King Maker (King Maker 3)

She swayed as she walked, calling attention to herself. If my head wasn’t on a certain redhead, I might have taken her up on her unspoken offer. Griff and I had shared more than a few girls in the past.

Griff turned back to me and said in a thick brogue, “Whi djae wa’mae ‘ae dae ‘e noo?”

It wasn’t Gaelic, but clearly he didn’t want the lassie to understand him.

I arched a brow, silently answering his question of what I wanted to do now. His smile broadened. I shook my head and he understood it was a no. He shrugged. So went our unspoken conversation.

He followed the girl into the room and I stepped farther in, allowing the door to shut behind me. I hoped he was sending her home. I didn’t want to be here for their round two, or two hundred knowing Griff.

The couch held promise until I wondered if it was safe to sit on or if Griff had used it with the lassie. The bedroom door opened. Lilly stepped out dressed in a dress that clung to what little curves she had.

Griff followed and kissed her at the door. I changed my focus to give them some privacy. “Later, darlin’,” he said with a wave.

Just like that, Griff switched to our native tongue. “You got my update.”

I had. “He left her.”

Griff shrugged. “They didn’t fight that much I can tell you since you didn’t want ears on the place. Maybe he’ll be back, though he got on a plane.”

“Is she there now?”

He nodded. “Let me see her.”

I got a back view of her sitting on the couch staring out into the glass wall in front of her.

“She’s fine,” Griff said.

“Aye. And what did you find out about Scott?”

“Ah,” he said, tilting his head back. The guy may have looked stone, but his mind was still sharp as a knife. “Found a large payment wired into his account a few days before all the shite went down.”

“From the reports I’m getting on him, he’s acting shifty. Likely whoever paid him wants their money back. But the asshole spent most of it on a Patek Phillipe watch he had no business buying.”

I remembered the little dobber mention he had his eye on one.

“If they make contact with him—”

“I’m way ahead of you, bro.”

Griff was one who liked to test out international slang. I wasn’t sure where he got it from: the lasses he bedded, TV, or movies. Whatever it was, you could never be sure what he might say next.

“Have the authorities picked up on it?”

“Not yet,” he said.

“And Keely?”

“Whatever guy she’s with, he has deep pockets. She isn’t working, but the place she’s crashing isn’t cheap.”

Keely was a concern.

“I know you don’t like talking about this, but she said something. Do you think she was in that place because she wanted to be?”

Where we’d met hadn’t been a place I’d chosen to be.

“Kale,” Griff warned.

We’d made a promise never to talk about it.

“I’m not asking about you. She told me I didn’t know her. That she liked to fuck.”

I waited for him to say something.

“Aye. She likes to fuck.” I wondered if he’d know from experience, but I didn’t ask. “But we were bairns. Wee bairns, Kale. No bairn should like fucking at that age.”

His expression had gone blank and it haunted me.

“There’s something else,” he said, changing the subject.

I already knew I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say.

“There are bogus wires coming out of not only King Enterprises but your personal company as well.”

Fuck.

Twenty-Four

A calendar meeting alarm popped onto my screen. I didn’t often check my appointments regularly because my assistant was good at screening them and keeping me abreast when I needed to prepare.

Lizzy’s meeting was personal, that much I was sure of. In fact, I was surprised she hadn’t come sooner.

I sent a quick text to Griff, who’d traveled back to America with me for the face-to-face meeting I couldn’t reschedule.

When my assistant buzzed me, I told her to send Lizzy in. Bailey’s best friend was a blonde knockout who wore confidence like a shield. In a former life, she was the type of woman that I’d gone for except she was too thin for my taste.

“What brings you here?” I asked cautiously.

Before I’d spoken, Lizzy marched up to face me. Her finger pointed down toward my desk, but she might as well have been pointing at me.

“No, the question is, why are you here?” Her eyes were narrowed with patience that appeared brittle. I could have sworn she had the look of a snake ready to strike.

“This is where I work.” I wasn’t stupid and it was obvious what she was implying. But there was no way I was giving in to her demands in my office.

“I can’t believe you left her there,” Lizzy spat, bringing my focus back to her.