Risking the Crown (The Crown 2)

Cole

I stared at the envelope in my hand.

“I’m going to get some air.” I turned for the door.

“No.” Kaitlyn ran from behind the desk. “Can’t we open it together? Maybe I can help you with whatever is in that thing.”

My eyes narrowed. “Like letting that asshole paw all over you.”

Her hands shot to her hips. “Don’t turn this around on me. I spilled my coffee. I was in the middle of telling him to get out of the office when I knocked my cup over, and then he just started helping me.”

I wasn’t convinced. “I saw where his hands were, Kaitlyn.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. It wasn’t like I asked him to do that. I didn’t invite him here. He showed up.”

“Like he did yesterday.” I was fucking furious.

“Are you implying something?”

“It’s just obvious he has a thing for you.”

“Thing for me? What’s that supposed to mean? I told him you and I are together. There is no way he got the wrong idea.”

I shook my head before sliding into the empty seat. “And you think that would stop a guy like that?”

She kneeled next to me. “Cole, I would never even consider someone else. You and me. We’re together. I just moved all the way from North Carolina to live with you. You think I would throw that away?”

The envelope was still mangled in my fist. “God no, I’m not worried about you. It’s him. He thinks he can swoop in here and steal the Dunes, and if he wants you, what’s going to stop him from trying to make a move?”

“It takes two people, and this girl is not interested in that guy. Ok?” She tilted my chin forward.

“I saw how he looked at you.” My voice was firm. Kaitlyn was gorgeous and sexy. Any man would want her. The problem was seeing it in action. That asshole had made it clear that he wanted everything that belonged to me.

“It doesn’t mean anything. I am with you.”

I handed her the envelope. “You open it.”

She slid her finger between the flap and the seal. Kaitlyn pulled out a folded piece of paper along with a few photographs. She opened the paper.

“It’s a birth certificate.” She read the names in the blocks. “It says his father was Mitchell Thomas and his mother was Lorraine Hanish.” There was a seal from the state of Texas at the bottom. She gave it to me to read.

“What else?” I asked.

We both knew the certificate could have been altered or the paternal name falsely identified. She held a stack of pictures. There was a little boy blowing out candles on his third birthday cake. One of the same boy opening Christmas presents. As he got older, the pictures became clearer. His high school graduation. College graduation. There was no mistaking Aiden was the boy aging over the decades. She placed them in my palm.

“This is Pops.” I pointed to the man in the picture. “Son of a bitch,” I muttered under my breath. I flipped through the pictures. What the fuck was I seeing?

“How could Pops keep this from me?” I shook my head. “And not just me, my dad, my grandmother. I thought I knew him. He had another life? Another family? I don’t understand how he could have done this. What the fuck?”

Kaitlyn took my face between her palms.

“I will help you get through this. We will figure it out together. Just don’t shut me out, please. We swore we’d tell each other everything.”

“We did.”

I dropped the package, tangling my hands in her hair. My lips crashed into hers. My tongue twirled inside her mouth. Kaitlyn moaned at each flick of my tongue. Her hands roamed my chest.

My eyes darted to the window. I pulled back. “Baby, we can’t do this now. It’s the middle of the day, and that asshole could come back.”