If you haven’t ready the Prologue, you can catch up now.

Chapter One

Get Lucky

Six Weeks Later

“Happy New Year,” Egan said to his mother when he walked in around noon. His younger brother, Ethan, was already there and lifted his eyebrow at him.

“Just getting up?” Ethan asked.

“Happy New Year,” his mother said. “Ethan, leave Egan alone. He could have been working late last night.”

“Please,” Ethan said. “He was at the casino with me.”

“Drinking club soda,” Egan said. “I had to fly some whales back to Boston at one. You left before then.”

He and his younger brother owned a small percentage of his brother Eli’s casino. Two and a half percent each. Not much, but he wanted in on the action. His father owned twenty-five percent. Just like his father owned twenty-five percent of his charter company and his brothers had five percent each too. 

There was part of him that wanted the hundred percent but learned that family did it together and were stronger for it.

Just like the Bond billion-dollar empire his father owned would come to the three sons at some point in the long-away future.

He’d leave the running of that to his brother Ethan who sat at a desk and was learning the ropes alongside their dad.

“I just figured you were staying to get lucky,” Ethan said.

His mother walked over and slapped his younger brother’s arm. “Don’t talk like that in front of me.”

He and Ethan laughed. They’d always talked like that in front of their mother. She had that reaction every time too.

“You’re used to it,” his father said, coming into the room. 

They grew up in this massive house on the island. They had a house in Boston too. For Egan, island living was the way to go. Eli too. Ethan, he had his condo in Boston’s Seaport District and didn’t own anything on the island. When Ethan was here he was staying with their parents or in the casino. Mostly the casino because what man in their thirties wanted to stay with his parents even if they had a whole wing to themselves?

“How busy were you last night?” Ethan asked. 

“Busy enough. Lincoln was out longer than me. We were flying back and forth until ten; then I had a few hours before I had to return a group to Boston at one. Lincoln stayed at the condo last night. I returned since I had two flights to bring back this morning that stayed at the casino.”

Egan owned a home on the island. It’s where he wanted to be. But it made smart business sense to have a place to crash in Boston too. 

His other pilot, Lincoln Harrington, rented a home on the island and the two of them just stayed at the two-bedroom condo in Boston when they needed to. They each had their own room but rarely were there the same night unless they planned it.

His business didn’t just fly people back and forth from Boston to Amore Island or doing tours. They flew all over the Northeast out of Boston or picked up cargo for people and came back.

Considering one of the businesses his father owned on the docks was shipping and receiving, a good part of his flight time was small cargo for people that didn’t want to wait or worry about shipping and delivery times. Or extremely valuable items.

A job was a job and they took it and made a lot of money doing it.

Pretty soon he’d have to consider a third chopper and pilot. If he could find the right person.

“Then it sounds as if Egan was working more than you the past two days,” his mother said.

“Thank you, Mom,” Egan said, going into the fridge to get the apple juice. He’d had three cups of coffee this morning already. Now he needed some sugar.

“That’s gross,” Ethan said. “You’re the only adult I know still drinking juice.”

“It’s better than soda,” he said, eying the can in front of his brother. He turned the bottle around. “It says all natural. You can’t claim that.”

“Boys,” his mother said. “Can we ever have a family gathering without the bickering?”

“No,” his father said. “But Eli and Bella will be here soon.”

“No Griffin?” he asked. 

For years, Eli’s best friend, Griffin Zale, was at most holiday dinners unless he could find a way to get out of them. But Griffin was married to their distant cousin Penelope now and they had a one-year-old daughter.

“I believe Sophia is cooking today and everyone is going there,” his mother said. “You know she loves to spend time with her grandkids and Emily is just getting back into the swing of things.”

Penelope’s sister, Emily, had twins back in the fall. A boy and a girl. Emily and Penelope owned Atlantic Rise Hotel. Egan’s father had some ownership there too. The girls’ father, Mason Rauch, was his father’s right-hand man. So though Penelope was a distant cousin, she was more like a sister to him at times.

And that percentage of Atlantic Rise would also come to him and his brothers at some time in the far, far future. More brain clutter that he’d leave Ethan to figure out.

“I’ve got to meet with them soon to go over a few things,” Egan said.

“What’s going on?” his father asked.

“Just setting up some prices for guests for the summer tours. Time yet for that, but many are booking now to get ahead of it.”

