Page 19 of The King's Pawn

But he didn’t look back, and a little while later, the car engine burbled outside and the crunch of tires on snow signaled his leaving.

It didn’t matter.

Even if we discovered who the liar had been, there was only one way out of this for both of us. One way my father wouldn’t come for him eventually. For him to live, I had to die.

But that was okay. While he’d dozed like a sleeping dog next to me, I’d figured out what to do. When he came back later, we’d fuck, trying to make up for all the years we’d ignored each other, and when he slept, I’d take his keys, drive north, and keepon driving until the car ran out of gas. Then I’d get on a coach and keep running. It was the only way to save him. Because if my father suspected Killian and I were close, closer than fixer and troublemaker, closer than a mob boss’s son and sometimes bodyguard should be, and that Killian had lied to keep me alive, Valentine King would kill him.

So I would run. Vanish. As good as dead. And the problem that was me would be solved for everyone.

I left the bed, washed up, threw on my creased but mercifully clean clothes, stoked the fire, and made breakfast. And waited.

CHAPTER

NINE

Killian

Kicking my heels outside a glitzy restaurant was not how I wanted to be wasting the evening, an evening during which I could have been back in the cabin, between Noah’s legs, listening to his sawing gasps, my cock buried deep and him begging for more. Goddamn, I was getting hard again just thinking about it. I adjusted my pants while leaning against the boss’s car parked in the adjacent lot. Now was not the time to be thinking of Noah’s naked ass—except, I couldn’t get him out of my head.

Luckily, Val’s driver, a man I knew well, had gone back to checking his phone long ago, when our conversation had dried up.

I checked my watch for the hundredth time.

The boss’s late lunch had turned into an early dinner. I couldn’t disturb him for a quick question. If I did, he’d get suspicious, so I had to sit on my hands and wait, with a head full of Noah and his taste still on my lips, his whispers of how he’d take every inch I gave him in my head.

“Why don’t you hit the road, and I’ll drive the boss back?” I told the driver. “There’s no point in both of us waiting around. Take my car.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” I tossed him my car keys as he got out from behind the wheel. We often switched rides; it kept anyone watching from pinning a face to a plate and made for fewer ambushes, since few knew what car they would be traveling in on any given day.

The driver sauntered off, and I dropped behind the wheel of the sleek black Mercedes. Nice wheels. Comfortable. Luxurious. But more importantly, the blacked-out windows made it private.

An hour later, Val emerged from the restaurant. I greeted him with a terse nod. Dressed like a blade, in a grey tailored suit, he resembled a successful businessman. “Killian, it’s about time you returned. The business doesn’t stop because you do.”

I opened the rear door, nodded at his bodyguard to back off—since Val was in my safe hands—and dropped back behind the wheel. Minutes later, we cruised into traffic.

“Everything was dealt with?” Val asked with as much emotion as someone asking if they’d fed their pet fish that morning.

“No trace.”

“Good.” He stared out of the window and the light from the streetlights slid over his wrinkled face, making each winkle look like a cut.

“We have problems with the Southies muscling into the docks operation,” he said. “I want you on it. I sent Simon, but he’s wasting time. It needs action, not delay. Delay looks weak.”

“Of course.” He’d brought up the Southies, which gave me an in, if I worded it right. But subtlety wasn’t my forte. Noah could do this dance, with his smart mouth and quick one-liners. I was more of an action man. “Who told you Noah slept withthe Southies girl?” I asked. Did it sound natural? Probably not, since Val’s daggerlike glare shot straight to my reflection in the mirror.

“What?” he snapped.

“Someone informed you of Noah’s indiscretion. Who was it?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I… I need to know how far this cleanup has to go. Is there anyone else I need to silence?”

He grunted a derogatory sound, hating mention of the gears that kept his bloody machine working. He’d rather be above it all, not getting his hands dirty. “Ask Simon.”

“Simon told you?”