“He’s running slightly behind. Your brother said for you to have a seat and he’ll be in when he gets here.” Burton glared at Sara and she snapped her fingers in front of his face. “You keep that up, Buster, and I’ll tell him you never showed up, and we’ll see how well that goes over with him. He’s not in the best of moods anyway, so if you want my advice, then I’d—”
“I don’t want anything from you. Especially not advice on how to handle my little brother.” He had to bite his tongue to tell her that he didn’t want anything from Trevor either, but that would have been really stupid. “Just tell him to get his ass in gear. I have things to do today, and not a bit of it involves sitting around with you.”
Sara only stared at him for several seconds before she moved out of the waiting area he was in to the door. She didn’t even pause to ask him if he wanted anything, like a drink or something, but moved out of the door and closed it behind her. Burton flipped her off as he sat back down on the chair he’d been told to sit in when he’d gotten there.
He really did have plans today. Well, tonight anyway. His friend Bill had told him that he could come and join them tonight for the big party, but it would cost him. Apparently they all were paying up to make it a real party, at five grand each. Catered food was being brought in, then the women had to be taken care of when they were done with them. He assumed it was not to pay them off, but to get rid of the bodies. For some reason that turned him on as much as the thought of fucking them did. Burton had been hard since he’d finally been able to get in touch with the man late last night. He thought about the conversation as he sat waiting for Trevor to grace him with his holy presence.
“Yeah, we got us a half a dozen this time…women, I mean. Not sure that all of them will be as prime as my first one, but I’m telling you right now, it’s going to be epic.” Burton had asked him how. “Well, you know that field out by the Mason paddock that is overgrown? We got them stashed out there. And we got the run of the entire field and forest out there. Them women have no idea what they’re doing, but they’re being all groomed up for us. I even paid extra to have them shaved. Love me some bare pussy.”
That was something that Burton hadn’t tried either. In fact, other than a good fuck and him coming, he’d not really had a lot of experience with woman that knew what they were doing. He told Bill he was in.
“You meet me at the bar on Tenth at seven-thirty and we’ll go on out. There is a catering truck supposed to be setting up for the food and all. Them girls is going to serve us, naked like, and then we’ll all strip down and have some fun. There are ten of us counting you. All of us some kind of shifter and shit.” Burton asked him when the festivities were to begin. “Just as soon as I show up with you, we’ll eat. Then have us some fun.”
“Burton.” He looked up at his brother, not even sure who he was at first. Christ the man looked like he’d been wearing the same clothing for a week and his hair was messy. “I have everything set up for us. I need to get this finished quickly. I have something working and I don’t want to spend all day here. Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah, me too. And I’m ready. Sara told me you were tied up.” Burton was surprised when Trevor didn’t ask him what he had going, but moved out of the room he was in to his office. He sat where he was told, and was surprised when the door behind him opened and two men walked in. One of them he knew was Trevor’s personal attorney, David Carter. Burton didn’t like him any more than Carter did him. He wanted to ask what was going on, but was sort of afraid to. There were any number of things that the attorney could be there for, even the shit that had happened last night after he’d left the bar. “This is Mark Wingmen, my business attorney…and you know David, I’m sure. If not, he certainly knows who you are. We’re here to clear some things up before next month.”
“Next month? Something happening?” He tried to make it seem like a joke, but his balls felt like they were up around his throat. “You don’t mean you’re throwing me a bash, do you? That would be nice Trevor, but not necessary. I have a few plans of my own that you won’t have to come to. I understand that you’re busy and all.”
“I’m not having a bash for you, Burton. Nor am I going to come to any of yours.” The hardness of his voice made Burton’s wolf stir to defense. “Calm him, Burton, or so help me this will go a hell of a lot worse on you. My wolf is on edge as well, and I won’t be cleaning this mess up after I have to hurt you.” Burton wasn’t so sure about that. He was bigger than his little brother, but let it go for now.
“Perhaps you should explain yourself then. I’m not really keen on the way you’re ambushing me with all this, whatever it is.” Trevor nodded at the man, Wingmen, and he stood up. So did Burton. There could only be one reason for them both to be here, and that was something that he didn’t want to happen either. Trevor with no money. “Whatever he has to say to me, I’d rather you said it. We’re family, after all, and I would rather hear that you’re broke from you.”
“Broke?” Burton nodded at his brother, who just laughed. “No. I’m not broke. I would be if you had anything to do about it; but no, I’m not broke. But as of the fifth of next month, you will be. Your birthday is then, and that will end things between us financially. In the event that you don’t understand what I’m telling you, I won’t be footing the bill for your adventures, your good deals, rent, or anything else you might be using of mine. No more money to line your pockets, no paying off any of your messes, and I certainly won’t be picking up the tab for any of your parties. There will be no more bailing you out or making sure that your messes are—”
“Now wait a minute. You can’t seriously just start taking away my money like this. I need time to make plans. Save some of what you’re supposed to be giving me.” Burton tried to think around the buzzing in his head. “I have an idea. How about you just take a little away at a time? Like, I can live on about a hundred dollars a month less for a while. Then in a few years you can take another fifty or less. Less would be good.” Trevor was shaking his head. “Trevor, this isn’t fair of you. You can’t do this to your only brother. You made a promise to Mom.”
