by Rachel Angel
“I’m worried for you guys, more than me,” I whispered back.
“At least Dad liked you,” Ash said softly. “Me? Not so much.”
I didn’t say anything as Seb walked over to stand behind me, his arms crossed in front of him. He had a frown on his face, which looked like he was ready to fight a war.
It mirrored the look that was on Sutton’s face. He looked like he was on alert. But what he was on alert for, I couldn’t tell.
Instead of standing close to Sloane, as if to protect him, Sutton was positioned by the door of the library with a clear view to the front door of the manor.
He was watching for anything to happen outside of the room. Not like someone who was called in to protect the person he was supposed to protect.
No, he wasn’t protecting Sloane from the Keystones in the library, he was protecting all of us from something else.
I had to talk to him.
I pulled out my phone and text him.
KALEY: What’s up? Are we in danger?
SUTTON: Yeah. New intel.
KALEY: Why Sloane?
SUTTON: He’s the messenger.
KALEY: Don’t kill the messenger.
SUTTON: I don’t envy his job. Dirty business dealing with the Keystones. But yeah, I have an idea what is coming up. Plus, this next part…
Sloane cleared his throat and said, “Let’s begin Part 3.”
He took out a piece of paper and said, “I have here a piece of paper that Clay had been keeping for years. It is a piece of paper from a lab.”
He took out another piece of paper and said, “This is another document from the lab. The same time Clay received the other piece of paper.”
“I’m sorry to say, one of you is not Clay’s biological sons. Your mother is your mother, but your father is…” Sloane gulped and then took a sip of his coffee. He reached for the second piece of paper he had brought out. “Your biological father is…”
As if on cue, there was a loud banging on the front door enough to wake the dead.
Sutton left to go check out the door. Seb went with him. Ash and Thomas stood up. Ash picked up a baseball bat from the closet, while Thomas disappeared into Mr. Keystone’s study.
Seb checked the viewfinder and turned to us, “the traveling salesmen and his buddies are back… only he’s brought more buddies.”
Shit. The mobsters were back.
“What do we do?” Ash asked.
Sutton said, “Stand back. I’ll handle this.”
He opened the door to talk to the mobsters, but as soon as the door opened, Sutton was jumped by two men from the side of the door, blindsided as he went down.
They pushed into the manor, quickly disarming Ash from his baseball bat, and Seb from the gun he had taken out from inside his jacket.
“Well well,” the older man with the pock marks on his face said. “Looks like you’re right on track with the reading of the will, aren’t you?” He looked over at Sloane, who was standing at the library door.
“McGregor Langley,” Sloane said, his face went pale.
Langley smiled a non-smile and said, “Keystone kept you on as his attorney still, after what you did to him? The man’s got more generosity and a forgiving nature than I’ve given him credit for. Sloane the snake.”
“I wasn’t the one who…” Sloane looked at Seb and Ash.
“So what part are you on with the reading of the will? No doubt you already know what the outcome is, Sloane, but is enjoying playing this mindgame of Clay’s too much,” Langley said.
“So leave the kids alone then,” Sloane said. “They’re not part of what happened between you and Clay.”
“No, but they’re part of his legacy. Which I want to destroy,” Langley said. He walked over to Sloane to grab him by the throat. Sloane didn’t even tried to fight him off. “I don’t have much time to play these games. As you can see, I’m not getting any younger. Where are you in these puzzles?”
Sloane choked, trying to breathe. “Part 3. We’re almost through. There is one more part after that.”
Langley sneered. “Like I really cared. Give me a good reason why I should let you keep playing this game instead of forcing you to give me what I came for… now?”
“Because…” Sloane said. “This isn’t just a game for Clay. He had some secrets he had kept for a long time that involved other people… including you.”
Langley’s eyes widen. “Hell no!”
“As a matter of fact, I was about to move on to it. You would find this next part very informative,” Sloane said.
Langley looked over at his men and raised his hand, signaling for them to ease up.
They let go of Ash and Seb. Sutton was still knocked out in front, but they began to spread out to stand in the lobby, awaiting Langley’s next orders.
“Humor me, Sloane, tell me what could possibly make it worth my while to stay here and let you all play this puzzles game,” Langley said.
Sloane cleared his throat as Langley took his hand off his throat and went over to sit in a large leather chair in the library. Sloane looked over at us, signaling for us to return to the library to continue the reading of the will.
Seb walked in first. Followed by Ash and me. Thomas was nowhere to be seen. Where could he be?
It didn’t matter that he wasn’t there. Sloane sat down at his chair and started reading where he left off.
