By the time Lucy settles into the penthouse with me, it’s nearly seven o’clock at night. I blame Connor for waiting until mid-afternoon to finally call me and let me know that she was with him and Haven, but it could have always been worse. He might’ve decided to buzz me at three in the morning.
Though she ate lunch with the Heywards, it was around dinner time when we left. Since I’m trying to do better with her, I invited her to go out to dinner with me. For a moment, she looked surprised, then stunned, then pleased. Ultimately, she admitted she was tired and in need of a shower, but she asked wistfully if maybe we could go out tomorrow night instead. The look on her face when I agreed was almost enough to ease the last two days of terror.
Almost.
As she skipped happily to the bathroom for her shower, I thought about how close the old guard came to pulling the ‘off with his head’ routine for their current King. Fuck ‘em. Let any of the Owed who have a problem with me choosing Lucy try tostop me from taking my Dandelion out for a meal. Seriously. Let themtry.
I’m done with this King bullshit. I never wanted to take over for Jack in the first place, and the only reason I did was because I knew it would have him rolling over in his grave to see how much I changed once he was gone.
But that’s the problem. If I had my way, I’d blow up the whole fucking Order and walk away satisfied. That’s as far as my plan goes. Without Adrian, whispering in my ear, I wouldn’t have half an idea what to do. Sure, it was common sense to plug the hole in the Order’s finances after all of Jack’s embezzling, and I wasn’t down with the idea of trafficking women in the basement of the Fortress, but apart from trying to shut down the Claiming ceremonies, what else could I do?
I’m the muscle. Maybe my life would’ve been different if I didn’t grow up Jack Collin’s only son, but I did. He turned me into a killer. Since I took over as King, I’d been too shackled to my desk to use my hard-earned skills. When I say that the way I tortured, then murdered Julian scared me, it’s not because of how far I went with it.
Nope. It’s because, as I knocked him around, I realized how much Imissedit. He deserved what he got, and there are others in the Order—and out of it—who need my special brand of justice. Sure, Jack used me to keep the Owed in line. What if we had a King who actually gave a shit about the people of Harmony Heights instead of just himself?
In my opinion, no one in this picture postcard perfect hellhole is that selfless. We all have our vices, have our weak spots, but there is one person I know who would make a much better King than me. If only because he’ll do anything to protect his wife, and by leading the Order and keeping it profitable, he’ll have more tools at his disposal to do so, hecould.
For thirty years, I’ve had his back just like he’s had mine. All through the transition period, he was there for me; since I got my Lucy back, he’s basically been King. Plus, when you think of it, he was the one to off Jack. Maybe that means he should’ve been the next in line.
And if that doesn’t convince Adrian to take the crown and let me be his enforcer, I don’t know what will.
Look at me, cuz. It’s my turn to be the Kingmaker. To be the man with the plan. A small smirk tugging at my lip that has nothing to do with the fact that a naked, wet Lucy Wright is in one of my bathrooms—and, yeah, I’m still a fucking liar, sue me—I pull out my phone and make the call.
Half an hour later, I’m sitting in Jack’s office, watching Adrian plops into the chair opposite the desk.
He scowls at me. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
I raise my eyebrows. “I found Lucy.”
Adrian snorts. “Actually, Connor found her. And that’s not quite accurate, either. Your Lucy went to Haven because she needed a break from looking at your sorry mug. You overreacted, and I took care of it, but that doesn’t change what happened tonight.”
“How do you?—”
He waves me off, and I let it go. Shit. I should’ve known. Even though Adrian was the one to talk me down and take advantage of the blood oath after he confronted the old guard—which, you know, seems very Kingly in hindsight—he kept telling me to cool my shit, that Lucy was okay. Of course he did. He must’ve known.
Just like Adrian knowseverything.
Well. Let’s see if he knowsthis.
“I wanted to talk?—
“Loni spent the afternoon with Annaliese since you took the day off,” he says, voice clearly heated. Yeah. He’s pissed. Notpissed enough that he refused to come when I called, telling him I need him, but he’s still pretty pissed. And when he continues, I find out why. “We’re in the middle of planning our big vow renewal in June when Loni turns thirty. She wants to make it memorable for me and you know what Bas’s innocent little wife suggested to mine? They go to a spa and getwaxed.My princess got a landing strip, Dallas. Alanding strip. But before I got to see what she did to those pretty curls of hers, you called me, you fucker. Damn it, Dal. I wanted to go landing!”
Don’t laugh. You have a sexually frustrated Adrian Heller in your office, you want to convince him to take over a job neither of you want, and if you tell him forget it, that you called him away from his wife’s freshly waxed pussy for nothing, he might just shoot you full of lead like he did Desmond St. James…
He narrows his gaze on me. “Are you smirking?”
“Me? What? No.”
A little more narrow. “You sure? ‘Cause imagine it was Lucy. We both know you’d drop anything if your precious Dandelion so much as batted her lashes at you.”
Thank you, Adrian, for the perfect segue.
“You’re right. I would. Makes me a shit King, doesn’t it? I’ll always put my sweet Lucy before anything, especially the Order.” I shrug, leaning into my seat, keeping my eyes on Adrian. “So that’s why I should quit. Find a replacement. What do you think, cuz?”
“Not this shit again?—”
Ever since Adrian hired the Reed twins to pass along the poisoned booze that killed my old man, I’ve been dropping hints that he should take over. He’s better suited to the job of running a secret society. In so many ways, he has been, and not even just lately. In order to really rule, you need to know where the money goes and where the bodies are buried, and no one in Harmony Heights knows all of that better than Adrian Heller. I’ve beendropping hints and he’s been scoffing at them, and I took that to mean he didn’t want the gig.