“I can and I am. You knew as well as I did that this day was coming. Mother had a long talk with you. David was there, as well as myself, when she told you, in no uncertain terms, that at the age of thirty-five I was done with you.” Burton started to shake his head. “You can deny this all you want, Burton, but even if I hadn’t made a promise to Mom, I’d still be cutting you off. Especially after last night.”
“Last night wasn’t my fault. Had the man just done what I told him then nothing would have come of it. But that’s not the issue here, is it? You just think you can cut me off from what I’m supposed to be getting from you? That’s just not going to work for me, Trevor. Why didn’t someone let me know beforehand that there was no longer a tab for me at that place?” He watched his brother and knew that he was angry. So was he, damn it. “If you’re thinking of taking away some of my perks that I deserve by being your brother, then I should have a—”
“I’m not taking away some of your perks, Burton.”
He let out a long breath that he’d been holding. Good, things weren’t as bad as they had seemed at first. Trevor started talking again before he could ask him why the fuck he’d scared him like that.
“I’m taking them all away. As I have said, there will be nothing more coming to you over the next eleven days. You have already signed the new lease, making you the new one responsible for your bills. The electric, as well as all the other bills, will be in your name on the day of your birthday, and the accounts—all of them, including any other tabs that you have around town—are, as of right now, closed. You are on your own. If you think to run up a tab on any place, and I do mean any of them, I want to make you aware that each and every place around town, and any of the places you went before, are well aware that I am no longer footing your bills. They also know that to give anything to you on credit of any kind will more than likely be something that they’ll never see again, as you are a worthless piece of shit.”
Burton sat down and felt as if all the air in the room had been sucked out. He had to breathe slowly until he could speak again. This was not right.
“I can’t afford this shit. I can’t even afford where I live unless you pay the bills. That’s not going to work for me, damn it. You’ll keep paying them or I’ll take you to court.” He had no idea if he could do that or not, and didn’t even have an attorney that Trevor didn’t provide for him. “I’ll go to the newspaper too. Tell them what you’ve done to me.”
“Done to you? You mean pay all your bills for you since you were twenty-four years old, without ever asking for you to repay me? Pay your rent, utilities, as well as provide you with a car until you were thirty-five fucking years old? What do you think that a lawyer or a judge will say to you, Burton?” Trevor laughed. “I know. You lazy sack of shit. They’ll tell you to get up off your lazy fucking ass and get a job. Stop sponging off your brother for once in your life, and do what any man would do. Pay your own way.”
A file was handed to him, and Burton was so pissed that he couldn’t even look at it. But Wingmen told him that he had to. Tearing the thing in half, he tossed it on the floor then stepped on it. He looked at Trevor when he said his name.
“You think this is ending here? I got news for you, it does not. I have no idea where you got it in your head that you can just sweep me under the rug like nothing, but I assure you, I have as many contacts as you do, and I’m going to fuck you up.” Trevor stood up, and even though he looked like shit warmed over, there was a great deal of power coming from him. Burton had to fight his wolf hard not to bow before his younger brother and submit. When Trevor growled at him, Burton felt his skin crawl with the need to drop down and let him have his throat. “I’ll see you in hell before I let you do this to me.”
He was nearly to the door when he realized that leaving like this would give him nothing. Not even the satisfaction of his threat to Trevor could be carried out, much less started. He was broke. Less than broke, and he had nothing at all that belonged to him to sell. Just before he opened the door to storm out, Trevor said his name again.
“The apartment where you are staying is now devoid of anything of value that I paid for. Even your clothing is gone, save what you have on now. There is no food in your pantry or refrigerator, and you have no car to get back home in.” Trevor came around to the other side of his desk and leaned on it as he smiled, a smile that frightened Burton a great deal. “You could have had a little more time. Had you come in here like a man, then I would have given you enough money for the next month of bills, paid to have you taken home, and even given you enough food to get you through to the end of next month. As it stands right now, you and I are done. And in the event that you want to say that we didn’t tell you what was going on, this entire meeting has been recorded. As have all the other meetings that you and I have had. It’s standard for what happens in my offices.”
“You fucking bastard.” Trevor didn’t comment on his insult, but Burton knew he was pissed off. “You’ll pay, Trevor. I don’t know how or when, but you are going to pay for doing this to me.”
