Page 56 of Seducer

“I hate to break this up, but I have a client to meet with. I just stopped by on my way there.” Christopher tossed his napkin on the table.

“A client, huh?” Xander teased. Chris was our corporate attorney, but he maintained work with other clients as well. It was his way of keeping his name on the door of the most powerful attorney firm in Chicago.

“Yeah, a boy’s gotta eat. You don’t pay me enough.” Christopher laughed as he stood. “I’ll let you know what I find. Meanwhile, if you do head to LA, look out for piranhas.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I told him as he walked away.

Xander sighed. “We’re always going to have a target on our backs. There’s no reason to pretend we won’t or to shy away from our pasts.”

“What if there is something to find?” Wilder asked absently.

“Meaning?” We’d all agreed we wouldn’t dig any deeper into the circumstances of our childhoods. What good would it do at this point? Cause additional heartache? Bring back unwanted memories of torture and tragedy? I wasn’t in the mood to relive that part of my life.

“Meaning there’s a reason the information before we were taken into foster care was locked down. Aren’t you curious?” Wilder lifted his eyebrows.

“We’ve been over this before,” Xander stated. “We agreed. We’re finished with that era.”

Wilder did have a subtle but profound point. Given the media circus surrounding us, the women throwing themselves at us,and reporters and other gamers alike acting as if we were the devil and his minions reincarnated, anything was possible.

What the heck? I posed the question all three of us had thought about more than once.

“What if someone who knows about our pasts won’t allow the secrets to remain hidden? What if the ugliness has a chance of destroying us?” While there was a wicked smile on my face since I already knew the answer, I sat back and waited as patiently as possible for their answers.

I’d thought about the very question for a couple of years. I’d learned something valuable years before. When anyone attempted to keep secrets padlocked away, there was always a way for others to discover the information and use it against the person.

If that occurred, I knew exactly what would happen.

We’d return to our previous activities. God help those who stood in our way.

Xander thoughtfully swirled his drink while Wilder chuckled under his breath and returned his attention to his menu. Our oldest brother leaned forward, the twinkle in his eyes suggesting I’d been right about his answer.

“Then it’s simple. We take care of the situation, so it never occurs again.”

In other words? We would kill the bastard.

There was only one other subject that garnered the attention of my full arousal as sex always did. Violence. Right now, my cock ached like a son of a bitch.

Perhaps it had been far too long since I’d indulged in my second greatest fantasy.

The remainder of lunch was a reminder of why I didn’t enjoy pretending to be the billionaire mogul like Xander so obviously did. There was far too much attention being paid to our table, other members latching onto our actions. The vast majority of them were moguls themselves, yet no one had ever experienced the likes of us. Or so we’d been told.

Once three, now two unattached bachelors, we’d been labeled the hottest men in the city. It was a distinction I couldn’t care less about, but our notoriety seemed to trouble other people. I was reminded once again why I’d been told more than once while in school that I didn’t people very well. Why should I? They usually had opinions that didn’t matter to me in the least.

“So you’ll head to LA?” Xander asked after the waiter cleared our plates. The bill would be placed on our account, one perk of the twenty thousand dollar a year membership fee.

“I said I’d consider it. We have clients to think about. I won’t place any account into jeopardy.”

Wilder laughed. “Since when do you worry about our client list?”

“Since we’re continually receiving threats. One day there could be someone capable of bringing down our business operations.” I wasn’t usually so morbid in my thinking, but the entire situation with using a particular quote had pushed me to an edge I wasn’t used to standing on.

“Oh, how very ominous sounding. Are you certain nothing else occurred you need to tell us about?” Wilder tossed his napkin before standing. When we had lunch together, which wasinfrequent, we never stayed for chitchat or coffee. We’d been seen. Time to get back to work.

I followed suit, offering him the same kind of dirty look he seemed to enjoy offering me.

He threw up his hands. “Just checking, bro. You seem different.”

Different. Why the hell should he care? We weren’t bosom buddies. “I’m just offering my two cents. I don’t play games with anyone, let alone movie producers.” I headed for the door, my two brothers catching up to me only after we were in the main salon leading to the entrance doors.

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