She grinned. “That’s a great question. We’ve been looking to incorporate it into our energy solutions plan, and we’ve looked at both active and passive technologies.” She chuckled, but her eyes were bright. I wasn’t the only one passionate about the topic. “Some of the bigger oil companies prefer to concentrate on oil and natural gas, but ultimately, it’s a finite resource. Gentry’s goal is to keep King Oil relevant for centuries to come.”
For the rest of the meal, I geeked out with her. She was a wealth of knowledge and my respect for Gentry grew along with my appreciation for how Xander had defended Kendall against my initial stereotype.
I didn’t know how the rest of my marriage would go, but at least we’d make it through lunch.
Xander
After the college question, my steak tasted like sawdust. I’d managed to answer it without lying, but not telling the truth was just as sour.
Chief wasn’t done asking the blunt questions Dad had been needling me about for years. “Where do you live, Xander? Where’s my daughter getting whisked away to?”
There was no sugarcoating my answer. “I use my brother’s place for a physical address, but otherwise my home is wherever I land and can find work while I take pictures.”
Silence descended around the table. Dad bypassed doing that awkward thing where he made excuses for me, and I had to give him some credit. He didn’t belittle me in front of Chief and Lex. He let me answer for my own damn life, which at the moment seemed worse.
“You’re homeless?” Lex asked in a flat tone. Chief shot him a disapproving glare, but it was probably for the sake of my dad. If I weren’t a King, this would be a slaughter.
“In the literal sense? I guess. I saw a chance to learn about the world firsthand and not from behind some desk and I took it. Could I go buy a house? Sure.” No. I couldn’t, not unless I asked Dad to loan me some money and then I’d have to tell him why I didn’t have any and what I’d been living off of since I’d left home. “I choose not to.”
That was a laugh. I couldn’t even afford to rent an apartment.
“Well, then,” Chief’s voice boomed. “You’re more than welcome to come out to our place for a while. Meet Sapphire’s mother and my other two daughters. They’re all named after jewels because they’re so precious.”
Savvy had said it was so he could leverage them for top dollar to be worn on some man’s arm. “Savvy’s told me a lot about them.”
“Just call your mother first.” Chief speared his steak. “She’s going to be surprised.”
He might be giddy that I connected him to King Oil, but he was having a hard time giving away his daughter to a stranger. If the arrogant bastard across the table weren’t his preferred option, I’d respect Chief a little more.
Then it sank in. I had to meet her mother. And her sisters, Em and Pearl. Were they anything like Chief or Lex? Were they going to ask the same questions so I could fail the son-in-law test with the same answers?
“I’ll be interested to see how your travels are affected.” Dad held his glass of brandy loosely, his other arm around Kendall. A fleeting moment of gratefulness hit me for having Chief around, even Lex. Without either of them, I’d be getting interrogated, and with Savvy, I couldn’t just leave on the first international flight out of Vegas.
“Time will tell. It’s early yet and we have to meet each other’s families.”
I looked at Savvy but I couldn’t read her expression. I hadn’t known her long, but I knew her well enough that if she didn’t want to bring me home, or meet my brothers, she wouldn’t say so around Chief, and definitely not Lex.
“Good to know you’ll be in the States for a while.” Dad’s smile was faint, hesitant. “Maybe we’ll actually get a chance to visit.”
“Maybe.” My chest burned. I’d love to sit around and shoot the shit with Dad, but I’d gotten really good at making sure we were never alone together, that there was always someone else so I could redirect the conversation if I needed to. And with Dad, I needed to.
A guy could have a lot less than a dad who gave a crap about him. But my dad had been married with a kid by nineteen. He’d gone to work for Mama’s parents. Grams and Grandpa DB had founded the oil company and built it from the ground up. When Mama had died, then DB, Dad had been made CEO, and Grams had been satisfied with controlling shares. That had been when Dad was only a few years older than I was now.
Talking with Dad made me feel like a useless fuck. A fraud. Lazy. Add in that he thought I’d only married for the trust fund money and not because I found Savvy enchanting and irresistible, and it was like dumping napalm on my inner fire of shame.
Kendall dove in for the save. I hadn’t been around her a lot, but she seemed to sense when Dad’s fatherliness was tapping me out. She peppered Chief with more questions about what he did and his time in the military.
I finished my food only because it’d look weird if I didn’t when Savvy was pushing her salad around and rearranging her croutons.
Before the rest of us were done eating, Dad set his napkin on the table. “I apologize for cutting out early, but I have more meetings in Billings.” He met my gaze. “I need to let the pilot know if you’re joining us.”
Savvy jerked her attention off her Caesar and met my questioning gaze. I wasn’t ready to go to Montana and get more knowing looks from my brothers. Two of them had married for the trust money, but their marriages had lasted more than a year. They were real. I had yet to prove mine was.
Nobody missed our moment of hesitation. Savvy and I had no idea what we were going to do or where we were going to go. Lex’s brows crept higher the longer it took us to answer.
I took the chance of speaking for us. Vaguely, because that was what I did best. “I’m afraid we’d only hold you up. Savvy’s coworker is still in town and we need to arrange our things.”