“Doing what? What is it you think that I’ve done to you, Burton? We’ve already established that I’ve done nothing that you were not made aware would end eventually. And in that, you have no grounds to sue me. Nothing to fall back on, and you certainly have no way of retaining even the cheapest of attorneys. You, my dear brother, are in over your head.”
Burton wanted to shift and attack. He might have too, if Trevor hadn’t stood up and let a little of his own wolf go. “You fuck with me and it will be over before you get across the room.”
Burton left the office then, and was disappointed that Sara was sitting at her desk with several of the guards he’d seen on his way in. When he pressed the button to go down in the elevator, three of them came to stand around him, one on either side as well as one in the back. Burton knew that they were carrying silver in their weapons. He could smell it like cheap cologne. One of them even had his hand on his gun as if he were going to shoot him. He turned to ask Sara what the fuck she thought she was doing and saw Trevor there. The man was leaning against the door like he had not a care in the world. Burton supposed that he didn’t. He had all the money and anything else he wanted, because he was Trevor Dean.
As he left the big building that all but screamed money, Burton tried to think what he could do to get back at Trevor. Nothing came to mind but to fuck him up, but that wasn’t going to happen either. Burton was not just broken, but he had a feeling that the people that he had “borrowed” money from last night would be expecting him to come up with the cash to pay them back. Trevor was obviously not going to do it like he was supposed to. His brother was really fucking his life up right now.
And not only that, but there was the whole bigger, badder wolf thing. It was the first time in his life that Burton realized that his brother was an alpha, and a damned strong one at that.
“But you’re going to get yours, little brother. See if you don’t.” As he tried to think how he was supposed to get home from here, he thought of the shit that he was going to have to do just to get by. Tonight, it seemed, was out of the question unless he could have someone give him the money. Burton was still working on that when he realized how fucking out of shape he was. He entered the diner about a block from Trevor’s building and called the only person he knew that might come to help him. Bill said he’d come by and get him, but had an errand to run before he could take him home. Burton said that was fine.
No one was moving in and out of the house, but Trevor waited. He had no idea if this was the right place or not, and if it wasn’t, he was as good as dead. Breaking into an alpha’s house, no matter what you thought of him, wasn’t a good thing. And accusing him of taking your mate would get him and Andrea both murdered if he couldn’t prove anything. Trevor had nothing to go on other than some cardboard on the windows of one room. Not even the scent of his mate was around the place.
He’d spoken to Andrea twice since last night. Once about midnight when she’d woke him after having a bad dream. He had been right there with her, in the grips of her terror, when he realized it wasn’t his dream but hers. Also, she’d talked to him about some of the other things that were bothering her about where she was. Things that were going to be rectified as soon as he could get her out of there.
They’re hooking me up to an IV in a little while, she told me. Trevor, I won’t be able to stop the drugs if they do this. And arguing with this woman is only pissing her off. He had gotten up to get dressed to go to her as her fear started to overwhelm them both, but stopped when she spoke again. I think I fixed it for now, but she’s going to come back. I think...she is really mad at me.
She’s going to be really mad at me when I come in there and kill her. Andrea laughed at him, so he didn’t tell her that was really what was going to happen. Instead of dwelling on things that at that time couldn’t be fixed, he told her about what he had going on that morning. I have a brother that is going to be a pain in the ass in the morning.
He’d been more than that, but when he’d talked to Andrea he’d not yet met with him. Right now all Trevor could think about his brother was that he was a royal pain in the ass. She’d asked him if he was his little brother, and he explained to her what he’d done for his mom.
You’ve been paying his bills since he was twenty-four? My goodness, Trevor, he’s a grown man. Does he like taking your money from you? Well, I guess he does. Otherwise he might have stopped this on his own. She sighed heavily. What a fucking moron. Here I am without memory or money, and he’s taking it from you like candy from a baby. I’d like to kick his ass myself. I might yet if I get to meet him.
You’ll get to meet him if I don’t murder him. I have my attorneys coming in with me to make sure he understands what is going to happen. I don’t think he’s going to take it well. She asked him what he was going to do if he didn’t. I don’t know. I’m trying not to think about it too much. To be honest, I’m glad to have this done with him. He’s going to end up killing someone, and I want no part of it.
Clean house. He asked her what she meant. I mean, have a backup plan ready. If he makes you mad...well, madder…then go into your house, or wherever he’s staying, and take what you supplied for him. Even his dirty underwear. Take it all. A man like that doesn’t deserve it anyway, if he had no appreciation for the finer things in life, so take it. What’s he going to do? Say you stole it from him? Not likely, since you’ve paid for it all.
He’ll come here in one of my cars. Should I just take that too and let him fend for himself? Andrea told him that he was going to have to learn to anyway soon, he might as well start now. He remembered thinking it was a little harsh, but now that he knew more about his brother, he wished he’d been able to take more from him. He’s going to hate you when he meets you. I love it. And you.
