Page 13 of The Cinderella Secret
“Oh,” said Aiden, looking like this was the first time the idea had occurred to him. “Right. That’s a good idea.”
“Oh, my God,” said Dominique. “You two geniuses forgot that you could ask Jackson, didn’t you? What do you think he does for Grandma?”
“Security?” Aiden didn’t look like he was terribly certain of his answer. “He’s responsible for the punching of people and whatnot.”
“Whatnot?” repeated Evan, sliding his chair further away from Aiden, his eyes dancing. It was the first time in a long time that Jackson had seen Evan look amused about anything.
“Well, I don’t know,” said Aiden. “He’s just annoying about safety and always pops up to tell me not to go places.”
“Oh, good grief,” said Dominique.
“That’s your brother,” said Evan.
“Rub it in,” said Dominque. “Aiden, darling, Jackson practicallyisGrandma’s opposition research team. Not to mention the other security things, such as making sure the house isn’t bugged and no one kidnaps us.”
“To be fair,” said Jackson, “Idoalso punch people and whatnot.”
“I wish you wouldn’t though,” said Eleanor. “It’s so terribly gauche.”
“But periodically necessary,” said Jackson.
“Speaking of kidnapping us,” said Aiden, walking over to steal Jackson’s wine. Jackson let Aiden have it. Aiden had given up partying and tended not to pour his own glass of anything, but he still seemed to enjoy small tastes. Jackson kept an eye on it, but the habit didn’t seem to go any further than occasionally stealing his cousin’s drinks. Jackson suspected it wasn’t about the alcohol, but more of a way to claim ownership on the rest of the family. “Does anyone know what’s going on with Granger?” continued Aiden, taking a sip before returning the glass to Jackson.
“Bastard is still CEO of Absolex,” said Evan bitterly. “That’s what I know.”
“I do not understand how that is possible,” complained Dominique. “They have the mercenaries he hired to kidnap us. They have the evidence that Grandma’s Senate hearings turned up about the falsified research and the drug his company was selling to the VA. What more do they need?”
“A paper trail,” said Aiden. “I told you at the time, nailing Big Pharma for anything is difficult. Absolex has a ton of expensive lawyers to make sure the blame and the buck gets passed down the food chain to someone else.”
“They’re starting to call him the Teflon CEO,” said Evan.
Jackson heard the anger in Evan’s voice. For the last year, Evan had been generally silent when the conversation had turned to Absolex. Apparently, his silence had not been due to any amount of forgiveness. “It’s been a year. Absolex stock is higher than it’s ever been. The market thinks he can weasel out of this.”
“He can’t,” said Eleanor, startling them all into looking at her. “I have been getting official and unofficial reports on the matter for the last year. As of two weeks ago, the reports have stopped.”
“Isn’t that bad?” asked Aiden. “If they’re not returning your calls…”
“They return them. They have just been very carefully telling me that they cannot tell me any news.”
“Ah,” said Aiden. “Cannot tellis very different from there is no news to tell.”
“Precisely,” said Eleanor. “It’s my guess that sometime within the next month they will hand down at least one indictment.”
“It had better be good,” said Dominique. “I did not appreciate having my family threatened. And I certainly didn’t appreciate the amount of furniture they broke when they came to my house.”
“Yeah, but theydidbreak Great Aunt Claudia’s vase,” said Aiden.
“Well, yes,” Dominique admitted. “Thatwasnice of them. But the Venetian glass lamp was extremely difficult to replace.”
“That was areallyugly vase,” said Evan.
“That was a valuable antique,” said Eleanor, glaring at all of them. “Claudia gave it to me as a house warming present and I thought Dominique would appreciate me passing that sentiment to her.”
“Then why did you always keep it in the third-floor bathroom?” asked Evan, which made Jackson laugh and then choke on his wine. Dominique giggled and thumped him on the back, and Evan looked pleased at having made them laugh.
“You children are sadly lacking in the appreciation of good furniture,” said Eleanor firmly, but her eyes twinkled and they all saw the smile hovering at the corners of her mouth.
The door to the study opened and Theo, the Deveraux House butler, entered. He scrutinized the family and Jackson thought he caught the ghost of approval on his face. Theo had a master-level poker face and although Jackson had lived at Deveraux House for the last four years, he still hadn’t deciphered all of Theo’s micro-expressions.
