Read Forsaking Gray (The Colloway Brothers Book 1) for Free Online Page B

that will not be good.”
    “Nothing is wrong,” I pipe up. “Jesus, stop being so damn melodramatic, Ash. I thought you gave up acting in like the ninth grade.”
    “Hey, I told you that was just a phase, asshole. Jesus, let it go already.”
    “Not a chance in hell,” I chuckle. Asher hated it when we brought up his “theatre days.” He played Putzie, one of the lesser—or should I say unknown —members of the T-Birds in the ninth grade musical Grease . To this day, we’ll still randomly plant pictures of birds, or crudely cut “T’s” in his car or his apartment or a meeting folder. But we stopped calling him Putz a few years ago when he planted me on my ass with a wicked right hook.
    “Ash is right, brother,” Conn interrupted, veering us back to their misguided path. “You’ve been moody, short-tempered and very distracted. You’re usually nose-to-the-grindstone non-stop. Camille told me you’ve missed two meetings with her over the last three weeks.”
    Shit . Camille is my head of Human Resources. Bonnie is retiring in only a few short weeks and I need to find a new assistant. Fast. Half of me is in denial. Bonnie has been with me since I started working at my father’s company over six years ago. She knows me inside and out. She knows my style and she anticipates my needs. She’s simply a treasure and will be impossible to replace. I even tried bribing her with a huge pay increase to stay, but her husband retired last year and has been pestering her to do the same so they can travel and spend more time with their kids and grandkids.
    “I’ve been busy.”
    “Well, you’re going to be admin-less if you don’t get your shit together. And you can’t have mine,” Conn quipped. Conn’s assistant is a young, voluptuous hottie that I’m quite sure my brother only hired because she has a healthy set of DD’s that she readily puts on display. I warned him against tapping that, but I highly doubt he took my advice. Conn has a hard time keeping the one-eyed snake in his pants around any beautiful woman. And with his rough, magazine-cover good looks, he has no issues landing them.
    “What gives, Gray? If you can’t talk to us , who can you talk to?” Conn asks me softly, genuine concern creasing his forehead.
    I silently stand and walk the short distance to the window, putting my back to them. For some reason, I’m unable to look at their faces when I tell them that I’ve found her again, and this time I’m not going to give her up. They will not be happy and they will not be supportive. Livvy not only broke my heart, she broke my spirit, and my brothers were left behind to pick up the bloody, shattered pieces as best as they could. She changed me. Not for the better. I can’t bear to see their disapproval when I tell them I plan to hunt her down and make her mine again.
    “I saw Livvy at a fundraiser a few weeks ago. I think she’s living in Chicago. I’ve hired a private detective to find her.”
    Ash stood up so fast, the chair he was sitting on went flying behind him. “What the fuck, Gray! That bitch ruined your life!”
    Now I do turn back around, and the look of rage on my face makes my little brother freeze, but my calm, icy voice is even more menacing. “If you call her that again, I can assure you that your pretty face won’t look so fucking pretty after I get through beating the shit out of you. Try explaining that at the board meeting, brother.”
    At six feet two inches, both of my brothers are the same height, but I tower above them by a good two inches and at least twenty pounds of solid muscle, thanks to the time I put in with my personal trainer three times a week. I can take Ash down easily and he knows it. Over the last couple of years, Conn has put on quite a bit more muscle, but I still think I could take him if he pushes me.
    And they know I’m not blowing smoke up their asses with my threat.
    Ash laughs, and some of the tension fizzles. “Is this going to be