He sighed. “A reporter?”
“No,” his mother said in a stage whisper. “Jack.”
“Gretchen’s uncle?” Vlad asked. The guys had all followed him from his bedroom.
Colton started down the stairs, gripping the railing just in case. “What does he want?”
“He just keeps saying it’s urgent.”
At the front door, Colton pressed the button to the intercom for the gate. “What do you want?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Not without my attorney present.”
“Luckily, she’s right behind me.”
A horn blared to prove his point. Colton swore and hit the button to unlock the gate. Then he threw open the front door and stormed outside. A car sped up the driveway that he recognized as Jack’s.
Colton met him on the sidewalk as soon as he jumped out. “Why the hell aren’t you answering your phone?” Jack demanded.
“It’s dead. What the fuck do you want?”
Another car suddenly roared up the driveway. Desiree was behind the wheel, and Buck sat in the passenger seat with a steely glare. They, too, jumped out of the car and ran up the sidewalk.
“Why the hell aren’t you answering your phone?” Buck demanded.
“It’s dead,” came a chorus of voices behind him.
“You can’t do that,” Desiree said, pointing angrily. “Not when all hell is breaking loose. We have to be able to reach you.”
“No shit,” Jack grumbled.
“Will someone please tell me what is going on? Why are you here? I thought we weren’t meeting until later.” He pointed at Jack. “And I have no fucking idea why you’re here.”
Desiree, Buck, and Jack spoke at the same time. “He’s going to drop the charges.”
It was as if someone had lifted a blanket from a bird cage. There was a split second of sudden silence before the squawking began again. His parents and siblings raced down the porch steps.
“He what?” his mother gasped.
“When did this happen?” his father barked.
“How is that even possible?” his brother said.
Colton didn’t need to ask. Because the answer was in Jack’s eyes. Colton advanced, gripped the man’s shirt, and fisted it in his clenched fingers. “What did Gretchen do?”
* * *
? ? ?
He was going to be sick. He sat with his head in his hands, elbows on the granite island in the kitchen. Everyone was gathered around him in various stages of stunned what the fuck.
“Why didn’t you stop her?” Colton asked.
“I tried!” Jack said.
Colton lifted his face. “You could have shredded that contract. You could have burned it. For fuck’s sake, you could have tied her to a goddamn chair to keep her from leaving!”
Jack scoffed. “Do you even know Gretchen?”
His mother rested a soothing hand on Colton’s shoulder. “I don’t understand. Isn’t this basically blackmail? How is that even legal?”
Desiree folded her arms over her chest. “It’s not.”
“Legal or not,” Buck said, “it’s done. He’s dropping the charges, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why you’re upset about it, Colton.”
“Because she gave up everything for me!” He shot to his feet and started to pace.
“I seriously doubt anything she signed would stand up in court,” his father said. “How can Evan have any control over their father’s will? If Frasier wants to leave the money to her, some stupid sham contract isn’t going to change that.”
“And it’s not like Evan would be able to fight it if he did,” her mother added. “Not without revealing that he blackmailed her.”
“It doesn’t matter if this is legal or if Evan can hold her to it,” Colton snapped. “The point is that she signed that document to protect me. And I . . . I should have seen it. She knew just what to say so I would believe that she was just simply breaking up with me, and I was too wrapped up in my own feelings to realize what she was going through too.”
“It’s not your fault that you underestimated how manipulative Evan is,” Jack said.
“He’s more than manipulative,” Noah said, his face an unfamiliar mask of stone. “He’s evil. He’s, like, Ebenezer-Scrooge evil.”
Colton blinked at Noah in a daze as a memory intruded. Holding Gretchen in his arms. Dancing. Arguing about A Christmas Carol.