Both brothers were staring at Skye as though they didn’t quite know what to make of her statement. Did they think that she was blaming their mother for her termination? Yikes! That could be embarrassing in more ways than one.
Edward finally cleared his throat. He was standing with his legs about shoulder-width apart and the cut of his suit jacket flattered his figure. He looked far more professional than Jason and yet that didn’t really appeal to Skye. Jason was the more relaxed. He was wearing black slacks and a dark red dress shirt that made him look even more like a swarthy pirate. Although it lacked ruffles at the collar or on the sleeves, which were rolled up to his elbows as though he could barely stand to be in dress clothes at all.
“Was it your editor that told you that our mother had called and requested your termination?” Edward finally asked Skye.
She wasn’t entirely certain what he was getting at with that statement. Did he think she was here to seek some kind of restitution? That hadn’t even entered Skye’s mind at this point. “Actually your mother told me herself that she was requesting my editor terminate my employment. But yes, my editor told me this morning that I was getting fired for two reasons.” Even the thought of this contradictory bullshit was enough to make Skye roll her eyes. “One was that I refused to simply write a column painting in the details of the sordid affair that Carolyn is absolutely certain your mother must be having. She wanted me to actually say it. Describe a hotel, their meeting places, etc. Even if I had to make it up.”
“That’s fraud!” Jason protested.
Skye bobbed her head. “Which is why I refused to do it. But then the second reason was even more hilarious because Carolyn said she was also firing me because your mother had requested that the Dallas Star take action against me and terminate my employment because of the lies I’d been publishing about her.”
“So you got fired for lies you refused to tell.” Edward sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Sounds like Mother actually.”
Jason’s mouth was tight. He looked extremely upset. Skye wished she knew how to make him feel less responsible because she could see right away that’s how he was taking this. But with Edward in the room Skye wasn’t sure how comfortable Jason was with her touching him or speaking in such familiar terms.
“It’s really not such a big deal.” Skye tried to play it off. “You have to understand that writing for that column is kind of horrible. Carolyn should be editing for one of those gossip rags and not a respectable newspaper and she is doing her level best to make sure the Dallas Star is as close to a gossipy rag as she can make it.”
The two men seemed to be digesting this information. Skye took a moment to look around at the office. The name on the desk plate said Edward King. But this wasn’t anything close to what Skye would have imagined the office of one of the richest men in the city might look like. It was painted a soft sandy brown. The window blinds were plain and opened so that the afternoon sunlight spilled into the room and created a very masculine kind of atmosphere. The furniture was dark and heavy and the chairs and couches were leather. One half of the room seemed to be swallowed up by a desk for working and a few executive chairs for meeting. The other half was populated by a pair of overstuffed leather chairs and ottomans.
There was a totally traditional-looking pair of green glass shaded lamps with a brass base and little pull chains that appeared to have been pulled straight from some old bank. And there were books. Lots and lots of books. The walls of the entire room were lined with shelf upon shelf of books. Old books, big leather-bound books, and even newer paperbacks. There were some photography books on an end table that featured black and white shots of buildings in Paris and Germany. There as another book of Roman ruin photography. It appeared that Edward King had an interest in travel and not Texas.
An American Werewolf in Paris…
The thought made Skye grin. She could not help it. She wondered how these men managed to look so civilized when in reality there was a beastly side to them that was probably closer to the truth.
“A gossipy rag.” Jason exhaled long and slow and seemed to be thinking about that statement. “You would think our mother would love being featured in that sort of publication. She enjoys the limelight. She has never cared about the propriety.”
“So what changed?” Skye prompted. “Because when I used to take photos of her hanging all over Tex Johnson she never minded. The woman would smile and wave and look as though she were flaunting a lover in front of her husband.”
Jason turned and looked right at his brother. “Do you think that Mom is really cheating? Or was I suppose. Since Dad is dead she can hardly cheat on him now.”
“I don’t know.” Edward spread his hands and looked almost helpless. “It’s hard to say. Dad might not have cared.”
That was something that Skye had not thought about until right now. Her brain started spinning. The need to pace was overwhelming. She began marching back and forth across the thick area rug as she tried to fit all the pieces of this puzzle together in her head.
“You told me that your father didn’t tell your mother until their wedding night that he had some other—ah—nightly activities that he liked to engage in, right?” This was one point where Skye could absolutely feel sympathy for even a woman like Tisha Olivares-King. How horrible would that be? “So your mother and father had a rocky start from night one. In fact, it might have been a case of your father staying married to her because she knew his secret and her staying married to him because she knew his secret and could use it for leverage.”
Jason made a low noise of disgust. “I hadn’t even considered that.”
“Don’t quote me,” Skye warned him. “I don’t know that for sure, but it seems kind of likely, don’t you think?”
“Yes. It does seem pretty likely.” Edward’s flat tone did not sound pleased. “I think we need to go upstairs and have a chat with Orion and Devon. If anyone knows more detail it should be them.”
“And yet in the elevator Orion pretended not to know anything,” Jason retorted. “Not only that, but he seemed convinced that I’m the one trying to stir up trouble for no reason.”