“To my right is the first report,” Sloane said. “A paternity test. It clearly showed that one of his sons is not his biological sons. And here… in this report next to the first report is the results for the paternity test for who is the real father.”
Sloane looked straight at Langley then, who flinched.
“McGregor Langley, this is the results of the paternity test for one of the Keystone’s boys. You are the owner of these results. You are the biological father for one of the boys,” Sloane said.
McGregor Langley sat back in his chair, with a dumbfounded expression. “I thought I was sterile. But I guessed I wasn’t.”
Seb was immediately at the table where Sloane sat, reaching for the papers. “I don’t believe it! You can’t mean that Mom had sex with this…this…man!” He was livid.
Ash was up there, too, reaching for the papers to see it for himself. “What the fucking hell! How dare anyone try to make this up.”
Thomas finally walked into the library as cool as a cucumber as though he wasn’t fazed at seeing a bunch of mobsters in the lobby and living room of his home. “That can’t be true.”
Sloane said, “I’m afraid it is.” He shook his head. “Clay didn’t want to believe it himself at first, so he had the tests done a couple more times and even re-checked the results.”
“Your mother was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” Langley said as if he was re-living old memories. “From the start, I wanted her. When I found out how miserable she was with your father, we began an affair. She was so passionate, so wild. We would fuck everywhere we can.”
Seb said, “Too much information.”
Ash looked sick.
“So she had my child,” Langley said. “A son…” he looked over at Seb, Ash, and Thomas with a different look than before. A look of bewilderment. “One of you guys.”
“Fuck,” someone said. It could have been from Seb, Ash, or Thomas, but I couldn’t tell since it was so low and soft.
Langley stood up and reached for the papers that were now scattered in front of Sloane. “Which kid is mine?” he growled.
Seb looked at Thomas, and Thomas looked at Ash. They looked sick to their stomach.
“It doesn’t say who the kid is on these papers,” Langley said. “And there is no dates so we can’t tell the birth date.”
“Clay had those parts erased to protect the identity of the child,” Sloane said. “No matter who the father was, Clay raised the boy as his own.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Seb and Ash swore.
“Unbelievable!” Thomas said, sinking d
own into a chair.
“This changes everything!” Langley said.
“How?” Sloane asked.
“If my son is to be an heir to Keystone’s fortune, then he better be the one to inherit. I will make sure he wins!”
“Or he may be disqualified from inheriting,” Sloane said.
Langley looked at Seb, Thomas, and Ash. “If you know who is my real son, then you know what is best for you all… to let him have the inheritance. All of it.”
Thomas stood up then and walked up to Langley. He was so calm and cool about it, I almost didn’t recognize him.
Once he was next to Langley, he pulled out a gun so quickly and held it to Langley’s face, twisting his arm behind him. “Now, Mr. Langley, we’ve lost enough time as it is in trying to solve the puzzles. You’ve only given us a week and now it’s less a day. I am going to walk you to the door so you and your men can leave us to work on the next Part. All of this popping in to check on us and unnerving us is making us lose our train of thought and momentum. We have a schedule to keep, Sir, and we will deliver on the date. Do we have an understanding that you will leave us to it? Or…” he tapped the nuzzle of the gun against Langley’s wrinkly skin.
“Okay, okay,” Langley said. “I’ll call my guys off and leave you guys alone for the rest of the time. But one week is all you have.”
“No more, no less,” Thomas said.
Langley actually smiled at that and said, “You know, for a Science Genius, you’ve got big balls.”
Thomas said, “I know. I’m well-hung.”
Langley laughed for a while, before looking at Thomas closely. “That is definitely something we have in common.” He said, “You have my word we’ll leave for now and leave you guys to solving the rest of the puzzles. But we will be back, and I will find out who the hell is my son.”
Langley walked out of the room with the rest of his men following to and through the front door, just as Sutton got up from the floor.
They filed past him glaring at him as they went.
“Hey, why are they leaving?” he asked, walking into the library.
We all looked at Thomas, who had grown braver since he decided to screw that provision about keeping away from having romantic relations with me to fucking me senseless.
“So, what’s next, Mr. Sloane?” Thomas asked. “What’s the next puzzle?”
“Well,” Sloane said, sitting back down in his chair and taking a sip of his coffee. “Glad we can move on.”
“You’d think?” Ash exclaimed, running his hands through his hair.
Epilogue
Kaley
“Hold on,” Sloane said, taking out a piece of paper. He looked at me, Thomas and Ash.
Then shook his head.
“What?” Ash asked.
“Something’s changed,” Sloane said.
“What happened?” Seb asked.
