Page 118 of Unwritten Rules

I sighed defeatedly and plopped in my seat. “Alright boys, let’s get this over with.”

The chatter stopped at the sound of my voice.

“Just like her mom,” one of them mused.

I could only dream of her footsteps being that easy to follow, but she did this at my age. I could figure out how to get it done with a little help. All of this was going to be my new normal no matter how much I kicked, screamed, or cried about it.

I took a deep breath, firming myself to speak. “Evans, I need you to brief me quickly on the decisions that my mom made. I need to make decisions like her. I don’t have her experience, but I need to make sure things run smoothly and that no one can catch me off guard. I’m going to tell you all, I am completely scared shitless, and I need your help. I am all in because I have been drowning with the sharks at play.”

Mr. Caldwell smiled. “Don’t worry, Miss Montgomery. You’re more like her than you know. We all have the company to worry about, and we will be with you every step of the way.”

The meeting started with a brief overview of some operations that were being orchestrated between the Montgomery business and the Vaughn empire. They needed new spots to hold goods, and we were on our way to acquiring new and secluded spots.

Who knew I’d go from not knowing what sex was like to learning how to organize black market transactions within a couple of weeks.

Evans turned his attention to me. “When dealing with Vaughn, be sure not to let him see you bleeding. He is a brutal man and will not take things easy on you for your ignorance to the business. He wants to resume as if you were Maria herself. I’m sure he plans on handing the operation to that fiend of a grandson as soon as he gets a handle on him and his... defiant ways.”

Well, that piqued my interest. “You mean the one I go to school with?”

“Yes. He’s a troublesome one, but not to worry about like Alexander. No rape cases pushed under the rug for him. Girls seem to flock to that one.” He tapped his tablet, strumming his fingers across the black screen. “You have met him, yes?”

Yep. Sure did. Especially when he was...

Focus!

“If you mean watching him pummel any other guy in his sights, sure. Anything to note?” I tried to act casual, but my intrusive thoughts might have been getting the best of me.

Tapping his chin and opening his tablet to scroll through some information, he replied. “Where the Fitzgerald child has had to cover sexual harassment, the Vaughn grandson has had triple that in assault cases. Volatile, unpredictable, and erratic that one is. If he were normal, he’d be on death row by now. He joins his grandfather’s cleaners in the family business until he is deemed to work well enough for leadership.”

I opened my mouth to speak but closed it out of uncertainty. Trying to formulate my thoughts, I asked, “How do you know this much abouttheircompany?”

“When you have this close of contact between familiesandcompanies, it’s hard not to know what’s going on in each of them. Whatever happens here, I’m sure Vaughn has his ways of knowing.”

Did that mean he knew what we were up against? He had to.

“Wait. What are cleaners and what does ‘until he is deemed to work well enough for leadership’ mean?”

His lips pressed into a thin line as he contemplated his next words before offering a smile meant to disarm me. “In the nicest way I can say this, theyclean upstragglers or those who are a liability.”

“So, murder,” I blurted, my thoughts running out of my mouth before I could catch them.

“Well... sometimes, yes.”

I scanned the room of men; my eyes must have looked wild. Why not murder? They were already into the black market and illegal tradings.

But Brent murdering people?

Was there no hope of normalcy?

With the new information in mind, I swallowed the pill of reality. It was a large dose that sent shockwaves through my entire being. Accepting this new reality was going to be a tough hill to climb.

“Does he join them voluntarily? Wait, don’t answer that.” I held my hand up, trying not to physically clutch my pearls. “Let’s get back to dealing with Augustus. What will this meeting be like, and how do I act?”

Another man piped in. “Your mother was an expert when dealing with him. He practically groomed her and expected nothing but the best out of her every performance. A mentor to your mother, they held a very particular bond of close associates.”

He mentored my mother and taught her everything she knew, but I was left to flounder until she died. Was I supposed to catch on or what?

“So why didn’t he reach out sooner when she died?” My bluntness would be the death of me.

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