“Then I suppose that means I did my job correctly.”
She nuzzled him and nibbled the skin near the base of his neck. “I hope it isn’t a job.”
“Never a job.” He sighed and kissed her once again. “I love you. I hope you know that.”
She thought about the last time that he’d said the words. She hadn’t been ready then. Or maybe she’d been ready but not ready to say it. Now though? “I love you too, Edward. I love you so much. I want to be with you forever, and there is nobody on this earth that I want to run away with more than I do you.”
“Is it really running away?” He sounded dubious.
For some reason Diana felt like it was so very important to make this point right now. “It is absolutely running away! I want to run away. I want to put Dallas behind me. I want to leave your family and my family and all of that drama behind. I want to make a point that we are running to something better and I want everyone in my life and your life to know it!”
He was laughing now. “All right. All right. You’ve convinced me. I’ll run away with you.”
“Good.” Then Diana pressed her face to his chest and exhaled a sigh. “What do you think? Real estate? The broker would help me get started. Maybe we could even work for him. I know it would be handy to have people who speak English as a first language when he’s dealing with all of these American transactions.”
“I think that’s a good place to start.” He seemed to be thinking about something very particular. “I would like to eventually buy our own palazzo. I don’t know. I’d like to have the kind of place where we could maybe have some land and some guests.”
“Ooo!” Diana’s brain was already going a thousand miles a minute. “Destination weddings! It’s the perfect solution! Small wedding parties, total luxury, and maybe an American werewolf in Italy to add some spice to the endeavor.”
“You really have a head for business, don’t you?” Edward sighed and ran his fingers through her hair. “You amaze me every single day, Diana. Your intelligence and your willingness to try new things even when you have no idea how they might turn out. You’ve inspired me.”
“To leave the security solutions business behind?” Diana paused for a moment and could not help but think that it would be a lot easier to do this if they had the King fortune at their fingertips. “I suppose we’ll just have to use my nest egg from my parents to do this,” Diana mused. “We’ll make it work.”
“Did you think I was a pauper?” He rolled to his side just enough to look down at her. “I’m smart with my money, Diana. I’ve got a nest egg too. And your nest egg plus my nest egg means we do this on our own without having to be beholden to anyone. In my book, that’s the most important thing of all.”
Diana squeezed him tight. This was her partner. This was her man. And this was going to be the best adventure she could have possibly imagined happening to a little girl who had once thought she would never get out from underneath her mother’s overbearing thumb. Sometimes life was just waiting for you to seize the day.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Orion King sat behind his desk and tried to keep it together. His mouth was watering. He was getting to a point where he constantly thought about the Absinthe. Not because he was truly addicted, but because he wanted to get away. None of his brothers understood it. Shifters did not become alcoholics. It did not work that way. It was more complex than that. Orion had been drinking beer. Lots of beer. But beer did not really dull his senses at all. In fact, on many occasions it did the exact opposite. It only served to heighten his senses as the alcoholic content lowered any minimal inhibitions or dampening affects that his humanity had on his wolf nature.
Absinthe was different. Right now Orion could not stop thinking about the bottle in his desk drawer. It was sitting there with a little glass. It wasn’t the correct glass for drinking such a thing. But since he did not mix his with water, perhaps the style of glass he used didn’t matter. Orion would have been happy drinking it directly from the bottle.
Orion got up from his desk. He walked toward the windows and struggled to go past the credenza where yet another bottle of Absinthe was waiting, taunting him. He stood at the window and gazed down at the tiny people running about on the street below. It was still raining outside. It felt as though it would never stop. Orion would have gone out to the ranch to run off his excess energy, but the pretender was out there.
Gemini. Gemini King. The insult had struck Orion the first time he’d heard the name all those years ago at the dinner where his father had sprung that little surprise on both Orion and Tisha Olivares-King. Ever since then Orion had guarded that secret because it should have stayed a secret.
There was a knock at his door. Orion turned around and wished he had locked his door. But it was open. That meant Orion could do nothing but glare when Edward had the audacity to walk right inside the office as though he owned the place. Right now Edward was pretty low on Orion’s list of people he wanted to see. Or rather people he did not want to kill. Edward was his brother, but that wasn’t making it better.
“I need to talk to you about something.” Edward walked into the office and set a manila file folder on Orion’s desk.
His brother was essentially standing behind Orion, but Orion did not turn to look at him. He didn’t want to see what Edward had brought. He wanted Edward to go back down to his desk in the accounting department and stay there. That was the place where Edward could do the most good for the family. And wasn’t that what they were all expected to do?
“I found the missing payroll money.”
Now Orion did turn around. That was a bit of a shock. He stirred himself from his lethargic silence and rubbed his eyes. “At Mother’s request I already paid out those funds.”
“I know. I saw.” Edward made a face. “Although I did notice that you didn’t pay Jason. That was kind of low, don’t you think?”
“I think I’m tired of my brother threatening to take me to court in order to steal my land right out from under me.” Orion didn’t want to talk about Jason. He felt too much guilt about that situation as it was. Couldn’t Edward just lay off for once?
