It didn’t.
“I’m not being sued by the government. They’re pissed because I refused to do business with them,” I explained.
“You refused the government? You can’t do that!” Keifer said. “You’ll bring attention to us.”
I turned a glare onto my brother.
“When have I ever…and I do mean ever…brought anything to our doorstep?” I asked.
“When we were working with Dad when we were teenagers, you hacked into the school’s computers and changed everyone’s grades that you hated to fifties and below; the school came to the shop to question you,” Keifer said.
I shook my head. “They came to question me because I was on the computer team and thought I might be able to help them solve it. They weren’t here because of me, per se.”
Brooklyn and Blythe giggled, causing me to give each of them a wink in turn.
“You were just mad because I changed your grades, too,” I said.
Keifer glared.
“Fine,” I sighed and took a sip of my now lukewarm coffee. “They wanted me to limit who I sold my software to. They were upset that everyone had access to the kind of programs that they had to pay a small fortune for, and they were politely requesting that I stop selling. And when I refused to do that, they offered to buy me out, which I declined. Now they’re trying to sue me over some bullshit excuse that won’t hold up in court. My lawyers don’t even think I’ll need to show up in court for it.”
Keifer pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Since when did all of this shit start?” he asked with a barely contained amount of control.
“A couple of months,” I said.
I wasn’t going to lie to Keifer.
It wasn’t my fault that he was exceptionally unobservant.
It was just my luck that my brother fell in love and stopped shoving his nose into my business every chance he got.
“Let’s go spar,” Keifer said. “I find that I need to let off a little aggression.”
Blythe and Brooklyn took that as their cue to go get ready, and Keifer and I headed to the training room that was nearer to his side of the estate, rather than mine.
“So you didn’t tell her that you develop weapons, I noticed,” Keifer said.
I grimaced.
“She had a lot to take in with the whole mating thing. I find that most people are intimidated by all of my businesses, so I try to not throw it all out there at once if I can help it,” I explained.
Keifer nodded as he held the door to the gym open for me.
The gym had the familiar blue mats ranging from one side of the place to the other except for on one side where all of the weight equipment was located.
“Sooo…” Keifer said. “Now that we’re alone. Why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you?”
I walked over to the bench that sat along one wall and dropped down onto it, picking up the tape and lining my hands and knuckles with it.
Couldn’t break any knuckles, or skin anything today.
I had too much shit to do to deal with any of that.
Not that it would last for long…but, just in case, I took precautions.
Keifer didn’t bother.
I looked over at the door to the gym one more time before I turned back to Keifer.
“They found us too easily. The moment I got out of our territory, it was another fifteen miles into the heart of Dallas before they caught up with us. And it wasn’t because they were waiting. They were actively searching for us,” I said. “One, how did they find us so fast? Two, how did they know when to look? Three, if they were somehow tracking us, or waiting for us, how did they conceal themselves?”
Keifer gestured for me to stand, and we started to spar, not actually going all out yet, but just warming up.
This was something I’d missed since he’d been gone.
I used him to keep my skills up, seeing as he was just as deadly as I was.
We both had a different set of skills, and each of us mastered different fighting styles.
Then each of us would fight the other, and we’d learn new skills to adapt to either type.
I’d become lax since he’d left, and I could see it mostly in the way my breathing was faster, and my heart rate was skyrocketing.
“Getting slow,” Keifer taunted.
“I’ll show you slow, old man,” I said, ducking and feinting to the left.
He reacted, dropping his shoulder, and I took advantage by throwing a punch to his face.
“Fuck!” Keifer growled as blood poured from his nose.
He didn’t react other than that. He was easily keeping up with me even though he bled like a stuck pig.
We were going at each other hard, and I was going blow for blow with him when I suddenly dropped to the ground as agony burned up my leg.