The Empire

by Lisa Renee Jones

  “I don’t know the answer to that question,” I say, draping my arm around her shoulder. “Now Blake gets to do his magic and find out.”

  She twists in my arms. “Is there another sibling? Have you ever gotten the idea that’s possible?”

  “Never,” I say, “but they tried to bury me. My mother didn’t let that happen. They could easily have succeeded with someone else.”

  “What if—what if that sibling is the one coming after you or both of you?” she continues. “Or bribed Isaac? I could keep going. There are so many possibilities.”

  “All of which I’ll be discussing with Isaac,” I assure her. “But there are other possibilities. Mob connections. Secrets Gigi might know that she didn’t feel safe sharing don’t have to be as direct as another sibling.”

  “You really believe this is Gigi?” Blake says. “She’s sending the messages?”

  “She told Harper that I inherited my mind from her. That’s what was throwing me off with the message. It wasn’t written by someone who thinks like everyone else. It was written by someone who thinks like me.”

  Harper reaches for her purse and grabs her phone. “I have to reach Gigi.”

  “Her phone is dead,” Blake says. “And it’s not pinging at all.”

  “Damn it,” Harper grumbles, and I slide my arm around her again. “Let’s get to the hospital and let Blake work.”

  “Yes,” Blake says. “Let me work. I’m damn eager to dig into this and figure out what the fuck this is we’re dealing with.”

  We head toward the elevator and none of us speak once we’re on the elevator. A few minutes later, Harper and I are standing beside the SUV we’re going to travel in with Savage and Blake. “I can get the name that’s attached to that birth certificate quickly,” Blake says, “if it’s not sealed like Isaac’s. Assuming I do, I’ll text you the name in case it helps you with Isaac.” He eyes Savage. “Don’t let him kill Isaac.”

  Savage glances at me. “I’ll do it for you. Just say the word. I can’t stand that little bitch.”

  I don’t look at him. I don’t want to encourage him. If anyone gets to kill Isaac before this is over, it’s me. And I don’t think that’s what Blake or Harper wants to hear. “Get me the name,” I say, eyeing Blake and then opening the back door for Harper.

  She moves in front of me, but when she would climb inside, she turns to face me, her hand planting on my chest, under my coat. Her hand is always on my chest and I like it that way. I want to end this and figure out life with this woman minus the damn Kingston family.

  “What do you think this is?” she asks. “What, or who, do you think that birth certificate leads us to?”

  “Who, I don’t know. What? A way to save Gigi or whoever is sending me those messages.”

  “It could be your father,” she suggests. “You could have inherited the savant in you from him.”

  “No. I’ve been around him enough to know that he’s no savant. Gigi and I have spent next to no time together. She stayed away. She knew I hated her. These messages are from her and self-serving. She wanted to save what’s important to her, which means my father, and herself. And it might be too late to do either of those things.”

  “You think she’s dead?”

  “The odds are not in her favor.” I brush her hair from her face. “Get in, baby. If I can get answers out of Isaac, I need to do it and get this over with.”

  She doesn’t even sway, let alone move. “How bad is this going to get between you two?”

  “I’ll punch his buttons. He’ll lose his shit. If I estimate correctly, there will be a detective or two around to witness it all. I don’t need to kill Isaac as Blake suggested. Isaac is really damn good at burying himself alive.”

  “I know you think you know what to expect with him, Eric, but he came here for a purpose. It feels like some sort of set-up. Like there’s a play going on and we’re in the third act, but we’re the only ones who don’t know what comes next. We don’t have the script.”

  “I’ll be careful. I’ll be cautious. Is that what you want to hear?”

  “Yes. Can you say it again?”

  I slide my hand under her hair and lean in close. “I will be careful. I will be cautious. I will not kill him unless he makes me, but if he does anything to even remotely attempt to hurt you again, there’s no saving him.”

  She wets her lips and then kisses me. “Killing him gets way too complicated, and complicated might delay the goal I’ve set for myself.”

