Chapter 127: Two brothers, created equal, shaped differently

Brenton’s brother was a man of many talents. He always had been, had been made to be talented. His grandfather and father only wanted the best for the James family, so even with his one flaw, he had been considered the best of the best of the James family for a long time.

So long that he had never considered that someone, anyone could topple all of the hard work that he had done over the years. However, he had gotten cocky. Full of himself.

All it took was one damn fool of a younger brother coming back to the city, getting in with a certain crowd, and now all of the hard work he’d done over the last 10 years to discredit the one credible threat he had always known about was unraveling before his very eyes.

The tabloids were talking about his damn brother. He knew who to blame. It was that damn PR person that the Phoenix Guild had, the one that looked like a damn floozy and often was caught in a cleaning closet with someone’s wife. It was a disgrace. Brenton’s brother knew better than to get caught somewhere so obvious, but the man kept doing it.

He was also just as disgusting as the rest of the Espers and Guides that he knew. He would sleep with anyone and anything. He didn’t care about the gender that they were assigned. It was disgusting that Espers and Guides forgot about something so basic. It made him even more resistant to them as time went on.

Brenton’s brother also knew that the fucking lawyer that he hadn’t been able to get his hands on was also a cause for this. His grandfather had never associated with those who didn’t have their own connections, and that damn civilian had been able to stay by his grandfather’s side for decades.

He hated that his younger brother had just snatched him from him, all because of a simple failed plan. He was alive still, wasn’t he? Couldn’t he just let it go?

He did notice that there was another force working behind the scenes as well. His brother could feel it, but he couldn’t put a finger on where it was coming from. The stories that he had fabricated, put together over time to make Brenton look as horrible and terrible as possible were slowly being dismantled by this unknown force.

It was made even more frustrating by the fact that whoever it was, was good. It was clear that while they didn’t work or live in the city, they weren’t inexperienced. How did he know they didn’t work or live in the city? He would have attempted to poach them if they had.

They were sniffing around, finding the witnesses to stories that were almost ten years old and getting them to spill the ’truth’. It still wasn’t the truth since they weren’t going directly against Brenton’s brother, but they were making things hard for him.

The witnesses were confessing that they made up the stories, due to an external pressure that they couldn’t say no to at the time. It was open-ended enough that Brenton’s brother couldn’t go after them without it being obvious, while also being obvious enough that no one with two working braincells wouldn’t be able to figure out who the fuck it was.

It was annoying, it was clever, and Brenton’s brother wanted whoever the hell was in charge of this smear campaign. If for nothing else but to strangle their damn neck.

However, none of his normal sources could find who the fuck was doing this. They kept coming up against walls, like the fucker knew that Brenton’s brother would go digging and had already planned for it. It was damn annoying when combined with how shitty Brenton’s brother was already feeling.

What, or who had his brother gotten to know that was working so hard to revitalize Brenton’s image? Who knew the game well enough to twist and turn away from his expert touch, and the touch of those who had been doing this a long time?

At some point in the weeks since it had started, Brenton’s brother began to feel admiration, begrudging admiration for these fuckers.

Then, one of the private investigators got a hint of a whiff of something, and he held on with his damn teeth. When the results came back, the name that stared back at him had him reeling. What?

They were supposed to be dead.

The E.A.G. said that they were going to be the first family that they were going to target at Brenton’s shitty new little city. Only three really powerful Guilds, only three S Classes in charge, and yet an A Class family was the pride of the town.

Of course they were going to be the first targets.

So why were their names staring at him in clear detail when not only had the E.A.G. said that they were going to kill them, but that they had successfully completed the mission? Why the fuck were they lying to him?

How often had they been lying to him if they were willing to lie to him about something like this? Especially when it was coming to haunt not just him, but them now that Brent had started to make his move?

Were they fucking idiots? How could he help them if they lied to him? At least he was honest. He didn’t lie, he just didn’t tell the full truth. Like any honest man would do.