She nodded like a puppet was yanking her strings. “Yes. We’re not done in Vegas yet.”
I’d had a few more drinks than I should’ve last night, but I recalled her saying that she’d been looking for jobs in the city.
Did she still want that? Because if I was going to put down roots, it wasn’t going to be in Las Vegas. Montana was in my blood. It was where I always came back to. Even away from Montana, I always stayed away from cities, crowds, and the worst pollution.
“Don’t take too long,” Chief said. His eyes crinkled like he was smiling, but there was a measure of warning in his eyes. “I can’t do without my best assistant.”
Savvy’s lips pursed. She’d thought he’d let up after she was married. She must’ve thought it was a slam dunk after she’d found out who I was. But it was dawning on both of us that he’d be more tenacious than ever, because Dad couldn’t say no to a company his new daughter-in-law worked for.
I guess we were going to Washington, DC.
Chapter 5
Savvy
I needed a divorce.
We stood outside the restaurant, our dads and Lex gone. Xander faced me and I avoided looking at him. Chief had given Xander a hearty handshake before leaving. Lex had murmured, Call me if you need anything. Like I needed a rescue. Like I’d go to him for a rescue if I did.
No, I’d only married one of the few people in the world that the Chief would approve of.
Way to go, Savvy.
Chief’s collar around my neck would stay secure until he landed the King Oil account. And then he’d yank it even tighter. Last night, Xander’s world travels had sounded exotic, worldly, and full of all the adventure that’d bring me closer to the planet I was trying to save. But under the harsh casino lights today, our future looked bleak and uncertain.
I didn’t have a home. He didn’t have a home either, and the way he’d evaded his father’s questions, it didn’t sound like he planned to make one anywhere close to Montana. That left my side of the country. With my parents. With Chief parading me and Xander around so he could show all his friends how his daughter had married into an oil empire.
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We could make our own start somewhere. Which was what? Flying across the ocean and backpacking the world? While I would love the opportunity, I wanted to make a difference in the world. To carve out my own little niche. I’d thought Vegas was the start of that. I thought I’d land King Oil and become a leading consultant in future energy technologies. Now I’d torched that. I was tired of needing my hand held while I navigated life. If I was going to recover my dignity and build a professional reputation, I had to be responsible. That might mean sucking it up and working for Chief and saving money. My own money. Money I could use to build my future. A future that I’d earned and hadn’t been handed to me because of who I slept with. My family’s wealth was held against me. I risked that working for Chief too, but at least I’d know I’d earned every cent. He was a demanding boss.
“Savvy. Talk to me.”
I dragged my gaze up to Xander and his dark eyes, just one reason why looking at him was a bad idea. He was too good-looking for my sanity. And then there was last night.
My body certainly wasn’t on board with researching how to annul a marriage. I couldn’t even consider whether a divorce would be better or worse while he was in my line of sight. I just wanted to be with him again and pretend our life was wide open and easy to navigate.
I had to be smart about this, to think through the repercussions. “We can’t stay married.”
His concerned expression fell. “Because of who my dad is?”
As callous as it sounded, yes. “Xander, I got married thinking it’d be the big coup I needed to keep my parents from taking over my life. Chief’s going to double down on making me his prize pony. Even if he does get the King Oil deal, he’ll want to lock it down long-term, and having me work for him will do that.”
“Then job hunt.”
“Where? Here? All the money I have, I got from Chief.” My mother’s family was loaded, but Chief made a healthy income of his own and he was the one that helped me out. It had been Mother’s idea to call my Georgetown bluff and withhold any help for college. I’d be living in a dive with four roommates like Brady, one missed rent payment away from homeless, if it were up to my mother.
He lifted a shoulder and while I loved the casual look on him, his hoodie hid his muscles. Ones I’d licked last night. “Chief wants me to meet the family.”
“And you think you want that?” My sisters were going to worm their way down my throat trying to get the answer to why I’d married him. Then they’d say I told you so and it wouldn’t matter that they hadn’t said it in the first place.
“What do you want, Savvy?” he asked quietly and I realized that he’d never agreed with me about the divorce. Was that good or bad?
If he announced that he’d do whatever it took to dissolve our marriage, how would I feel?
I’d been broken up with before, but being casually divorced by my husband of less than twenty-four hours would seriously dent my ego. I couldn’t even blame it on him being a gold digger.
“I don’t know,” I finally admitted. “I went to college and got a degree in something my parents thought was a waste of time. The first job I got out of college didn’t pay enough for me to move out. Now I’m married and unemployed. I wanted to stand on my own, make a difference, Xander. Instead, I’m more dependent on my father than ever.” My globe-wandering, struggling photographer of a husband was from a wealthier family than I was. I couldn’t even rebel right.
He studied me for a moment. My body heated more with each heartbeat. Sex was the last thing on my mind, but my hormones weren’t getting the message.
“I’ve been meaning to go to Kosovo,” he said. “There’s an interpreter I met once in Macedonia when he was there for the military, Hector Morales. He lives in Kosovo now and said I could come stay with him and his wife anytime. We could both go, get to know each other before we decide what to do with our lives.”
