Page 110 of Merciless Heir
“Dad, he’s not giving you money. He won’t. I used him to get information on finding the tiara. The real one. When I do, I’ll switch them out and you can have the money.”
“You’re sleeping with him to get your hands on the real tiara? I taught you better. Milk them.”
“Are we done?”
He reaches for the tiara, then looks at me and leaves it. “I’ll be back, kid.”
The moment he leaves, I start to shake. He didn’t believe me. I know that. At least, not completely. But he said something about parents and power and that clicked something into place. I grab the tiara and wrap it, shoving it into my bag. I pull on my coat, sling the bag on my shoulder and head out, hailing a cab.
Faye Sinclair looks up from her computer when her housekeeper shows me into her pretty office. It’s feminine and the ornate seventeenth century French desk is real.
If she’s surprised to see me, it doesn’t show.
“Do you know who my father is?”
She sits back. “No. I—”
“Trevor Masters. And he’s just like you’ve read.” I sit without being offered a seat. “He’s out of prison. Trying to extort me for money. And he thinks Kingston might care enough to extort even more from him to keep me from prison. For stealing the tiara.”
She rests her elbows on the desk.
“But you knew that, didn’t you?”
“The tiara part?” Kingston’s mother is just as smooth as ever. “It’s missing, so…”
I shake my head. “Missing. Not stolen. Because it wasn’t stolen, was it?” I wave a hand. “No need to answer that. There are some things I don’t get. Like why you wanted Kingston to hire me.”
“You’re the best.”
“There are others. And I don’t think that’s it. But I did work something out from what my deadbeat dad said.” I breathe in, then let it out, slow. “I underestimated you.”
“People do,” she says. “And I wanted Kingston to hire you for his own sake. He needs the right woman.”
I stare at her. “I’m not the right anything.”
“The reason you know so much about it all, the letters, everything, why your sons have had the added threat of the company over them, is you. They underestimate you and your power. You own most of the shares that keep it in private hands.”
“You’re good.”
“And right.” I get up. “Don’t play games with Kingston. He loves you, but he won’t forgive you. So, here.” I pull out the wrapped tiara and an envelope. “The tiara is a little early, but under the circumstances, I don’t think it should be in my hands. Or Kingston’s.”
She glances at them as I place them on the desk. “The envelope?”
“The money you paid me. I don’t want it.”
“I didn’t ask you to betray him.”
No, she didn’t, she just asked me to slow him down. He’ll see it as betrayal. None of that is why I’m giving the tiara to his mother and not to him. And it’s really simple.
I don’t trust him.
Kingston is ruthless, out for himself and a cynical bastard, and I’ll never forgive hm if he hands it to my father in some weird act to keep me safe.
“I know,” I say. “But I don’t want it in my hands. He asked me to sell it for him. I think it’s foolish.”
“You can’t stop him when he sets his mind to something.”
No, but if wants to see me outside this, then I’m not fencing it. I don’t want something that can be used as an excuse. I want him to see me for me. And what am I even thinking? That there’s a chance? I’ve lost my mind.