Crazy Thing (The Brighton Family #5)

Chapter 2

2

DARIUS

Starlight Falls, Iowa

I ’m pissed.

Because I’ve got a mountain of shit to do, and nothing is going right today.

Add to that the fact that Ronan’s obnoxious sportscar is parked in my favorite spot. Again. My tire drops into a massive pothole as I roll across our parents’ front yard. And then my luxury sedan gets a generous mud bath when I angrily whip the car into the space between Nolan’s and Archer’s vehicles.

Fucking fantastic.

That’s the kind of day I’m having.

I climb out of my car and slam the door. Then I’m stomping off down the muddy path behind the small ranch where my five exasperating siblings and I grew up. I’m slipping, sliding, and trudging through the bushes in my designer shoes as I make my way down to the local waterfall.

The waterfall is within walking distance from my childhood backyard. Usually, I consider myself lucky to have grown up so close to that natural wonder. But with the mood I’m in, it’s the last place I want to be right now.

At some point, one of my Italian Berluti shoes gets stuck in the thick mud. Are you kidding me? I’m forced to cling to a tree like a clumsy idiot to avoid falling on my ass. Growling, I hop around on one foot to free my shoe and shove it back onto my socked foot.

Then I slip, slide, and trudge—a little bit slower—through the woods.

Can this day get any worse? Why, yes. Of course it can.

As I push through the bushes with one hand, I’m firing off text message after text message with my other hand, berating my incompetent assistant for yet another critical mistake. I’ve resorted to text messaging her now because I have an itchy, burning throat, and yelling at my lackadaisical assistant all morning hasn’t exactly been helping matters.

I mean, how hard is it to manage my calendar? She’s had slip-ups before, but this time, the woman screwed up a critical appointment, making me miss a deadline, and ultimately, lose out on a sizable real estate opportunity put together by Liam Kline.

Now, my fellow billionaire investor and our fellow billionaire investor colleagues are all looking at me sideways. Like they think I’m the incompetent one. I’m going to have to do countless hours of work to get back into their good graces.

In other words; it’s all a shit show.

After the third consecutive text message I send her, my phone rings loudly, echoing off the trees.

“This is unacceptable!” I bark out as a greeting to my assistant. “Do you have any idea how much money you just cost me?! You cannot— ”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” she interrupts me. “I’m sorry, Mr. Brightz, but I’ve meditated on this whole ‘employment situation’ , and I had a revelation.”

“A revelation?” I echo her, my voice vibrating with rage. “And would you stop calling me ‘Mr. Brightz’?!”

“Working for you isn’t in alignment with my highest good,” she goes on.

I almost slip in the mud again. “ What !? Your highest good? What are you even talking about?”

The phone is quiet for a second. Then my assistant speaks. “I quit,” she says conclusively. “Later, Brightz.”

Then nothing.

Silence.

She’s already hung up on me.

Another growl rips from me and I instantly regret it as pain surges up my throat. My fingers leap up to massage my achy larynx.

I’ve been sick a lot lately. It makes no sense. I just keep coming down with all these weird symptoms. It’s one thing after another. If it’s not my throat, it’s my knees. If it’s not my knees, it’s the overwhelming headaches.

But I’m starting to suspect that I’m not actually ‘sick’. I’m starting to suspect that I’ve been…cursed.

I know it sounds crazy but that’s the most likely scenario here. This is Starlight Falls, after all.

My hometown is different . It’s a 5000-person town in Middle-of-Nowhere, Iowa. And the witchy, spell-casting ladies around town have made no secret of the fact that I am not their favorite Brighton brother.

I’m pretty damn sure they put a hex on me.That’s the only thing that could explain my recent health problems.

I swear under my breath and stuff my phone into my back pocket. So I don’t fling it off a cliff .

Finishing the treacherous hike down the trail, my attention shifts to the dozens of people who are gathered along the edge of the water.

