A Brother's Honor by Brenda Jackson Read Free Book Online

don’t,” Jace said, rubbing his chin as he gazed at Dalton. He had wondered about the old man’s words, but he’d been too occupied to dwell on them until now.
    Dalton met his brothers’ gazes, smiled and then bragged, “I’m a billionaire.”
    It seemed the air vibrated under Dalton’s words. Jace heard Caden’s chuckle of disbelief. But for some reason, Jace believed Dalton. “And how did you manage that?” he asked. “Did your duchess die and leave you a few castles, a number of pubs and a boatload of expensive jewelry?”
    What Jace thought of as a devilish grin tugged at Dalton’s lips before he said, “Victoria’s not a duchess, she’s a lady—of English nobility—and she’s very much alive.” He took a sip of his coffee and then asked, “Have you ever heard of Stuart Hunter, Earl of Falmouth?”
    Jace raised a brow at the name and before he could respond, Caden piped in and said, “If Jace hasn’t, I have. He’s a well-known English investor. Filthy rich. Invests in a lot of Hollywood movies as well as space travel.” Caden stared at his brother. “Why?”
    “I met him while in England at a party. We hit it off. He became my mentor. He’s also Victoria’s father.”
    When neither Jace nor Caden said anything, Dalton added, “So with Stuart’s help, I made a lot of nice financial moves that paid off. And for the record, Victoria and I are nothing more than friends with benefits.”
    “How did Granddad know? About you being successful—not about Victoria and you being friends with benefits,” Caden clarified.
    “Wouldn’t surprise me if the old man didn’t know that, as well. And I don’t know how he knew. He must have kept up with what I was doing,” Dalton said, staring down into his coffee as if analyzing the dark liquid. Had he been spied on when he hadn’t known it? And the sad thing was that he couldn’t be mad at his grandfather because that meant he cared. He then glanced up at his brothers. “How do the two of you feel about making those promises?”
    Jace shrugged. “We made them, so there’s nothing we can do about it. We gave him our word on his deathbed.”
    Dalton took another sip of coffee. “That might be true, but I don’t know a damn thing about running Granger Aeronautics.”
    Caden rolled his eyes, knowing Dalton was about to start whining. “You worked there during the summers like the rest of us. Your mind should have been focused on the job instead of on every woman with big boobs who passed you in the hallway.”
    Dalton smiled. “Okay, I admit I wasn’t focused.”
    “At least not on work,” Jace said, brushing a fallen leaf off his shirt.
    Dalton smiled and glanced over at Caden. “I saw Shiloh yesterday at the services. I checked her out for a good five minutes before figuring out who she was. Boy, she looked good. Who would have thought she would have filled out like that?”
    Caden frowned over at his brother. “If you got something to say, then say it.”
    Dalton chuckled. “I just did. And since I got a rise out of your ass, I guess that means you liked what you saw, as well. She was always your—”
    “Best friend and nothing more,” Caden cut in, glaring at Dalton. “And that was ages ago.”
    “And she defected like everybody else when the going got rough,” Dalton said, his voice tinged with anger and bitterness. “I want to know why half the people who came to the services yesterday were there. They acted as if the Grangers had HIV when Dad was sent to prison. You don’t know how close I came to telling a few of them yesterday to kiss my ass with their condolences. And it really pissed me off when a few approached me with that lie about how good it was to see me again.”
    Jace didn’t say anything as he leaned back on his elbows. He momentarily tuned out Dalton’s angry ramblings and fixed his gaze on Caden, who’d seemed to tune Dalton out, as well. Instead, Caden was standing with his back to a post, sipping his coffee