Page 67 of The Merger

The full intensity of my brother fell on my former best friend, and for the first time since their rivalry began I didn’t intervene. “As much as I would love to watch Stryker beat the shit out of you, it wouldn’t end well for him.”

Malcolm smirked until Colt laughed. “Oh, he’d kick your ass for sure. You’re tall and muscular, sure, but you’re vain. Stryker is built like a fucking tank. He’s got four inches of height, and probably thirty pounds of muscle on you.”

“Fifty,” Stryker interrupted.

Colt scanned his eyes up Stryker’s body. “We’re totally hitting the gym together. Beck never has time. He’s more over the top now since Gracie has been born.”

I poked Colt in the side. “Focus. You’re trying to keep Stryker from smashing in Malcolm’s face, not convince him it would be easy.”

“Right. I’m just trying to remind myself why that’s a bad thing.”

“Because it’s assault and he’d get arrested,” I pointed out.

Colt nodded. “Right, and Malcolm’s not worth it.”

“I’m right here,” Malcolm stupidly reminded us.

“Maybe you should change that,” Colt snapped.

“I’m going.” He looked straight at Stryker. “You can’t have everything. You can have the girl or the company. Not both. Walk away from Sabrina and I’ll tell you what you need to know to save the company.”

Stryker took my hand and with his free one cupped my face. “I’ll always choose you.”

“Not the choice I would have made,” Malcolm muttered. Stryker slowly turned his head to face his brother. “That just confirms it was the right one.”

ChapterTwenty-Five

Stryker

Colt caught my eyes through the rearview mirror as we got on the bridge to head back to Seattle from Mercer Island where his parents had their ridiculously large estate for two people. “How are you doing?”

I sighed. “Nothing Malcolm does surprises me. I used to think he was lucky because our father chose him, loved him, and gave him the life he shut me out of. Now, I think he was ruined by all of those things I envied him for. But, I think I’m the lucky one.” I looked over at Sabrina, and I knew I was better off for not being a Graham. For all of his material possessions he had always been denied the one thing I had in abundance, love.

Jana turned around in the front seat as far as her seatbelt allowed. “As much as I love bashing Malcolm, and I do love it, I think we need to acknowledge that he’s not quite as stupid as we assume. He’s more than the vapid party boy we’ve made him out to be.”

“I never thought he was stupid. Of course, I also thought there were redeemable qualities about him, so clearly my opinion might not be valid,” Sabrina said quietly.

Threading my fingers through hers, I squeezed to get her attention. “Do not beat yourself up for having a big heart. It’s one of the things I love most about you. Malcolm didn’t deserve your loyalty, but you weren’t wrong for offering it to him. He was a stupid asshole for taking a gift like that and throwing it away.”

Jana cleared her throat. “He’s not stupid though. He was bragging tonight. We need to dig into what he’s so smug about.”

Sabrina chewed on the corner of her bottom lip. “I think he’s been laundering money for your dad. I just haven’t figured out how. Aaron has helped me find the accounts that are missing money, and some of it we’ve been able to trace back to deposits in offshore accounts owned by your father. We managed to access his tax returns, don’t ask, and found corresponding amounts reported as revenue. It took some digging, but there aren't just losses that don’t make sense reported in the company’s financials. There’s a profit on a product that doesn’t seem to sell anywhere else.”

Jana groaned. “Let me guess, Easton Vodka and it only sells in Malcolm’s clubs.”

Sabrina nodded. “I was able to find a contract offering exclusive access to the vodka line. However, I can’t find any records of its continued production.”

Jana shrugged. “That might not mean much. There was a large batch produced in anticipation of it being a hit. From what I was told when I took back control of the company, the board forced it to be discontinued after my cousin Chad blew the launch.”

“That’s where it gets interesting. More product has been sold, according to the records, than was apparently produced,” Sabrina added.

“Well, fuck me,” Colt blurted out. “If I were going to launder money, I can’t think of much better than a business where quantity is easily manipulated and most of the transactions are cash.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Even credit card transactions are easy to alter. The employees ring up whatever they are told. Labels can be changed. A cheaper vodka can be substituted and called anything as long as it comes from the right bottle. Since they aren’t opening the bottles every night—“

“They can be refilled, and the staff is none the wiser,” Colt finished.

“So Malcolm gets an infusion of cash, and washes money for my father,” Jana thought aloud.