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"That’s right," I say, already thinking of all the ways I could ain "I’ve never seen you here before"

"I’ve never been here before," she counters and I have this sense that we are sparring, e’re not Or are we?

My cell phone rings and I silently curse the tio of this woone, but I also have to think about whatever explosion Seth is trying to contain "Don’tlance down at the caller ID to find my mother’s number, and just that fast, E to pursue her, only to have Seth step in front ofthe man equals my six feet two inches, and is broader than I arimace and he arches a blond brow thatforforit to pick up E it captive for the return I doubt she’llwith his tradeht ood news for once," I say, h several display racks of chocolates and coffees, as well as a trio of e the entryway

Seth sits next toan eye on the door, the ex-CIA agent in him ever present, his skills and loyalty paired with his no-nonsense attitude only a few of the reasons I recruited hie white envelope and pulls out a picture, setting it in front of me "The private security company we contracted to do surveillance on your brother delivered this to e of e envelope to a man I’ve never seen before I eye Seth "Who is he?"

"He works for the FDA"

Any ree with Emily disappears "Obviously it’s related to the pharmaceutical division and I don’t even want to think about how e"

"That’s why I wanted you to see it right away"

"Do we knoas in the envelope? Do we know anything?"

"The FDA employee’s name and tenure That’s about it, but I authorized the security tealance at the picture, wrestling with anger that will getI walked in there singing the praises of BP profit ins, with the pro, it would allow us to let go of all the dirty money"

"And all they heard was the chance to double their money," Seth supplies "Enter Derek, who promises to make it happen in a ploy to claim the table You knew this could happen We talked about it Dishonest people don’t suddenly becohtly "They don’t And I haven’t been operating with the same killer instincts as I did in the firm or this wouldn’t have happened"

"Because you still haven’t let go of the firo of It’smeant my brother became my enemy"

Seth leans closer "Listen to me, Shane I’m thirty-five years old I did seven years in the CIA and five years of contract work all over the world before I happened to take a job that threw us together I’ve seen monsters I’ve seen criminals I’ve seen your family and I say this not just as the person you hired to have your back, but the friend ould have it anyway" He taps the ie of my brother in the photo "This et it"

"He’s also my brother, and this is my family, who I want to save"

"You may not be able to"

"I’m aware of that and if I don’t take this company as my life, the way I did ated enough faation to know that blood divides as easily as it unites, especially when et ahead of this before we all end up bloody or in jail"

"So we agree This is war"

"It’s always been war I didn’t want to na what?"

"I played nice for my brother’s sake Today he put me--us--into the line of fire with the law, and I’ punches The nuain control"

"And when exactly is that vote? Because the last I heard, your father wasn’t exactly retiring to hit a bucket list If he hadn’t dropped twenty pounds in sixof cancer"

If only forgetting made it not true "Whatever the case, a vote noould not be in reed there isn’t a cure for corruption, our board needs to go away That’s the only way I can freely dissolve the root of all of our problems, which is Brandon Financial wheredirty deals for the, restaurants, real estate, and steel--they’re nothing but shells to hide le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">