What had he said to Chief? More remote regions, less popular if you will. He wasn’t kidding. “What would we do there?”
“I always start by finding work. Usually some simple labor to pay for food and a place to stay.”
“You’re not going because your pictures are the work?”
His jaw clenched and his gaze dropped. Last night, his experiences had been catnip to my sheltered self. A starving artist making his way in the world. But he wasn’t starving—he was a King. So where was the artist part? “I wasn’t lying when I told you that I wanted to be independent from my family and that I’d left home to travel. I support myself. Not my dad, and not the company.”
Grudging respect replaced a portion of my mounting panic. Neither of us wanted to be reduced to our last names. We wanted our privileged upbringings to go toward being more than just a drain on society.
But to do that, we needed jobs, and between us, I was the only one who had one. I couldn’t support the two of us on the salary Chief paid. Add in housing in DC and I’d be working for Abbot Security until I retired. I didn’t care that Chief had a good pension plan. “If we go to DC, we’d be living with my parents. Where would you work?”
“I’d do the same thing I always do.”
“What about your photography?”
“Savvy . . .”
I was willing to work for my future, not coast through my present like I was starting to suspect he did. “No, I’m sorry. I’ll meet up with Brady and go back to DC. I’ll give you my contact info so we can resolve everything. This marriage wasn’t a good idea, and it’s my fault. I brought it up and I’d had too much to drink and—”
“Is it the money?”
“What?”
“You want freedom to do what you want professionally without being dependent on anyone, right?”
“I want to be free to make my own decisions.” My family’s money came with strings attached. I’ll pay for college, but you have to get the degree I tell you to. You can live here, but you need to come to dinner with me and be nice to Lex. You can work for me, but you can’t pursue your silly environmental ideas.
“What about fifty million?”
I laughed. “I thought you didn’t use your family’s money?” He could stay in the Four Seasons, or the equivalent of it in any country he wanted, with that amount of money. Not couch surf with a friend in Kosovo.
“I’ll tell you the story on the walk to your hotel.” He stepped in close. My head tilted back. He was only four inches taller, but he towered over me. My lips parted like my body anticipated a kiss when we’d done nothing more than hold hands since leaving the hotel room. “But after you hear it, I want you to remember that getting married wasn’t just about Grams or the money. It was about being with you longer.”
He held his hand out and we both stared at it. Getting married wasn’t about Grams and the money. Did he really have fifty million?
Why had he married me? We’d been carried away, bitching about meddling parents and grandparents, and then I’d brought up a Vegas wedding. He hadn’t hesitated more than three seconds. And I hadn’t asked myself why.
Grams or the money. I had to hear this story. I twined my fingers through his and nearly sighed. Touching his skin shouldn’t have such a drugging affect.
He walked slow. “How are your feet?”
“Oh. Good.” I’d been too distracted to think about them. Listening to Xander’s voice on the way back would help keep my mind off these shoes and when I could clean and donate them.
He talked low, keeping our conversation private from the gamblers and tourists flowing around us. How many hungover couples were questioning their nuptials right now? “Not long after we were born, my mom’s parents, Grams and DB, sold off some lease holdings. They gave Mama the money to put away for us. And she put it in a trust.”
A fifty-million-dollar trust? That was stupid-rich money. That amount would make Chief salivate. Even my mother would lift a finely manicured brow.
“Only this trust has special stipulations.” His hand tightened. “We have to get married by our twe
nty-ninth birthday and be married for a year by the time we’re thirty.”
“Why would she do that?” Though did I really have to ask? I could imagine my parents putting similar restrictions on my trust. They would attempt to control me in death as they had in life.
“I have no idea. The thing is, if we fail, the money goes to our neighbor, Danny Cartwright. He’s a jackass of epic proportions. And he’s got a daughter a few years younger than us, but I can only guess from the way Bristol acts that she despises us as much as he does.”
“Why the hard feelings?”
“The Boyds and Cartwrights used to be close but had a falling out over money. Cartwright claims Grams and DB screwed his family out of mineral rights and drilled on land my grandparents had sold them. Then the Cartwrights turned around and screwed my dad’s family, the Kings, out of some land, I guess because trying to buy land the legitimate way had bitten them in the ass with the Boyds. Then my mom married my dad and not Danny Cartwright, who for some reason had been sure Mama would forget everything and fall into his arms.”
I struggled to keep up with the story. “Whoa. I think that rivals the gossip I hear at my mother’s dinner parties.”
“Yeah, it’s a mess and one reason why I stay away. Danny Cartwright is a mean drunk and he’s always plastered. Bristol is a thorn in our ass too, but I can’t help but feel sorry for her. Growing up with Danny couldn’t have been easy.”
“So your birthday is tomorrow and you got married.” He’d married me for money? Not even my money, which would somehow be easier to brush off. It would’ve meant there was something about me that was irresistible. But it was his own money that was tied up in a trust. My hand went lax.
He gave it a squeeze. “Remember what I said. That wasn’t my reason. Until I met you, I was ready to let it go.”
King's Treasure (Oil Kings Book 3) Page 6