“Yes. Because Jason asking for the land in lieu of the billion dollar company you and Devon have decided to split between the two of you is such a bad decision on his part. Perhaps you should cut him back into King Security Solutions.”
“I don’t see you whining about that,” Orion grumbled. He ran his hands through his hair. He was still having trouble getting past the Absinthe just a few inches away from his left hand on the credenza. He had left the bottle out. Had he done that on purpose in the back of his mind? It was a bit of a conundrum really. But then he was supposed to be in the middle of a conversation about Edward with Edward. “You seem to have no trouble recognizing what your role in this family is and where you belong.”
“Right.” Edward’s tone was flat and maybe even irritated. What the hell? “About that. I’m also here to hand you this.”
Edward laid a long envelope on the desk. Orion frowned. A letter? Why would Edward be handing him a letter? What was that about? Orion cleared his throat. His eyes were tired and his brain was even more exhausted than that. He had no desire to read anything. “What is it?”
“A letter of resignation.” Simple. Direct. Right on the money, and yet Orion was now reeling with shock.
Orion cleared his throat and struggled to find the words. “You must be joking.”
“No. And I found that missing money in our mother’s accounts. Not her personal ones, mind you. It was transferred to Tex Johnson’s accounts. But that was done right before his death and it was done via about ten or twelve different stops through Mother’s accounts”—Edward took a deep breath as though he were afraid to go on—“and some of those transfers went through your bank accounts too, Orion.”
Orion’s brain stopped. It just stopped right there and stalled to silence with the thought that someone could have possibly tried to set him up like
that. Wait. Not someone. His mother?
“You need to be careful,” Edward went on quietly.
Orion stared at his brother’s earnest face and wished that he didn’t resemble their mother. Not that the resemblance was strong, but the blond hair and blue eyes were almost enough to make it incontrovertible. Now Edward was telling Orion that their mother was using him. And Edward was going to what? Just leave?
“You tell me that and then what?” Orion cleared his throat. His throat felt raw. When had that happened? Was it the Absinthe? He was having a hard time speaking clearly. “So you believe that our mother was stealing from the company and then routing it through random bank accounts?”
“No. I believe that our mother is trying to rope you into one of her schemes.” Edward spoke in a clear, concise voice. How could he be so awake at this ungodly hour of—oh. It was actually noon. Okay. Edward was speaking again, but Orion was struggling to keep up. “I believe that Mother is planning to somehow coerce you into being on her side in this whole business war. Remember that she holds less of a percentage than both you and Devon do. Not by much, but you both have five percent more than she does and you outnumber her two to one. She needs you. Between you and her, your combined percentages will outrank Devon. You will wind up being her puppet, Orion, and you have to get ahead of this before she makes her play.”
“Who told you that?” Orion snorted. “Gemini?”
“No. Gemini doesn’t know anything about the business.” Edward shook his head. Was he disgusted with Orion? That was rich.
Well, Orion was disgusted with Edward. “What are you going to do? Stay here in Dallas and just get some random job?”
“No. Diana and I are starting up a real estate investment firm in Italy. That is where we will be based.” Edward said that with a straight face even though Orion knew he must be joking.
“You can’t leave the pack.”
“Watch me.” Edward shook his head. “I need to leave this place. You’re not healthy. You’re dragging the rest of us down with you. I’m through allowing you to do this to me. I love Diana. I want to be with her. We’re going to start a life together and we’re doing it in a place far enough away from Mother that she will forget we existed.”
“Not freaking likely,” Orion muttered darkly. If Edward truly thought that then he was fooling himself.
Edward only shrugged. “I’m leaving. Now. That’s my resignation and I just told you where the money was. I reversed the transactions with a company override so you might get a very angry visit from our mother when her nice little nest egg disappears.” Edward stared at his phone. “Actually I’m going to leave right now because I’m pretty sure she keeps an eye on this stuff and I don’t want to be around when she comes in here to complain.”
Not one word of goodbye or a hug or—wait, what did Orion expect? The friction between him and his brothers was extreme. It was getting worse and not better, and at some point they were probably going to explode and wind up in a full-out dog fight with each other.
Edward closed the door and Orion was left to contemplate the sweetness of Absinthe for roughly thirty seconds or so before his door opened once again. And of course he needed no help identifying his visitor. Tisha Olivares-King was obvious the second she entered a room because of the huge dose of perfume that always came with her.
“Hello, Mother,” Orion said quietly. Then he held his breath because he could actually feel the power of Tisha’s irritation wafting over him. It was horrible. It raised the hair on the back of his neck and made him want to shift into his wolf form just to turn and bare his teeth at her. At least then he would have had a prayer of survival.
“I told you to leave that payroll stuff alone!” Mother snapped. She stomped over to the window and grabbed Orion by the shoulder. She whipped him around to face her. “I told you just to pay the employees off and forget about it!”
“I did.” Orion let that sit for a second before reminding his mother of something she continually seemed to discount. “You never give Edward enough credit, Mother.”