Skye waved her hands at the brothers to get their attention. “I’m sorry, but has anyone talked to Tex? The guy seems to be at the center of everything and yet nobody has bothered to ask him anything pertinent to the issue at hand. Like, we don’t know if he knew about your Dad’s shifter secret. We don’t know if he was really the one who signed those contracts for the land deal. We don’t know how much he knew or whether or not he was just your mother’s pawn. I think we need to find that out. Don’t you?”
“She’s right,” Jason grunted. He looked over and nodded to Skye. “I think we need to listen to what she’s saying. The woman has a good head on her shoulders and we’re all compromised in this by our personal connection to Mother.”
“Compromised,” Edward snorted. He gave them both a sarcastic smile. “That’s certainly an understatement.” Then Edward looked up at the clock. “Let me run to the front where the receptionist sits on this floor. I’ll ask her to call a meeting upstairs in the conference room for something like twenty minutes from now. All right? Does that sound good? We’ll even get Tex to be there.”
Jason was already nodding. “Go for it. We’ll hang out here for a few more minutes.”
Edward disappeared in the next breath and suddenly Skye was alone with Jason. It wasn’t really awkward, but the silence was more heavy than comfortable. Skye was aware that so many things had happened in the last seventy-two hours. Or maybe it was more than that. It felt like decades.
Jason cleared his throat. His expression was uncomfortable. “I want to ask you something.”
“All right.” She wondered if it would be too obvious that she was holding her breath. She could not seem to breathe. What did he want to ask? Was it bad? Was it good? Was she going to wish she’d never said that he could ask her?
“My mother mentioned something to
me and I feel like I want to apologize,” Jason began slowly.
Nope. Skye did not want to have this conversation. She almost put up her hand and flat refused. She almost shouted at him that it was none of his business and she did not want to talk about it, think about it, or recall that his mother had dragged her past out in the middle of a coffee shop for the whole world to hear.
“Jason, you don’t—”
“No.” He stepped closer to her. So close that she could see his chest moving as he breathed. She could smell him. It was divine. The scent of man and spice and maybe a bit of the outdoors. Then he exhaled a sigh and she felt the whisper of his sweet breath across her face. Mints. The guy apparently liked mints. “Skye, I don’t care about your past. I don’t care that your parents were losers who did not even begin to realize how amazing you are and didn’t want to take a chance and find out. I don’t care about that or them and I just wanted you to know that.”
What was she supposed to say to that? Was she supposed to just nod and smile and say thank you? That didn’t seem to be enough. And yet it seemed too much as well. What sort of person was she that she didn’t like to think about her roots? Some therapist would probably accuse her of not dealing properly with her problems and just letting them own her. Or something to that effect. But she didn’t want to unpack the baggage of her past. She didn’t even want to look at that baggage. She just wanted to focus on the future and the life that she wished she could be leading right now. She just wanted to be allowed to forget because there was nothing good to remember.
“I appreciate that,” Skye finally whispered. “I do. But let me tell you that I don’t talk about my past. I don’t think about it. I don’t want to. I don’t need to. I don’t feel the desire to contemplate the possibilities of what could have happened if the firemen hadn’t been there to take me in and pass me on to the nuns at the children’s home. I don’t want to wonder what things might have been different if I had been adopted. None of that matters to me because this is who I am and what I am and this is the life that I have and the only one I need.”
“And I respect the hell out of that,” Jason murmured. He cupped her cheeks in his hands and lightly stroked her lips with his thumbs.
What a feeling! She could have been flying. Her heart was fluttering and she felt as if she were about ready to explode with excitement. Then his lips brushed hers and Skye decided that everything up until this moment had been dull and boring and unfulfilling. Even her most amazing moments did not compare to the reality of being in Jason King’s arms and feeling his kisses on her lips and her cheeks.
He explored her mouth with a lazy sort of unhurriedness that told Skye he never wanted to stop. His tongue stroked hers. He sent frissons of awareness through each and every nerve ending in her body. Her fingers were tingling and her toes were curling in her shoes. He tasted like sunlight. And when he gently licked her lips and then moved his mouth to her neck she tilted her head to give him better access and wondered if he could tell that she was just about ready to collapse with sheer pleasure.
Of course, this was the moment that Edward chose to come back through the door of his office. There was a small squeak and then the heavy wood door opened. “Okay. We’re set… Oh. Sorry about that. I can go.”
Jason gave her one final kiss, a sweet little peck on the lips, and then he stood back a step. “No. That’s all right. Let’s go upstairs and get ready before we decide to ditch a meeting in the conference room and go someplace more exciting.”
“Okay,” Edward said irritably. He was waving his hands in front of his face. “Too much information, Dude!”
Skye felt her face flame red hot. “Wow. Thanks guys. I feel so totally comfortable right now. Really. Can we just go upstairs so I can pretend that I’m not so embarrassed that my face is currently like a tomato?”
“You look beautiful as a tomato,” Jason assured her with a cheeky grin.
Edward snorted and pointed right at Skye. “You’re the one who likes him. I cannot even pretend to understand why and I’ve known him almost my whole life.”
