Rolling Stone
1121 Words
Graham
“The thing about Graham Tyson is that he is always wanting more. So much more. Never content, always moving. Like the proverbial moving stone except in this case, he gathers more than the average amount of moss.”
I toss the tablet aside and blow out a breath of steamy air.
They are right about one thing. I’m never content.
Always wanting more.
When has it been a sin to have more drive than the average amount?
I scoff and tug at my tie till it comes lose before pouring a shoot of vodka and drowning it in one gulp.
There. A much better way to start my morning.
According to my sources, the same ones that notified me of Minnesota’s arrival at the Tyson family home, my dear nephew went straight to her apartment immediately his flight reached New York. I expected nothing less of him.
If she told him anything about our contract, I bet he’ll be here by now, seeking an audience with me already, but the fact that he isn’t here already, I have to give her points for that.
I didn’t think she would hold back from him. She loves him after all.
But then, it’s hard to get out of the heartbreak that he served her with.
Fools. That’s what they are. Both of them.
Only fools allow themselves to love and hurt. I was once a fool so it’s a good thing I recovered from that as quickly as I did.
She should thank me, I’m saving her from a lot of damage already as it is.
A knock resonates on the brass door to my office and I scowl at the interruption before I even see who it is.
“There you are,” Alex pokes his head in, “I was beginning to wonder if you only existed on the tabloids.”
Of course it’s Alex. The only person allowed to visit without assigning himself to my already tight schedule.
My features relax into an easy smile as he walks into my more than large office, settling himself on the seat opposite me.
“I heard you’re in town,” I remark.
“Is there anything that happens in New York that escapes your hearing?” he asks, sliding the vodka to his side and pouring himself a shot.
“Unfortunately not,” I crack my fingers together, waiting for what I already know he is about to say.
“I’ve been doing some hearing on my own,” he remarks, pouring another shot of vodka and passing it to me.
“I’m sure you have.”
My friend of over twenty years returns my smirk with a teasing smile of his own, “heard you bagged the Slogan girl.”
I shake my head, “I hate to tell you this, Alex, but no one speaks like that anymore.”
He laughs outrightly, “You know exactly what I’m talking about, asshole. Always knew you had eyes for that one.”
The smile wipes off my face. “I’ve never had eyes for her.”
“Yeah right. I mean I wouldn’t blame you honestly, that one’s a beauty. Not many men can hear she is now single and do nothing about it.”
“Alex.”
“Isn’t it weird tho? I mean regardless of the age difference and obvious feud, he is still your nephew.”
I sigh, “You nitwit. I’ve never had eyes for Minnesota.”
He nods, a grin splaying wide on his face, “I believe you.”
“I’m damn serious.”
“Right. Yeah, no I believe you.”
I wait for it.
“I believe you have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I sigh in exasperation, pushing back against my seat. If it was someone else and not the man who has had my back for more than two decades, I would’ve dropped the topic and sent him out of the office immediately.
But this is Alex Kane here. And damn right does he know how to push all my existing buttons.
“It’s a contract,” I spew before I change my mind.
There is still laughter in his eyes when he says, “A what now?”
“A contract,” I cross my knuckles together, glad to get his attention now, “I made her sign a contract.”
“You made her do what?” Alex sits up on his chair, leaning forward, “you made her. Do. What?”
“You heard me.”
“A contract to be involved with you?” he spurts, “As if she wasn’t already suffering enough!”
I say nothing.
“This is ridiculous, Gray, there’s no way you’ll ask a kid who –”
“She stands a lot to gain from this too.”
“And by a lot you mean fame?”
“I mean she gets to watch my nephew dearest squirm.”
“How is that a reward?” he grips the edge of the table, “Didn’t it ever cross your mind that the mere fact that she agreed to this shows how broken she is?”
I grab a pen and twirl it in my hand, suddenly needing to do something with my fingers, “No. I blackmailed her into signing.”
Alex shoots up from his seat. “You what!?!” he yells.
“Somebody needs to take out the word ‘what’ from your vocabulary.”
“How could you do this to her, Gray, you watched that kid grow.”
I shake off the guilt that is starting to creep into my system, “She is a means.”
“A means to what?”
“To a greater end,” I grab a file and shove it in his direction, “it had to be that way, Alex. The opportunity just fell onto my lap.”
He snatches the file from the table and in less than a second he is already leafing through the contract pages between me and Minnesota. I watch as the expression on his face shifts and turns and by the time he is looking back at me, there is a shock to his features I can't bring myself to comprehend or dwell on.
“What if she finds out?” he asks, his voice quieter now. “What will you do when she reads through these pages and see for herself the monster you’re trying to be?”
I shrug the sting in his words away, “She won’t find out,” I remark, my voice matching the quietness in his own, “I made damn sure of it.”
- Writer
