by Nicole Casey
I took the folder, a feeling of confused warmth washing over me. “Thank you.”
“Is everything okay?” Harley asked. “Was it Malia? I’m sorry, that was weird.”
“No, that’s fine, I know relationships can be weird. No, it’s not her, it’s you.”
Harley’s eyebrows perked up. “Me? What about me?”
“You’re different.”
Harley sat back in his chair and folded his hands over his stomach. “Wow, really? All I’ve been told for six years is that I haven’t changed enough. Is it a good different at least?”
I smirked. “Yeah. You seem, I don’t know… warmer.”
Harley nodded. “Well, I feel warm.”
My body was getting progressively hotter the longer I sat there. “Me too.”
11
Harley
I couldn’t stop smiling as I watched Alexa giving her first newscast as our new head anchor. She was the perfect mix of beautiful and professional. Every time she cracked a joke or made a sweet giggle, I could sense our ratings going up. I could already see the headlines, ‘Foxx News’ replacement anchor is a change for the better.’
“To close out the evening with something to add a little joy to your Tuesday, Poppo the Pug will be at the Corvdale Mall this weekend, taking pictures with the young and the young at heart. Poppo and his owner, Angela, work for the World Wildlife Fund, and are doing their part to raise money to combat the extinction of many species that lost record-breaking numbers during the horrendous wildfires that hit Australia earlier this year. Poppo wants everyone to know that he loves taking pictures, puperdoodle treats, and belly scratches, so take some time to head to Corvdale Mall, do some back to school shopping, and snap a flick with Poppo!”
The lighting changed, and Alexa shifted like a true professional to face the other camera filming her. “Well, that’s going to do it for Foxx News. Remember, I’m Alexa Storm, signing in and signing off. Good night.”
“And we’re dark!” the director yelled. “Way to go, Miss Storm. Amazing first cast!”
I turned around to grab the bottle of champagne I’d brought with me purposely to toast to Alexa after her first newscast, but Malia was standing on the other side with her hand on the neck of the bottle.
“Champagne and a private audience. You must be really invested in this new anchor of yours,” Malia huffed.
“Why wouldn’t I? My entire business hinges on her success. I want to make sure she does well.”
“Uh huh. And that’s why you watched her this entire time like a schoolboy with a crush?” Malia asked.
“It wouldn’t matter if that is what I was doing. What difference does it make to you?” I snatched the bottle from her hand and started to pull the foil from the top.
“Don’t insult me by making me answer that. I’ve already made my feelings towards you perfectly clear.” Malia walked around the table and up to me. “I don’t understand. If we have to do this, why wouldn’t you just try to enjoy it?” She put her hand on my stomach and started to slide her hand downward. “There’s a lot of fun to be had.”
I stepped away from her touch. “I’ve already made my feelings towards you perfectly clear. The fact that you continue to push this is evident of your intent to ignore me entirely. Not one of my favorite qualities in a woman. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an anchor to celebrate.”
I popped the cork off the bottle and grabbed a couple of champagne glasses. I tried to turn to head over to where Alexa was chatting with the producer, but Malia grabbed my collar and pulled my face down to hers.
“You know better than anyone that I don’t like being rejected, Harley. If this new employee of yours is going to cause problems for me, then I’ll have no choice but to fix it.”
Malia’s dealings with Dante and a family of organized crime instantly gave her threat tons of weight. “What does that mean?”
Malia craned her neck and gave me, what felt like, a kiss of death. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?” She let me go and took the champagne bottle and glasses from my hands. “Allow me.” She turned around and held the bottle and glasses high in the air. “Congratulations to our new anchor!”
She walked over to where Alexa and the producer were standing and handed Alexa a glass. She tipped the champagne bottle and filled Alexa’s flute full to the top. As Alexa immediately took a drink from the glass, without so much as a second thought, Malia looked over at me. Her eyes said, in no uncertain terms, “I can do it whenever I want.”
I took out my phone and immediately dialed Huxley’s number. I knew he was in a meeting with a few of my brothers making a report to my dad about the status of the company, but I needed to communicate with him regardless. When his phone went to voicemail, I hung up and called back immediately. We had an understanding between us that if we called twice back-to-back, it meant trouble and the recipient of the calls had to answer.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Huxley answered.
“It’s Malia,” I responded, watching her laugh with Alexa as though there wasn’t a problem at all. “She knows about Alexa and she’s going to be even more of an issue than we originally thought.”
12
Huxley
Two Weeks Later
We had taken a step backwards with Alexa. We were supposed to be spending these past two weeks buttering her up and getting her to fall for us, but instead we ended up spending two weeks constantly looking over our shoulders. After Malia had threatened Harley about Alexa, she had mysteriously disappeared. In a two week period, she would typically come by Foxx Towers anywhere between 10 and 20 thousand times. Ever since Harley found out that a crack marriage had been arranged between the two of them, he’d done nothing but make it very clear that he wasn’t interested in being with Malia at all, but Malia had gone for the opposite approach. She wanted Harley, for real. Something about it made me inexplicably angry. Since high school, he and I had shared women. As weird as it sounded, I’d grown to expect that Harley was always going to be a huge part of my romantic life for that reason. Malia had done little else since she arrived but attempt to drive a stake between us, and now that she’d threatened Alexa, all I wanted was to see her gone.
