Mr. Mitchell Billionaires' Club Book 2 - Raylin Marks Page 0,169
It’s about my fucking brother. Before her, you were a control-freak workaholic.” He walked toward where he faced me, both of us escalating in our irritation. “And after her, you’re right back to the grind, huh?”
“You have no idea—”
“Right!” Jake snapped, cutting me off. “Let me guess. I have no fucking idea what it takes to run the goddamn company,” he mocked me in some fucked-up tone. “No, Dad, I don’t. I don’t want to fucking know, either. What I do know is that when you were with that woman, the whole damn place didn’t fall apart, did it? It still fucking ran like the well-oiled machine it is.”
“Why are you bringing this shit up?” I asked, pissed-off, and ready to blow up.
“Because we finally had you back. Fuck, we actually had you back better than we ever had you before, and now it’s this shit again.”
“Say what you want, Jake,” I answered. “Leave Avery out of it.”
“You’re the one who showed me—through Avery—that you could have a relationship outside of that fucking place. Now it’s over, and you’re buried in it again.”
“You’ll never understand.”
“You know what, fuck you, Jimmy,” he said, angrier than I’d ever seen my brother. “I can’t ever have a normal conversation with you. After all these years, you still use this fucking bullshit CEO tone with me? Fuck that. I don’t work for you. I want my goddamn brother, for fuck’s sake. I want my kid to have his uncle. You’re so buried in that place that I’m pretty fucking sure you’ll just have your secretary send cards.”
“Oh, calm down, Jake. Jesus Christ,” I said. “You make no sense.”
“Maybe not to you,” he answered.
“All right,” Collin interrupted. “Fucking enough between you two.” He exhaled while Jake threw his hands up and walked away in frustration.
“Fuck,” I said, annoyed with my brother, watching as he walked down the coastline from where we were, calming down. “Is he that wound up that I’m working again?” I leaned my elbows on my knees. “If I’d known Avery and our breakup would turn my brother against me, I would’ve never gone down that road in the first place.”
“It’s not that,” Collin said, turning some to face me. “What happened between you and Avery, exactly? Was she hiding shit from you? Did you even give her a chance to speak her side of the story of her background check? I haven’t been able to get past that: Jim and Avery split over a background check.”
“It’s more complicated than that. She made me look like a jackass for an entire month, shutting me down when I’d question why she wouldn’t take her ex to court. Poor Addy.” I exhaled, feeling the anger over the idea of it all again. “That little girl has no one to protect her from her loser of a father. I fucking hate addicts, and Avery was in his corner the entire time.” I glanced over at Collin. “All because she was just like him. It would’ve been nice if that part of her life had come up in conversation.”
“Would you have kicked her ass to the curb if it had?”
“Her charges were so fucking long ago, and she’s clearly pulled herself out of living that kind of life.” I ran my hand through my hair and looked out at the ocean. “I would have never broken it off over her past, Collin,” I said. “It wasn’t about that, not entirely, anyway. It was mainly the fact that she was still enabling this bullshit because of her past. I know all too well how fucked up it is to enable an addict like that, much less bringing an innocent kid around that shit and making excuses for doing so as if you aren’t hiding from your secrets. It fucking reminds me of our mom. Jake wants to stomp off like that after I’ve done nothing but carry the weight of what that woman did to us? I shielded him from everything, and then I took Dad’s seat in the company, so Jake didn’t feel the pressure. He has no idea how much I love his stupid ass, and I hate that work might do exactly what he said, and I end up having some weird, distant relationship with my nephew.”
“You do let that place swallow you up. Jake’s right about that. You also know you can run that company and still be present like you were when you were with Avery,” Collin said. “Listen, we’ve grown up