  I inch back to look at her. “What goal?”

  “Licking every tattoo on your body.”

  My cock thickens, the idea of her tongue on my body stirring a blast of dirty thoughts that I find far more appealing than dealing with my brother. “Is that right?”

  “Yes,” she says, her hand sliding low and stroking my zipper. “So let’s go get this over with so I can get started.” She tries to pull away, but I hold her fast and easy, my mouth closing down on hers, my tongue stroking deep before I say, “Do you know how much I want to take you back upstairs and keep you naked and in our bed for days on end?”

  “I’d like to be naked with you and in our bed for days on end. Yes, please.”

  I kiss her again, a firm press of my mouth to hers. “Let’s go so we can get home.”

  She climbs into the backseat and I join her, sealing us inside with Savage already behind the wheel. “Grayson’s protected,” Savage assures me before he starts driving, glancing over his shoulder. “I trust Smith. I know he got off on the wrong foot with you, but he’s good, man. Really good. And Grayson is layered with surveillance and extra men.”

  I nod and Savage turns his attention to the road, leaving me with Grayson on my mind, which is why I text Davis: Grayson was just at my apartment, pushing to be more involved in what is getting dirtier every moment. Get him the fuck out of town.

  His reply is almost instant: Tomorrow. If I push the NFL negotiation today, he’ll be suspicious. I’ll get him out of here tomorrow.

  Tomorrow. Considering the decoded message and Isaac showing up here, that doesn’t feel soon enough. There’s a knock on the window and Savage calls out, “It’s Blake,” and then rolls down my window.

  “That record is sealed,” he says. “Whatever this is, someone wanted it well buried.”

  “Tell me you can get to it.”

  “I can,” he assures me. “I already have a man in Colorado working on Isaac’s birth certificate. I’m sending someone to Chicago. By morning, you’ll know whatever secrets those birth certificates hold.”

  I nod and he steps back while Savage rolls up the window. By morning, we’ll know the secrets Gigi was trying to expose, but right now, morning feels too far away. My gut says I need answers, and I need them now, but only one person can give those to me—and that’s Isaac. Fortunately, that’s the very person I’m going to visit right now. Unfortunately, as much as I’ll enjoy watching him make a fool of himself with law enforcement watching, they’ll also be watching me, and anything I do to him.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Eric

  The minute the vehicle is moving and we’ve left Blake behind, Harper catches my hand. “What is this?”

  “You already asked me that.” I stroke her hair and kiss her. “Blake told us nothing that changes my answer.”

  “Do you or do you not think that you have a second sibling? One older than Isaac that would inherit based on that will?”

  I release her and ease back. “If that were the case, Isaac wouldn’t be hyper-focused on me right now.”

  “Maybe he’s already killed the other sibling and now he wants to get rid of anyone left to stake a claim on the family fortune and business when your father dies?”

  “I don’t need or want that man’s inheritance. I have my own money. Why would I go after his?”

  She grabs my arm, and even with my jacket on, her hand settles over the scars created by the boiling water Isaac threw on me. “Because you hate him. Because
he’s given you reasons to hate him and he wants the money and the power.”

  “That doesn’t feel right to me.”

  “Then what could it be?”

  “I don’t know yet, but we’ll find out soon. Once Blake gets Isaac’s birth certificate and the name on the other one.”

  “What could be hiding on Isaac’s birth certificate? Could he be younger than we think?”

  “I’m not sure why he’d lie about his age. My father would have to be a part of that, but it’s possible. Perhaps he needed an heir of a certain age for some legal reason.”

  Savage pulls us to the side door of the hospital. “Whatever the case, Isaac and Gigi know what we don’t. She’s gone. He’s here. He’s the answer we need.” I open the door and exit the vehicle. Harper is scooting toward the edge of the seat almost immediately, but she doesn’t get out.

  “He’s not going to tell you.”

  I lift her out of the seat, molding her close. “You underestimate me, baby.”

  “You can’t make him talk. Not here.”

