King Maker (King Maker 3)

“Thanks. I’ll just walk around,” she said as if she’d been invited inside and decided on her own not to go in. She headed in that direction with only the briefest of glances our way.

When we walked up, Isla hastily asked, “Do you mind taking Gabe down to the pub? It’s just down the hill like Jonas said.”

I thought it strange to take a young boy to a pub. Then again, what they called a pub may not be a bar like in America.

“Sure,” I said, wanting to ease the worry on her face.

“Thanks. Let me get Gabe’s jacket,” she said.

Turner added, “I’m going to grab my wallet.”

I nodded. When they both disappeared, I found myself walking around the house the other direction than the woman had gone. I wanted to know who she was.

What I saw broke me. In a lover’s embrace, their lips were mashed together.

The sky had to be falling as moisture ran down my face as fast as I rounded back to the front of the house, understanding the meaning of curiosity killing the cat.

Seventeen

“Keely,” I said, shifting her back on her feet.

“Is that how you greet an old friend?” she asked with that mischievous smile of hers.

“We’re no longer friends. Not after—”

“Not after what?” She glared at me, losing all hint of happiness to see me. “After yer fucked me?”

What little I did remember of that night I didn’t want the reminder.

“Okay, then let’s call a spade a spade. Is that how yer greet the mother of yer child?”

Her chin was lifted defiantly like I could dispute her claim.

“Cat’s got yer tongue. Then again, pussy was always yer weakness, JK.”

JK, Jeremy Kalen or Jeremy King. That’s what Keely always called me.

“Except you slept with everyone but me. Was I not good enough for the likes of yer?”

I didn’t want to have this argument again. “I would have never touched you if—”

“If what? If you weren’t blootered?”

I had been drunk off my ass that night. But it was more.

“You didn’t give me a choice,” I said, feeling the old hate burn bright in me.

She laughed. “I didn’t force yer to stick yer knob in me and feck me. You loved every minute of it. If I remember correctly, we did it several times. And yer liked it rough. I was raw the next day.”

I scrubbed a hand over my face.

“Don’t want to hear it, do yer? That yer enjoyed it. And what did yer do after?” she went on.

“Yer betrayed everything,” I yelled.

“Yer treated me like the sister I dinnae want to be. We aren’t blood. We could have been good together. No one knows yer like me.”

With her glare, she wanted me to deny it.

“We both love sex. Yer proved that night,” she said, smug grin on her face.

The Keely I’d met so long ago had been used first by her father and then others. I’d done my best to protect her from that. Had I been wrong?

“Tell me, JK. What women have yer been with more than once?” She waited a beat before answering for me. “They bore you.”

She was wrong about that. There was a certain redhead I wanted more than any woman ever.

I gave myself away by glancing at the house.

“What? The lassie I saw out front. Who is she?”

“No one,” I said.

The last thing I wanted was for Keely to become fixated with the lass. As much as I’d once thought I knew the woman before me, I didn’t. I wasn’t sure what she was capable of.

“I guess I can believe yer, especially the way she held that laddie’s hand.”

She was baiting me and I managed to keep my face impassive when really it ate me up inside that Bailey had chosen him.

Her eyes searched mine. “I wouldn’t want to find out that another woman wanted to be a mother to my son.”

I fisted my hand hearing her claim Gabe.

“Yer gave him up, remember?” I managed to say without yelling that time.

“Yer were supposed to do the right thing.”

“What? Marry yer?” I barked out a laugh.

When Keely had told me she was pregnant, I was still full of myself and stupid. I hadn’t believed her. I thought it was a desperate attempt to get me back in her life any way she could.

“But yer came running when I told yer to pick him up or socials services would take him. And yer DNA test proved me no liar,” she spat.

“Yer signed away yer rights. Yer have no claim. Yer dinnae even know his name.”

She shrugged. “But I’ll find out if yer test me.” She let her eyes take me in from head to toe with her lips curled in disgust. “What do yer think the American authorities would think about hearing yer plans for yer father? You can’t keep our son if yer in jail.”