The Empire

by Lisa Renee Jones

  I walk to the kitchen, refill my cup and start making calls. Interestingly enough, when I contact my father’s attorney, I find Isaac has already talked to him. He’s pushed for the reading of the will, which will take place Wednesday, at rocket speed. And yet, I haven’t even heard from Isaac, but the timeline works for me. It allows me to end this quickly. I make a few more calls, including one to the mob boss, Nicolas Marshall, which is quite lengthy but productive. Once that’s done, I pour a cup of coffee for Harper, doctor it with the peanut butter cup creamer, and head to the bedroom. I find her in her robe, at the window, much like I had been downstairs, but she’s on the phone.

  I join her and offer her the cup of coffee. She kisses me and eagerly accepts, sipping the beverage before she says, “When do you get to Europe, mother?” her eyes meeting mine, letting me know she has details to share.

  We both sit down on the chair by the window and share the coffee while the conversation continues. Finally, she disconnects and kisses me. “Thank you for the coffee.”

  “Everything okay?”

  “She’s handling your father’s arrangements today and leaving tomorrow. Did you hear the will reading is Wednesday? She and Gigi are calling in remotely. Blake’s team is scrambling their connection so they can’t be found.”

  “Isaac pressed for an immediate reading, no doubt to payoff the mob and before anyone could find proof that he doesn’t inherit.”

  “Hopefully that means he pays off the mob and quickly.” She tilts her head. “You’re a stockholder. How does that complicate things?”

  “It doesn’t. Because I have a plan, remember?”

  “Yes. The plan you haven’t told me about. Can I hear now?”

  “Why yes, you can, because you’re a part of it and it’s going to play out right before the reading of the will.”

  Her eyes go wide. “Tell me.”

  “I know you didn’t want to go to Denver, but we need to. After this, though, we don’t ever have to go back if you don’t want to.”

  She nods, looking earnest. “I’m listening.”

  ***

  We arrive in Denver Tuesday night and go straight to a hotel. For reasons Harper can’t explain, she doesn’t want to be at her house, but I get it. There are triggers to pain and I’ve spent a lifetime learning how to avoid my triggers. She has the right to her own and they seem to include most of the city. She doesn’t want to hit a favorite restaurant. She wants room service, so we order, then I dial Isaac.

  “Were you planning on speaking to me after he died or just ignoring me?” I ask.

  “What is there to say?” he replies. “He’s dead. I didn’t want to hear you tell me how damn happy you are about it.”

  “I’m happy? Interesting, considering your rush to read the will. We need to meet.”

  “Not happening.”

  “If you want to inherit, you need to meet me before the reading. Tomorrow morning. Ten AM at the Kingston offices. If you no-show, you won’t like the surprise you’ll get at the reading.” I disconnect. He doesn’t call back.

  Harper fills my glass with whiskey. “Drink some for me, too,” she says. “I can’t handle my booze right now.”

  I pull her onto the couch beneath me. “I’ll take your mind off tomorrow.”

  There’s a knock at the door. “What about the food?”

  “Eat first for energy. Then I’ll have you for dessert.”

  ***

  Wednesday morning doesn’t come soon enough for me. It’s the day Harper and I finally find our freedom from this damn family and start our life together. She’s prepped. She knows exactly what’s going to happen. We arrive at the Kingston offices early and exit the Jaguar I’ve rented to meet Adam at the door. “Good thing I was still in town,” he says, joining us, no doubt packing a gun or three under the leather jacket he’s paired with black utility pants with pockets that men like Adam use for ammo and blades.

  “Lucky us,” I say dryly.

  “Thanks for being here, Adam,” Harper chimes in. “This plan makes me nervous.”

  As if driving home her nerves, our first guest arrives. A black 911 Porsche pulls up next to my car and in a matter of seconds, the mob boss himself, Nicholas Marshall, exits, his suit a shiny gray. His hair dark and curly. He’s Italian, but his grandfather wasn’t, thus the last name. He’s a bit of a bastard with a complicated back story that I knew would work in my favor, the details of which include: we’re the same age, he inherited because of his mother, and he has a brother he hates.

