Page 31 of Inked in Devotion

“A limo? Why do we need it if it’s not black tie?” I asked.

“We are not driving separately.”

“Send your driver home.”

“What are you worried about?” Maksim scoffed. “People might think we’re lovers?”

I barked a laugh. “If that’s the headline, we’ll never hear the end of it from Kirill. On the other hand, it’ll give Lucy a scandal to fix.”

“He doesn’t want you working closely with Lucy. It was her meddling that sent you to prison.”

I knew better than to hold a grudge since it wasn’t really Lucy’s fault, but I relished using the misguided opinion to annoy Kirill. He was insanely protective of his wife.

I bypassed the first floor and headed straight to the basement where I had parked my SUV. Maks sighed in aggravation and texted his driver.

“Why can’t we ride separately, anyway?” I asked him as I beeped the locks.

“I need to prep you on Daniel Wu.”

Good idea.

Once we were on the road, Maks started scrolling on his phone. “Their dinner reservation is at seven. And it’s for four people.”

“Four? Don’t tell me Theo is with them.”

“Surprisingly, no. Last intel I have on him, Theo went to visit Jeremiah at the psychiatric hospital.”

I glanced at Maks. “Are we still at risk if I whack him?”

“Please don’t rock that boat right now. I hear the Kings’ publicity department is ramping up the unveiling of Chloe King. She negotiated that Sebastian remained anonymous.”

“Hmm,” was all I said. I was pleased with it.

“As you know, when Jeremiah woke up from his medically induced coma, he was minimally conscious, but the last report I got…what is it, two months since you shot him? He’s reacting to stimuli. Tracking movements. Confused.”

“Shit, is he going to make a full recovery?”

“The doctors are guarded. The bullet entered the right frontal lobe…blah…blah…blah…but you missed the brain stem.”

A pity my aim was off. It wouldn’t have been if I hadn’t been distracted by Chloe.

Our SUV idled at a red light. Jeremiah King spiked my aggravation because I considered him a loose end. “I should have ended him that day.”

“I heard Theo is bracing for a personality change, so he’s got his hands full with that too.”

“What could be worse than his sociopathic behavior?” I scoffed. “Look, I’ll offer to finish his miserable existence for free.”

“Why don’t you concentrate on your problem with Chloe?”

“But Jeremiah is part of the problem, right?” The light turned green. Quorum Club was in a renovated four-story baroque-style building located just outside Manhattan. “I don’t want a serial killer around my son.”

“Have you talked about the situation with Chloe?”

A wry grin curved my mouth. “There’s barely enough time for meaningful conversation with a toddler around.” And she was rarely at my visits.

Maks fell quiet, and I cast him a fleeting glance. The streetlights flashed over him, and I noticed he’d looked out the window, fist pressed against his mouth, breathing labored. Wait. Was this…?

Fuck.