Ruthless Heir, page 2
Neil answered in an angry, hard tone. “It’s about Sam King.”
“Sam and I fucked when we got the itch. After that, there was nothing more to it.” I kept my words emotionless.
I’d kept my relationship with Sam as private as possible. And the select few who knew anything about us thought of us as a fuckbuddies situation.
“I call bullshit, again.” Noah stood, bracing his hands on the table, the relaxed demeanor from earlier completely gone. “You trained me. I learned every fucking thing about manipulating from you. Don’t think I can’t see what’s happening.”
“Since you’ve figured it out, keep going.”
“This case goes deeper than our assignments and taking down your corrupt family. You’re avenging what happened to Sam King.”
“Ashok Shah is the top player in this game. If he goes down, all the cards fall. Destroying him won’t fix the damage he did to his son.”
It may not fix the damage, but it might give him some semblance of peace.
“Are you saying this last case has nothing to do with your personal relationship with Sam King?” Neil stared at me in the hard, no-nonsense way he used when interrogating suspects.
I almost snorted. The tough-guy act never worked on me.
In Solon, he went by the name Extractor for the many unique methods in his arsenal for acquiring cooperation from suspects.
“Correct,” I said, without blinking an eye, and then added, “And for the record, there is no relationship with Sam. Once upon a time, we fucked. For the safety of all on this case, it won’t happen again.”
“You’ve gotten so good at lying that I think you almost believe your lies.” Neil shook his head. “But I’ve known you long enough to see past that cool, manipulative Queen of Diamonds facade.”
My temper flared, but I tamped it down. “What is it that you see?”
“You walked away because you did the very thing Lilly Lennox, now Lilly King, did with the older King brother.”
“You’re trying to make it into something it wasn’t.”
“Am I?” Neil countered. “Someone else can replace you.”
“The operation won’t work without me, and you know it. I’m the prize on your father’s pedestal of society. You come home with the Queen of Diamonds as your woman, and he will give you your brother’s seat at the table with the Circle of Ten.”
“It’s settled, then,” Noah stated with a tone of resignation in his words. “It won’t be a problem for the two of you to pose as a couple and possibly marry if it means completing the assignment.”
I cocked a hand on my hip. “We established this.”
“So it won’t bother you when King is in the same room with Jesika?”
I kept my features thoroughly schooled and my emotions locked down. “Why would it?”
“Okay, then.” Noah shook his head. “Nothing we say will change your mind about this, and you set this whole thing up as if you’re about to go out in a blaze of glory.”
Noah had no idea how right he was.
I let my lips curve at the corners. “That’s my standard operating protocol. Go big or go home.”
2
Sam
* * *
“Want to explain the reason for our united appearance at this fundraiser again?” I glanced at my eldest brother, Nik, who sat across from me in our limo.
“Because we are making a point to certain factions of society that the Kings are no longer in the shadows.”
A slow pulse of annoyance ignited on the sides of my head, knowing I had a long night ahead of me.
“You’re such a dick.”
“We all are. You just hide your ruthlessness under those ten-thousand-dollar suits. I’m more upfront about it.”
I couldn’t argue with Nik’s observation. We were two of the four notorious King brothers of New York City, with Kir and Rey making up the other two. Our rags-to-riches story always piqued media interest: boys from the streets adopted by Arin King and then turned into real estate tycoons.
However, it was our real business, our underground business, that kept things rolling in a city where certain factions of society could never meet but required a middleman to conduct business.
The role of intermediaries was where my brothers and I came in. We bridged the gap between the elite and the unsavory. We made the introductions and brokered the deals.
Of course, all of it came for a fee—a fee paid in favors, collected at a time of our choosing.
We had a unique place in the world, the ability to move seamlessly from one society to another. Me more so than my brothers.
I was the polished one. The Columbia graduate. The face of King Holdings, the legitimate aspect of our family business. Well, as legitimate as the other fuckers who were born into the upper crust acting as if their shit smelled like roses.
I picked up my tumbler of scotch, sipped, and then said, “Sometimes you have to play the game before you go in for the kill. If I didn’t deal the way I do, we wouldn’t have the new acquisition in our portfolio netting us a hefty profit.”
“Speaking of.” Nik lifted his glass and gestured to the building coming into view as the car rolled to a stop in the driveway of the Carina Hotel in Manhattan.
The Carina was one of the many hotels under the Argo Hotel and Real Estate Group, the conglomerate I’d mentioned acquiring a few seconds ago.
“This is some property. It’s going to piss certain people off that we are now in the hotel business.” Nik smirked.
“We’ve always had our hand in the hotel business. The Carina and its sister locations are only the first in New York. And if our family ventures threaten people, that has nothing to do with us. Business is business. I don’t make decisions based on personal feelings.”
I’d learned long ago to set emotions to the back of my mind and use cold, hard logic when taking any course of action.
“Shah won’t view it as anything but personal.”
I clenched my jaw. I hated thinking about the piece of shit who’d abandoned and then murdered my mother.
Wasn’t it enough that I fucking saw a resemblance to the fucker in the mirror every damn morning?
