Page 37 of Crossing the Line
Brother to Brother
Hercules Lord
When I walk into Achilles’s Upper East Side office on York Street, he and Orion are already engaged in conversation. Their talk halts when they see me. I’m familiar with that look on their faces. They’ve been talking about me.
“What are these videos that are circulating of you and the Grove daughter?” Achilles asks.
Closing my eyes, I sigh with dread. I have to think my way through this—or more like lie my way through it.
“It was nothing.” I casually pad over to sit in on the black leather sofa against the wall. I stretch my arm across the back of the sofa, making myself comfortable. The trick to keeping my brothers off my ass is never letting them see me sweat.
“The hell it wasn’t,” Orion chimes in.
I narrow my eyes at him. He’s doing a bad job of appearing as if seeing me kissing Paisley doesn’t bring back memories of him and Treasure. Our mother didn’t like it. She threatened to cut him off financially if he didn’t break up with her and keep his distance. Orion was only eighteen then and relying on the family chest for a hefty monthly allowance. He lived rich and behaved rich. So the choice was simple—Treasure Grove had to go.
Achilles and my mother will probably threaten me in the same way. But it will only be a threat. I’m smarter than Orion. I have options. There’s no way I’m going to be a slave to the Lord Trust for my entire life. There’s no happiness in that—no freedom.
Achilles pounds his desk with a fist. “Cut the bullshit, Hercules.”
I don’t flinch. I stay as cool as a cucumber. “What do you want me to say?”
“Was that her red dress at your apartment?”
“No.”
He snorts bitterly, aware that I’m lying. I don’t care, though.Nois my answer, and I’m sticking to it.
“You’re marrying Lauren. We can’t afford a fuckup.”
My heart pounds. I can hear it in my ears. However, on the outside, I look unfazed. Although, whenever Lauren’s name is mentioned, I get anxious. She makes me nervous. She wants to marry me. Sometimes she comments about the kids we’ll have. She’ll say something like, “We’re distant enough cousins, aren’t we? Our kids will be fine.”
I can’t imagine bringing life into the world with a woman I barely know and definitely do not love. When she asks me questions like that, I bite my tongue. She and I having children together is never going to happen.
“A statement is being published and sent twice to subscribers informing them that the video they saw had been doctored.Rag Mag, or whoever the hell they are, is going to back us up by apologizing for their mistake,” Achilles says.
“It cost a lot of money to correct your fuckup,” Orion adds, grinning.
I can tell he’s liking watching me survive the pressure cooker. I rarely break, but on the rare occasions when I have broken, Orion has enjoyed it. He thinks I’m cocky, arrogant, and too smart for my own good. I think he’s weak, entitled, narcissistic, and unserious. But the thing is, I’m right about him, and he’s wrong about me.
Achilles dips his chin and glares at me with threatening eyes. “Stay away from her. Hear me?”
I rub my nose and sniff angrily. I’m not afraid of him. I see myself rising casually to my feet and telling him to go to hell before strolling out. But it’s already occurred to me that I have to be the one to fix this shit because Achilles doesn’t mind being beholden to that goddamn Lord Trust. The old man, our great-grandfather, must’ve been off his rocker when he put in place the complex web of twisting and turning hoops we have to jump through to get our hands on the money.
“Do you understand me?” Achilles growls, carefully enunciating each word.
Bide your time. I say, “I hear you.”
And just like that, rage leaves Achilles’s face, and the tightness dissolves from his shoulders. “You need to be seen out in public with Lauren more. In October, I’ll have to argue before executors of the trust that your relationship is authentic. I need supporting evidence, not undermining shit like those videos.” He takes a break with a sigh. “Starting tonight, I need you to go out with Lauren. I made you dinner reservations.” He waves me out of his office. “Now, go.”
Smirking, Orion slouches in his chair. “By the way, it’ll be a double date.”