  His bodyguard is now outside of the car, a giant of a man, who wears an equally expensive suit, that looks like it was made for his smaller brother. They walk toward us, and the bodyguard lingers behind a bit while Nicholas joins us, his eyes falling on Harper, and I know why. Not only does she look stunning in an emerald green dress and boots, she’s my weakness. He wants me to know he knows. He eyes her and then me. “She’s lovely. What now?” He’s not a man of many words. Good. I don’t have any desire to talk to him either.

  “We go inside and wait for Isaac,” I say, opening the door and motioning to Harper to enter first, a plan she’s prepped for. This tells Nicholas it’s safe inside and it ensures no one but me is at her back.

  With some careful maneuvering, we walk Nicholas, his bodyguard who doesn’t speak, and ourselves to the downstairs conference room. I take the end cap on one side of the table with Harper by my side. Nicholas takes the other with his guard by his side. Adam stays at the front door to escort Isaac to join us. “Contracts?” Nicholas asks.

  I shove the folder in front of me across the table lightning quick, and it stops in front of him. He opens it, glances at the contracts and then nods. “Acceptable. No turning back now.”

  “That’s the point,” I say, aware of Harper’s nervous energy beside me, which is why my hand settles on her knee.

  Footsteps sound and Isaac opens the glass doors and enters the room. “What is this?”

  “Have a seat,” Nicholas orders.

  Isaac looks at me.

  “Don’t look at him,” Nicholas snaps. “Sit.”

  Isaac inhales and tugs at the jacket of his blue suit, a tell-tale sign of nerves I learned about him years ago. He sits down. I speak. “We both know I’m the true heir to the corporation and the inheritance of my father. We all know you killed to keep that secret, but jail is too good for you.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Isaac bites out.

  “I took a DNA test and thanks to the right people in the right place, took one from dad before he was cremated this morning. The results will go to Nicholas. Why? Because I’ve not only signed over my stock to him, should you hurt me, Harper, her mother, or Gigi, I’ve signed over the fortune I’ll inherit from the estate as the true heir. Harper is keeping her trust. You may inherit under the false pretense of being the eldest son to the Kingston empire, knowing that test will prove you have no rights to any of the fortune.”

  “You have to have my DNA to prove I’m not the heir, dipshit,” Isaac snaps, eyeing Harper. “You are nothing but a pain in my ass. You brought all of this on. You should have died in that warehouse back in Denver.”

  “You hired the men who attacked her?” I demand.

  Isaac fixes me in a hateful look. “Damn straight. You both should have gone down that night. I won’t go down now. I’m not giving up my DNA.”

  “I do believe I can find a way to get that DNA from you, Isaac,” Nicholas interjects and his bodyguard smiles, giving a nod. Isaac pales.

  “And about the rights to the fortune,” Nicholas states. “I own the rights because I own you now, Isaac the fake heir. I will always own you.” His lips quirk evilly. He’s enjoying this. I’m not. This is never where I wanted to land with Isaac. This is not how my mother wanted my story to end with the Kingstons, but it ends as nobly as it can, in her honor.

  Isaac’s pales with the trap he’s caught in and looks like he might actually upchuck. His gaze rockets to mine. “You
can’t do this. We need to talk.”

  “He already did,” Nicholas says, holding up the envelope and then eyeing me. “Take your pretty lady out of here. Go collect her money and be gone.”

  I stand and help Harper to her feet, my gaze landing on Isaac. “He’ll control you, and someone needs to,” I say before I lead Harper to the doors and out of the conference room. We exit the Kingston facility and nod at Adam. “It’s done.” I shake his hand and then Harper and I start walking, the fingers of one of our hands locked until I open the passenger door of the Jaguar for her.

  She rotates to face me. “I almost feel sorry for him.”

  “Don’t. He killed people. He would have killed us. It’s done now.”