With how high-profile my life was, it always made me wonder how the hell no one noticed how much we looked alike.
“New York real estate is about who has the means and the ability to deal and to move the fastest. There are always multiple players around any card table. If he lost sight of his competition, that’s his problem.”
“You want me to believe you don’t enjoy the fact you stuck it to him while making us richer?”
I smirked. “There are always benefits to being the true bastard of the King brothers. Sometimes I get lucky and can take something from the fucker who made me a bastard.”
“Since you brought up the bastard bit—” Nik’s eyes narrowed, “—we need to discuss the will.”
Fuck. The night was just getting better and better.
The last thing I wanted to discuss was the will of my biological grandmother, Ashok Shah’s mother. Sara Shah had left everything to her grandchildren, specifying the eldest as the heir to the majority of the billion-dollar Shah fortune. A fortune Ashok Shah stole when he filed a false will upon Sara’s death.
Why hadn’t I taken my own damn car and met everyone at the event?
Because I’d probably have skipped the whole thing, and Nik knew it.
“I want nothing to do with the will or the money. My net worth is more than all of you fuckers.”
Only one person could put all of us to shame. The reason I’d rather have spent the evening monitoring the underground poker club I owned with my brothers than attending this fucking fundraiser.
“It’s not just about you. Danika and Jayna deserve their inheritance.”
Of course, he’d hit me in the one place I was the weakest. Danika and Jayna.
Not only had they married into the King family, but Danika was also Nik’s wife, and Jayna made Kir a less piss-and-vinegar version of himself. The two women were my only living biological family. Well, the ones who I claimed and claimed me back.
Danika was the daughter of Ashok Shah’s sister, Reka. A sister he’d disowned for not following tradition. And Jayna was my half-sister, the daughter of Monica Shah, the heiress the asshole had thrown my pregnant mother aside to marry.
Nik damn well knew I’d do anything for Danika and Jayna, but those two never needed anyone to play interference for them. They wouldn’t have any problem holding a knife to my throat to get my attention.
“Why aren’t they coming to me about it? Neither of them would appreciate you playing messenger boy for them. Tell me I’m wrong.”
A flicker of annoyance passed over his face. Good. He deserved that.
“Let’s say this is a warning before they strike. Something is brewing in Shah’s world, and the ladies have decided it’s time to act.”
“Are you saying my sisters are going to force my hand?”
Even though Danika was my cousin in the family-tree way, I viewed her no different than Jayna. I’d fight the world for her, and without hesitation, I knew she’d do the same for me. Danika, Jayna, and I had an unbreakable bond we could have only dreamed about as kids.
“They share your blood. What do you think?”
“Taking on Shah is dangerous, especially now that Danika is pregnant. You can’t risk him targeting her.”
“First of all, if you think it’s even remotely possible to keep my wife in any form of a protective cage, you don’t know anything about her.” The humor in Nik’s tone lightened my irritation with the whole subject matter. “Second, dealing with your history is part of life. And the only way you’ll ever move past what happened to your mother is by toppling Shah’s house of cards.”
“Destroying Shah isn’t something I give two shits about. It won’t bring back my mother. Veda Kumari’s blood covers everything Shah has. Hell, it’s soaked in Kir, Rey, and your parents’ blood too.”
Nik sighed. “I hear you. Before I let it drop, answer this question.”
I waited for him to continue.
“What would it take for you to go after Shah?”
“It won’t happen. Danika and Jayna are safe.”
“So he’d have to go after someone you love?”
My mind drifted to the stories Danika and Jayna had told me about their lives growing up under Shah’s roof. About the abuse they and Monica Shah suffered almost daily until they’d finally escaped.
“As long as Shah stays in his corner away from all of us, especially those I call mine, I don’t give a shit what he does. And since he knows we have the original will and he likes his nice life, we have nothing to worry about.”
Maybe my words were a bit archaic, but Shah liked to hurt the women in my life. He’d taken my mother from me, abused Jayna and her mother to the point they would have sold their souls to the devil to escape him, and kept Danika under such a controlling hand that she had allowed herself to become a puppet to create some semblance of a life.
I’d destroy him before he added another one to his list.
“And if he crosses the line?”
I narrowed my gaze at Nik. The asshole was testing me.
“If it came to that, under all this polish and grooming of the upper crust, I still have every one of those skills Arin forced me to perfect as part of my arsenal.”
When it came to fathers, my adoptive father was anything but typical. Each brother had a set curriculum to learn. However, since I was the youngest of the brothers, Arin had the most influence on my education. From the beginning, he planned for my role in elite circles and expected me to learn weapons and skills no one could detect. I doubted many people could say they grew up with trainers for the proper weapon, fighting, and defense skills and techniques mixed in with tutors in physics and calculus.
God, I missed Arin. The man believed in me even when I fucked up, and he never gave up on me.
“Good to hear. Got worried you were going soft.”
“Asshole.” Then again, I was in the car with Arin’s replica. The man who’d kept us a unit as we ran the streets of New York as dumb kids. “Do me a favor. If I promise to keep an open mind when Dani and Jay come at me with their plan, will you drop the subject for the rest of the night?”
