Chapter Eight

Darius

The second we walk into the hotel lobby where the press release is being held, cameras are shoved in our faces. Troy calls out to us and tries to fight his way through the paps. We manage to push our way through the cameras and follow after Troy as he leads us into a room off to the side. Beck has to force the door closed and lock it so no one can barge in.

“Fucking hell, that was intense,” Crue says as he drops down into one of the vacant chairs around the oval-shaped table.

“We only have twenty minutes before we have to head in, take a seat,” Troy says, the rest of us grab a seat and wait for him to stop shuffling through the files he has and tell us what the fuck to do. “Okay,” he says as he grabs a stack of papers out. “I received a call last night from Victor’s lawyers.”

“About?” Saint butts in.

“They wanted to renegotiate the terms of the contract given the events that unfolded on Friday. I said no and that the press release would still go ahead today.”

“They’re coming, aren’t they?”

“Yes, Corvin, they are already waiting for the conference to begin.” When we all start shouting Troy raises his hand to silence us. “We can come out on top of this.”

“How?” I snap. “I broke his fucking arm and beat the shit out of him. Our stocks are going to drop the moment we go public as the owners of BCD’S.”

“They are going to bury us in legal shit and halt all the plans for us to expand the hotel chain,” Crue interjects.

“We’re fucked,” Beck breaths out as he leans back in his chair.

“Boys!” Troy snaps, gaining all our attention. He smiles cunningly as he slaps his hands atop the table and looks to each of us. “I must admit, I thought you were all finished but then this morning I got another call.”

“From who?” Corvin asks.

“A witness,” he answers.

I frown. “A witness to what exactly?” I ask.

“Gary Hayes telling Victor Hayes that he did in fact drug and rape Leah. It was all caught on camera and the witness is here to speak today.” I dart my gaze to the guys to see they are just as shocked as I am.

“How does this help us?” Saint asks.

“It would mean that the charges Gary has pressed against Corvin and Darius won’t hold much weight now that there is proof their attack was warranted in the defense of Leah Williams. All we need to do is have both Corvin and Darius make a formal apology before anything is mentioned about the merger. When the merger is announced, Darius will then close out the conference by saying he is heading straight to the local precinct and will be out on bail within a couple hours.” A whoosh of air escapes me.

“I’ll still have to go to court though?” I ask.

“Not if I have anything to do with it. Now, let’s get this over with and get the hell out of here because I have a mountain of paperwork to finish and new employee contracts to draft for you boys.”

“And this is why we keep you on retainer, Troy,” Crue jokes, earning a scowl from the old man.

I stand from my seat and look out at the crowd of reporters, spotting Gary and Victor in the back with smirks on their faces. It brings me great fucking joy to see Gary sporting a cast on his throwing arm. I fucking hate that I have to say sorry to the son of a bitch and act like I mean it. Troy said I have to sell it or I risk fucking up this whole thing up.

“Ladies and gentlemen, firstly we would like to thank you all for being here today. Before we dive into the announcement I would like to address a matter that occurred Friday night at Crestview Heights University involving myself, Corvin and another player from DCU–”

“Is this about the fight?” someone yells. I nod.

“What was the cause of the fight?” a woman shouts.

I recite the speech Troy had told me to. “An explicit video was shared by Gary Hayes involving Corvin’s underage sister. Gary drugged and raped her.”

“Allegedly!” is shouted from the back. I focus on Gary allowing a small smirk to be seen on my face as I speak.

“No. This is the truth and we have proof.” Gary turns to his father who is glaring directly at me.

“Mr. Lockhart, is the rumor true that Gary Hayes is in fact your brother?” I plaster a fake smile on my face and answer the guys question. We have always been in the spotlight because of how well we play football, but recently, since rumors spread that we may be the owners of one of the wealthiest stock companies in the US, the press have been sniffing around a lot more lately.

“It is.” Murmurs break out around the room. “Gary is my twin brother and Victor is my father. We were reunited when Victor graciously sold his company to us.”

“What company?”

“Who bought it?”

Questions are shouted but I ignore them as I press on. “I apologize for my outlandish actions on Friday night. I know because of the severity of it that I will be barred from taking the field again. But I don’t want my actions to overshadow the real reason we are standing here in our newly acquired hotel.” If looks could kill, I would be dead and six feet under from the way Victor is looking at me. More gasps ring out and questions are shouted at me. Corvin stands beside me turning the attention to him. He raises his hand and a hush falls over the room, waiting to hear what he has to say next.

“I would also like to extend my sincerest apology to you all for my actions. I have no excuse, except that seeing my sister being hurt and abused by that man sent me spiraling into a fit of rage, which I am not proud of.” He points directly at Gary who looks utterly thrown by the turn of events. “My sister was nothing but a means for him to use to get at me and… Darius.”

