Twenty-Three

  I knocked on the door with no response. I rapped a little louder, and after several seconds, I heard muffled curses and grumbles coming from inside.

  The door opened at a sleepy-eyed Griffin squinting at me as if he wasn’t quite sure he was seeing me.

  “Kalen, hou’s it gaun?” he said with one eye open and the other half-lidded.

  “I need an update.”

  Just then a thin naked girl stepped out of Griff’s room.

  “What’s all the bloody fuss?”

  Her accent wasn’t Scottish. It sounded English. And she looked young with skin that could be compared to milk as it lacked all color. But she had perky breasts of the youth I saw in her face.

  Griff turned to face me. “She’s legal. Trust me. I ran a background check on her before I brought her home.” He laughed and I wasn’t sure if he knew how loud he’d spoken. His grin spoke of things we didn’t have to say. I rolled my eyes.

  “Aye, darlin’.” Griff spoke the word darling like he was a true Southern American. He had the drawl down to a tee. He’d heard that word from a Texan who showed up in the wrong place many years ago. I blinked away the memory as the girl realized she and Griff weren’t alone.

  “Aren’t you going to introduce me?” she asked sweetly.

  I focused on her face and not her lithe body that moved toward me with a hand extended as if she wasn’t the only one who stood naked.

  “Kalen,” I offered when she reached me.

  “Lilly,” she said and winked before she turned to head back to Griff’s room.

  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.

  “She’s been there a few weeks and she’s safe,” I said, feeling the first stirring of my own anger.

  “All alone in a country she’s never been to.”

  “Don’t forget. She wanted to be there,” I quickly retorted in a flat tone. And where the hell was Griff? I had another meeting and didn’t have time to explain myself.

  “So you know where she is?”

  I nodded. She did too as if she guessed.

  “She doesn’t know you know?”

  “I’d like to keep it that way.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not really the bastard you pretend to be.”

  I shrugged. “It’s open for interpretation.”

  “You’re in love with her.”

  My face remained impassive. “Does it matter?”

  “Yes, it matters.”

  Grateful for the devil’s return, the door opened without a word from my assistant. Griff was extremely good at distracting women and making them forget everything.

  “Lass,” Griff said.

  Lizzie turned. I couldn’t see her face, but her posture tensed as her hands landed on her hips. Griff was going to strike out if he tried his charms on her.

  He took her hand and kissed it. “I’m Griffin, head of security and Kalen’s paid friend. Who might you be?”

  I snorted at his jab. He didn’t exactly work for me, as I’d hired him for a job and he’d been my best friend for years, but she didn’t need to know that.

  “Elizabeth,” she said, using her full name. I should have warned him before he turned up the wattage on his smile, but it was too late.

  “I might have guessed. You are as beautiful as a queen.”

  “Oh please,” Lizzy said with disgust. “Where did you get that from? A cheesiest line website?”

  When Griff held her gaze, I saw determination in his eyes. She was going to lose this round.

  “It’s too bad you’re Irish.”

  “Irish,” she said. “I’m not Irish.” She paused as if to give it some thought. “Well, I may have some Irish, but I don’t have family from Ireland.” She appeared flustered for the first time under the weighty gaze Griff gave her.

  “Aye. You look so much like what a man would expect to find at the end of the rainbow.”

  Her eyebrows quirked. But Griff pressed on, speaking while his eyes perused her body. “Hair of silken strands of pale gold, face and body so lovely with a shine from within, any man would want to hide you away from the rest of the world so only he could gaze at your flawlessness.”

  Lizzy’s mouth did the fish talk. It opened and closed. She was unable to think of a thing to say. Damn, he was good.

  “You look ready for lunch. Let me take you out.” When he held out his hand to Lizzy, she glared back at me.

  Her parting words were, “You bring her back and make this right.”

  Then she took Griff’s hand and let him lead her out.

  “Don’t think this means anything,” she said to him.

  Just when they made it to the door, I heard Griff ask, “Do you speak French?”

  I shook my head. I knew what was coming. And he might have been charming enough to pull it off. Lizzy cautiously answered no. She was smart.

  Griff then said, “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?”

  I distinctly heard two rapid thuds and Griff’s umph. Chuckling, he added, “I had to ask.”

  Lizzy spoke but not loud enough for me to hear as my office door closed. If Lizzy gave him a hard time, I would pay for this later. And if he got lucky with her, he’d pay me.

  I stood up, ready for the firing squad. I’d come to work for my father to prove something. I was about to be fired and disinherited.

  Personally, I wanted nothing from the old man. But Gabe deserved the opportunities that I didn’t have. It took more than money to be accepted in this world. One needed contacts, which my father had plenty. Still, this wouldn’t be the end for me. I could make it on my own, though it would be harder.

  To put me in my place, Father had his assistant make me take a seat in front of his office to wait despite the fact that I’d shown up on time for the meeting.

  Ten minutes later, her phone buzzed. She answered and said only one word, “Okay,” before hanging up.

  “You can go in now,” she said as if she shared my father’s confidence.

  The woman was attractive and likely sleeping with the old man. She probably knew my fate before I did.

  I stood and buttoned my suit jacket before entering the old man’s throne room.

  “Jeremy,” he greeted, standing next to his chair. His trusty lawyer stood on the right side of his desk.

  I hated that name for as long as I could remember. He’d given it to me, yet he hadn’t cared enough to find me.

  “Have a seat.” He indicated the chair in front of his desk as if I wouldn’t have guessed.

