Page 109 of Merciless Heir
Yia-yia will tell me to be honest. To let him in. She damn well likes Kingston. She told me he was arrogant and shifty and all the things I am. And then she floored me and said he had a good heart.
I haven’t let myself near that.
Not until now.
I glance up. I’m fast approaching the lobby. I grab the rail and pull myself up, legs still shaky.
I didn’t lie about trying to get to the bottom of the rest, because I know he wants that. But I’m going to need to get that tiara from where I hid it away. Get it and do the right thing for once, because come what may, I like him.
Maybe more than like him.
And maybe…maybe that isn’t a bad thing.
“The one thing you were never good at, Dad,” I say as I step into my apartment, closing the door with the scratch marks on the locks, “is B and E.”
My father comes out of my bedroom. He’s been through my place and he hasn’t bothered to hide it.
I’m such a fucking idiot to think I took care of things.
Because he has something in his hands. And it turns my blood to ice.
“I gave you a lot of money,” I say in a deliberately unconcerned tone. “Breaking in and trashing my place is a crime. And you’re on parole.”
He laughs. He’s older, gray. Fit from no doubt working out in prison. But he always liked to look good. He probably has a piece who he sucked dry while in there. Men like him always find a way to land on their feet, even behind bars. I really want to hate him. But it’s complicated.
One thing I know is I don’t like him. At all.
“You wouldn’t turn in your dear father, would you, Sadie?” He smiles and lifts the tiara, studying it. “Because I know all your secrets. Ones the police would be interested in.”
I don’t bother asking how. He doesn’t have evidence because I’d have heard from him long before this. “That isn’t yours.”
“Isn’t yours either.”
“It could be.” He runs his fingers over the intricate stonework. “Fetch a good price.”
I want to snatch it from him, but I don’t. “It won’t. It’s fake.”
“I don’t believe you.” He grins then. “I followed you. Sadie, I recorded you. It’ll be in the papers soon and I’ll be a hero.”
“You’ll turn your daughter in?” What am I saying? Of course he would. Trevor Masters only loves one thing more than money and the grift. And that’s Trevor Masters. “You’d have to turn that in, too. And these rich people aren’t really into handing out rewards. Also, it’s fake.”
“Sadie, this is your father.”
“Yes, I know. And I gave you money. If you want more, you’ll have to give me time.”
He puts the tiara down on my desk, next to my computer, which he’s opened. But he hasn’t got into it. I can see that. It’s locked. Not that he’d find anything.
“Why do I need time? Your boyfriend is a billionaire.”
“He’s not my boyfriend. He hired me to find the real tiara.”
“You’re ripping him off?”
“When I get the real one, yes.”
The lie comes quick and easy.
But he shakes his head. “You underestimate a parent. You’re involved with him and the tiara, if it’s real, is worth nothing compared to his fortune.”