“Why would that affect Mr. Lockhart, your sister being hurt?” A guy calls from the front. I stand beside Corvin wanting to answer for him. Troy warned us someone would ask this question and it had to come from Corvin, not me to show we have no bad blood. But that’s a lie, Corvin won’t even look at me.

“Because at the time of the… incident, my sister and Darius were dating.” Before any more questions can be asked, Corvin raises his voice to be heard over them. “We will be pressing charges against Mr. Hayes and my sister will also be pressing charges for assault as he punched her in the face.” Angry shouts erupt as cameras are turned away from us for a moment to snap pictures of Gary and Victor as security leads them from the room as questions are being shouted at them about the incident .

“If I could redirect all your attention back to the front, please,” Troy calls. “Thank you, now for the actual reason we are all here. I would like to introduce you all the new owners of Sullivan Global, soon to be known as Saint Hart Holdings. As you may all have deduced by now, these five young men are the founders and CFO’s of BCD’S, the most profitable stock trading company in the US. These five young men have applied themselves to this business and sunk every cent they had into making sure it excelled and it did. BCD’S will remain as a stock trading company but with the merger of Saint Hart Holdings, the resorts will run as they always have, as will the hotels, but they will also now offer master classes in stock trading. What these five young men have achieved at the tender age of twenty is incredible. Now, are there any questions?”

We have question after question hurled at us for at least an hour before Troy finally calls it. I’m beyond grateful to get the fuck out of here and take off this monkey suit he made us all wear. I don’t do a suit and tie, never have and never will. We’re ushered straight outside into a waiting limousine that will take us to the police station downtown.

“You boys did great. You all handled yourself well and dealt with Victor and Gary with poise. Now, I must say, I don’t think we have seen the last of them.” I grunt out my agreement, too nervous to speak. There is so much that could go wrong with me handing myself in like this. There is no guarantee that I will be granted bail and I refuse to spend the next few years in a cell.

By the time we finish at the station, it’s dark out. I’m fucking hungry and pissed off that I’ve been sitting in a cell for hours. The only reason I was let go Troy said is because Gary dropped the charges against me. Why though? We stand around the empty car park at the back of the station waiting for Troy to get off the phone to whoever the hell it is.

He ends the call then looks to Corvin before looking at me. “Gary dropped the charges because apparently he received a call from a young woman who threatened—excuse me—warned him that she would come forward and press charges for blackmail, rape, assault and a few other things. Gary had no choice but to withdraw the charges or spend the better part of his life behind bars.” Surprise courses through me. I look over at Corvin to see he has the same look on his face.

“How did she call when there is no signal at the cabin?” Saint states.

“Clever girls,” Beck whispers.

“What does that mean?” Crus asks.

“We took Corvin’s car and they clearly took mine into town.” That was… actually really smart, but something tells me Beckett left his keys in a place they could find them because he knew Leah wouldn’t be able to sit back and do nothing.

“Look, boys, we still need to do a few more press releases now that you five have come out as the owners. You have a Forbes 500 company now. You boys own hotels, resorts and shares in two colleges, you have amassed an empire and I’m proud of you all. But, your work is just beginning, so be ready for the press to be following your every move. Don’t do anything dumb.” We all agree to Troy’s terms and promise to be on our best behavior. The limo takes us back to the hotel so we can get Corvin’s car and start the eight hour drive back to the cabin. We’re all quiet and lost in our own thoughts as Corv drives us back. It’s hard to believe that four years ago this was a pipe dream. We all busted our asses and put every penny we had into investing. The truth is, we were lucky that one of the investments we made took off and allowed us to bring in more income so we could grow quicker than we ever thought.

“My dad is gonna know about this,” Saint whispers quietly from the back.

“He can’t do shit. Troy has already started the process of taking him down. Once that has begun we’ll partition his board and go in for a hostel takeover and push his ass out. The board will be put to a vote and trust me, Saint, they are gonna want you to run that shit.” Corvin is right, the plan was to always take Victor out and then go after Saint’s dad.

“I know. It’s just fucking hard, ya know. I mean, we know he has been dealing in shady shit involving distributing videos of kids but to actually see his work in action with that video of Leah…” He lets his sentence trail off. We all feel the same. This is a lot for anyone to take in.

“You guys know what this means, right?” Crue asks from his seat in the middle of Beck and Saint.

“What does it mean?” Corvin asks tiredly.

“We don’t have to hide any more and watch what we spend so no one suspects us. With Victor out of the picture and shit being public, Devon is gonna know he’s next.” I see Saint deflate out of the corner of my eye at the mention of his father and I feel for him. He didn’t always hate his father, but when we brought him the evidence of what his father was really doing, he couldn’t deny it. He jumped on board with our plan straight away and hasn’t looked back since. His loyalty is awe inspiring but we also know this is fucking hard for him.