“What? Why?” Eleni wanted to get up, but if her mother was right and there was someone out there trying to serve a warrant or something, maybe it would be bad for Eleni to be seen.
“I don’t know. Something about Michael.” Alaina sounded a bit breathless as she finally made it to the living room where she proceeded to crawl behind a couch.
“Michael.” Eleni frowned. “Are you talking about Michael Walker, your former live-in boyfriend?”
“Yes! Do you know any other Michaels?”
Eleni could not believe that they were sitting here hiding from some legal action brought about by a man who had almost been a stepfather to Eleni for something like six years. Taking a deep breath, Eleni stood up and marched to the front door.
“Don’t you dare tell them I’m here!” Alaina called out.
Eleni could not imagine that it was really that bad. Michael Walker had loved Aliana despite her failings as a—well, as a person actually. Eleni steeled herself and opened the door. She wasn’t exactly sure what she intended to find, but it certainly wasn’t what was there.
A squat man in his sixties with a shock of white hair stood on the doorstep with a badge displayed prominently in one hand. He had a sheaf of papers in the other all piled atop a clipboard.
“Alaina Ariosa?” The man was so intense that he actually leaned forward as he spoke as though he were going to push his way past Eleni and storm right into the house.
“No.” Eleni stepped outside onto the step and had to nudge the idiot out of her way before finally being able to close the door behind her. “I’m Eleni Ariosa. I’m her daughter. What’s the problem?”
“Do you live here?”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.” Eleni wondered if this was how all of these guys behaved or if this guy was just worse than most. “You haven’t even told me who you are.”
He looked miffed, as though his badge were supposed to explain it all. “I’m a process server.”
“I’m sorry, you’ll have to be a little more specific,” Eleni said with painful politeness. “I’ve never had any legal experience with that sort of thing. What is it you’re servicing?”
“A summons for your mother to come to court!” The man was glowering so hotly that Eleni fancied she could feel the glare burning her skin. “Your mother is one helluva hard woman to get ahold of!”
“Okay. That’s probably because she’s not home much.” Eleni didn’t really know that for certain, but this guy was a bit of a jerk anyway so what did it matter. “What is this court thing about?”
“Mr. Michael Walker has brought suit against your mother for financial damages. He states that your mother owes him more than twenty-five thousand dollars that she racked up in credit card debt before they separated.”
“I see.” Eleni pursed her lips. “Well, it’s unlikely that you’re going to be able to serve this summons to my mother. Can I take it?”
The little man perked up like a dog on point. “Sure. Just sign here.” He brandished his clipboard at Eleni and let her scribble her name down. “Now you have to make sure that your mother gets this information. She’s been served, so if she fails to show up in court on the twenty-eighth of December they will issue a bench warrant for her arrest.”
“I’ve got the idea.” In her mind Eleni was wondering just how much they could sell all of that Orville’s merchandise for. Was it enough to hire an attorney? Because at this point they really needed one.
“Holy cow!” The process server was trying to get a peek into the house as Eleni moved to open the door. “What happened in there? Is it a garage sale or a fire sale you have going on here?”
Eleni stepped back into the house and shut the door in the little man’s face. It was pretty obvious that he was trying to rubberneck. “Bye now! Thanks for the information.”
After shutting the door and leaning back against it, Eleni exhaled a sigh. She pulled out the summons and read it through. There was a lot of legalese and mumbo jumbo, but the gist of it was pretty easy to understand.
“Mom!” Eleni shouted. “Mom, did you steal Michael’s credit cards while he lived with you?”
“Steal them? No! What are you talking about?” Alaina appeared in the doorway between the living room and the front foyer. She looked a little worse for her crawling around on the floor, but it was really her expression that gave Eleni pause. She looked as though she were getting ready to tell a whopper of a lie. “I didn’t steal his credit cards! He just doesn’t remember giving them to me!”
“Were you ever an authorized user?” Eleni demanded even though she already knew the answer.
“Well, no.”
“And when he loaned you a card, did you ever give it back? Or did you just take it and then return it whenever you had maxed it out?” Eleni had a bad feeling she already knew the answer to this one.
“His limits were kind of pathetic,” her mother mumbled. “I really don’t know why anyone would be upset about that sort of thing. It’s not like he didn’t know I was using them.”
“Did you tell him that you were going to pay him back?” Unfortunately, Eleni knew exactly how this had happened.
Her mother began sifting through some of the merchandise ready to go by the doorway. It had been shoved into the alcove near the front door. “I don’t know. I suppose it’s possible that I might have told him that just to make him feel better.”
“And did you pay him anything?”
“I didn’t have anything!” her mother protested. “Have you seen the markets lately? I’m broke! Flat. Broke.”
Eleni pointed at her mother and then gestured to all of the stuff she had stacked in piles around the house. “Then you had better get moving on the sale of all this stuff. If you don’t, you’re going to be representing yourself in court. “
“That’s not fair!”
