Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
It’s in that moment that Harper and Savage walk in. “Find my father, Savage. Stay with him and keep Harper with you and safe. I’m going after Isaac.”
Harper’s eyes go wide. “What’s happening?”
“Baby, I need you to trust me and stay with Savage. Promise.”
“Yes, but—”
I kiss her. “Later. Everything later.”
I hand Savage the letter and take off out of the door. A letter that wasn’t from Gigi. It was from the mob and the only way I become king of the Kingston Empire is if everyone but me is dead.
Chapter one hundred four
Eric
The past…
Christmas hell.
That’s what this is. I sit across from Isaac at a chess board while my father stands above us, watching us play. I plan to do what I always do. Let Isaac fucking win. He needs the ego stroking. I do not. I just want the fucking game over with. He makes a move. I make a move. He makes a stupid move and that forces me to act like an idiot and ignore it. He makes another move. Another stupid move and actually thinks it’s smart.
“Your move, savant.”
I can almost feel our father pushing me to push back, to take his pride, to cripple him. I almost feel sorry for Isaac for the way the bastard uses me to taunt him. In that moment, I hate my father more than Isaac. I make a stupid move and endure Isaac’s gloating as he takes my king.
As if he’s the king. As if he’s telling me I will never be king.
Three months later…
A new kind of hell.
That’s what being pitted against my brother in a mock trial is for me. I can’t win because I can’t lose and that will lead to complications outside this auditorium. I sit behind the defense table, my mock client accused of a laundry list of white-collar crimes. I listen as Isaac leaves me a hole to bury his case. And I am going to bury his case. This isn’t about family. This is about my career.
He walks back to his table but slides by mine first, smirking as he loudly jabs me with his favorite taunt of, “Your move, savant.”
He walks away and sits down. I stand up and proceed to steal his false sense of security. I destroy his case, and him, in all of three minutes.
Present day…
I’m out of the hospital room door, headed to find Isaac and manage to get all the way to the exit before I stop dead. Not only is my father being rolled in my direction, I have a sudden realization that I shouldn’t have missed in the first place. The wording of that note comes back to me “Your move, savant.” That fucker. Harper’s right. I’m operating on emotion because I all but allowed myself to be played. Isaac wrote that note.
I rush back the opposite direction and realize my father is being rolled past me, surrounded by a medical crew. And fuck, I might not love the man, but seeing him with tubes everywhere and pale as death punches me in the chest in a mighty way.
I follow him toward his room and Harper and Savage are ordered into the hallway. Harper spies me almost instantly and rushes toward me.
“What just happened?” she asks again.
Just thinking about the evil that is my brother, and the threat he made against her has me pulling her close, and kissing her. “Isaac happened,” I say, sliding her under my arm meeting Savage’s stare. “Did you read the note?”
“Barely. They ran us out of there, but yeah, I read the damn thing.”
“Isaac wrote it. His way of trying to force me to protect him and keep him alive.” But what doesn’t make sense to me is the fact that it also forces me to protect my father. In fact, it protects my father over Isaac and I have no doubt, he needs my father’s money.
“Are you sure about that?” Savage asks. “It’s typed, not handwritten.”
“What note?” Harper asks, and I take it from Savage and hand it to her.
She scans it, her pale skin turning paler as she looks up at me. “How are you sure it’s him?”
“Because he’s stupid enough to use the words ‘your move, savant’ which he used to say to me all the time when my father pitted us against each other. The message here is clear. If he doesn’t survive, I inherit and that means more than money. I inherit his problems which includes the mob. Which also means I have to fucking fix them for him. Then I’ll deal with him once and for all.”
Harper turns to face me. “How? It’s the mob.”
“He threatened you twice, baby. He’s going to pay.”
“How?” she repeats.
“I might just feed him to the fucking mob and let them handle him.”
Isaac appears beside us and I release Harper, taking the note from her. “Go check on my father, sweetheart.”