“Hux!”
I jumped at the shouting of my name and noticed Delvin standing in my office with his arms crossed. How long had he been there?
“Hey,” I greeted. “Sorry, I was lost in thought.”
Delvin scoffed. “I wouldn’t do that shit too much. You’ll hurt yourself.”
“Fuck off,” I hissesd. “What do you want?”
“You know that new artist I was telling you about, Kaine?”
I shuffled around papers on my desk until I found the profile Delvin had given me a few weeks prior. He was a good enough looking guy, a pseudo-rock rapper with a ‘bad boy’ persona. He wasn’t the typical type of artist Delvin and Maverick went for, so I was surprised when they started to show interest in him.
“Yeah. Did you decide to sign him?” I asked.
“We’re circling the drain. Maverick wants you and Harley to come check him out with us tonight for your honest opinions and then, would you believe it, Tiny came up with a great idea.”
I crossed my arms. “What’s that?”
“He said we should invite Alexa. She can write an article about him and if we do decide to sign him, she can cover him on your show. Plus, it gives us an opportunity to get her outside the office, shake her loose a little bit.”
I was impressed. Maverick wasn’t known for great ideas, but that was one for the books. “It’s a great idea.”
“Cool. I’ll call her up and let her know. I’m gonna tell her we’re going to carpool from my place so you and Harley meet us there about 8,” Delvin said.
I slammed my hands on the desk. “Yeah, I’m not fucking dumb. So you can tell her to come at 7 and you’ve already fucked her twice before we even get to the parking lot?”
Delvin laughed. “You know me well,
bro. That said, she probably wasn’t gonna go for it anyway. Wasn’t gonna stop me from trying though.”
“Harley and I brought her here, so we get her first, end of the story.”
“Fine, can I at least turn on the charm a little bit? Try and get her loosened up?” Delvin asked with a mischievous arch to his brow.
I thought it over for a second. It wasn’t a bad idea to start shifting her mindset a little bit, but as much as I hated to admit it, Delvin was probably the best looking of us, plus he had his charisma to help him out. There was a risk that he could flip Alexa, and if she made a move I’d kill Delvin if he didn’t go for it. Still, if Delvin could start to soften her up and then Harley and I could get some drinks in her and have a good time at the club--We could break the seal.
“Tell her to meet at your place at 7:30 and we’ll be there at 8:00. I swear on my life dude, if you have sex with her...”
Delvin held up his hands. “Relax. After all this shit Harley’s going through, I want him to have the first taste anyway. I’m just gonna wind her up a little bit, that’s all.”
I nodded. “Make it so.”
Delvin grinned and turned to walk out of the office, nearly bumping into Harley who was on his way in with his computer in hand. “Hey,” he said. “Party tonight. Hux’ll fill you in.” He tapped Harley’s chest as he passed him and continued on his way out.
I clapped with a grin. “Okay, so get this.” Harley shook his head. “What?” I asked.
He turned his computer around so the screen was facing me, and I saw that my dad was sitting on the other side, watching me with a curious smirk. “Where’s the party?”
“Dad! Hey!” I said nervously. “S-sorry, I didn’t realize you were there.”
“No need to be coy, son. Your old man knows how to party too.”
Harley walked the computer over and set it on my desk and then walked around and sat on the window sill behind me. “I’m sure you do dad,” he commented.
“So, what brings you to our neck of the internet, pop?” I asked.
“That’s a question for your brother!”
I looked over my shoulder at Harley and he shrugged with his lips turned down in confusion. “I don’t know what he’s talking about.” We both looked back at the screen, waiting for clarification.
“Oh, come on, did you honestly think word wouldn’t get back to me?” Dad leaned in towards the computer screen as though it was actually creating a veil of secrecy. “The wedding?”
My heart thudded. “What?” I whipped around to glare at Harley, but he looked just as shocked as I did. I looked back at my dad again. “What?”
“Dad, are you getting married again?” Harley asked. “I thought you and Sienna would make it at least a year.”
“Watch how you talk about my wife. Sienna and I are doing great. She’s gonna be the one to bury me one day.”
I grimaced. “Come on dad, don’t talk about stuff like that.”
“I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about you, Harley. Maybe it was supposed to be a surprise, but Dante told me. You and Malia plan to get married while you’re here in Italy next week. Weddings are starting to become the theme of our annual family vacations, eh boys?” He let out a joyous laugh. “I can’t blame you. When I first came here, I didn’t look back. First you’ll get married here and next thing you know, you’ll want to live here.”