“Doesn’t matter if it’s fair or not!” Eleni snarled. “You can’t just expect everyone else to pull your weight for you! You’re not rich anymore, Mom! You are dirt poor! You have to be willing to do what you have to do in order to make sure you can pay your bills, pull your weight, and make ends meet! And if that means you use your ill-gotten gains to get some cash to pay your legal bills, then that’s what you’re going to do! You have to be in court on the twenty-eighth of December. If I were you I would hurry up and sell this stuff so you can hire some legal representation!”
“No!”
Before Eleni could even guess her mother’s intention, Alaina grabbed hold of her daughter with both hands around her neck. Eleni gasped and struggled, but Alaina was desperate and stronger than she looked.
“You don’t tell me what to do!” Alaina snarled. “You are my daughter. If I want to spend every single penny that you have, I will! You have life because of me. I gave birth to you! And so help me I will take your life away! The way I see it you had better get yourself to the altar so that I have some money to pay my bills and take care of myself. Do you understand?”
Eleni could not speak. Her mother’s fingers were closing on her windpipe and for just a second Eleni thought she might pass out. Her vision curled and blackened at the edges as she struggled to stay conscious.
“I think the best thing for us right now is for you to find some way to drag Orion King to the altar. You got me? You marry Orion King and get me the money I need, or you might as well just put your house on the market and get ready to move back home so you can take care of your dear old mother!” Alaina Ariosa glared right in Eleni’s face before flinging her away as though she were nothing more than a piece of trash she was discarding. “And by the way, happy Christmas Eve. I hope you got me something good for Christmas because as far as I’m concerned, you owe me.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Uh, gentlemen, how can I help you?” Paul Westin looked up from his desk with a very distinctive deer-in-the-headlights expression on his face. He was an average guy. Average height, average weight, average brown hair and brown eyes, an
d wearing an average-looking suit. He was not a brilliant trial lawyer. But then he did not have to be. He was a probate lawyer. “It’s Christmas Eve. I was leaving early to make sure I got home for all of the festivities. You know?”
The lawyer gave a hearty laugh as though he honestly expected Orion, Devon, and Zane King to laugh right along with him before they apologized and headed home. Of course, this wasn’t going to happen. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Orion and his brothers had come to the lawyer for answers. It wasn’t that Orion felt the lawyer was intentionally hiding things from the King brothers. It was more that he was probably just trying to lay low until probate court settled all of this stuff. And since that was a bit like watching paint dry, the attorney was happily billing the King brothers for his time and filing documents with the court pretty much as slowly as possible.
Zane plopped into a chair right in front of Paul Westin’s desk. He ran his fingers through his hair and smiled wolfishly. “Mr. Westin, I’m so sorry to delay the start of your holiday, but I don’t think this will take long.”
“Oh?” Westin looked faintly ill. He plopped down in his own desk chair. “What can I do for you then? I believe I sent all of you an email letting you know that the judge was still looking at supporting documentation from all sides. I can’t tell you how complicated things have become now that your brother Jason has filed his own claim against the estate for the ranch property. And then there was the attempted sale and development of that property while it was in probate. The judge was very confused by that nonsense.”
“Yeah, so were we,” Devon grumbled. He nudged Orion. “But I think Orion has a very specific item he wants to discuss.”
“The prenup,” Orion agreed. “Our parents had a prenuptial agreement.”
Paul Westin’s throat bobbed as he looked from one King brother to the other. “A prenuptial agreement?”
“Please.” Devon pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. He looked like a parent getting a massive headache because of the stupidity of children. “Don’t play dumb. We all knew there was a prenup.”
“Well, yes.” Westin cleared his throat. “Nobody is arguing that point. I’m just wondering what it has to do with the posthumous division of property.”
“Well,” Orion drawled. “We could start with the violation of the prenup before my father’s death that resulted in his decision to divorce our mother.”
“Violation?” Westin squeaked the word. “But your father is dead. The prenup is no longer valid.”
“Sorry, but I feel like it was valid,” Orion snapped. He leaned forward and glared at Westin. “And that court might find it interesting reading. You know, because she is asking them for a division of property that is other than the will specifies.”
“Meaning,” Devon continued, picking up for Orion. “That our mother absolutely knew she was going to be left out on her ear begging her sons for money if Big Mac King divorced her. But she had no idea that the will was going to try and do the same thing.”
“I want the judge to see that document!” Orion was getting irritated. He could not understand why this attorney was being so obtuse. It was like he was afraid to do the right thing. That begged the question of whether or not he was afraid. Had their mother gotten to him? It would have made some sense really. “You don’t think that it’s critical information?”
There was a moment of silence in the office. Orion gazed around and noticed that there were dozens upon dozens of photographs of Paul Westin and his family in this office. They were tucked into the bookcase filled with legal volumes. They sat on the corners of his desk. There were vacation photographs on the wall that showed Paul and a tiny smiling woman with four kids on a sailboat. It was obvious that Paul Westin was a family man. There were even some homemade Christmas decorations that suggested Paul Westin’s children and their loving mother had come into Daddy’s office to spruce up his space for Christmas. There was no doubt in Orion’s mind that this man was the sort of family man that would have appealed to Big Mac King.