  “Again. You underestimate me.”

  “I assure you,” Harper says. “I do not underestimate you. Ever. But I also know the current Isaac. You know the Isaac of the past. The one who threw fits and boiling water. The one I know is cold and calculating. He’s smarter than you think. Please remember that. Please operate with your brilliant mind, not with the emotions that he stirs in you and don’t say he doesn’t. You’re human, Eric. A savant, yes. The man I’m crazy about, yes. But also human. I need you to be the one who wins.”

  Her worry for me is so damn hard to get used to. So damn sweet. So damn good. “Your points are well taken.”

  “They are?” she asks.

  “Yes, Harper, they are. And you’re right. I need to step back in every situation and use my mind, not my emotions, because I don’t know the Isaac of present and while I’d like to deny any emotional reaction to this family, hate is an emotion. And I do have hatred for this family.”

  “With good reason, but that only makes this more volatile for you. It means that when you think you’re walking into a room with your brother, and perhaps your father on life support, thinking you’re in savant-mode but you’re in brother mode. Human mode. Family on Thanksgiving-need-a-drink mode.”

  “Family on Thanksgiving, huh?”

  “My father had a few crazy brothers who I loved, but they were as crazy as him.”

  “Where are they now?”

  “Died in a car accident the year before he did.”

  “Holy fuck. You lost everything at once and I judged you for holding on. Damn, woman. I’ll make that up to you because you deserve it. Because you’re you. Because I love that you see me, all of me, and I promise to see all of you.” I stroke her lips. “Let’s get this over with.” I lace my fingers with hers and start to turn away, taking her with me, but she pulls me back.

  “Just remember that leaving here without a major incident means we get to go home and be naked together.”

  “Home?” I ask, that word running through me like a circus of emotions. I’ve never even called my own apartment home, yet with Harper, it’s home. She’s home.

  “Home,” she says. “I want to be home with you.”

  I lean in and kiss her. “And we will be soon.” I lead her forward and shut the door to find Savage standing a few feet away waiting on us. Thankfully, no one else is. We start walking and I don’t look back to find out what the hell is going to happen to the SUV. I trust Walker. They have things under control. I trust Savage. That bastard would cover my back if I needed him to, and it seems I might because Harper has given me a reason to fight. She’s given me a home to call my own and that’s not something I’ve known since that trailer with my mother. That’s not something I’m going to lose again. My fuckhead of a brother sure isn’t taking it from me.

  We join Savage and he opens the hospital door. “Your brother is in your father’s room. Apparently, your father’s doing better now. Still in ICU, still unconscious, but expected to live.”

  “How very disappointing for my brother,” I say.

  “Be interesting to see what comes next,” Savage replies dryly.

  “Agreed.” I urge Harper forward and we step into the hallway.

  “Do you think this means the hitman will be back?” Harper whispers.

  “I doubt he ever left,” I say, guiding her toward the elevator. “A man sent on a mission to kill doesn’t leave until the target is dead.”

  “But there’s a problem for Isaac,” Savage says, as we stop at the elevator and he punches the button. “If he dies right after Isaac showed up, all eyes will be on Isaac.”

  “It won’t matter if it’s another heart attack,” I say. “And maybe that’s the idea. Isaac stands right next to him while it happens. Kill in plain sight.”

  Harper’s eyes meet mine. “And you’re going to let it happen?”

  Having her even asking that question pisses me off. She knows what he did. She knows he kept my mother out of treatment. “Damn straight I am. He’s not mine to save, just like my mother wasn’t his to save. Are you going to tell me I should feel differently?”

  She studies me a long, intense moment before she steps to me, pushes to her toes, and kisses me. “No. I’m not. I understand what you feel. You know I do. So stop directing the anger at me.”

  I don’t care who is around. I don’t care what the fuck they think. I cup her face and tangle my fingers into her hair, dragging her mouth to mine. “I thought you could handle me?”

  “I can.”

  “We’ll see about that.” I cover her mouth with mine, licking past her lips, a long stroke that ends with my promise of, “Later. When we’re alone.”

