The Inheritances Game (Jameson Hawthorne)

Max at Hawthorne House

A/N: This picture is what I kind of imagine Avery wearing for the fundraiser. It's not the best representation but I looked for a long time for a good picture this was the best. Catalina's outfit will be shown in the next chapter.

Back at Hawthorne House, we found Oren waiting at the door with the situation he'd been dealing with.

"Max?" I was stunned to see her. We hadn't been together in person in more than a year, but there Max was, her black hair tied up in messy buns on either side of her head.

She beamed at me, then shot the world's most aggrieved look in Oren's direction. "Finally! Avery, will you tell Monsieur Bodyguard over here that I'm not a security risk?"

My shock started to wear off. "Max!" I took a step toward her, and that was all Max needed to launch herself at me. She hugged me. Hard. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I told you that I was considering a mission trip. I am here to bring the love of God to these poor, backward billionaires. It's an ugly job, but someone's got to do it."

"She's joking," I told Oren. "Probably."

"I do hope not, they need it." Catalina said walking up to us.

"I like her." Max said turning to Catalina. "Maxine Liu, Max." 

"Catalina Powell, Catalina." Catalina smiled.

I studied Max a little more closely. As glad as I was to see her, I also knew her parents wouldn't have approved this trip. She was already on thin ice with them. And that was when I realized: "Today's your birthday, too." They both turned to me, they both also looked confused.

"Too?" For a split second, I saw raw emotion behind Max's eyes, but then she shook it off. "I'm eighteen." Max was legally an adult. Had her parents kicked her out, or had she left on her own? "Got a spare bedroom?" she asked me, all bravado.

I squeezed her hand. "I probably have forty."

Max offered me her brashest, most invincible Maxine Liu smile. "So what does a girl have to do around here to get a tour?"

"You will need a lot of time." Catalina said.

Catalina's Pov

Ten minutes into Max's tour, my phone rang. I looked down at the screen. 

"Jameson," I reported, looking to Avery. 

I answered the call. "What's going on? Is everything okay?" 

"Other than the fact that my stick-in-the-mud brother utterly refuses to play Drink or Dare while we wait?" Jameson had a way of making everything sound like a joke—and dark humor at that. "Things are just peachy."

"Drink or Dare?" Avery asked. 

I shook my head. "Don't answer that. What exactly are you waiting on?" 

There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line. "Sheffield Grayson has security that rivals ours. There's no getting near the man unless he wants you to." 

The muscles in my chest tightened. "And he doesn't want Grayson near him." I ached, just thinking about that. "Is he okay?" 

Jameson did not answer that question. "Grayson has business cards—and yes, I mocked him mercilessly for that. He wrote our hotel information on the back of one and left it with the guard at the gate to the Grayson estate." The less serious Jameson sounded, the more I ached for him, too. 

"And so you wait," Avery said quietly. 

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line. "And so we wait." There was a heaviness in Jameson's tone.