“Edward is a moron,” Tisha muttered. She waved her hand dismissively in the direction of the office where until a few minutes ago Edward had been sitting. “He’ll chase his tail for the rest of the year. You were the one who had access to those funds! They’re gone. Put them back.”
“You really think I could do that? You really think I know how?” Orion growled at her. He was getting angrier and angrier. The urge to bite her was almost overwhelming. “Edward figured out your scheme. He found the money. He traced it right through your accounts and Tex’s accounts and mine! Mine! You dragged me into that bullshit and didn’t think twice! Do you have any idea what that could do to my reputation or my taxes or anything? Do you care? You could get me tossed into prison and you don’t even give a shit. It’s disgusting!”
“Wait.” Her mouth was actually hanging open. If the situation weren’t so screwed up Orion might have found it satisfying or even amusing. Mother put her hand up to her mouth. “You mean that Edward found that money, traced it, and then...then he took it? How could he do that?”
“It was company money, Mother.” Did she really know so little about how the financial end of things worked? Sometimes Orion thought that she knew far more than they gave her credit for and yet there were times when that was obviously not the case. “He just reversed it. Companies do that all the time. You went through the payroll system. They take money back from an employee when there’s an overpayment or when a loan or an advance has to be taken back. Especially if there was an actual transaction number to reverse. You just didn’t anticipate that your son is smart.”
“I’ll kill him!”
“He figured that so he’s gone.” Orion felt the oddest sense of pride in what Edward had done. He could not help it. He hated his brother in so many ways, but nobody could say that Edward wasn’t the smartest of them all. “He and Diana moved to Italy.”
“Excuse me?” Tisha put her hands on her hips and glared up at Orion. “Tell him he can’t go. He can’t do that!”
“Why not? You made it so he has no reason to stay here. He doesn’t want to play your reindeer games, Mother. He’s done. He’s gone. He’s out of your reach and so you might as well put him out of your mind too.”
It was satisfying to say that. Orion had never told their mother anything like that before. She had always been the one that he was told he had to cater to. She was the matriarch. Even when their father had been alive it had been Tisha to make Orion feel like the most important child in the family. Especially when their father had let it be known that he had another son. The real oldest. The real leader of the King Wolf Pack.
“Everyone is betraying me!” Tisha Olivares-King whispered. She put both hands up to her face and for one moment Orion thought she might be crying. Then the snarling laughter started and he knew that his mother wasn’t down for the count. Not at all. Quite the opposite. “They’re going to rue the day, Orion. They are! That silly Alaina Ariosa. Those horrible Orvilles! And now my own son. And don’t you think that bastard boy of your father’s is going to become an issue either. You stay with me and the two of us will make sure that Gemini King can’t try to inherit one piece of our property. It’s mine. And then it will be yours. Do you understand?”
Orion understood all right. Edward’s words were ringing in his ears. Edward had been exactly right. Their mother was playing a deadly game pitting one brother against another and trying to weasel her way up the ladder to the top of the company. Soon enough there would be nothing but dead shifters beneath her stiletto heels. And then it would all be over.
Eyes in the Back of Her Head
Chapter One
Landry Fisher was having a bad day. No. Strike that. A bad year. And maybe if pressed she would have to say that she was having a bad life. The bank officer sitting behind his oversized and probably overpriced desk was giving her a look as though he agreed with her private and silent assessment. This was going to
be another one of those meetings. Landry could tell.
“Ms. Fisher, we’ve given you two extensions on your mortgage payments. We understand that you’re having a tough time keeping your financial commitments. But in this current financial climate we cannot be simply shrugging our shoulders and handing out due date extensions at every turn.” The man—his nameplate read Mr. Dawson—looked at her over the top of his glasses.
Why was it that every time a real or imagined authority figure looked at her in that way Landry felt as though she were being judged? It was a horrible sort of situation. In that moment she was reduced to ten years old and staring up at her grandmother and wishing that the old woman would just lighten up! Not that Grandma Fisher had ever lightened up about anything in her life. More like the old lady had gotten stricter and stricter until one day she had potentially died from a strangled sphincter. Or at least those were the thoughts that Landry often entertained herself with when she was trying to resist the urge to give in to her red-headed temper.
“Ms. Fisher?” Mr. Dawson did the over-the-glasses thing again.
Landry bit her lip. She had enough money in her checking account to make the payment. It was just that she would have absolutely not a penny for food, gas, or even her utilities for the rest of the month. Maybe she could sell a kidney.
He did it again and Landry lost her battle to keep her mouth shut. “Could you stop doing that?”
“Excuse me?”
“You look at me over the top of your glasses. It’s quite demeaning really.” Landry had already blown it, so at this point the words just tumbled out. “I don’t know if perhaps your glasses are for reading and you don’t need them to see me, but I feel like you should probably just take them off if that’s really the case. It might be something for you to think about because when you do that over-the-glasses thing you look as though you’re trying to impersonate a school principal and I have to tell you that it’s really aggravating.” She paused and swallowed. “At least from this side of the desk. I just thought you should know,” she added at the last second.
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