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“I can help,” she murmured. “I have the money…”
“Sparrow…”
She pressed two fingers to my lips and leaned back. “Kestrel,” she said, and it gave me a mild shock to hear that name after so long as Kel or Kellan. I raised my brows, but she didn’t retreat. “I’m a vandal too. Remember?”
A sigh escaped.
“I have money—I have a lot of it. Granted, some of it is in trusts but…not all. We can go after my money. If we need more, I can marry one of you and get it released sooner.” She paused for a moment, a troubled look floating over her face as she scraped her teeth over her lower lip.
One of us.Sparrow, you are already ours. Not that I said it aloud, but the thought was there. Marriage was paperwork. Then again, so was adoption.
“That said…it might help us if I do go after my money,” she said slowly, and I almost swore I could hear where she was going.
“That’s still dangling you as bait.”
“Eh,” she said, making a face. “Not really. There are three trusts that I know of…and from what Adam said, there might be more.”
There was undoubtedly more.
“One of those trusts was overseen by Mom. All I need is for her to sign off on the request, and then I can file the paperwork. That kicks off the legal process of getting the cash wired to a chosen account of my choosing…”
The more she detailed out the idea, the harder it became to argue.
“That’s a financial process, one we could easily turn over to an attorney to front. Granted, all the attorneys I knew worked for Uncle Fuckbucket, but we must know other attorneys.”
I frowned.
“Attorneys have the whole client-privilege thing… I would ask Adam, but I haven’t heard from him since he turned himself over.” That bothered her. Bothered all of us. We knew he was still alive, and Liam mentioned speaking to him once, yet that wasn’t enough. “Ezra might know one. I could ask Lainey. She definitely has the resources, and her grandfather has a whole battalion of attorneys—”
She straightened abruptly, and what traces of sleep had been present simply vanished.
“The king.”
“No,” I snapped the single syllable out, and she blinked. “Absolutely not. I will entertain a lot of choices you make, even if I worry about the long-term effects. The king is another threat and one we have not fully categorized. I haven’t forgotten why he recruited Liam to go after Milo. You shouldn’t either.”
Her eyelashes dipped at the scold in my tone. Maybe I could have lightened it up, but this was a dangerous game and he was a dangerous man.
“You want to help us, I respect that. But…” Now, I wrapped my hand around her throat again and her stiffness eased as she locked her gaze on mine. The unfiltered trust would humble me on my best days. Right now? It put me on my knees for her. “That man is dangerous. We don’t know what he wants from you yet, or why he’s decided you’re a part of this game. Just because he’s been quiet doesn’t mean he will stay that way…”
She licked her lips. “What if we could pit him against Uncle Fuckbucket?”
“If we could without any chance of you owing that man something or him trying to collect? Fine. Except we can’t guarantee that.” I reached past her to shut the laptop before standing and taking her with me. She wrapped her legs around my hips, and all at once, the fact she was naked under that shirt registered.
“That’s your final answer?” The dare was right there in her voice, and I bit her lower lip as I carried her out of the kitchen and toward the living room. I didn’t bother going upstairs.
“On the subject of the King?” I nodded once. “Absolutely. Everything else we’re tabling to discuss later. I can see the strategy and the strength of the idea, but I want you for you, Sparrow. We all do. Your money is not a part of that equation.” As far as I was concerned, it never would be. She could be as poor as we’d all been in that home, and she would still be far more valuable to me than anything else in the world.
It was the middle of the night, and the clubhouse was quiet. Instead of carrying her upstairs, I settled her on the pool table and when I tugged up her shirt, she let me pull it up and over. I didn’t remove it entirely, using it to bind her arms behind her.
Surprise flickered in her eyes. I paused to give her a moment. The air in here was chilly as goosebumps rippled over her skin and her nipples were peaked.
“Good?” I checked. “You will tell me if it’s not.”
There was no room for error here.
A smile tilted the corners of her lips. “I’m good…”
That trust was back in her eyes.