  “It’s done,” she repeats, a sense of disbelief in her words.

  I cup her face. “It’s done and now we leave and never look back. Now we begin our new life.”

  EPILOGUE

  Harper

  Two months later…

  I exit the conference room in the Bennett corporate office with Dan Miller, the soon-to-retire head of Miller Enterprises, next to me, adrenaline coursing through me. The meeting was good, so very good. We pause in the hallway and shake hands, with him giving me a little wink as well. “You know how to make a grandpa happy there, ma’am. A second life after retirement. I’m excited.”

  “As are we,” I assure him, thankful I’d bonded with him when he was supplying parts to Kingston in mass volume. “As are we.”

  I hand him off to my assistant, Meika Reynolds, who looks about twelve and manages everything like she has a hundred years of experience. She’s amazing and a sweetheart to boot.

  Once she and Dan depart, I dash toward Grayson’s office and his assistant is nowhere in sight, but I don’t even knock. I know the whole clan is inside waiting on me. I burst into the office and find Grayson, Mia, Davis, and Eric waiting on me. Eric is the one I’m focused on, though, and God, he’s gorgeous in a blue pin-striped suit, his blue eyes piercing as he anticipates my update. Everyone is staring at me and I explode with the news. “We did it!”

  Clapping ensues and Eric and I rush toward each other, colliding in a huge hug. “You did it?” he confirms, kissing my neck and leaning back to look at me.

  “We did it. He wired the final two hundred and fifty million we needed for the NFL buyout while he was here. It’s done.”

  Shouts of joy explode all over in the room and they are loud and plentiful. When we all come down enough to speak, I breathe out, “Now I've earned my keep.”

  Mia laughs and rushes around the desk to hug me. “Honey, you earned your keep the minute you walked in the door.” She’s become a good friend, the kind I didn’t make time for in Denver. The kind I needed and didn’t even realize how much.

  “You earned more than your keep,” Grayson offers, while Mia releases me, and Eric settles his arm around my shoulders. “One percent of the profits,” he adds. “Your one percent. Not Eric’s. He already gets his share.”

  I am stunned, unable to fathom how much money that might be, when I shouldn’t be. I’ve seen who Grayson is up close these past couple of months. “You’re generous as always. Thank you, Grayson.”

  “Very generous,” Eric says. “It’s a lot of money, but it’s not about the money.” He glances down at me. “It’s deserving, and it’s about your freedom.”

  I instantly know what he means. In my time with Mia, we’ve talked intimately. I’ve learned how much she once feared Grayson’s money. How much she feared he’d think she was with him for it, not love. Eric confirms my assumption. “He’s made sure that we both always know you’re here for me and us, not my money. He’s given that gift to us.”

  My heart warms with this new life, with these people who fill it. “Thank you, Grayson. Not for the money, but the true gift.”

  “The gift of love,” he says, pulling Mia close. “Go celebrate with your man.” His eyes land on Eric and they share a few moments of friendship before Eric guides me out of the office, and down the hallway into his office. The minute I’m inside, the earthy scent of him surrounding me, I rotate to face him, barely giving him time to shut the door. “I was never interested in your money,” I say, as we step into each other, his hands at the waist of my dress. Mine on the lapels of his jacket.

  “I know that,” he says. “You still won’t even spend it. You live on your trust.”

  “That I have because of you. You pay for everything, Eric. I feel guilty when I shop. And I like to be able to buy you something and not feel like it’s with your money.”

  “Our money, Harper,” he says, his hand sliding under my hair to my neck. “Our life. One day, I’m going to make you see that. Feel that. I want you to feel that.”

  “I just want you to know you are what matters to me. You are the man I love. I love what we’ve become.” I think of us working out together, eating together, working together, watching movies together. “I love us.”

  “I love us, too, baby.” His forehead rests on mine. “More you than you know.” He sighs. “I hate to bring this up now,” he inches back to look at me, “but I heard from your mother.”