The answer to that was that Edward had never really known his brother the way that Skye was getting to. And maybe that was for the best.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The conference room on the tenth floor of the King Building in downtown Dallas was filled with Kings. Jason could feel the stares of his older brothers and wondered if they had invited their mother to be here as well. Beside Jason, Skye was sitting very calmly in a padded chair. There were fifteen of these chairs around the huge oval table. The room was separated from the rest of the floor by glass, and right now they had closed the blinds to make sure that this meeting would be private.
Tex Johnson sat at the foot of the table opposite Orion King who occupied the head. Jason could not help but notice that Tex and Orion kept eyeing each other like stallions about to fight for dominance over a bunch of mares. Or, in this case, a young wolf looking at an older one because he was about ready to grab the old wolf by the throat and eject him from the pack.
Edward stood up and looked around the people gathered at the table. Jason and Skye, Devon, Zane, Orion, and Tex. It wasn’t exactly a huge meeting, but the person who was conspicuously absent was Tisha and maybe it needed to stay that way.
Edward looked at Jason. Jason nodded. He appreciated the fact that his next oldest brother was at least making an effort to show the others that he valued Jason’s opinion even if they traditionally did not.
“I’ve called this meeting because we have a problem here at King Security Solutions,” Edward told his brothers and Tex in a very firm voice.
“Okay, that’s fine.” Tex wasted no time in his attempt to take over. He pointed right at Skye. “Why is she here? That woman is a no good reporter from the Dallas Star! She writes for the society page.” Tex was glowering at Skye so fiercely that Jason could actually feel the reflected heat from that laser-like stare. “She’s the one who has been making all of those insinuations that I’m sleeping with poor Tisha!”
Edward started to speak up, as did Jason, but they needn’t have worried. Skye pointed her pen right at Tex. “Did you read my columns?”
“Well no…” Tex scoffed. “I don’t read that trash.”
Skye raised her brows. “The Dallas Star is trash? They’ve got some of the most comprehensive news in the city!”
“Well, I don’t read the society columns,” Tex amended. He kept stealing glances at Orion and Devon as though he expected them to come to his aid. “That’s the trash. I don’t know why anyone would read that.”
“But you haven’t read them. We established that,” Skye reminded him. She pursed her lips and shot him a hard glare that was hotter and more direct than the one he’d been giving her only a moment ago. “So you’re saying that you haven’t even read what I wrote, but you’re making gross assumptions about what the column actually said based on what? The photographs? Or is it based upon what Tisha has told you about the column? Because honestly, I’m not sure she’s actually read them either.”
Tex shot to his feet and put his palms flat on the tabletop. “Don’t you talk trash about Tish!”
“I’m not,” Skye said calmly. “I’m simply stating that nowhere in the column did I say that the two of you were having an affair. I only pulled up photographs from previous public appearances and mentioned to the public that the two of you have always appeared to have a very close personal relationship and that it seemed very inappropriate that you would be sharing such intimate-looking touches and embraces during the funeral of her husband. I suggested this. I even specified in my column that we cannot know what lies in the mind of another and that it’s for everyone to draw their own conclusions based upon what they have observed. I also mentioned that the circumstances surrounding Mac King’s death were suspicious. They were. Even the family thought that they were.”
“You can’t say that!”Tex shouted. The tone was so loud and sudden that even Jason drew back in
surprise.
Skye did not flinch. “Why not? Saying something is suspicious is not saying that there was a murder. Saying that something is suspicious is not accusing anyone. It is simply stating that a hunting accident is more than a little bit strange to consider when you think about just how outdoor savvy Mac King actually was.”
And there was the bomb right there in the middle of the conference table. Jason held his breath. Tex’s jaw was moving, the muscles jumping around as he ground his teeth together. Beside Jason, Skye was cool and collected. She could have been discussing the weather for all the emotion she was showing. The woman had nerves of steel and Jason could not help but admire her grace under fire.
Tex sent surreptitious sideways glances at all of the King brothers as though he wasn’t entirely sure he knew how to respond to that statement. Finally he cleared his throat. “My friend Mac was a good outdoorsman. That’s true. He was comfortable outside and he was comfortable hunting. He was good on a horse and he enjoyed coyote hunting. He had some bad luck that day.”
To Jason’s surprise it was Orion who responded. “Did he? It was bad luck you say?”
“Yes!” Tex turned his angry glare toward Orion. “What else would it be? What else are you suggesting?”
Orion didn’t answer. Instead he pulled out a rather familiar file folder. Setting it on the conference table, Orion opened the folder and pulled out the signed contracts that were so obviously forged. He pushed them toward Tex.
“I don’t understand,” Tex murmured. “What is this?”
Orion snorted. “It’s your signature. Or at least it’s your handwriting. I believe the signature was meant to be my father’s but we all know that this isn’t it.”
“I didn’t sign this.” Tex’s words were firm, but his body language was not. Jason could actually smell a rat and he did not like it at all.
Billion Dollar Wolves: Boxset Bks 1-5 Page 17