Chapter Twenty-Five
“Whoa, is that a body on the floor down here?” Edward whispered to Zane as the two of them made their way down the stairs to the ground floor of the King family home. “Look at this place! It’s trashed!”
The sound of breaking glass made both men turn at the bottom of the stairs. A huge round mirror went sailing through the doorway of the front room and crashed against the wall in the hallway as though it had been thrown by an Olympic discus competitor. The mirror shattered into a thousand pieces, but the round ornate tooled metal backing did not. Glass rained down on the hall floor and the metal disc bounced crazily and began rolling crookedly toward the front door and the stairs where Edward and Zane were standing.
“Maybe we should go get the others,” Edward murmured to his brother. “Who’s down here? Do we even know?”
Zane pointed up at the hall clock, which was hanging high enough on the wall that it had apparently been spared the indignity of being destroyed. “It is now midnight. I think we’ve just hit on the witching hour. Do you smell Diana? I don’t smell Eleni down here either.”
“No Diana. No Eleni. Although maybe it’s because Mother’s nasty perfume and the stench of blood are pretty much covering everything else.” Edward wrinkled his nose and wondered if they were going to find Tisha Olivares-King bathing in the blood of her vanquished enemies. Stranger things had certainly happened.
“Mother?” Zane called out. “Mother, are you all right?”
“Zane! Get your mangy ass down here and send this woman packing! I want her out of my house and I never want her back here again!” Tisha’s voice drifted through the house with such volume that it was almost impossible to tell exactly where it was coming from.
Edward and Zane looked at each other. Edward could tell that they were both trying to decide whether it was better to go in search of Tisha or to just leave the house now and never come back.
“Is she talking about Alaina?” Edward finally asked his brother. “Like she wants us to get Alaina out and never wants to let her back inside? What the hell happened?”
Then Tisha appeared in the front hallway. Her makeup was streaked. She was covered in wine and scratches and there was blood trickling down her cheek from a rather large cut beneath her right eye that was probably going to require a trip to the plastic surgeon’s office. But that did not seem to slow her down at all. Tisha was flaming mad and stomping her way through the house on her stiletto heels as though she were a general looking for troops to send back into battle.
“You!” Tisha pointed at Edward. “Don’t let me ever catch you anywhere near Eleni Ariosa! Do you understand me?”
Edward didn’t know what to say. Until about ten second ago he had been under the impression that his mother endorsed a marriage to Eleni. “Um. Okay?”
“And you!” Tisha pointed to Zane. “Get that woman out of my house!” The last three words were punctuated by stabs of Tisha’s index finger—her carefully manicured nail was hanging off the end of her finger—toward the end of the hallway.
Finally Edward and Zane saw Alaina Ariosa stumbling toward them. One of her boot heels was broken and it caused her gait to be lumbering and awkward. She kept falling against the wall and practically crawling her way toward the front door.
“Mother, I think she’s trying to leave on her own,” Zane pointed out. Then he pursed his lips and Edward could tell that he was trying to be careful with what he chose to say next. “I think you made your point. See? She’s leaving. You should go upstairs and have a look at that cut on your face, Mother. It seems kind of deep. If you need to go the emergency room I’m sure Edward would be happy to take you.”
“Ass,” Edward murmured just loud enough for Zane to hear him with his better than human ears.
But Alaina did not just exit like she should have. No. She had a point to make first. “I wouldn’t let my daughter marry that pauper of a son of yours even if you begged me!” Alaina snarled. “I cannot believe you tried to pawn off this loser to my daughter! Eleni is so much better than that! I’m going to have her marry a Vanderbilt! Just you watch! Justin Vanderbilt is single again. I’ll be placing a call to his mother before this morning is over.”
“You go right ahead,” Tisha snarled. She reached out and grabbed Edward’s arm. Then she grabbed Zane’s. She was actually shaking them as though she were making an attempt to brandish them at Alaina like a weapon. “I’ve got four sons left single and I’m going to marry them off to every single debutante in Dallas!” Then Tisha paused as though she were about to make some kind of profound announcement. “And my first phone call is going to be to Tatyana Sandoval!”
Alaina’s gasp was so big that it could have conceivably sucked every bit of the oxygen out of the room. It was readily apparent that this concept was so abhorrent to Alaina that she was almost overcome with the horror of it.
Edward, however, was clueless. He looked at Zane. “Do you know who Tatyana Sandoval is because I don’t think I’ve ever heard the name?”
Zane shrugged as best he could with his mother attempting to rip his arm off.
“Oh my God, what is wrong with you?” Tisha moaned.
In this the two mothers seemed to be completely on the same page. Alaina paused in her dramatic horror to snort derisively at Edward. Then she smirked at Tisha. “At least my daughters know the first families of Dallas. Your sons are freaking clueless. It’s no wonder your eldest is thirty and still a bachelor. I bet you wind up with a string of waitresses for daughter-in-laws.” Alaina laughed so hard she actually snorted. “Or even better? Cleaning ladies! The King family will have to change the company name to King Security and Janitorial Solutions!”
