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DOMINIC
Rage. Pure, unfiltered, murderous anger raked my entire body till it was all I could do not to break his neck in half. Cale Osborn was close enough to Grandpa to be a friend of the family. And that was hefty than it sounded. Grandpa was the kind of man that saw dying alone and lonely as a better alternative when the other option was trusting someone else.
How could he so easily try to take what belonged to his friend, his lineage, like it was some toy they were passing around.
"Don't go looking at me like I already have five bullet holes from your gun." He snorted. "It's not personal." He shrugged, cocky as shit.
I dug my nails into my palm. It didn't feel like grandpa was getting betrayed. It felt like I was getting betrayed. The urge to jump him, strangle him, toss his short, pompous ass out the roof high window was brain numbing. 
I clamped my mouth shut instead, with everything that was going down, the last thing Raina needed was for me to earn a court case that might as well catapult Cale to the very top of the company.
"Why?" I tried to wrap my head around the possible reasons he could have, but came short every single time. "Why now? Why all of a sudden?" I wasn't even looking at him, too lost in thought to focus on his misarranged face.
His shoulders rolled in a shrug, like he knew he had won and was only helping me catch up.
"Who said anything about it being sudden?" He quirked a brow at me, his lips stretched in an overly confident smirk that grated like sandpaper against my bare skin. "I've had years to plan." He boasted like it was a fucking achievement.
"But why?" I pushed. Grandpa might not be the easiest when it came to trust, but when he did trust, he would go all out to make sure the other person felt safe. It made no sense. 
"Because he stole from me. What was that saying about an eye for an eye?" A glint crossed his eyes and if Lucifer were ever to be reincarnated as a human, he was sure to use Cale as a vessel. Only problem was the devil would have to get comfortable being bald.
"That's not possible, grandpa had everything he ever wanted, he was a contented man." Even before the Graham name became something juicy enough for the blogs and big time investors, grandpa never complained about lacking anything 'actually necessary' as he would put it.
"Well he did. And maybe, just maybe if he hadn't, none of this would be happening." He eased into the head chair, Raina's rightful seat, "It's a shame really." He shook his head, "The thief died before I could get my hands on him." He gaze heated like he could actually picture grandpa taking his last breath with Caleb's fingers wrapped around his throat.
"What did he steal? I pushed. I knew I was going down a rabbit hole, but I couldn't help it. 
"Enough with the walk down memory lane." He waved his hands dismissively, "As it stands, I'm in possession of 51% of the company's shares and you both combined possess 49%, I believe I need not say anymore?"
Fuck not earning a court case.
"You bastard! He trusted you!" I yelled, my throat strained at the force of it, but I was way passed caring. He was shocked by my sudden outburst but before he could react, I shoved the fist I had almost bled into at him stupid, smug face.
The moment my fiat connected with skin, it was retribution and it felt good, it felt so fucking good.
"Dom, no." Raina called from somewhere in the room, her voice strained, distant. Out of the corner of my eye, she stepped forward like she was actually going to try to stop me, but she never made it past that step.
Alex held her back as I let my rage bleed into every single punch. He winced.
"Dominic." The voice echoed, slithering down my spine. He might as well had dunked a bucket of freezing cold water down my back and it would have had the same effect. Mr Ying, an aging man with the second highest shares, before Cale grabbed to the 51%. He never really spoke much, but when he did, it always sounded like a warning.
I grumbled but pulled back. While alot of people were more bark than bite. Mr Ying was the opposite.
"Raina would hand over all cureenr projects and empty her desk, effective immediately." 
"On whose authority?" I snapped. It was too fast. The marriage was supposed to fix everything. The nightmare wasn't getting any better. Every word pulled apart a piece of his legacy, of our legacy.

The entire drive home, my thoughts went haywire and every minute that counted felt like we were stuck in a room with a countdown and we had no idea what the fuck we were to do.
My blood boiled. It was wrong. Grandpa worked his ass off, part of the reasons he wasn't with us. Raina worked her ass off to make sure those idiots never lost money. I worked my ass off to make sure I could pick up where she left off. And they would toss that aside? Just like that?! And worst, they were going to hand it over to some bald headed gnome who sprouted out of nowhere.
The entire time I concluded it was Nathan. He had all the reasons to and just questionable enough a character to actually do it. I felt stupid knowing now that it was infact Cale Osborn, the same man who stayed over for dinner more times I could count. Grandpa had been right not to trust anyone after all.