  Though I wanted to stand out of defiance, I told myself to do it for Gabe. If I lost everything to whoever was trying to destroy me, my father could save Gabe’s future.

  I undid the button on my jacket and took a seat. My father followed suit, but his lawyer remained on his feet.

  “The accounting report is in and it appears that several million dollars have been stolen from our accounts. Wires approved by you into accounts for Money Man, LLC, which appears to be owned by you.”

  The old man’s lap dog was red in the face when he said, “Have you nothing to say?”

  With a shift in my gaze, I glared at the man.

  “For what? It’s not likely you’ll believe me.”

  “So you’re saying you didn’t do it?” the old man asked.

  I faced him and stared him squarely in the eye. “No. But my word means nothing to you, does it, Father?”

  The king himself stood to move directly in front of me while leaning on his desk.

  “This is important, son. A few million is nothing in the bank account, but it’s a hell of a lot when it comes to our reputation. If we lose that, we will eventually lose everything. If I fire you now, your reputation will forever be tarnished.”

  “If,” the lawyer spluttered. “That’s not what we discussed.”

  The old man waved him off. “You will most certainly lose everything and you’ll never recover from it. I need your word that I won’t regret standing by you.”

  Oh, how the tides had turned. He’d gone from threatening me to now sounding reasonable as if he gave a damn about me.

  “This is not advisable,” the lawyer prattled on.

  “Leave us,” the old man directed.

  “You can’t,” his friend said.

  My father stood and glared at the other man. “This is still my company, Charles. You will leave us now.”

  After a second of a silent standoff, Charles spun on his heel and stormed out.

  My father faced me. “He wants me to sign over the company to him for safe looking after for my heirs. I’ve known the man twenty years and I can’t fully trust him or anyone. But you are my son.”

  “So is Connor,” I said, unless he knew something I didn’t.

  “And Connor doesn’t want to become King.”

  Connor didn’t want to be in control of the company. He’d told me that numerous times.

  “You’ve always been the crowned prince, my firstborn, my heir to everything.”

  I glared at him. “Yet you never came for me.”

  He stood and walked back to the other side of his desk. “I loved your mother. She made a fool of me for leaving after everyone warned me not to marry her. It was pride that made me stay away. I was hurt, angry, and wanted her to come crawling back when she failed. She didn’t.”

  “You divorced her and gave her nothing, not even child support, and married someone else.”

  He glanced away. “Bad advice. She asked for nothing and I was grateful. She could have taken me for so much more.”

  “She isn’t like that.”

  “I know,” he said, clinching his fist. “I thought she was fine. She said she wanted nothing from me except you. Connor’s mother said you were better off with her.”

  Of course she had. She was still on my list of those who wanted me to fail, and badly.

  “Because you would have sent me to boarding school like Connor?”

  He gripped the top of his chair. “Sue me. I was a bad father. I can’t take any of that back. But I did this all for you.”

  “And Connor.”

  “And Connor, but he came later.” He sat again and seemed to age right before my eyes. “I don’t have long on this earth. And I want everything I’ve built to be in the right hands.”

  “And whose are those?”

  “Yours, dammit.”

  “So you believe me?” I asked.

  “At first, when you defied my order to come to New York, I was sure you’d send me a fuck-you email, how you got me, blah, blah, blah. At least that’s what some people wanted me to believe. But here you are, back in the States where you could be prosecuted and you aren’t that dumb. So yes, I believe you. If I didn’t, I would have you sign those papers even the board wants signed.”

  He eyed the only papers on his nearly spotless desk. I eyed them too, knowing that was probably what Charles had been referring to.

  Everything he’d said was the validation I’d craved all my life, yet it wasn’t satisfying. And it didn’t fix our relationship. But maybe…

  “I can’t stay in New York.”

  “What?” he snapped.

  “I have business I must take care of in Scotland. I will be back, but not for some time.”

  “Even if I said this was your only shot at heading the company?”

  I didn’t have to think. “Yes. You say you built this for me… and Connor. But here you are admitting you can’t trust anyone. How lonely is it at the top, Father, when you have no one to share it with?”

  His wife didn’t count because not once had he mentioned her by name. She was Connor’s mother and that was it. He hadn’t even called her his wife, though she was. She meant nothing to him.

  “That woman,” he said with contempt, referring to the lass.

  I nodded. “That woman found what no one was looking for. That woman can help me prove I didn’t do this.”

  “What does she have that a whole firm doesn’t?” he asked.

  “Trustworthiness. She can’t be bought. And I’m damn sure some of those on the first firm or even the second you hired were paid to take a blind eye.”

  I told him what I’d found out and part of my plan to fix it. And for the first time ever, we had a civil father-son conversation.

  My next stop was a flight to Ireland.

  Twenty-Five

  My time in Ireland was filled with important firsts. It was the first time I’d truly been on my own and the first time I’d lived alone, though I wasn’t exactly living here. It had been scary at first.

  When I’d taken the plane to Galway, I was certain Kalen would find me and Turner would still be with me. Neither panned out.

  Aloneness soon sank in. However, after a time when no one came after me, I knew that having independence was something I needed despite my regular nightmares of being bound and gagged.

  In my dreams, sometimes my captor would rape me. Other times he sold me off or killed me. Each time I’d awoken with a pounding heart and damp skin from sweat. I’d taken to not falling asleep on purpose. Though I ended up eventually drifting off while reading or surfing the Internet.