She didn’t say anything, and he had gotten up from the bed he’d been in. When she spoke to him, her voice was low, like someone might hear her and she didn’t want them to.
I don’t know what love is. I mean, I’ve read about it. Even seen Hollywood’s version of it, but I’ve never been in love. She laughed. I have no idea why I know that, but it feels right.
I’m glad to know that. And when we get together, you and I will have a long talk about a lot of things. After I take you to bed for about a month. Christ, I need you. She giggled in his head and Trevor had lain back on the bed. Since neither of us are going to sleep again, why don’t I tell you about my plans for the day?
He stiffened when she said his name, pulling him from his memories by hearing the panic in it.
Trevor? Are you there? Looking up at the house, he nodded and told her that he was. I’m afraid. Something is going on and I don’t know what it is. There are all kinds of people in the house now, and I don’t think they’re here for a social gathering. The voices I can hear are mean and loud. And I don’t feel so well. I think...I think they got me when I was napping or put something in my food. As bad as it is, I wouldn’t have tasted it, I think.
Trevor looked around the yard and didn’t see any indication that there might be others in the house in front of him. He had the wrong house, he knew it. But as he moved across the street, he stopped when he saw his brother and Bill Patrick, the worse kind of wolf he knew, move together as if they were old friends on an outing together. This was not going to go well for anyone, Trevor just knew it. As soon as they entered the house together, Trevor decided that it was time for him to get some help. If what Andrea was telling him was true, and he had no doubt that it was, there was trouble brewing and Andrea might be hurt.
You have to remain calm for me and listen to every word I tell you. She didn’t answer him and he pressed harder into her mind. She was drugged. He could almost taste it, the way her mind seemed to be completely sluggish. As Trevor made his way to the yard he could see why there had not been any sign of the others in the house. They’d come on foot, four of them.
He had four men that he could depend on. Two of them were wolf, the other two were shifters. Calling them to him, he looked around for a place to hide out and keep an eye on the house until they got there. Benson said that he and Paul were close.
Shriver and Connelly are at the bar not far from where you are. That shithead of a brother of yours was in there a bit ago. Left with Patrick of all people. He might be headed your way now. He told him he was in the house with Stein. Christ, you do know how to stir up trouble, don’t you? To be honest, I’m glad that you are. Was kinda getting bored just being a rich prick with no job.
You have no idea. And you have your hands in more pots than I do. So I doubt you’re bored at all. They both laughed and Trevor told him that he could see him. Don’t go in until the other two get here. I don’t want to break up a party that might not have shit to do with my mate.
You believe that? Trevor told him that he didn’t. Good. There is something else you should know about too. The cops are looking for Patrick about something. Not sure what, but we’re to not kill him unless we gotta. I’m thinking that they have a major hard on for something the little fuck did, what do you think?
That my brother is involved too; and that when Patrick goes down, so will Burton. Benson told him that he’d thought that too. Whatever you find out, let me know. If Burton is involved, which I have no doubt that he is, then I want to know to have everything ready when the shit hits the fan. I’m done with him, but I’m certainly not going to let him take me down with him when he goes.
Yeah, it’s not a matter of if but when he goes down. Burton has always been a fucking bastard. If he is involved, this might be a way for you to get him out of your hair once and for all. I know that he’s blood, but fuck man, the guy is a leech. He was at that, and Trevor told Benson that. I’ll tell you when I know, all right?
Trevor thanked him and watched the house too. He could only see the rooms at the side of the big house and nothing much of the back yard. He could see people moving in and out of the yard, most of them naked, all wolves that were about to shift or had already done so at some point. And these naked men were not something that anyone would want to see. Old and fat did not present a good image, Trevor thought. There was a lot of noise going on back there, most of it shouting, but he knew that once he made his presence known that it would get even louder.
Trevor was prepared now. Since his brother had left him today, Sara and he, along with Mark, had found out a great deal of information on a lot of people. And very little of it was good.
David had left soon after Burton was escorted out to go and oversee the removal of the furniture and things from the place that Burton had been using. He’d lied to his brother about that, hoping for some reason that he’d see the light. Apparently his brother was not going to be a man about any of this. But when Mark had asked to speak to him about another matter, he had sat with him at the big conference table.
“There’s some things I’d like to show you about your alpha, Neal Stein.” All the people that worked with Trevor on a daily basis knew he was a wolf. Some of them were shifters too, but Mark wasn’t one of them. He was as human as they came.
“If you’re going to tell me you think he has my mate, then I think that as well. I don’t know for sure where he has her hidden, or even why, but I know in my gut that he has her.” Mark nodded but said nothing more. “What do you know? Please tell me.”
“You’re not going to like this.” Trevor told him he probably wouldn’t. “Let’s start with the money and work from there.”