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“Ashok Shah is the top player in this game. If he goes down, all the cards fall. Destroying him won’t fix the damage he did to his son.”
It may not fix the damage, but it might give him some semblance of peace.
“Are you saying this last case has nothing to do with your personal relationship with Sam King?” Neil stared at me in the hard, no-nonsense way he used when interrogating suspects.
I almost snorted. The tough-guy act never worked on me.
In Solon, he went by the name Extractor for the many unique methods in his arsenal for acquiring cooperation from suspects.
“Correct,” I said, without blinking an eye, and then added, “And for the record, there is no relationship with Sam. Once upon a time, we fucked. For the safety of all on this case, it won’t happen again.”
“You’ve gotten so good at lying that I think you almost believe your lies.” Neil shook his head. “But I’ve known you long enough to see past that cool, manipulative Queen of Diamonds facade.”
My temper flared, but I tamped it down. “What is it that you see?”
“You walked away because you did the very thing Lilly Lennox, now Lilly King, did with the older King brother.”
“You’re trying to make it into something it wasn’t.”
“Am I?” Neil countered. “Someone else can replace you.”
“The operation won’t work without me, and you know it. I’m the prize on your father’s pedestal of society. You come home with the Queen of Diamonds as your woman, and he will give you your brother’s seat at the table with the Circle of Ten.”
“It’s settled, then,” Noah stated with a tone of resignation in his words. “It won’t be a problem for the two of you to pose as a couple and possibly marry if it means completing the assignment.”
I cocked a hand on my hip. “We established this.”
“So it won’t bother you when King is in the same room with Jesika?”
I kept my features thoroughly schooled and my emotions locked down. “Why would it?”
“Okay, then.” Noah shook his head. “Nothing we say will change your mind about this, and you set this whole thing up as if you’re about to go out in a blaze of glory.”
Noah had no idea how right he was.
I let my lips curve at the corners. “That’s my standard operating protocol. Go big or go home.”
2
Sam
“Wantto explain the reason for our united appearance at this fundraiser again?” I glanced at my eldest brother, Nik, who sat across from me in our limo.
“Because we are making a point to certain factions of society that the Kings are no longer in the shadows.”
A slow pulse of annoyance ignited on the sides of my head, knowing I had a long night ahead of me.
“You’re such a dick.”
“We all are. You just hide your ruthlessness under those ten-thousand-dollar suits. I’m more upfront about it.”
I couldn’t argue with Nik’s observation. We were two of the four notorious King brothers of New York City, with Kir and Rey making up the other two. Our rags-to-riches story always piqued media interest: boys from the streets adopted by Arin King and then turned into real estate tycoons.
However, it was our real business, our underground business, that kept things rolling in a city where certain factions of society could never meet but required a middleman to conduct business.
The role of intermediaries was where my brothers and I came in. We bridged the gap between the elite and the unsavory. We made the introductions and brokered the deals.
Of course, all of it came for a fee—a fee paid in favors, collected at a time of our choosing.
