Connor finally asked, his eyes still unreadable. I looked at Maddox, who was watching his friend get a read on his brother. Truthfully, we didn’t know anything about the guy. But I’d be willing to bet Connor had a file thicker than a dictionary on Griffin. If he gave his approval for him tobe here and a part of everything going on, we could relax. If not, well… We’d figure it out.

“Apparently so,” Griffin drawled, relaxing back against the cushions and crossing his ankle over his knee.

“There’s a lot of shit going on that you know nothing about. If you stay, you can’t breathe a fucking word to anyone outside of this room. Do you understand?” Connor demanded. It was as good as an approval from him that he was giving Griffin the choice. I relaxed back against Maddox and felt the tension melt from his body at the same time. That would go a long way towards Maddox accepting and trusting his brother.

Griffin nodded, suddenly more serious. The indifferent and somewhat asshole-ish expression he’d had on his face when the guys walked in dropped away, and now he just looked concerned. It looked like the protective instinct wasn’t only strong in Maddox but his brother, too.

Sebastian dropped the messenger bag he always kept with him onto the ottoman and started pulling out thick files. “These are everything we’ve gathered on Yates. This one’s every transactional record I could find between Rutherford Bank and his offshore account.” He passed the folder to Maddox.

“And this one’s all the transactions from the offshore account to his private account.” He set another folder onto the ottoman.

“And lastly, but definitely most disgusting, pictures from the past couple of days along with transaction records of his interactions with a couple of different prostitutes,” Sebastian finished, plopping the disturbingly thick file down and then squirting a huge amount of hand sanitizer in his hand and rubbing it in. “Too bad this doesn’t work on my eyes.” He looked at the bottle wistfully.

Griffin grabbed for the folder with the pictures in it and flipped it open. His eyes widened, and his lip curled. “Jesus,” he muttered, slamming the folder closed and setting it back down.“Mind if I get some of that?” he asked Sebastian, pointing to the bottle of hand sanitizer.

“Sure,” Sebastian agreed, tossing it to him.

As he rubbed his hands together, Griffin glanced down at the folders. “What is all of this?”

Connor looked to Maddox, his head cocked to the side, and his eyebrow raised. Maddox turned to his brother. “Yeah, so didn’t you wonder how your picture suddenly ended up all over the media?”

He shrugged. “Once mom told me who you were, it made sense. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.”

“Well, I’ve always kept my past private. I preferred to make as many distractions in the present as I could so everyone focused on that shit instead.” I never realized Maddox had calculated and planned so much of his image. I always sort of figured it was just the way he was.

Griffin nodded along as Maddox continued. “Until someone tried to take Freckles from me. When I fought back, he played dirty. Now it’s time I play dirtier. That motherfucker’s going to regret not just letting her go.”

“I think I missed a lot,” Griffin noted, his eyes darting between Maddox and me.

“You did, but the most important thing to know is that despite your brother threatening him and me rearranging his balls back up into his body, he keeps coming at us. And at this point, we’re convinced he’s not going to stop. Plus, he deserves to pay for everything he’s done,” I explained, leaning my head against Maddox’s shoulder. He brushed the hair off of my forehead gently.

“Wait, is this why I saw Russell on TV the other night?” Griffin asked, anger suddenly replacing his concern.

Connor nodded. “That was all Yates, Sebastian confirmed it by hacking his email.”

“I’m not even going to touch his ridiculous name,” Griffin started. “But mom told me on the way here about Russell and everything he did to her. She kept it to herself all these years. I never knew I had a brother, and I never knew she was married before my dad. But if I ever meet him, I’ll fucking kill him,” he vowed, his voice dark with his threat. The mood had gotten a lot more serious.

“You’re going to have to get in line,” Connor agreed.

“Getting back on track,” I cut in because we could talk about how much of a dick Russell was and how much we all wanted a turn ripping into him all night. We had a mission and needed to stay focused.

“First, we hand this all over to the cops. Then, we crash a party,” Connor outlined, gathering the files up and stuffing them back into Sebastian’s bag.

“How is crashing a party going to help us?” I asked.

“It’s not just any party,” Sebastian grinned deviously. “It’s Yates’s parents’ quarterly charity ball. They throw it at the country club for some ridiculous, undeserving charity that doesn’t actually help anyone. This quarter’s is happening tomorrow night, coincidentally. It’s the perfect place to expose Yates as the thief he is. Among other things.”

“We’re going to embarrass him in front of everyone.” The more of this plan I heard, the more I liked it.

“Right. Sebastian’s done here, so he’s going back to the hotel. The three of us have got a date with Sergeant Ferraro in,” Connor glanced down at his watch. “A little more than an hour, so let’s go.”

“What about me?” Griffin asked, sitting up.

“Just hang out. It’s a long drive, and it’s going to be boring. We’ll be back in a couple of hours, and then we’ll get some dinner.” Maddox stood up and pulled me with him. “Feel free to drink all my beer.”

He glanced around. “Do you have a music room?” It would’ve been a weird question if he was talking to someone not in a world-famous band. But Maddox always had his bass or a guitar nearby.

“You play?” Maddox asked his brother, who nodded.

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