Page 19 of The Hardest Hit
“Yes, I’ve stopped purchasing the Absolex on all of my channels—not that they can be traced to me. I’ll do the short sale on Friday at the end of the day and dump all of it. By Monday the stock will be next to worthless. Considering the other scandals that have broken recently on their research fraud—“
“Thank you, Jackson,” said Aiden.
“I do my part,” said Jackson with his usual equanimity. “I do enjoy being an unnamed source on page one.”
“And the social media campaign against them,” continued Evan.
“Facebook ads,” said Nika, shaking her head, “so worth it for the money.”
“By my calculations, with the devaluation stock, and the stock dump, Absolex should announce bankruptcy by the end of next week. Since J.P. Granger’s net worth is tied up in his company’s stock, that should pretty much ruin him. And with any luck, his lawyers will quit when they realize he’s not going to pay them, and then he’ll go to prison.”
“Your father would be so proud,” said Eleanor.
He looked down to the head of the table where his grandmother sat. Eleanor Deveraux was over seventy but looked barely sixty with carefully coifed blonde hair and subtle cosmetic work. She was the epitome of speak softly and carry a big stick. There were many people who hadn’t seen the stick coming, but Evan hadn’t ever been one of them. He had never dared to cross her about anything important and he had always done what she considered most vital: he made the family look good.
Evan tried to decide what she was trying to imply. She rarely mentioned his father. It was his impression that the only child she’d cared for was Genevieve. Like almost everyone else, she’d hated her sons Owen and Randall. And yes, the Absolex situation was something straight out of his father’s playbook, but since she had been the one that asked him to do it, he didn’t think she had much of a reason to object.
“Well,” said Dominique, smiling at him as if to make up for their grandmother’s comment, “I think it’s great. I personally did not appreciate their attempts at intimidation, kidnapping, or murder, so good job.”
“Passing off fake research and bad PTSD medication to veterans pretty much sealed the deal for me,” said Aiden. He was blond, like his sister, but a shade darker and two years older. “And trying to squish me with a car didn’t improve my opinion any. So, I say, good riddance. Job well done.” He lifted a glass to Evan, and Evan found himself smiling awkwardly.
“Wait and see if it works first,” he said.
“It’ll work,” said Jackson confidently, and Evan gave him an actual smile. But from the moment their grandmother had dropped the bomb of his existence on them, Evan had wanted Jackson. He had always envied Aiden and Dominique, and the idea that maybe he could have an even a sort of, maybe sibling-cousin who belonged to him was attractive. He’d been certain that would work. Grandma would bring Jackson home and then Evan would have a brother of his own and that would be that. Of course, at the time he’d been flying high on some sort of drug cocktail so that kind of thing made sense.
The strange thing was that it was almost true. At least Jackson behaved as if it were true. The problem was that now that Evan was sober he had no idea what to do with that. Jackson, from the day he’d arrived, had seemed to like him, and Evan found that deeply suspicious. He kept waiting for the switch to cruelty. It was what he always expected from Owen and Randall, and he had a hard time believing that Jackson would be different. And then there was the fact that Jackson was one of their grandmother’s few confidants. He couldn’t trust Eleanor. So how could he trust Jackson?
“You seem very confident,” said Evan.
“You don’t miscalculate,” said Jackson and Evan felt as though he should go home and mark the date in his calendar. An evening where all three of his cousins complimented him was unlikely to come again.
“We’ll see,” said Eleanor, and Evan nodded. Eleanor was always the thumb on the scale to provide balance. These days he was never sure where he stood with Eleanor. As a child, she had been the one person that he believed with any certainty loved him. But now he felt as if he had been pushed into the ranks of people she didn’t trust. He wasn’t sure why. He had never once breathed a word of what he knew or suspected about her, but it was as if she could smell it on him.
For a moment, Evan thought Jackson’s face registered annoyance at Eleanor’s comment, but then it smoothed out and he turned to the cousins.
“Hey, reminder, we’ve been seeing an uptick in Neo-Nazi bullshit. Eleanor’s getting some hate mail.”
“More than usual?” asked Dominique.
“Yes,” said Jackson. “Her anti-discrimination speech last week kind of pushed some buttons. I don’t think they’ll target any of you, but Evan, you might not want to ride the train to work for a few days and Dominique maybe get Max to give you a lift in the mornings?”
“He usually does,” said Dominique.
Evan felt a flutter of discomfort. He had been intending to mention the photographer that had been lurking around the day before, but now he wasn’t so sure.
“I like riding the train to work,” said Evan, weighing his options. If he mentioned the photographer, how likely was it that Jackson would freak out? Or that Eleanor would demand that he take a car? He didn’t want to have that argument.
“It’s a pretty big window of opportunity,” said Jackson. “I don’t like that you do it.”
“It’s fine,” said Evan stubbornly. “No one bothers me.”
“Fine,” said Jackson. “Just keep your head on a swivel. Don’t nose dive into the paper or anything.”
“I will keep that in mind,” said Evan. Jackson looked like he was entirely unconvinced by Evan’s lie, but he shrugged.
“What about you, Aiden?” asked Jackson.
“What about me?” asked Aiden, blinking at Jackson.