"Sweetie, you need to take something at least." Faith's voice was velvet against rough skin. Normally just hearing her would have been enough to extinguish the raging fire in me, but it could barely quench a flicker of it.
"I would. Later." I managed to grind out and rushed out of the dinning room before she could drill it out of me and we ended up having a fight. 
I rushed to the bedroom, it didn't remind me of work, nor Raina, nor Cale. It usually was my peaceful spot. 
I tossed and turned in bed, a frustrated groan bubbling from within my chest.
I grabbed a cigar from the box I kept safely tucked in the second drawer of our nightstand. If you had asked me a few weeks ago if I smoked, I would have easily told you, only every now and then. I had taken at least five packs in three weeks. I was slowly reeling down a slippery slope and it only made me even more stressed.
The door to the balcony slid open and my head snapped in the direction. Faith didn't like it when I smoked, never had and probably never will, which was why I was always outside when I did.
I sighed when Alex's face broke through the crack.
He plucked a cigar from the shut box on the centre table and made himself comfortable on the opposite chair.
"Marriage would have worked." He said thought a puff of smoke. "Just a pain that he's always two steps ahead." He grunted, but there as no reaction on his face, just the satisfaction from enjoying a good cigar. "What's his deal anyways?" He gazed up at the stars filled sky, like he was appreciating their beauty, but his gaze was off, far away.
"Feels my parents cheated him out of their shared business. Apparently they were business partners or some shit like that." I made a smoke cloud, "Makes no sense though, because why still come to the house if he felt so wronged? There's a missing piece there somewhere. There just has to be more." I wiggled the cigar in my grasp. There just had to be more to that story, maybe he invested more and they robbed him of everything? Maybe grandpa promised to reinstate him or something?
"Not necessarily," Alex leaned deeper into the chair, his shoulders drooped with lazy ease. "A grudge is a slow poison. It consumed and it has a preference for the 'wronged' ones." He made air quotes to emphasis his point, smiling for no reason. "There might be hope though."
"How?" I was tired of hoping. They gave conditions, I met them and still...still things turned south so fast.
"He had a ring on his finger." At the mention of ring, I was a horse licking salt off of Alex's hands. "The partner could be collateral, but I can swear it looks familiar, like too familiar." I leaned forward, my elbows planted on my knees. "I just can't remember where I had seen it before." He sighed and I almost shot him out of the damn chair.
I grabbed him by the collar, "Think!" I hissed, urgency leaked into my voice, but I couldn't find it in me to care. I needed answers. 
"How do you expect me to? I can't thinkf while I'm being choked!" The fact that he didn't flinch at the thought of being choked was a discussion for another day.
Desperation clawed at my insides, urging me to disturb Alex's till he remembered, but what was the assurance that it was even useful information.
"Don't worry, we would find out what he's up to." Alex tried to ease the tension that held my shoulders up in a defensive position. It should have helped, but all I kept thinking about was how Cale had always been two steps ahead. We would find out eventually, but when we would was the problem.

It's been only a week and the company had become almost unrecognizable. Projects had been suspended, most sold off like months hadn't gone into them, like finances hadn't been burnt through to keep them going, all down the drain along with the resources. It was clear to anyone why his goal was, and he wasn't exactly subtle whenever he spoke about it. He was out to throw the company to the ground and he didn't care if anyone lost their source of livelihood in his hunt for blood and revenge.
I squeezed the last report and shoved it into the waste bin. The more I got reports on discontinued projects, the angrier I became. He wasn't even going with the lesser project. No, Cale went for the bigger, life changing projects that required a lot of inflow and resources, both which already went into said projects.
The shrill buzz on my table broke me free from what was about to be a raging stomp around the room.
"Alex?" 
"You might want to check your phone." Always straight to the point. Pleasantries we like poison to his tongue.
I wanted to ask why, but honestly I was too tired to pull it out of him.
I opened his message to a video. In the video was a man who couldn't be a day over thirty. I recognized him immediately. I interrogated him in the past, but fuck that. He was wearing the same ring as Cale. It could mean nothing, but it could also mean everything.
I redialed Alex.
"He worked with Cale." I blurted the moment he answered.
"Bingo."
I should be happy, but if there was anything I was starting to realize, it was the fact that we thought Nathan was dangerous. Nathan was not even a quarter close to Cale's level of dangerous.
"Is there a connection? Asides the obvious." I mean the ring could be one pointer, but we needed more. If we were going to shove him off the seat, we would do so gladly, but we couldn't wing it, not when the threat was him.
Alex paused for a bit, his voice distant like he was going thought again, "Nah. Didn't find any.