How did his stupid, useless, fuckboy brother have any attachments to a family that was a global threat to the E.A.G. and what they were planning to do? How did he gain their support? Why were they helping him? What had his brother been up to overseas? Had he started going after couples, that degenerate?

What had his grandfather, that fucking bastard, hidden from him even in his death?

That was when his brother truly started viewing Brenton as a real threat. It was one thing to ’claim’ the family name and money since people could die in mysterious ways and leave everything to others easily, but it was another thing if he had close personal ties to people his brother wanted dead.

People who would make it harder for Brenton’s brother to make Brenton disappear because of their ties.

Brenton’s brother would have started panicking if he wasn’t the man that he was. He was too busy dealing with his own damn problems. Like Colby.

The fucking Esper had come back, battered and bruised, from a mission that should have been easy. Should have been too damn easy. One that he hadn’t failed since they were children, and he had been kind enough back then to overlook his transgression because others had told him how difficult it was to find an Esper who could teleport.

He still didn’t quite believe that teleporting Espers were that hard to find. After all, he’d had two reach out to him to work for him, so to him Colby was a dime a dozen. However, there was one thing that Colby had over the others.

Undying loyalty, and that was something that was hard to come by. So, even though it was the second mistake that Colby had made, he didn’t get rid of him immediately. He would let the man continue to tend to him, getting his little disgusting heart all hopeful while Brenton’s brother wrung him dry. He wouldn’t be seeing a guiding session for a while.

He didn’t have the space to be forgiving, since Brenton and that damn lawyer that he had stolen from him were going after everything. Every little thing that was attached to the James family name. They were questioning it, putting everything on hold that they could get their grimy little hands on.

Everyone was panicking, their funds were getting cut off. In the weeks that passed after his damn brother got hold of the title and everything that came with it, he’d been on a damn tear. He had been meticulously going through everything to find every pocket that they had tucked money into. It was almost made worse by the fact that he hadn’t even touched them directly.

Hadn’t even reached out.

He was just behaving as if he was going down an invisible line and cutting every chord that he and the rest of the family had made so that they could live the lifestyle that they were used to. The only ones that were safe were the ones who had made the money through legal means. Everyone else?

They were not safe, and were having a rather difficult time trying to survive.

That did not include Brenton’s brother, of course, but did include some of their other siblings. The kids that were born between Brenton, and Brenton’s brother. That also included cousins, aunts and uncles, anyone who had a blood tie to the James family and had profited from the family in the last 20 years.

Brenton’s brother was grim as he stared at his phones that hadn’t stopped fucking ringing since this whole thing had started. He knew that Brenton was going to be a damn piece of work, but this? This was ridiculous.

He deserved rest too, didn’t he? He had done a lot of this family, for this city, and not a damn soul was acknowledging what he had done. It was ridiculous. He’d brought prosperity to the family name, he’d made it so that everyone knew who the James family were. He had made profitable after profitable deal.

Who cared about who it hurt in the long run when in the short run it made them a fuckton of money that they could tuck away and sleep on? That was what he had been taught.

That was what Brenton had been taught too, and yet…that fucker had turned out different. Strange.

Why the hell had he awoken when he, a bigger, more important person, hadn’t? What did that little fucker have that he didn’t? Fucker was even missing an arm! He would have been missing more if Colby hadn’t fucked up and balked at hurting a child. Useless.

He was surrounded by useless, shitty people. He was going to have to start taking things into his own damn hands. Like always.

No one saw his vision until after. Everyone called him a visionary because they simply could not see what he did. Damn fools. It was exhausting being this capable.

And once he got his hands on the Woods family, Brenton would truly know that this attempt? This foolishness? It was pointless. He was always going to be the one in control. Brenton was clawing his way up to the top only to be shoved off the top and fall helplessly to the ground.

There was no grandfather to catch him this time around.

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