Tisha started screaming. She shoved Zane and Edward so hard in Alaina’s direction that the woman actually wobbled and nearly fell over thanks to her broken boot heel. At the last second Edward reached out and caught her elbow. His mother thankfully let go of his other arm and he was able to help the disgraced former best friend out the front door without further incident.
Alaina was still laughing and cursing in turn as she wobbled her way down the sidewalk. It occurred to Edward that the lady might be too drunk to drive, but it wasn’t like he was going to risk life and limb to stop her for a sobriety check. It was Halloween. Hopefully there would be the usual checkpoint outside their neighborhood just waiting for all of the rich people to be driving home after a night of partying. It was a rough life, but someone had to do it. Right?
Edward sighed and turned around. His mother was screaming at Zane. Her voice was actually understandable even at this distance and being outside. It was pretty damn tempting to just go get in his car and leave. But the house was destroyed and there was really nothing for it. They were going to have to clean up at least some of that mess. And then there was still Gemini King to deal with too.
“What is wrong with you? I said pick up those pieces and I meant it!”
When Edward walked back into the house Tisha was pointing at the shattered remnants of the Tiffany lamp that had once sat on the hall table. Zane was adamantly shaking his head.
“It’s not my mess.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Edward growled. Then he sent a significant look his brother’s direction. “You go take care of the problem upstairs.”
“What problem?” Tisha snapped. “There’s no problem upstairs.”
Edward wondered if she was really able to just put that out of her mind as if it had never happened. “Your late husband’s bastard child is up there. Remember?”
“What?”
“The wolf.” Edward headed for the kitchen to retrieve a broom from the closet where Lupita kept most of the cleaning supplies. “The one that came crashing in through the front door? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that. Did you drink that much wine?”
Tisha had a very distinct deer in the headlights look. “That was Gemini King?”
“You knew?” Zane gaped at their mother. “This whole time you knew
that there was another child involved? That Dad had a child from a previous relationship? You knew.”
“Of course I knew!” Tisha said bitterly. “Not that he told me himself, mind you. I found out after we were married because I wondered where all of the money was going every month. He was paying that woman out the ass! Let me tell you. That stopped right away when your father died. I wasn’t about to keep subsidizing that lazy bitch.”
“The guy is thirty-one, Mother.” Edward could hardly believe his mother’s rudeness and all around selfish behavior. “Dad was probably helping his son because he wanted to. It had nothing to do with the guy’s mother.”
“He probably belongs in jail.” Tisha actually patted her hair as though she were just now worried about the fact that her former best friend had attempted to rip it out. Turning to the mirror in the hallway, Tisha started primping. “Good gracious, I look a fright!”
Edward struggled not to roll his eyes. He needed to get the broom, clean up the mess, and get the hell out of here. Then he needed to figure out a way to mend fences between himself and Diana Appleton. “Mother, can you please keep your mind on the task at hand?”
“What?” Tisha glared at him in the mirror. “There’s nothing to keep my mind on. You boys will call the police. They will come to the house. They will arrest that man and they will charge him with breaking and entering, assault, and destruction of property. He will go to jail and then we will be absolutely rid of him. End of story.”
“That’s your answer!” Zane gaped at her.
It was obvious that Zane was horrified. So was Edward. The idea of a shifter getting locked in a cage where he could not shift and had no liberty was almost more than Edward could even handle thinking about, much less consigning even his worst enemy to that fate.
“He’s our half brother,” Edward growled. “We’re not going to do that. We’re going to talk about why he was here in the first place. We’re going to talk about why you—yes you, Mother—sent Orion to hurt Diana. That’s what we’re going to talk about.”
It was mostly hints and speculation at this point, but there was almost no doubt in Edward’s mind that all of these events were somehow connected. Their eldest brother was a mess. He was so strung out on Absinthe that it was almost impossible to get a straight story out of him. He was pissed off at them all and somehow so deep into following their mother’s orders that he could no longer think for himself. Orion was slipping into an abyss and Edward would do anything to stop that from happening. This was his brother and not just a random stranger. But he was willing to do the same thing for Gemini too because like it or not, the guy was their half brother.
“You will call the police or I will do it for you!” Tisha gazed up at Edward from underneath her messy bouffant hair and out of eyes smudged with dark makeup. She most definitely looked like the morning after Halloween. That was for sure.
“And I’m going to tell them that you’re lying.” Edward could not believe he was doing this. What was he trying to accomplish? Did he actually want to sever his ties with his family? Was that what he was attempting? He’d always been the one brother with one foot out the door. Now it seemed he was going to be putting the other one out as well. Edward took a deep breath for fortitude. “I will tell the police that you’re trying to commit insurance fraud because you want to be reimbursed for the damage, but the truth was that you were down here fighting with your friend and that’s what the mess is from.”
“Oh, you wouldn’t.” Tisha’s sound of outrage was high pitched and sounded a lot like a cornered badger. “You would not do that! I will... I will disown you!”
“You guys already have!” Edward fired back. From the corner of his eye he could see Zane thinking this through. His brother had to realize that it was true. “All of you have disowned me. I don’t get the land or a share of the company. I’m just the one figuring out where the damn money went! You want the money and you want me to trace it, but you’re not going to even bother to give me a piece of what you want me to find for all of you. Now you want to threaten me with that? You’re out of your mind.”