I could tell from the way Harley rigidified next to me that he had no idea Malia had such a plan up her sleeve. “Dad, I didn’t--”
“Oh, there they are! Harley and Huxley! The men who will take the Foxx Corporation to the next level!” It was as if someone had shot me straight through the head. Dante appeared in the frame next to my dad. Dante was a killer; ruthless if nothing else. If he was there in person to tell my dad about Malia and Harley’s ‘wedding,’ he was most likely in on whatever she had planned. “I can’t wait to see you marry my girl, Harley! She’s all a flutter. I decided to come down early and keep your old man company until the big day!”
My dad wrapped his arm around Dante’s back, flashing us a resplendent grin. “You hear that! If only my own sons would do that. We’re going to go for suit fittings tomorrow. Gotta look dapper for my son’s wedding!”
I side-eyed Harley and he looked like he was gonna pass out. I cleared my throat and put on a fake smile. “We’re looking forward to it! We’ll see you next week, dad!”
“I can’t wait to see you boys. Take care of things.” He was giddy, very unlike the dad I knew. He was probably so pleased he was going to be out from under Dante that he couldn’t think straight.
“We will dad, take care of yourself,” I responded.
He nodded and in a final, bone-chilling image, Dante reached forward and ended the call, making the screen go blank.
13
Alexa
I convinced myself that I was being silly to assume that Delvin invited me to his home for any reason other than to carpool to the club where his potential new artist was performing. I was really excited about the opportunity he’d laid out on the phone, to write an article about the artist and possibly do a story on the show if they signed him, so I may have sounded a little too eager when he asked me to come over. I had halfway expected the Foxxes to be throwing it at me from all angles once I was well enough immersed in the business, but they all seemed collectively distracted by something else.
I’d spent most of my time with Harley at the News Network, but I’d gotten time in with all of them. I was spending my mornings between the modeling agency and the event planning business helping Quentin, Keaton, Jett, and Rogan put together a series of fashion shows that were going to tour the entire United States to promote the companies themselves, and my afternoons were spent at Foxx Towers, either preparing for or giving my weekly newscasts. One night out of the week and every other weekend, I was at the record label, because they operated more in the evening. I was working with Delvin and Maverick to develop a couple of specific albums with some of the contemporary artists strictly for use in any Foxx marketing. If we have an entire record label, we shouldn’t be paying licensing fees for anything.
The Foxxes had been impressed with my work and made certain to tell me so, and I hated how, more than anything, I found it was me anticipating more from them than they were giving. They were exactly as everyone who I’d spoken to had said, kind, hardworking men. Go figure. Sure, Harley was arrogant, and Huxley was childish, and Quentin wasn’t trusting, and Keaton was aloof. And yes, Jett could be anal-retentive, and Rogan sometimes made me feel like I wasn’t more than speck in the this world. Delvin could be as manipulative as the Devil that went Down to Georgia, and Maverick had a Napoleon complex that made him difficult to work with, but I was beginning to see what Rogan had tried to tell me; they weren’t the men the media made them seem like.
My real question now was, if that wasn’t who they were, then who were they? All I saw of them was the business side. I was hoping that our trip to the club would prove to be a little more insightful for me. They’d gone from being men to avoid, to pure enigmas. I wasn’t working for the playboy billionaires that trended on Twitter, but I didn’t really know who I was working for. What were they all so distracted by? Why did it feel like at least one of them was with me every second of every day? Why had their interest in me dropped to zero when my interview process felt like it could go ‘casting couch’ at any second? More importantly, why did I care?
I knocked on Delvin’s door, with a surge of nervousness running through me. It’s just professional. It’s just professional. It’s just…
Delvin opened the door and smacked all the confusion I already had in the face with a baseball bat covered in nails. He was standing there in just a pair of sweatpants and nothing more. The outline of a sizable appendage down below proved that not only was he going commando, he had been blessed.
Delvin cleared his throat and I realized, embarrassingly, that my gaze had settled on places other than his face. My e
yes shot up to meet his as the temperature in my body was already beginning to rise.
“Hello,” he said.
I swallowed hard. His pecs and abs were glistening from, what I guessed, was sweat. “Hi.”
“Sorry, I lost track of time working out. I was just about to jump in the shower. Come in.” He stepped aside and against my better judgement, I walked around him and entered the penthouse.
It was immaculate and well decorated. I hadn’t been in any of the other brothers’ homes before, but I had been in all of their offices. Most of them were messy and unkempt, apart from Harley and Jett’s, both of which looked like Ikea showrooms. Delvin’s living room had a similar look to it. There was a matching sofa and two loveseats that sat facing a fireplace adorned with a row of picture frames.
I didn’t hear Delvin close the door or move around me, but suddenly he was walking back out of his kitchen with a glass of white wine in his hand. He handed it over to me. “Make yourself comfortable. I won’t be long. Mav’s meeting us there, but the twins should be here pretty soon.”
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. If the twins were going to be arriving soon, that meant that Delvin probably wasn’t planning on making a move. Maybe it was just my overactive imagination.