“I’ll drop it, but I make no promises from the ladies.”
“I guess that is as good as I’ll get.”
“Speaking of ladies. Has security given their ETA?” I checked my watch.
“Arrived ten minutes ago.” Nik poured another serving of scotch for himself and offered the bottle to me, but I shook my head. “They are waiting for us with Kir and your lovely date inside.”
My mind shifted to Jesika Rawal, someone who many believed was my current lover but was only a friend and my informant for all things high society. In exchange, I helped her funnel her inheritance into untraceable accounts.
We used each other for our own purposes, keeping our reasons for what we did to ourselves.
She was also Solon. She knew I knew, but we’d never openly spoken about it. I’d spent years with the best in the game. Now it was child’s play spotting them. Plus, Kir had let it slip that he planned to meet with his Solon contact, Jes, once, and I’d put two and two together.
“Since the Shah subject is closed, I want to ask you about something else.”
“Go ahead. Whatever it is, it can’t be any worse than the Shah subject.”
The smirk on Nik’s face made it seem like I’d just thrown down a challenge, and he’d taken up the gauntlet. “It’s been a while since you’ve seen her. Are you ready to be in the same room with your Queen of Diamonds? Especially if the rumors are true and she is on her way to marrying the Joshi prince.”
“You really are a dick.”
3
Devani
* * *
“Remember, everything spoken from this point on is recorded,” I muttered as I approached Neil.
He stood next to his father, Arun Joshi, and Ashok Shah as they engaged in an animated conversation.
The knowledge Sam was Jesika’s date for tonight sat heavy in my stomach. When he’d said he planned to move on, I knew it would happen. I’d prepared myself. I hadn’t expected it to be within days of our last time together and not with someone from my world, someone I worked with closely.
I had to remember I’d done this to myself.
Focus on the end goal.
Everything was about the end goal.
Save Sam. Eliminate the Circle of Ten. Protect all those women and children, then get out.
I could do this, no matter how much it hurt.
I scanned the area and noticed neither Neil’s mother, Smita, nor his thirteen-year-old sister, Mia, were with the group.
This was just great. The two decent members of the family were nowhere around.
I adored Smita Joshi. Something about the former Bollywood actress and model made me want to protect her and hide her away. She still radiated a regal beauty beyond her years, as well as an aura of fragility.
Neil had told me his father had barely spoken or engaged with his mother after Mia’s birth. They lived completely separate lives and only came out in public as a couple for functions. Joshi had expected all of his children to be male, and having a female lowered his stock.
In fact, Neil’s mother and sister lived in a house he’d built for them and not in one of the many properties under the Joshi portfolio.
I’d hoped tonight would have been one evening where I could spend some time with the ladies. Their presence would have allowed me to move about more freely.
Oh, well. I guessed I’d have to play arm candy.
I stepped in next to Neil, and Arun Joshi’s face lit up in a calculating way that seemed way too friendly for a potential father-in-law.
The fucker honestly thought he’d won the lottery with me.
Yep, that’s what I was. Every-fucking-body’s golden ticket. I’d burn it all to the ground before producing the next generation for any of these fuckers.
God. I sounded bitchy as hell.
Poor little rich girl. No parents. No one to love her but literal mines and mines of jewels.
Okay, enough pity-partying. Focus, asshole.
“Ahh. There you are, Devani,” Ashok Shah said in Gujarati, the native language from India spoken in both of our family homes.
His eyes lit up as he scanned me in a way that made me want to throat-punch him. What was with these two?
“Neil, you are a lucky man to have such a jewel on your arm.” Shah winked at Neil.
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“I am. Devani is more than a prize to show off. She is the head of her family’s company. After she took over the management, profits increased exponentially.”
“Maybe one day you can assist Neil with our enterprise in the same manner.” Shah and Arun Joshi nodded to each other.
It was almost on the tip of my tongue to ask which enterprise he meant, the one the public knew about, or the underground one used to aid the kidnapping of girls.
Instead of saying anything, I gave a noncommittal shrug.
“I was just telling everyone about the deal you made with Jayna to excavate the diamond pipe on our property in Botswana. Because of that endeavor, we’ve increased interest in our mineral subsidiaries.”
It amazed me how men like Ashok Shah rewrote history.
He’d thought that he could keep his wealth hidden by transferring his worldwide assets to Jayna when she turned eighteen. And then, he’d tried to force her to marry Joshi’s oldest son, Luke, as repayment for Joshi financing the purchase of said assets.
Jayna marrying Kir derailed Shah’s agreement with Joshi. So now, Jayna solely owned the diamond pipe and all the profits that came with it.
“Jayna is a hard negotiator. But in the end, we both came to a place where our companies benefitted.” I glanced in the direction where Jayna stood with Kir.
As per her reputation for pushing fashion, Jayna wore a one-shoulder gown seemingly held together by giant safety pins on the sides until it reached her waist. Beside her, Kir’s custom tuxedo should have looked too formal and drab. Instead, his clothing choice gave him a sophisticated and dangerous vibe, especially with the slight hints of the tattoos peeking up along the column of his neck and clear as day on his hands.