“Someone violated the provision in the will. The rule about not having romantic relations with Ms. Kaley,” Sloane said.
My heart dropped. How could Sloane have found out about what happened between Thomas and me? And Ash and me?
Shoot. What could he do about it?
I saw Thomas’ face turn pale and Ash looking sick.
“I’m afraid we’ll have to look into it,” Sloane said. “Then act accordingly.”
Oh no!
“What would happen?” I asked. “I’m so sorry the rules were violated, but…sometimes we just can’t help how we feel, and…”
“Kaley,” Sloane said. “We will look into it, and see.”
“Now what?” Seb asked.
“Part 3,” Sloane said.
“Family is more than blood and genes, but loyalty, bonds, and unity. Now that you know within the family, not every one of my heirs have my blood. Find out who. And decide what it means to be ‘family’.”
Seb, Ash, and Thomas looked at each other. Their faces were a mixed palette of confusion, anger, sadness, and bewilderment.
Mr. Keystone was turning out to be crueler than I thought. But then again, I couldn’t believe Mrs. Keystone had an affair with that Langley fellow. A mobster of all things. And one of my Keystone boys was a product of that union. No matter what, I loved all of my boys. More than ever. And I would do anything to protect them. Even when I believe Mr. Keystone had yet to unleash the biggest secrets of all.
Again, what role was I to play in all this? That had yet to be revealed, and now… with Langley involved and who knows what…this game is getting more and more deadlier.
*****
Kaley, Seb, Thomas, and Ash’s story will continue in Book 5 of The House Series.
HAUNTED (Book #5)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B087BGL27P
A Note from Rachel Angel
Thank you for reading HEIRS.
If you enjoyed it, please let others know by leaving a review.
Reviews are the lifeblood of authors like me. It helps keep the books you enjoy reading stay alive, much like supporting your local restaurant and shops.
That’s the best support any author can ask for!
THANK YOU!
RACHEL ANGEL
Bio and Book Series
An international bestselling author, Rachel Angel writes stories about Strong Feisty Women and the men they tame in RH, Bully Romances, Dark Romances, Fantasy, PNR, and sexy billionaire Romances. Rachel Angel is a pen name for a million-selling author who worked as an executive at Fortune 50 corporations, in legal and production at cable television channels and at the Walt Disney Corporation. Besides being a full time author with various pen names, she appears in front of the camera as a television host, voiceover artist, and is a frequent guest on top 15 National Radio as an authority on women’s issues, the entertainment industry, and women empowerment. Her non-fiction books have been number one bestsellers, used by organizations such as the US Mental Health Association. Pushing the edge of romance, books published under Rachel Angel explores the hidden, dark, and even deepest desires of human romances, while featuring strong female leads.
BOOK SERIES
BAD BOY ROYALS OF KINGSBURY PREP (Complete)
RH New Adult/High School Bully Dark Contemporary Romance – HEAT 4 out of 5
Tempest and The Black Envelope (Books 1 and 2) with Bonus and Clue on the Treasure
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z44T1PF
Revenge
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SQP3HL3
Secret Princess
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YLHJ38K
Fallen Royals
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XXC625K
Reign of Rebels
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XM3FKW6
Link to Kingsbury Prep Series
https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B07S7ZVZWQ
Complete Series Box Set
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08781CS94
Kingmakers of Kingsbury Series
RH Bully Fantasy Paranormal Shifter Fae Romance – HEAT 4 out of 5
Long before there was an All-Royals Academy called Kingsbury Prep, there was the Kingmaker and her kings.
As Violet Kingsbury, I was born to be a kingmaker. In a time when wars were common and thrones were fought after, the only name that could bring about peace...the only man that could trump the decrees of kings was Kingsbury. The Kingmaker. But when the legendary Kingmaker is disposed, and the time of the Choosing has come, can I, the daughter of The Kingmaker rise to take the place of my father? I am about to find out as the strongest, most capable, and most legendary princes across the lands come to challenge me for the Choosing including 4 of the most handsome princes who not only wants to win, but to want to win me, too:
Avery
Axel
Reggie
Ollie
Becoming Kingmaker, even as The Kingmaker's daughter, will not be easy in a male world where ladies were supposed to be daMs.els who needed saving. To become Kingmaker, I will prove to all, especially the princes, t
hat I am here to stay, and will be the one doing the saving. **Kingmakers of Kingsbury Series, is a Reverse Harem Bully Romance with mixed genres elements, action, and mature scenes recommended for age 17 and up.
Kingmaker’s Kings (Book 1)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082QMNCW4
Kingmaker's Kiss (Book 2) (May 18, 2020)