Here Comes Trouble Read Online Free

father’s office and make sure Sheila was no longer there, he felt his blood pressure spike in anticipation of a fight. The last time he’d been inside this room his world as he’d known it had collapsed. Then again, invading Chadwick’s office was the perfect way to keep his father off balance. Something Malcolm hoped to do every day for the foreseeable future. “You wouldn’t want your public persona cracking under all that pretense.”
    “You should have stayed gone,” Chadwick muttered as he flipped on his computer screen and lowered himself into the chair behind his desk. “That was our agreement, after all.”
    “And miss the opportunity to celebrate your retirement?” Malcolm chuffed out a breath as his father was unable to hide his shock at Malcolm’s words. “That’s right. I know. And I’m betting you intend to announce those plans in the middle of Gran’s party.” Because his old man couldn’t resist being the center of attention. “Don’t get me wrong. I have no interest in celebrating the end of your career, publically at least.” Might as well throw some more wood on the pyre. “It’s time Ty and I had a long conversation about the past. And about the future of Oliver Technologies.”
    The sickening smile that curved his father’s too-round face made Malcolm’s stomach churn.
    “If you think Ty will have anything to do with you after what you did—”
    “After what you
told
him I did. Ever heard the phrase ‘and the truth shall set you free’?” Malcolm asked, feeling more than a little giddy at putting his father on edge. “Let’s just say I’m looking forward to unlocking those chains you’ve had around my little brother’s neck since before I left.” Chains he should have tried to break years ago.
    “You’re welcome to try.” The level of calm in his father’s voice made Malcolm wonder if reconciling with his brother would be as futile as Chadwick believed. “I don’t think pulling the same disappearing act your mother did all those years ago endeared you to Ty.”
    The thought had already crossed Malcolm’s mind. As had the realization that his father wasn’t going to change. Chadwick Oliver had been a bully and a bastard all his life. Not even Malcolm’s mother had softened him. If anything, having such a soft-spoken wife increased Chadwick’s boisterous and domineering behavior behind closed doors. The fact that Malcolm’s mother had picked up and left on Ty’s fourteenth birthday had both impressed and devastated Malcolm, who had been sixteen at the time. He’d never known she’d had it in her.
    Unlike Malcolm, however, his mother never returned.
    “If you’ve said your peace, I have a meeting that doesn’t concern you.” Chadwick glared at him.
    “Don’t let me get in the way.”
    Malcolm circled the desk to stand behind his father as Chadwick clicked open the video chat on his computer. Truth be told, he didn’t give a damn what his father’s meeting was about. If being an irritant was as much entertainment as Malcolm was going to get out of the evening, he’d take it.
    He cast his gaze around the cold, depersonalized space. Even the desk was frigid. The sight of a thin silver chain with round charms sitting on his father’s desk made Malcolm’s brain skip like an old-fashioned gramophone.
    Malcolm kept one ear on his father’s conversation, barely hearing a word as he leaned a hand on the desk and tucked Sheila’s bracelet under his palm, doing his best to resist temptation and not scan the room like a sniper scoping out a target. Where was she?
    And then he remembered his father’s vault.

Chapter Two
    The second Sheila moved inside the vault, the lights buzzed on, as did the security monitor on the inside panel of the safe room. She watched Chadwick Oliver take a seat behind his desk. And Malcolm stepped into the frame.
    She hit the Volume Up button on the panel, keeping it as low as possible, recognizing the combination of strained