  I turn to find Savage waiting on us. The elevator dings and the doors open to display two men, one of whom is my brother. The other, I don’t know.

  “There you go, detective. Ask and you shall receive. Just what you were looking for. My two incestuous stepsiblings.”

  I consider the merits of beating his face in right here and now, fuck the witnesses, but that’s the man in me thinking, the one that Harper rightly pointed out has emotions. I stomp them down and let the savant in me take over. No face beating. Not right now. Instead, my lips quirk. I have another plan for my brother. One I’ll enjoy far more than he will.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Eric

  Isaac and the detective exit the elevator and to my surprise, Harper steps right into Isaac’s space and pokes his chest. “Do not say that to me again,” Harper snaps, responding to Isaac’s snarky “incestuous stepsiblings” remark. “We never lived together. It’s a title, one you didn’t mind every damn time you tried to get into my pants.”

  My lips quirk and I catch her hand, pulling her back to me. “Easy, baby. Emotions are high right now.” I nod at the detective, a man in his mid-forties, wearing a blue suit with a black tie at half mast. He’s also sporting a three-day stubble that screams television cop. “Detective Rider, I assume,” I greet.

  “I am,” he confirms. “And you’re Eric Mitchell. Good to see you by your father’s side.”

  I smirk. “No one expects me to be by my father’s side. I’m not going to pretend otherwise.”

  “And why is that?” he asks.

  “Because I wasn’t his golden child like Isaac here.”

  “Who inherits should your father die?” the detective replies.

  “That’s a callous question,” Harper chimes in. “Has he taken a turn for the worse?”

  “He’s the same as he was when he arrived,” the detective replies. “One foot in the grave and one out. I simply want to know who inherits, should both land in the dirt.”

  “I’ve never been under the impression that I’m going to inherit,” I say. “Thus why I made my own money.”

  “Why is that?” the detective asks.

  “Because I hate him,” I say, seeing no reason to lie. “I don’t want anything that’s his.”

/>   The detective arches a brow. “And yet you’re here?”

  “He’s still the only living parent I have and I want to know why a strange man visited his room before he went down.”

  “It was a heart attack,” Isaac snaps. “His visitors are not your business.”

  “Not your ordinary visitor,” Savage interjects.

  “Who the fuck are you?” Isaac snaps.

  “I’m the guy who busts your chops,” Savage replies, “and happily lets the detective arrest me. Though if he spends much more time with you, he might just cheer me on. And for your information, smart guy, if the detective here believed it was just a heart attack, he wouldn’t be here.”

  I eye the detective. “Unless he chooses random rich heart attack victims to visit and make feel special? Perhaps with a donation in mind?”

  The detective scowls at me. “I want to know what really happened to your father. Someone standing in this circle knows.”

  “And the doctor’s opinion means absolutely nothing,” Isaac replies. “Is that a new creative police protocol we should know about?”

  “If you want to go with the doctor’s word,” the detective states, “then what does the man who visited his room matter?”

  “Because,” Harper states, “if it was more than it seems, my mother could be a target.”

  “You’ve always been melodramatic, Harper,” Isaac scoffs.

  “Says the man who threw a fit and tossed boiling water on his brother’s arm?” she charges.

  I stiffen and Harper turns to me. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, but—”

  “You threw boiling water on him?” the detective asks.

  “She’s an exaggerator,” Isaac states. “She wasn’t even around when Eric and I lived together.”

  “And yet we’re incestuous?” she challenges.

  I grab her and turn her to face me. “Easy, baby. He’s not worth getting upset over.”

  “He burned you. He’s a monster. He’s capable of things I don’t like to think any human being is capable of.”

  “Did he burn you?” the detective presses.

  My jaw clenches and I rotate Harper, pulling her around to face the others, under my arm and by my side. “She’s worried about her mother. Worry about the people who need saving. I’m not one of them.” I eye Isaac. “I’m going to see our father.”