Mac King was a family man as well. He had loved spending time with his sons. He had enjoyed every second of fatherhood. Even the parts when Jason and Zane had been driving him absolutely nuts while their hormones raged out of control and they seemed to make every bad decision available to them. Hell, hadn’t Mac King embraced his illegitimate son, raised him, paid for his education, and made certain that he and his mother were cared for until Gemini could support himself?
“Mr. Westin,” Orion said, taking another approach. “It occurs to me that you have a lot to lose here.”
Westin blinked in surprise. “Excuse me?”
Orion could feel his brothers staring at him in surprise as well. Orion didn’t look at them. They knew better than to think that there was no plan behind what he was saying. “Yes. You have a family. Our mother is one crazy woman. I would not put it past her to come in here and threaten you. I believe that we all know that Tisha Olivares-King was responsible for the death of her husband Mac King.”
“Your father’s death was ruled accidental,” Westin was quick to point out.
Devon bobbed his head. “True. And we’re not asking you to prove otherwise. We don’t have any intention of trying to change the coroner’s ruling.”
The relief on Paul Westin’s face was plain as day. “Then we can all agree that the prenup has nothing to do with this.”
“No. You misunderstand.” Orion was almost sure that their mother had gotten to this poor man. “Did she threaten your kids or your wife?”
“What?” Westin half stood as though he were contemplating the thought of fleeing the scene. “What are you talking about?”
“We aren’t stupid. We know how our mother operates. Either she threatened your kids and your wife or you or she offered you some huge settlement if she gets what she wants. Which one is it?”
Westin’s eyes darted around the room. It was obvious that he knew he’d been caught out in whatever was going on. It was just going to depend on what his thoughts were on the situation. It didn’t take long for him to fold. The relief was palpable on his face. “She threatened my family. Not right out, mind you. But our kids go to a very nice private school and your mother threatened to make our children and our family pariahs at the school.”
That might have sounded ridiculous in any other context. Unfortunately, Orion was a little more cognizant of what happened to children who grew up as social pariahs in their communities. Social suicide was painful for a family to endure. And when your demise was orchestrated by a woman who had connections in all the right places and a penchant for vicious lies, there was no doubt in Orion’s mind what poor Paul Westin was envisioning.
“Okay. Stop thinking about that.” Orion pointed at Paul. “I understand that you’re worried and I understand why. But you’re forgetting that we have resources too. We want our mother’s hands tied. We want her off the board of directors. We want her influence out of our company and away from our lives.”
“What does the prenuptial agreement say?” Devon demanded suddenly. He placed his hands flat on the desk. “Nobody has seen it. It’s like some closely held secret. What does it have to say about the infidelities?”
“It was an odd document.” Paul Westin was barely murmuring the words as if he were struggling with whether or not he should speak and be honest or continue to insist that it didn’t matter. “I wasn’t the one who drafted it obviously. But both of your parents agreed to the terms. There were items in there about children and how they were to be raised. Your mother was required to provide your father with five children. That was a stipulation. And they had to be born before the marriage was ten years old.”
“Ten years,” Orion muttered. “I suppose that explains why we’re so close together.”
Westin shook his head. “It gets stranger still. I promise. There’s a stipulation in there that if your mother cannot provide your father with an heir, that he is free to sire a child outsid
e the marriage with a mistress of his choosing that will then be his heir and the sole beneficiary of the estate upon his death.”
Zane whistled and sucked in a sharp breath of shock that Orion knew both he and Devon felt as well. Then Zane snorted and shook his head. “Poor Gemini. It would have been better for him if we’d never been born, huh?”
“Gemini?” Westin looked confused.
Was it possible that the estate attorney had no idea that there had been a child born out of the marriage? Orion could absolutely see how this had played out inside his head. “We have an older half brother,” Orion explained to the attorney. “Considering what you’ve just said, I figure our mother didn’t actually take all of that seriously until Dad went and had a kid with another woman. All of a sudden she stood to inherit nothing.”
Paul Westin gaped. His slack-jawed absorption of this information was almost painful to witness. Then he started muttering to himself. He grabbed a pencil and began doodling words on a yellow legal pad. He was obviously reconsidering everything.
“You really didn’t know about Gemini?” Orion asked quietly. He felt like this was probably an oversight from a lot of angles. “Nobody mentioned it to you?”
“No. Your father never mentioned it.” Paul did not look up from his doodling. “Your mother certainly wasn’t going to mention it. She came in here and got in my face about the accusations of her infidelity with Tex Johnson. She claimed that was all just office gossip. And of course since Mr. Johnson was dead at that time, there was no real way of verifying anything.”
“My wife can verify that,” Devon offered suddenly.
Orion and Zane turned to stare at their brother. Zane cleared his throat. “Are you saying that Kami can verify it? Like she witnessed something?”
“Actually, yes. It’s not something she ever divulged to me for reasons I’m sure you can imagine.” Devon made a vague gesture to Orion. “But after Orion paid us a visit the other day, Kami mentioned that she had walked in on Mother and Tex en flagrante delicto once several years back. She was embarrassed and felt like it wasn’t her business to say anything about it since she was part of the janitorial staff.”
Billion Dollar Wolves: Boxset Bks 1-5 Page 109