King Maker (King Maker 3)

He moved closer to Kalen, the gun pointed at his head.

“Yer can start by doing what yer should have done that night.”

The guy went for his fly and the story Kalen had drunkenly told me came back to me, giving me an idea.

“What night?” Kalen asked.

By the look in his eyes, he knew the answer but was stalling for time.

“Don’t be daft. You had a debt you never paid off. Lost me a lot of money when the three of you left. Keely was wise. She came back. Worked off her debt, though I suspect the lassie loved every minute of it.”

Suddenly, I knew exactly who the man was. He’d been the one that had planned on doing very bad things to the boy Kalen had once been. From the sounds of it, he’d also been in charge.

“We were kids,” Kalen gritted out through clinched teeth.

“Aye. And now it will cost you more than what it would have then.” He rubbed the back of his head as if remembering. “Do it right or she dies,” the man warned, swinging the gun in my direction.

I froze as the guy glanced my way. But I wasn’t the biggest threat in the room and his attention quickly went back to Kalen.

“If I do this,” Kalen said, his brogue thick as if we were back in Scotland, “yer let her go.”

“We’ll see.”

But we wouldn’t. I’d quietly unplugged the lamp on the bedside table and had silently moved behind him as Kalen had done all those years ago. It was quite heavy and did the trick when I smashed it down on the back of the guy’s head.

He went down and the gun skittered toward Kalen who picked it up smoothly. The man gingerly got to his feet, catching my arm in the process. He snatched me to him, using his hand as a noose around my neck.

“Let her go,” Kalen demanded.

I berated myself for not moving fast enough.

“Why? So you can shoot me? I think not. She’ll come with me and pay for your sins. Then I’ll carve that baby out of her belly as a trophy.”

Kalen’s eyes found mine as air grew extinct in my lungs.

“Drop,” Kalen said.

I didn’t hesitate. I let my knees crumple as gravity pulled me to the ground.

A muffled thwack left the muzzle of the gun, and in slow motion as I gazed up, a bright hole blew from the guy’s head, showering me a spray of red.

“This is what I should have done,” Kalen said as the force of the bullet sent the guy careening backward.

Then, Kalen was there checking me. And when he found no wounds, he took my mouth in a possessive kiss.

When he pulled back, he went into action. He took the sheet from the bed to wipe my face before he busied himself making calls. First to the authorities and then to Griffin.

I was still shell-shocked when the police arrived.

Had I really just witnessed Kalen killing a man?

He hadn’t told me what to say, so I was left to decide myself as we were immediately separated as the cops took our individual statements.

I was taken to the kitchen, still shaken from what had happened. I knew, though, when the EMTs came, they would be removing two dead bodies. I saw none of it. I only heard a gurney being wheeled in and out at some point.

I told them exactly what happened, putting emphasis on how I thought I was about to die as the man choked me.

I didn’t see but heard officers talking about a video of the incident. It was at that point I was released to go upstairs. Kalen was still with them, and I wondered if he would be cuffed and taken to jail. Then what?

Forty-Six

Kalen didn’t go to jail. We did have to go to the police station to sign statements. Sandy Hill was a known criminal and his fingerprints were on the weapon. That with the fact that a burner phone found on him connected him to the dead real estate agent I’d found in the bathroom, our statements were good enough to exonerate us from any wrongdoing.

“Are you excited?” Lizzy said.

“I am, though I’m surprised you’re here.”

“I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

I smiled at my best friend. “Even though there are no toilets except the one in the visitors’ center?”

She laughed. “It’s an adventure. Besides, anything for my girl.”

Violet walked in. “They’re getting restless out there.”

It was weird not seeing myself. Mirrors weren’t considered necessities. We had small handheld ones, but not the full-length kind.

Lizzy pulled out her phone and Violet gasped.

“Sorry not sorry. I had to get some pictures. You won’t say anything,” she told my sister.

She shook her head, and I trusted her.

“We can look at the pictures when we get to New York,” Lizzy said.