Edward had honestly intended to clean up the mess. He was going to get the broom and sweep up the glass and the rest of the mess. That was his honest intention. Now though he didn’t feel like he cared enough to do it. So with one more meaningful look in Zane’s direction, Edward turned around and left the house for what in his mind was the very last time.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The morning after Halloween. It was a thing. That was true. But usually it was not a thing for Diana Appleton. She was not typically one of those people who dragged their carcasses into work after a late night of far too much candy and alcohol. That wasn’t the way Diana lived her life. It just didn’t work that way for her. But right now? Right now Diana felt as though her eyelids were made of sandpaper. She was so exhausted. She needed a good week of sleep to catch up at this rate. It was like life was determined to wear her out or something.
At least the office was quiet. It was only seven o’clock in the morning, but with the seven hour time difference in Abruzzo, Italy, it was two in the afternoon there. That meant it was a good time to call when the residents were indoors for the afternoon and either doing work or snoozing peacefully in their recliners. Lifestyles in Italy were far different from those in the US. Although it was safe to say that lifestyles in the US were different from pretty much everywhere else on the planet. Most cultures knew how to relax and enjoy life between workdays. Diana was feeling increasingly certain that she did not.
The Amatuzzio file was open on her desktop. Diana knew that this was her only chance to circumvent the shitstorm that was coming. Gwen was going to waste no time telling tales about Diana. Before long Mr. Pallister would be coming into the office and Diana felt as though she needed to at least have this loose end tied up if she wanted a prayer of keeping her job.
It wasn’t going to be easy, though. The notes that Gwen had made on the file were horrendous. She had apparently called the broker and gotten nowhere. Diana could imagine that she had been incredibly rude to the man. Then when the broker would not just give into Gwen’s heavy-handed demands she had called the seller. Of course, it had pretty much gone downhill from there. So here Diana was; holding the bag and hoping that she could find a way to apologize.
With a shaky sigh and even shakier hands, Diana picked up the phone and dialed the broker. He answered within two rings. “Ah, Ms. Appleton?” he said in heavily-accented English. “I expected you to call yesterday.”
“I apologize for that, but I was hoping to make certain that I had all of the information before I bothered you again.” Diana bit her lip. “Especially after the rudeness of my colleague the other day.”
“Yes. That—what is her name?” There was a rustle of paper on the other end of the line and Diana could picture the man in his dim and cool office near the town square. It was picturesque to even walk into the building. “Ah yes. Gwen! Gwen Pallister. I believe she is someone important in your firm. Yes?”
“No. She is someone who thinks she is important because her grandfather is the man in charge.” Diana hoped she could score points by being very, very blunt. The sky outside her window was cloudy. It was a dull Dallas day on this first day of November, and Diana really wished she could have been in Italy instead of here.
“I see.” The broker’s tone was flat and irritated. “I suppose the problem with this is that Mr. Amatuzzio is now feeling unwilling to sell. He did not appreciate your Gwen Pallister’s behavior. He feels she is a brazen woman who does not know her place and he does not care to do business with her or anyone she represents.”
“I see.” Diana exhaled. “I will have to call Mr. Lucietto then to give him the news. He will be so very disappointed. He and his wife had already started packing up their home here in Dallas in anticipation of the move to Abruzzo. In fact, he had been researching international shipping accommodations for his horses.”
“I’m so s
orry to have to disappoint him.” The broker did not actually sound very disappointed. “Perhaps we can look at other properties the next time he comes to Italy. I would love to sell him another palazzo.”
The Amatuzzio palazzo was on land and situated in such a way that it was almost like having a farm in your backyard without nearly as much hassle since there were families who had worked the land and cared for the livestock for generations upon generations. The Amatuzzio palazzo was almost like its own little feudal town. That was what appealed to Mr. Lucietto of Dallas, Texas, who had made his money in oil and natural gas even though his family had been ranching stock for nearly a hundred years.
“Thank you, sir,” Diana said, keeping her tone respectful. She would still have to deal with this man time and time again. It would be no good to make him angry. “I will let my client know that we need to make another trip out there. If you could email me a few options I will have a meeting with him to decide if there are any places that strike his fancy.”
“I will do that. Thank you.” The end of the call was very abrupt and Diana was putting the phone down and staring at it as though it was a trusted pet that had just turned to savage her.
She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting there at her desk before she realized that there was someone else there with her. Her whole body startled as she looked up expecting to see Mr. Bryan Pallister with a look of sheer disapproval on his face. But it wasn’t Mr. Pallister in her office. It was Edward King.
“Edward?” Diana tried to ignore the leap of her heart and the jump in her pulse. She wasn’t supposed to be excited to see him. She wasn’t supposed to care at all. And dammit, she did not care that he smelled so incredibly good either. “Edward, why are you here?”
There. That was better. She needed to put some emotional distance between them. It was imperative if she was going to survive in this world where his family was an absolute disaster and he seemed so determined to be up to his neck in their bullshit.
Billion Dollar Wolves: Boxset Bks 1-5 Page 43