“Marshall will tell Harlow,” I assured Jax.
He nodded. “I know. I’m not sure why, but I feel like I should have done it myself this time. Maybe because they’re our employees. This whole thing is just so fucked up. A few days ago, we were watching Mason get his balls cut off in Seattle, and now I feel like we’ve just entered a different universe.”
I smirked. “Mason wasn’t getting his balls cut off. He got married, and he’s happy with Laura. As he should be. She’s a pretty amazing woman.”
Jax, Cooper, and my sister, Riley, had just recently met the cousin they hadn’t known existed. I’d known about Mason for a while, but until my cousin had been ready to tell his own brothers that he was only their half-brother, and the bastard offspring of my uncle, I’d kept his existence to myself.
My brothers and Riley had not only accepted Mason as their cousin, but treated Mason’s brothers like cousins, too, even though they weren’t blood.
“I don’t get why Mason was in such a big hurry to get married,” Jax grumbled. “I like the guy, but he and his brothers act like they can’t survive without checking in with their wives at least once an hour.”
“They can’t,” I agreed. “Because every one of them is actually madly in love with their spouses.”
Jax scowled. “Yeah. I guess that’s the part I don’t get.”
“You don’t get it because our family was so damn dysfunctional,” I explained. “Unless you haven’t noticed, our sister is madly in love with her husband, too.”
The youngest in our family, our little sister, Riley, was happily married and living in a small city not far from San Diego. She’d married a billionaire real estate developer, and the two of them were crazy about each other.
I understood Jax’s confusion, though. It was hard to comprehend something we’d never seen or experienced.
Our father had been a sociopath, and Riley had recently told us that he’d molested her as a child, a fact that made me wish the bastard was still alive just so I could kill him myself.
Our mother was obsessed only with appearances, and her social status. She’d known what our father had done to Riley, but she’d kept it to herself just to protect the prestigious Montgomery name.
In reality, my parents had hated each other, but had stayed together anyway.
My father had died while my brothers and I had been active military. I’d been in Delta Force, Jax had been a SEAL, and our youngest brother, Cooper, had just been entering the U.S. Army hoping to become a Ranger when the old man had passed away.
We’d attended our father’s funeral to support Riley and our mother at the time, but I doubted a single one of us had actually mourned the bastard.
Even though we hadn’t known about what my father had done to Riley at that time, or that my mother had covered it up, there hadn’t exactly been any tender feelings between us and our parents. Ever.
My brothers and I had hightailed it back to our military duties after the funeral, and for years, we’d let somebody else operate Montgomery Mining. It had taken us years to discover that it wasn’t being run the way it should have been.
One by one, my brothers and I had made the painful decision to leave our positions in Special Forces once our contracts were up to save Montgomery Mining from complete destruction.
It hadn’t been easy, but we’d put everything we had into getting our company back on top. Not only had we succeeded in putting Montgomery Mining back into its place as the largest mining operation in the world, but our company was bigger and better than it had been under my father’s control.
Our mother was still alive, but we’d cut off all communication with her when we’d found out what had happened to Riley. None of us could even stomach being in the same room with her.
“I think Riley chooses to think she’s in love with Seth,” Jax mused. “Not that it’s a bad thing, because Seth is a decent guy. But I think being in love is bullshit. We make that choice, whether it’s done consciously or not. The whole soulmate thing is crap. I’ve never met a woman who makes me lose control. I don’t think it’s possible.”
“Never say never,” I warned. “You didn’t see Mason when he thought he’d never be with Laura. The guy was a mess. If he could have controlled that shit, he would have. He’s hardheaded.”
In most respects, I agreed with Jax. Although, after seeing how miserable the pragmatic Mason Lawson was when he and Laura had temporarily parted, I wasn’t entirely convinced that you could just choose to love someone…or not love them.
Since I’d never been in that position myself, it was hard to say.
Yeah, I’d been temporarily infatuated a few times when I was younger, but that shit had worn off in a hurry once I realized that the woman I was dating was more caught up in my money and status than she was in…me.
“Yeah, well, that’s Mason, not me,” Jax answered. “Personally, I think it’s irrational to think you love somebody that much.”
“Does it really matter?” I questioned. “Mason and Riley are both happy with their fates, and I’m all good as long as they’re happy.”
“I guess not,” Jax said. “Better them than me. I just hope you and Cooper never lose your shit over somebody like Riley and Mason have.”
“Hasn’t happened yet, and since I just turned thirty-four years old, I doubt it ever will. I’d like to think I’ve gotten wiser as I’ve gotten older,” I joked.
“Right behind you,” Jax said, sounding amused.
My siblings and I were all very close together in age. It was like my parents had decided to put their mind to having offspring, and they’d done it…Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Just to get it out of the way. Jax was only ten months younger than me.
“So maybe it’s time for you to go out with a woman more than once?” I suggested.
Jax grinned. “And disappoint all the gossip reporters who follow us around like puppies? Nah. They’d be bored to death.”
Luckily, most of those reporters found Jax a lot more interesting than me, so I wasn’t hounded nearly as much as he was, and they’d pretty much given up on the possibility of Cooper doing anything outrageous, too.
We were silent for a few moments before Jax asked, “You up for this mission, old man? It’s been a while.”
I kept myself in top physical condition, just like my brothers did, so I knew Jax was just razzing me. But I also knew that he wanted to make sure that I was okay with what we were going into. “I’m ready, and so damn pissed that it can’t happen soon enough for me.”
“Me, either,” Jax said in a solemn tone. “I just hope she’s still alive. I think it will completely annihilate Harlow if we lose Taylor, too.”
I quirked a brow. “You like Harlow,” I guessed.
“Have to,” he said smoothly. “The woman has been through hell, and all she’s worried about is her boyfriend and her intern. She has some balls. We need her to stay with Montgomery, and I plan on doing everything I can to convince her to stay when we get back.”
I nodded. “I agree. But you seem…personally concerned. Did you know Harlow before this whole incident?”