I wasn’t prepared for Lizzy to ask me about Wyatt. I assumed, based on the fact that she knew our names, that Reynard had told her why she was in the cage—the real reason. He hadn’t. He was still toying with her. It was cruel, but it was his game to play. My status had been reduced to a spectator—I understood that more than ever after she mentioned Wyatt’s name. The pain was still there—a wound on my soul that didn’t seem to be healing the way that it was with Reynard. Watching her suffer—knowing that she was paying penance—that just didn’t undo what she did to Wyatt.

Truthfully, I wasn’t fully committed—even after helping Reynard lock her in the cage. I thought I could treat her with kindness, but when she asks about Wyatt, I felt the same darkness calling me that consumed Reynard. I wanted to lash out—to tap into my beast—to let it destroy her. That just wasn’t who I was, and if I lost control, I wasn’t sure I could get it back. There was an internal turmoil that I didn’t know how to address, because when I did let my beast run free—I felt regret. I chose the girls that liked to play in that world when the urge drove me over the edge, but I still wasn’t able to walk away without feeling remorse.

“I wish I had your callousness sometimes.” I sighed and took the drink Reynard was offering me. “I almost told her—I wanted to.”

“Why?” Reynard sat down and tilted his head to the side.

“Doesn’t she have a right to know what she’s really done? Shouldn’t she know that she’s in that fucking cage because she drove our brother to take his own life?” I narrowed my eyes and sighed.

“She will—but not yet.” Reynard shook his head back and forth. “All in good time.”

“This is a twisted game, Reynard.” I lifted my drink and took a sip.

“It’s no game. Not for her.” His face tensed up. “A game has a winner—and there’s not going to be a winner when this is over.”

“Then it’s just twisted.” I exhaled sharply. “Even for you.”

“Perhaps.” He nodded. “But we need to discuss something besides the girl in the cage right now. We need to talk about what’s going on at Jackson Investments.”

“What do you mean?” I raised an eyebrow. “Abigail told me you lost your shit earlier.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Reynard growled under his breath. “Those bastards—Josef Weber and all the others—they’re fucking with us.”

“They’re doing the same thing we would do if we saw an opportunity.” I exhaled sharply and took a drink.

“Yeah, but they’re doing it to us.” Reynard sipped his drink and growled under his breath again. “They need a reminder—a reminder of what happens when you fuck with a Jackson.”

“It’s good to hear you talk about something besides her.” I motioned towards the screen showing Lizzy’s cage.

“I won’t apologize for losing myself in this obsession, but we’ve got her now. Wyatt’s death can be avenged.” He shrugged. “I can play with my toy and still do what’s necessary at Jackson Investments.”

“We’re going to have to come up with something better than our current arrangement.” I nodded aimlessly. “One of us can’t always be here—there are times when we both need to be at the office.”

Hopefully, now that I’ve snapped him away from his obsession long enough for him to see why I need him at the office, we can take it a step further.

“Yeah. You’re right.” He sipped his drink. “I’ll figure it out.”

“I know how you are, but just remember that all companies deal with this sort of thing. Our response has to be calculated.” I leaned forward and put my drink on the table.

As calculated as it can be with Reynard leading the charge, but I can’t do it alone, otherwise I would have already handled it myself.

“This all started after Wyatt took his own life.” Reynard stared at his glass. “That’s when the sharks started to circle—they’re just getting bolder as time goes on because we haven’t done anything to show our strength.”

“I think we should seriously consider closing the Chicago branch. Wyatt didn’t have a firm hold on that market, to begin with, and it’s spreading us thin. We’ve got some guys that would be a lot more beneficial here in New York.” I leaned back against the couch. “Now that Wyatt’s gone—we don’t really have a need to keep it open.”

“No.” Reynard shook his head back and forth. “That’s where they think they’ve got us, so that’s where we’re going to strike first.”

“You already have a plan?” I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

This escalated a lot faster than I expected. Hell, I’ve never seen Reynard this focused on Jackson Investments—but, I always had Wyatt to carry enough of the load that I didn’t have to rely on him much.

“Yes.” Reynard leaned forward and picked up a folder. “I’ve got a list of Josef Weber’s assets there. Firms, shell companies—everything. We’re going to roll a bowling ball down his lane and he’ll be so busy picking up the pins that he won’t have time to fuck with us anymore.”

“That’s definitely a show of strength.” I nodded in agreement. “But Weber Acquisitions is just one of the companies circling us…”

“The biggest shark.” Reynard chuckled. “If we kill it, the rest will have something else to feast on and they’ll be too scared of what might happen to them when they see what we do to him.”

“I like it.” I tilted my head in surprise. “That’s actually a very solid plan.”