“Good for business,” Ethan said.

“Yeah,” he said. “I might not sit at a desk all day with my ass getting fat, but I’m smart enough to run my business my way.”

“Hey,” his father said, laughing. “I’ll have you know I’ve sat at a desk most of my life and your mother still thinks my ass is nice.”

“Jesus,” he said. “Don’t say that shit to me.”

His mother started to laugh. “It’s not fun when it’s the other way around, is it?”

“You do that on purpose,” Ethan said. Ethan was almost gagging at this point. 

“Of course they do,” Egan said, grinning. “Just like I do. When are you going to learn to not be such a tight ass?”

“You can’t be serious a day in your life,” Ethan said. “And you just gave Mom hell for saying something like that.”

“In his joking manner,” his mother said. “And Egan is plenty serious when he needs to be.”

“Sure,” Eli said, walking into the room. “Take his side. He’s always been your favorite. I thought the oldest or the youngest got that honor, but here it’s the middle child.”

Bella waddled in not looking very comfortable. Egan couldn’t wait to hold his niece and knew it could be any day now.

“You get more than enough attention,” Bella said. “Don’t be jealous.”

“Egan gets it all now because it’s the classic middle child syndrome. He acted out so much that Mom had to make him her favorite.”

“Good lord,” his mother said, throwing her hands in the air. “I have no favorites. At least not yet. Pretty soon you can all complain that my time and attention will be on my granddaughter.”

“That is the way it should be,” his father said.

“I’ll put some snacks out,” his mother said. “I know you guys have some business to talk about and then no more.”

“Why do we have to talk about business on a holiday?” Egan asked. 

“Because all three of us are in the same spot for once,” Ethan said. “Half the time you’re up in the air and Eli works afternoons and nights. I’m in the office before you even think of getting out of bed.”

“I was in the air at seven this morning,” he said. “And in bed much later than you, so bite me if I want to go home and take a nap.”

Which he’d done when he’d gotten back to his place at eight. He got about four hours of sleep last night and three more this morning. He was used to not getting more than that in a stretch during certain times.

His business was on call for emergencies too if the State Police couldn’t get a helicopter over here. 

The ferry didn’t run past nine during the summer and seven in the winter. If someone needed to get on or off in emergencies, they called him. Or not necessarily an emergency but a family member, he was always available.

Did he charge his family? Shit yeah. Like they’d do it to him. No one cared about it either.

Just like he had contracts with businesses to be available too. Any on-call type contract where he collected the money to be available and marked a priority. Then he still charged them.

He wasn’t as stupid as many thought he was just because he didn’t want to actually do the work on his books.

“Ethan doesn’t get it,” Eli said. “He’s always had to be in bed early. He’s not a night owl like the two of us.”

Ethan rolled his eyes at them. “Some of us aren’t half vampire.”

“You tell them,” Bella said. “I’ve made the comment to Eli more than enough, but since I grew up around casinos I know the life. It will come in handy when this one arrives.”

“That’s right,” Eli said, moving over to where Bella was on the couch. His older brother sat next to his wife and rubbed her belly. “Bella can sleep at night and I’ll care for the baby, then she can care for the baby in the morning while I try to sleep.”

“You don’t sleep in that much,” Bella said. “I swear you and Griffin never slept.”

“When is the first flight to Boston tomorrow?” Ethan asked. “I’ll catch a ride with you or Lincoln. Unless one of you is going over today.”

“Are you in a hurry to get away from your mother?” his mother asked. “After you just complained Egan was the favorite?”

“Yeah,” Egan said. “You can stay and bake with Mom like you did as a kid.”

“I wanted cookies,” Ethan said. “The easiest way to get them is to tell Mom I wanted to cook them with her.”

He turned and caught his mother narrowing her eyes at her youngest, her hands on her hips. “So you played me?”

“Janet,” his father said. “Don’t act all indignant. You know when each and every one of your children is playing you.”

“That’s right,” his mother said. “The same as I know it with you too.”

He and his brothers laughed. 

Egan wouldn’t think he was the favorite by any means, but he had to admit, he probably got the most attention because he was the biggest handful.

Not in a bad way. Never that.

Just more like he didn’t care all that much as a kid.

As an adult, he got it though. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy life to the fullest.