Page 1 of Snowed in with the Brutes
Chapter One
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Flinn
“Congratulations, boys.To the new kings of the Nix Consortium.”
I glance at the men sitting beside me, Kian Saywell, and Sinclair Jones—men I’ve known since birth, our existence manufactured by pure design.
Unfortunately for us, our mothers were homeless junkies and pregnant.Fortunately for us, head of the Nix Consortium, William Arlington, came across them one day, in the cold, begging for their next fix and offered them shelter.That’s the type of man he is: cruel only when he needed to be.
He promised to take care of them and their children for the rest of their lives, surrounded by luxury, as long as they got cleaned and stayed so.They opted for a large sum of money instead and left the hospital in which we were born without us.
We never looked back.Why would we?Our mothers chose drugs and the streets over us, so we didn’t need them.
William’s wife cheated on him with a chauffeur very early on in their marriage.He vowed never to marry again so he didn’t have any heirs.But also he couldn’t bear the thought of his sleazy cousin’s sons taking over an empire he singlehandedly took to the next level, and that’s where we came in: the human weapons he trusted with his life and could call his sons.
That’s how he raised us, cultivating our minds from the moment we could walk and talk, preparing us to sit on the thrones of both parts of the family business.He molded the bad genes in our blood to make us what we are today—silent killers in Patek Philippe watches and private jets in our backyard.
So while we always knew we would sit at the helm, we didn’t expect it to happen for at least another decade.But here we are.
William summoned us into his office for an urgent announcement, handed us a sheet of paper with a single paragraph stating he was signing complete control of the Nix Consortium over to us, and sealed it with his signature.
We spent the next thirty minutes trying to talk him out of it, but he remained steadfast, unwilling to hear a single word we had to say.
Still, the announcement of William’s retirement hasn’t fully registered in our heads.He is only sixty-eight years old.There are other heads going into their nineties and still ruling from their seats of power.
But William only says what he means.If he says he’s retiring, no one, including us, is going to change his mind.
“And congratulations to me too, because now I can finally retire in peace,” he adds, sitting across the antique mahogany desk from us, a dreary New York winter skyline visible from the floor-to-ceiling window of Nix Enterprise behind him.
With a head full of wavy gray hair and a sparkle in his eyes, the man we considered our father, our mentor, gives us a smile so wide his whole face lights up.
“I waited so long for this day, boys, and I’m not changing my mind,” he says, determination set in his features.
“So you’re really doing this?”Kian asks, an edge to his voice.Of the three of us, Kian is by far the most unreadable, the most stoic.His facial expression can crack marble.One infinitesimal look, and women run from him in fear, which is a conundrum for them because every woman he comes across seems to want to prostrate herself at his feet as well.
There’s a mark the oldest of the three of us has to carry, being heirs to the Nix Consortium, so it’s just as well that Kian is the one to carry it.He’s perfect for the part.
“I have a good twenty, maybe twenty-five years left in me, and I don’t want to spend it making covert arms deals, sending my men into the battleground for territory, coming up with more inventive ways to launder money, and still keep the consortium’s name in the limelight as the most powerful entity ever to rule the underground world.Topside, I’m bored with Nix Enterprise and all the stuffy suits, golf, shitty politicians, and mergers that go with it.”
“What are you going to do, William, with all this free time on your hands?Go mad?”Sinclair asks with a straight face.
“I’m going to ask Ginny to marry me, and if she says yes—which she will—we’ll elope and disappear into the sunset.Better now, while my pecker still works, and I can make her a happy woman between the sheets and outside of them.”
“Yeah, that’s an over-share.We do not want to hear our old man still thinks he’s got it,” Sinclair groans.I snicker.Kian remains unmoved.
“Oh, I still got it.All of it.And I want to use it.Ginny won’t even look at me as long as I’m seated here.”William pokes his index finger into the desk, a symbol of the Nix family.The front of the desk is hand-carved with three snow leopards, the consortium’s family crest.
Ginny has been William’s secretary for the last thirty years.They never crossed the line, even when Ginny’s husband passed away eleven months ago.
William looks at me, knowing I’ll always see reason first before acting.I’m the calm one.Sinclair, on the other hand, is always ready for a fight, questions later.
“I want to have a normal life.I can now that the consortium will be in the best hands possible.It’s time.I’m ready.And you three have always been ready.”
Can we deprive this man, who devoted his life to us, of some happiness?I get it.He wants to seize the moment while he’s still able.He deserves it.
One more exchange of glances between me, Kian, and Sinclair, and we come to the same decision.We’re in.Except we had no idea what our first task as the new heads of the consortium was going to be.
