King Maker (King Maker 3)

She paused. “I’ll let you get dressed and you can pick up a prescription of prenatal vitamins. Other than the obvious, no more drinking, smoking, or drugs, you can live life as usual.”

She left me alone to handle what had become of my life.

Thirty-Two

I stood waiting for fate to take its course. I’d yet to decide at what point my life had changed so drastically.

The last several weeks had been a nightmare.

First, Bailey had bailed from the hotel room like a seasoned pro. It had taken repeated views of the hallway footage to finally catch a glimpse of her at the edge of the screen ducking out of her room when the cleaning woman arrived.

Then we’d spent way too much time searching flight manifests for her name out of Edinburgh. I finally thought how she’d think if she’d been avoiding me and shouted, “Glasgow,” to a frustrated Griff.

By the time we’d found her, she was up in the air out of my reach.

And that was all it took for me to finally let her go. Though I still had her watched. She wasn’t safe, not until this business was done.

It had been three months since I’d set eyes on her in the flesh.

But Griff was under my orders not to tell me her movements or who she spent time with. I’d allowed myself one call to him each day to ask only if she was okay, which was what I did now.

“It’s early, mate.”

“Doesn’t matter. Just tell me.”

“Are you sure? You won’t get an answer from me later.”

“Just fucking tell me if she’s okay,” I groused.

I heard a few clicks before he said, “She’s good.” He, however, wasn’t done. “Now if you hadn’t gone and punched that asshole, this could have been over.”

What he said was true, but I’d do it again.

“He spiked her fucking drink.”

“Yeah, but you could have let me handle it and not wasted the liquid. He could be locked up. We might have found out who he was working with if they bailed him out.”

Bailey had been right. He was dirty on so many levels, but he’d fled the scene before Griff could get his guys to follow him. He was in the wind.

His resume and application hadn’t yielded much like the name of the person who’d helped him get the job. It was likely someone in my hiring department had been paid. We were still working on it, treading illegal hacks, because if we were found out, it could be used against us.

“The money trail could only get us so far. We needed a body to follow.”

I scrubbed a hand over my face. “I know.”

“Just wanted to make sure you don’t do something stupid.”

Because I was in D.C. where she was.

Months ago, I’d gotten a call from Connor. The first thing he’d said was he’d found a naked blonde in his bed. Lizzy. Before I could warn him that I’d cut off his balls if he touched her, he told me the old man was in the hospital.

I’d rounded up the family and flown to New York. By the time I arrived, things were still touch-and-go. I’d been acting CEO on his orders. It was only recently he’d checked himself out and moved to his home where I’d been summoned.

The old man had waved me in after a private nurse had checked his vitals.

“I’m sorry,” he’d said.

There were few times I was shocked, but this was one of them.

“I should have been a better father.”

I didn’t disagree.

“I have to tell you that I can’t change what I’ve done. It’s too late,” he’d said.

“About what?” Had been the only question I could think to ask.

“My will. They’ll contest it if I do.” He waved a frail hand. “They’ll say I had diminished capacity or whatever. It has to stand as it is. It’s the only way those greedy bastards won’t get their hands on my money. Moria, the conniving bitch—” He’d finally mentioned his wife by name. “If she thinks she and Charles will get away with it, they have another thing coming. It’s why I wrote my instructions this way.”

And then he told me.

“Don’t worry. Gabe’s taken care of. It’s a small portion of the estate, but he’ll have all he needs for a good life.”

I’d walked away dumbfounded, which left me where I stood today.

“Let’s go through it again,” I said on the phone to Griff.

“There’s Moria, Charles, and Connor. All have reasons to get you discredited.”

“Can we take my brother off?”

“Don’t be shortsighted, Kale. After everything you told me, he stays on the list.”

I didn’t buy it, but maybe I was being naïve.

“Who else?”

“Keely and the man she’s with.”

“Do we know who he is?”

“Not yet. He’s good, whoever he is. He knows how to stay under the radar. Keeps his face hidden as if he knows where cameras are.”