  In the two months since she went to Europe, I’ve spoken to her once, and I know what this must be about. “What did she say?”

  “Now that the drug test came back clear and the heart attack ruling was filed officially, she’s holding a service in Italy, where she plans to live with Gigi.”

  “When?”

  “Next week, but we’re not invited. Obviously, neither is Isaac. She just wanted to be sure, when we heard the buzz about invitations, we didn’t decide to come anyway.”

  “Of course she did. Changing the subject slightly, but how is Isaac?” I ask, knowing that Blake’s team is keeping an eye on him indefinitely.

  “He inherited and moved into the Kingston mansion. Nicholas invested money in the company. All is well for him, aside from the part where the mob could kill him off at any time.”

  I set Isaac aside and press my hand to Eric’s chest. “How do you feel about not being invited to the service?”

  “At peace. He kept my mother out of that medical study. I can’t mourn him.”

  And he hasn’t. Not beyond a few days of battling confusing emotions, and the connection to his mother he lost with his father. He’s recovered well. “No matter what my mother said to you, we can go if you change your mind. You know that, right?”

  “What I know, baby, is how much I want to go home and celebrate what a badass princess you are.”

  I laugh and I believe he really doesn’t want to go to Italy, not for the service. And so we pack up and leave, a warm blanket of intimacy between us. And we do as he suggested. Together we celebrate our win today. Together we heal. Together we are better. We were never temporary. We weren’t drawn to each because of the circumstances. The circumstances simply brought us together. We’re strong. And we’re getting stronger.

  ***

  Two months later…

  The NFL deal is complete and Eric and I stand at the top of the Rockefeller Center in the center of a swanky party filled with investors and guests in celebration. I’m in a teal gown to match the team colors as is Mia, while Eric, Grayson, and Davis wear teal-colored ties. The evening is spectacular and as the night tracks on, Eric takes my hand and sneaks me out of the party.

  “Where are we going?”

  “It’s a beautiful night and I need you to myself for a few minutes.”

  I smile with this declaration and we head downstairs, exiting to a cool beautiful evening with the stars twinkling above. I think we’re stopping at the ice rink, but he guides me toward a limo. “We’re leaving? In a limo?”

  “Yes. We are.”

  A driver opens the door for me and I give Eric a curious look. “What are you up to?”

  “Wait and see.”

  I laugh, filled with joy that only this man gives me and I slide inside the car. A few minutes later, we pull up to a little wine bar we adore. “
Isn’t it closed?”

  “Not for us.”

  I’m incredibly charmed that he’s created our own private celebration. Arm in arm, we walk toward the door and the owner, Max, who we have gotten to know, holds the door for us. We share a greeting with him and then enter the dimly lit bar, which is lined with quaint bookshelves and rows of wine bottles, with dangling lights above us.

  We settle into our favorite little private nook with a red couch and a table made of a tree trunk, a bottle of champagne waiting on us. “This is amazing,” I say, and I can feel myself glowing.

  Eric settles onto the couch next to me. “You’re amazing.” He takes my hand. “You’ve changed my life, Harper.”

  “You’ve changed my life, Eric. That’s an understatement. You—you’re my best friend.”

  “Then marry me.”

  I blanch. “What?”

  He goes down on one knee and presents me with a velvet box. “Marry me, Harper.” He opens the lid and inside is a stunning heart-shaped diamond with a delicate etched design around it. I cover my mouth, my eyes burning. I drop my hand. “It’s stunning. It’s so amazing.”

  “Harper—”

  “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.” I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him. “Is this a good time to tell you I missed my period?”

  He pulls back. “You did?”

  “Yes, but it might not mean anything and—”

  He kisses me, a deep, passionate kiss that says it all. He wants everything. I want everything. Together, we are everything.

  THE END

  ***

  Readers,

  Thank you so much taking this crazy journey with me! I am beyond thrilled with all the love you all have for Eric and Harper and I hope I did their story justice! I have a ton of releases coming up this year, and I hope you’ll check them out!

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