Page 21 of Stolen Kisses

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On Monday morning, I went to our headquarters. Sterling Investments was in a high-rise in downtown San Diego. The building had twenty floors, and we had the top two.

I was the first of my brothers to arrive. My office was on the top floor, but I made a quick stop on the one below it, glancing at the open office where our brokers and analysts were.

Every week, my brothers and I had a general meeting. Even though we all had businesses besides Sterling Investments, we always wanted to be on top of what happened here. My assistant had left the briefing folder on my desk as usual. This one was thick: forty pages. Usually, it was between seven and ten, but because the past week had been a turbulent one on the stock market, this was no surprise.

Our brokers prepared these every Friday evening after the stock market closed, so it was current information. I went through it quicker than usual, even though my mind was elsewhere—namely on Hannah. I hadn’t managed to get her alone for the rest of the reception, but maybe that was for the best.

I couldn't forget what she'd said on Saturday, that things had to get better. Why were they not good now? I needed to know what was going on with the inn.

Fucking hell, if anyone had told me on Friday that I’d end up kissing the lunatic woman from the airport and then obsessing about her, I would’ve told them they were drunk.

At ten o'clock, I went to the meeting room. Duncan, Griffin, Wyatt, Finn, and Knox were all in their usual seats. I took minenext to Duncan and glared at Finn and Knox. Finn made a gesture to indicate he was bowing in front of me. Knox mimicked my dance moves.

“Knock it off,” Griffin said. “We’re at the office.”

“Really? We had no idea,” Finn said, but he fell completely silent as the rest of the team filtered in.

Wyatt glanced at all of us with raised eyebrows. No one had filled him in on the weekend.

Duncan cleared his throat once everyone was inside. "All right, everyone. Let's discuss last week’s shitstorm."

I rolled my eyes. Duncan liked to be dramatic. I’d repeatedly told him that needed to change. It was important for us to convey a more confident tone, as these were their investments, after all. Unless we were talking about the 2008 crash, nothing in my book deserved to be described as ashitstorm.

"Well, you're on a roll, as usual," Knox said in a mocking voice.

No one else from the team said anything. They were used to us bickering among each other, but they’d never dare to talk to us the way we did to each other. Duncan would never say anything like this in front of outsiders. Griffin and Wyatt usually had a good filter no matter who was around; however, the same could not be said about my youngest brothers.

After presenting the highs and lows of the week, Duncan asked us to pitch in with strategic suggestions.

"We should wait out this week," I said without hesitation. "I saw this pattern two years ago. It was almost the exact same level of volatility. It'll flatten out in a week."

"Thank God you have an eidetic memory,” Wyatt said.

“I don’t agree with Chase,” Cyrus said.

Cyrus Smith was one of the first employees at Sterling Investments. He’d run his own company before, but it had been a dinosaur. He hadn’t been able to keep up with the times, soa lot of his customers flocked to us. We ended up buying his company—we were primarily interested in his customer list—but also brought him in on the management team.

He usually liked to challenge me, but I enjoyed it.

Duncan shook his head. He disliked Cyrus’s belligerent nature.

“What are your arguments against it?” I asked.

He started listing them, but the team picked them apart one by one.

In the end, everyone agreed that we shouldn't make any hasty changes. In college, my professors used to say that I had a sixth sense for the stock market. It was true, but I read newspapers almost obsessively. I was always on top of news, not only in the States but in every region where we had investments. I correlated world events to the stock market even before the market itself reflected it. I was always ahead of the curve, and my clients were grateful for it. It had lined our pockets nicely over the years too.

The meeting concluded shortly after, but even after the team left, my brothers and I remained in the room. After the general meeting, we always discussed other investment opportunities we could do as a group and as a family. We all had stakes in each other's businesses.

“You know, I looked at some wineries last week,” Griffin said. “We’ve never explored the industry, but it’s interesting. I can do a report on it if you’re all interested.”

"Sounds good," I said.

Everyone pitched in with an idea, and then they stared at me.

"Your turn," Knox encouraged.

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