My shit list is a mile long, but right now it’s becoming clear that I might have even bigger problems to attend to. Like figuring out why the hell I’ve been called to this impromptu meeting here at the water’s edge.

The local hippie ladies—the ones I’m certain have cursed me—are all side-eyeing me with a heavy dose of mistrust as I approach the crowd.

I eyeball them back. They’ve already cursed me to death. What else could they do to me?

I don’t get the chance to find out, because my brothers all end up in my face. Ronan, Archer, Nolan, and Felix all beat me here to the waterfall after sounding the emergency alarm in our family group chat this morning.

“What’s going on here?” I ask.

Archer strokes his bearded chin. “We haven’t gotten all the details. But it seems that this piece of land is up for sale. And the waterfall right along with it.”

“ What ?!” I stare at my oldest brother in bewilderment.

“Yeah. Like Archer said, we don’t know the details, but the waterfall is definitely for sale,” Ronan mumbles, adjusting the hockey toque on his head.

I shrug, making up my mind on the spot. “Okay. No big deal. I’ll buy it.”

I’m a billionaire, after all. This won’t even make a dent in my cashflow. Besides, this place is practically in my parents’ backyard. It’d be better to have the waterfall in the Brighton family than to have some non-local bozo snatch it up.

Nolan chuckles, folding his arms across his chest. “Not so fast, big shot. Rumor is, the seller has already accepted an offer. ”

“What the hell?” I balk. “Who put in an offer already?”

“Edison,” Felix says bitterly.

Anger flashes through me. Edison? Fucking Edison Astor Sinclair? Of all the bozos, why that one?

I fucking despise that jerk. Eons ago, he was engaged to Daphne Beaumont. But she dumped his cheating ass and quickly fell in love with Felix. Seeking revenge, Edison tried to throw his trust fund money around to steal Felix’s medical center right out from under him.

‘Tried’ is the keyword. Because I stepped in and put a stop to his shenanigans real quick.

When it was all said and done, Edison ended up looking like a fool for ever trying to steal my brother’s clinic. If I had to guess, his sudden interest in buying the waterfall is some sort of indirect attempt to patch up his bruised ego.

So, the short story? I don’t trust Bozo-in-Chief. Not one bit.

“Rumor is that Edison is buying up the waterfall, just to build some spa or retreat for his mega rich country club buddies,” Nolan says, clearly annoyed.

I shake my head, gazing around. “That’s bullshit. The land will become private then. No one in town will be able to come down here anymore.”

Felix nods, eyeballing me. “Yup. And that’s exactly the problem that brought us out today.”

“This place is central to the whole town,” Archer adds with a deep frown. “Everybody comes out here.”

Ronan nods. “The farmer’s market even sells Starlight Falls postcards with pictures of this waterfall on the front.”

I shut my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose and trying to ignore the burn of my sore throat. “I won’t let this happen. I don’t know who Edison thinks he is. But I won’t let this deal go through,” I say with resolve .

As of right now, I have no idea how I’m going to fix this, but no way in hell am I letting Edison pull off this heist.

While I search my brain for a plan, there’s a sudden commotion in the crowd, pulling my attention away from solving the mess at hand.

I turn my head and movement through the trees catches my eye. I’m instantly captivated by the sight unfolding before me. I see a figure approaching. The closer she moves, the better I’m able to see her.

She’s tall. Taller than most girls. Her hair is a shade of pink that is in no way natural, but on her, it almost could be. And her eyes. I can’t see them from here, but I remember them distinctly. I know that they’re a light blue that rivals the sky that this angel floated down from.

She’s ethereal. She’s majestic.

She’s making funny things happen inside my pants.

It’s a visceral reaction so sudden and so violent, it grips me to my core. Even after all these years, my body still reacts to her.

But despite her magnetic pull, I mentally scold myself. Goddammit, Darius. You shouldn’t be reacting this way. Not to this woman.

Because Ziggy Beaumont made it pretty clear a long time ago—she fucking hates me.