Maybe he should be the fucking CEO. He came up with a solution for the shit I’ve been dealing with for the last year in a single afternoon. Of course—this is an aggressive move, and he’s good at those.

“I’ll get to work on it tomorrow.” He nodded and tossed the folder my way. “I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you. I know you needed me after Wyatt’s funeral—especially at work.”

“It’s okay.” I looked back towards the screen. “I get it.”

Putting Lizzy in the cage might have been a better decision than I realized. At least it is allowing him to focus on something else.

The phones started ringing as soon as Reynard made his power play in Chicago. He emptied the office and had boots on the ground—boots that marched into the offices of everyone who invested in Weber Acquisitions. We offered a deal with higher returns, less of a percentage off the top—and we had numbers to back it up. All they had to do was move their account to us. A few of them did so on the spot. Some of his more loyal clients wanted to hear what he could offer—smart, really—why make a deal with a new devil when you’re already in bed with one? We were making some risky moves though—and they weren’t all going to be profitable. Some were huge gambles. Luckily, we didn’t care. We were trying to damage Weber, not turn an immediate profit.

“We got him.” Reynard walked into my office with a huge smile on his face. “I just got the call—Jonathan Quinn is ready to dump Weber Acquisitions.”

“Seriously?” I looked up at Reynard and blinked in surprise. “That’s one of his biggest clients, and he’s not centralized in Chicago. Are we getting his accounts in New York as well?”

“You better believe it.” Reynard walked over and grabbed a bottle of whiskey. “I think this calls, for a drink.”

“Pour them.” I exhaled sharply. “Make mine a fucking double.”

“You got it.” Reynard filled the glasses and walked mine over. “I guess I was paying closer attention to all of Dad’s lessons than I realized.”

“This is our victory—for now.” I took my glass. “But Josef Weber will retaliate. He’s not stupid. He’s been doing this longer than we have.”

“He’ll be too busy picking up the pieces to fuck with us.” Reynard sat down across from me. “We just dropped a nuke on his entire operation.”

“Yeah, but what about the radiation?” I sipped my drink. “That shit spreads…”

“We’ll deal with the fallout.” Reynard shrugged. “With both of us focused on this, there’s no way he’ll recover. I’ve got two more nukes lined up tomorrow—one for Los Angles and I’m dropping the second one—right here in New York.”

“We don’t even have an office in Los Angeles.” I raised my eyebrows in concern. “We can’t sustain that market, even if we get some of his clients.”

“I guess we’re about to expand.” He grinned and sipped his drink. “We’ll get enough once we start scraping the blood off the walls here to cover it.”

“We’re already spread thin in Chicago—you should have talked to me about LA.” I sighed and stared at my drink. “I agree with New York, especially if we’ve already opened a wound—but we have to be careful.”

“Nah, that’s where Weber and all the others fucked up. They smelled blood in the water, but they just nibbled—taking a few clients here and there—making offers to buy the company. We don’t nibble—we bite.” Reynard nodded quickly.

“I hope it’s not more than we can chew.” I exhaled sharply.

I was trying to bring my brother back into the fray—get him focused on something else—I hope I’m not the one who has bitten off more than I can chew.

“Then we’ll just keep chewing.” Reynard finished his drink. “Now, since I’ve handled my business for the day, I think I’ve got something at home that needs a lot more than a fucking nibble tonight.”

“Right…” I nodded in understand. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Reynard left for the day and I stared at the carnage as the reports started coming in. We definitely had some new clients, leads on some that could turn out to be very promising, but some were going to cost us money. Josef Weber would definitely be struggling to find his balls when he realized what we had done, but he wasn’t a man I underestimated. I knew he was dangerous, especially when he was backed into a corner. Reynard made power plays against him and there was going to be fallout—not just from the nuke Reynard had already dropped—but from the ones he had planned as well.

On days like this, I wished I could pick up the phone and call Wyatt. He might not have had Reynard’s fire, but he definitely understood Josef Weber. When we opened the Chicago office, they had a number of clashes. Wyatt knew how to deal with him—how to keep him occupied when he started getting aggressive. Unfortunately, we didn’t have his knowledge to rely on. We were going to have to handle him the best way that we could. My way certainly wasn’t working. He was sniping clients, making moves, and once he put a proposal on the table to buy Jackson Investments, people saw it as a sign of weakness—then they sent proposals of their own. It was the beginning of a boulder rolling downhill, and we might have been able to outrun it by going on the offensive, but I worried that it was still coming for us.

What Reynard did may have made it pick up momentum, but I’m not sure what other options we had—I just hope the rest of his plan doesn’t put us in a bad spot.

At least he’s focused on the company instead of staring at that fucking screen—I’ll consider that a small win.