Ben just chuckled. “You fell for her. Now you can be tortured by her until the end of time.”
“Twat,” I muttered.
Ben gave me a smug grin. "Yep, Livy spent lots of time explaining this to me."
Ah, yes, Liv. He'd really fucked up there. And still, considering he almost got her killed several times and lied to her continuously, she’d let him off easy. All to keep her safe, of course. But still, lying nonetheless, and she still took him back. And the two of them were rock solid. Pretty disgusting, actually. Always with their tongues in each other's mouths.
Oh, like you want to be with Emma.
I ran my hands through my hair. "I don't want to feel like this."
East shrugged. "There's not really much choice, mate. You've been in love with her since we were kids.
* * *
"So what you're saying is I'm in this shape for the long haul."
Ben and East both laughed. "Yeah, mate."
Ben stood and clapped me on the shoulder and then took the club soda I'd been drinking for lunch and replaced it with a glass of scotch.
"Yeah, you're in it for the long haul.”
Eighteen
Bridge
When I walked into Middleton communications, I didn't even bother with Francis. Nope. I made a beeline straight for Emma's office. I knew she wasn't back yet, but I also had a sweeper with me. If I could debug her office, or at least tell her where it was, I knew that that would give the both of us some peace of mind. But just as I was about to turn into her office, Francis came down the hallway.
"Edgerton, she's not back yet, mate. Stop looking so eager."
I grinned, shoved my hands in my pockets, and leaned back against the door jamb. "I'm a newlywed, so of course I'm eager to see my wife."
He frowned at me. "You're taking her home every night for the love of Christ. If she can't get her work done, I may have to take action against that."
I laughed. "But you wouldn't dare, because an action against your brother's wife would be an action against a brother, and I know for a fact Ben wouldn't sanction that. Neither would the Five. So what are you saying?"
His brows popped. "Easy, mate, just making a joke."
"Sure, you were."
His brow furrowed. "I respect that she's newly married, but mate, it's seven o'clock, and she's not back yet."
"You know you don't own her time, right? She finishes work at six. She stayed longer to speak to a client."
Middleton rolled his eyes. "Yes, she informed me she was meeting with a client, but I do have work I needed her to do."
"And she'll get to it tomorrow. I'm taking her home now."
He lifted a brow then. "Where are you two staying now? Are you taking her back to the hotel? How will she ever learn to be a wife if you keep treating her like a whore?"
I pushed away from the doorjamb and Middleton stepped back a few paces with his hands up. "Easy, easy, I'm making a joke."
"Newsflash, wanker, calling it a joke doesn't actually mean it's a joke."
“Relax, I’m teasing. Let’s not forget our oaths.”
And in that moment, I hated him. Because for years, they'd all stood by that. The oath we'd taken. Our brotherhood and all that. Meanwhile, they'd been responsible for Toby’s death.
You were responsible too.
And that guilt was eating at me. It was chewing at me, and I had no one to tell. No one to talk to. I felt it was my responsibility.
"Relax, we'll be out of here soon. She already texted they're about ten minutes away. She just needs to grab her things."
He nodded, turning to leave then stopping. "Mate, about Barcelona. It's a work trip. I know you want her to do well and succeed, so just a heads-up that her husband coming along on her trip would not be a good look."
"You have company retreats all the time, right?"
He nodded. "Yeah. What's that got to do with anything?"
"So, you're saying spouses have never been included?"
He opened his mouth and then closed it. "Spouses certainly. But it's only men who brought their wives along. Wives who insisted that they had to come. None of the wives brought their husbands. It didn't make altogether a good impression, you see."
I crossed my arms, leaning back against the doorjamb again. Who was going to tell him about the misogyny and the dash of patriarchy in his statement? I waited for him to get it on his own, but when I kept staring at him like the clown he was, he just stared back. "What?"
"So you're saying that women have to try harder to appear to be good employees, so it's better if they don't bring their husbands."
His brow furrowed. "I didn't say that. You said that, not me. I'm just saying that it doesn't look good for her. She's trying to make a good impression."
I grinned. "Well, you're the boss, right?"
"Yes, of course."
"Excellent. We're brothers and what not, and we have oaths and things, right?"
"Yes."
"Great, then don't think less of her. It's really that simple."
He watched me closely. "You're too slick, Edgerton."
"You know, that's not exactly the insult you think it is."
He gave me a nod and rounded the corner.
I let myself in Emma's office, turning on the light. She had her laptop with her, but I had my phone. And while I waited, I decided to do a little research. What the hell was it about Barcelona? We'd been backward and forward over Middleton and some connection in Spain, and we couldn't find a fucking thing.
My phone buzzed in my hand, and I answered right away. It was East. "Mate, miss me already? Or did you want to whisper sweet nothings to me without making Ben jealous? You know how he gets."
"He’s a jealous one. What can I say? I’m a commodity. Can you talk?"
"A couple of minutes. Emma's due back. What's up?"
East sighed. "We were looking in the wrong place."
"What?"
"Yeah, mate. Wrong place, wrong generation. We were looking at Francis Middleton, not his father."
"Okay, what has Lord Middleton done?"
"It's not what he's done. It's who he's paying." East took a deep breath. I knew he loved the drama. “Every month, he pays a stipend to a bank in Barcelona. And he's not doing it under his name or the company name. I only found it because a week of investments is also behind his firewall at Middleton Communications."
"Only a week? We need to find out everything."
"I agree. Maybe if you ask nicely, Emma will help."
"I'll ask Alex. He could also look for this information so she doesn't have to."
"Once a month, they pay. And then when I looked at the bank transactions for the account they pay to, it's paid out hundreds of thousands. Some to women at prostitution houses. They all look like payouts. Five thousand here, ten thousand there. One time there was a whopping two hundred thousand euros."
I whistled low. "To whom?"