narrowed as I studied him. “Did you introduce yourself as Dylan?”
He shrugged. “Didn’t say anything. I think they assumed I was you.”
Okay, maybe I could buy that it was actually a setup, possibly by one of our competitors who wanted to swoop in on a deal we were competing on with a religious-minded company somewhere. Since we did deals on a daily basis, it would be difficult to nail down exactly who was responsible.
However…
“You’re not an idiot, Dylan. If they slipped you something, evidently you were already…impaired.” My brother had a genius IQ and an almost scary intuition. Sober, he would have been wise to a possible setup.
“Okay, I made a mistake,” Dylan grumbled as he ran his palms across his face. “What happened to the Damian who doesn’t give a damn what the tabloids say about him?”
“I don’t care,” I snapped. “Not when the only one who’s affected is me. For fuck’s sake, Dylan, Mum saw that damned front-page photo, and so did our competition and partners. You’ve done some ridiculous things in the last two years, stuff I’ve been able to cover up or take responsibility for, but I can’t just make this one go away. The photo is out there everywhere until I can get it scrubbed from the net. Whether it was a setup or not, putting yourself in that position was a juvenile stunt.”
I loved my brother, and I hated having this conversation. At one time, Dylan and I had been close, and we’d respected the hell out of each other.
But that had been another Dylan, not the selfish wanker I’d been dealing with for the last two years, the one who didn’t care about anyone except himself.
Christ! I wanted the old Dylan back, and I hoped Mum was right about my real brother still being inside this seemingly empty shell I was talking to right now.
“I’m sorry about Mum seeing that photo,” he said flatly, his eyes glazed as he glared at me. “But as far as Lancaster International goes, I couldn’t care less. Is that all you care about, Damian? Is everything about business for you now? You didn’t used to be that way.”
I clenched a fist, so damn tempted, for the first time in my life, to literally beat some sense into Dylan. “Like I have any choice?” I completely lost it. “Lancaster is our legacy. I was supposed to have your help managing our empire. Instead of dividing and conquering, I’ve just been trying to keep my head above water, doing both your work and mine because you abandoned me two years ago. I’m also picking up the slack by trying to keep your personal life private, as well as covering our business interests alone. Do you have any idea how damn difficult it is to erase an entire history from the internet? Or how hard it is to maintain it, especially when you’re out there pulling some gossip-worthy stunts on a regular basis?”
His green eyes went dark. “You know why I drink,” he ground out angrily. “What do you think I’m going to do, Damian? Just get over it? We made a deal.”
“There was no damn deal, just my promise to help you disappear. We never set a time limit on just how long all of this was supposed to last. I’ve kept my word, Dylan, but you aren’t exactly using this time to get your fucking head together. In fact, you seem determined to screw it up even more.”
I took a deep breath. I wasn’t furious because Dylan had just checked out for a while.
I probably would have done the same.
I’d been patient for two fucking years.
Giving him his space.
I’d been more than willing to wait until he was ready to slowly check back in and talk to me.
So I’d waited.
Hoping every damn day that he’d finally talk to me about what had happened, confide in me about his pain.
But Dylan had just become more withdrawn, more out of control, more self-destructive.
It was time for me to admit to myself that Dylan probably wasn’t going to come back after he’d had some time to heal.
Like it or not, I was going to have to drag him back, kicking and screaming, if I wanted my brother back.
“Nobody expects you to just get over it,” I told him in a calmer tone. “But what you’ve been doing isn’t helping you heal, Dylan. You’re spiraling down to where I can’t reach you anymore, and I can’t let that happen. If our positions