Chapter 22

Chapter

Twenty-Two

ADAM

W ho wanted to begin? Condescending prick. Resentment for the years of towing the line to this man burned in me. First, he'd been some anonymous, dark and distant leader of an unorthodox, secret society.

If you were tapped to join, your choices were gone. Extinct. You served at his pleasure. Whether it was killing, stealing, or torture, if the king requested it, you did it.

In his name and under his direction, we inflicted so much damage. What had once just been a club of sorts for the ultra wealthy to sow their wild oats in and do crazy stunts, had become something of a real gang.

We were all soaked in the blood of his choices.

His choices and our own.

"I'll start," I said abruptly. "You've arranged sales with regard to people, particularly children and young adults to Eastern Europe. Who are your contacts?"

King's gaze snapped to me. Shock rippled through his expression before he could suppress it fully.

"While we're on the subject of selling children ," Doc said, folding his arms and fixing King with a cold look. "Let's discuss the network you use to get them out of the country."

"Paperwork," Kellan Traschel, the current leader of the Vandals added to the list of items we wanted. "You have to do something to remove them or bring in others. I rather doubt it's export only ." His grimace underscored his disgust.

"While we're on the subject," Lainey said, crossing one leg over the other before taking a sip of her cognac. She couldn't stand the stuff, but you would never know based on her expression. "Let's also discuss the methodology for how you chose who to sell and to keep. I'm assuming that you began by removing possible challenges and threats."

The last wasn't really a question, but I saw her move play out in the seconds after she interjected. We had specific questions, Lainey was going after the big picture stuff.

King took his time in responding. He glanced around the room at each of us. His gaze lingered on Em the longest. I wanted to step into his line of sight, but none of her guys were doing it so I stayed where I was.

Em was fierce all on her own. Didn't mean I had to like her having to fight any battles.

"Is that all?" King asked. The semi-bored note in his voice aggravated me. Worse, I didn't care for the way he zeroed in on Lainey with her last request.

"No," Lainey answered as she pulled a small tin of mints out of her purse. I hadn't seen those in a while. She carried them because her grandfather often did. It was… another charming facet of her personality. "You're a smart man, most of the time. Stop asking stupid questions."

I almost snorted aloud at the dry insult in her voice. King downed the rest of his cognac as though it were a shot and not expensive liquor.

Maybe he needed to fortify his courage. But wrong side of the sheets or not, King was far more suited to the rough streets than the boardrooms and golf courses.

Setting the glass aside, King leaned back in his chair and blew out a breath. "I have a porter in Munich who handles all transactions going from west to east. Conversely there is a courier service available when we need to import product and resources."

The ease with which he discussed trading people made me sick. I understood business and resource management. While solid employees made for good resources, they were not products .

"As for the paperwork and the supply chain here, that's on a need to know. You do not need to know."

"Port resources then," I said. "Most likely out of Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina. Staying away from New York's ports to distance yourself. He has a list of loyalists in those cities."

Loyalists who seemed to genuinely like him. Or at least they indicated as much when I'd met them previously. This was before I knew who he was.

"You're right," Liam said, snapping his gaze to mine. We'd had to deal with some problems in Maryland. It had been a two day trip, most longshoremen were a tight knit group. They didn't welcome strangers or offer up their own.

The moment we'd identified ourselves, however, Liam and I had been treated like we were the king. His people there wanted nothing to do with the open revolt in the other union workers.

King's eyes narrowed. He didn't confirm or deny. Not that he needed to. Anyone not capable of flying out commercial airliner would need other exit strategies. The same to be said for importing.

Shipping containers.

"You worked with Jonathon Warrick," Kestrel said in a tight voice.

"More his mother, Ruth. She was the real brains behind that operation. She also had connections. Jonathon lacked stamina. Not that it matters, I moved up and on. I didn't need their connections. While this whole discussion is far from entertaining, I would have suspected you had more detailed questions for me."

The blunt speculation in his eyes almost made me laugh. Since finding out King was related to Em and Milo, then Ezra, I'd looked for any trace of those three in him. Just one small inkling…

But it wasn't there. Ezra looked more like his mother than his father. A kindness for him. Based on what I'd gathered, Emersyn was the spitting image of her birth mother and you couldn't mistake her and Milo for anything except siblings.

Seven or eight years apart, did nothing to dilute how closely they resembled each other. No, King might have provided some genetic material, but they were nothing like him.

That was a boon for them. All of us really. My feelings where my father stood were complicated. I'd loathed him more than I loved him though. Milo had loved his father, loved and idolized him. That betrayal?

It left a mark.

Em? She had no memories of him. Instead, she got the shit deal with her adopted parents and the disgusting, rat bastard of an uncle. I fought the urge to grind my teeth together. Next to me, Ezra bumped my shoulder.

The light contact helped to settle my temper. There was a plan in play here. We'd dealt with most of his people and now we would deal with him.

Frankly, I didn't want him waiting when we returned. With all of us going, I didn't want to leave him with the freedom to regroup and entrench himself in our absence. At the same time, we needed the information he had.

"Why didn't you tell us about our brother?" Emersyn's question knocked King's cool facade. His mouth snapped shut, a vein throbbed in his forehead, and the anger that flashed into his eyes held real violence.

He rose from his chair abruptly, and I wasn't the only one stepping forward. Liam and Vaughn were in front of Emersyn and Lainey before the man could take another breath.

"You think I'm going to hurt my own child?" King actually seemed incensed.

"You have. Repeatedly," Doc answered before anyone else could. All that rancor in King focused on him.

"Go to hell, Mickey. Considering the fact you're practically robbing the cradle with her—or is that the point? You got to groom her from?—"

The question was never completed. Doc struck King with a blazing right cross. One moment he was still. The next he hit King like a hammer. King wasn't a small man, yet the blow staggered him.

Catching him by his shirt, Doc hauled him forward and slammed his fist into him again. Three blows in rapid succession until blood coated King's teeth and ran freely from his nose.

When he shoved him away, King stumbled back and hit the wall. Yeah, the red marks on his face were gonna bruise. Doc shook his head as he pulled out a bandana and wiped his hands with it.

Not that he had much blood on him, but then I wouldn't want anything of King on me either.

"Circling back to the earlier talking point," Lainey said, popping another mint out of her case to suck on.

She even held it out toward Doc as if he might need a refresher too. An offer he declined with a faint smile.

Snapping it closed, she looked at King. "How did you decide who you would tap? And who you wouldn't? I gather your takeover of the Royals was a far more internal matter thanks to Wallace backing you. That doesn't explain why any of the other families would have gone along with your criminal enterprises, particularly when you weren't cutting them in for any of the profits."

That wasn't a question I'd had before. Yet…

"Does it matter?" King asked.

"I like to be accurate," Lainey told him as if it was the most simple of answers. Through the whole exchange she sat on the arm of Em's chair like she didn't have a care in the world. "What have you got to lose?"

King snorted. "I thought this would be some kind of execution or beating." He pulled out a handkerchief to mop up the blood on his face.

"Plenty of time for that," Ezra said without a trace of irony. "Answer her question."

The blood leaking from King's nose continued its sluggish path. Each time he opened his mouth to speak, he gave us a glimpse of his bloody teeth. It was all rather gruesome.

"The Royals have never been more than an excuse to be wealthy and stupid. To sow your wild oats and to have fun while doing it. Of course there was networking, and as with any group, someone always rises to the top. They set the tone. The rules. It was rather painfully easy for me to take over. Then, I decided who would be tapped for membership."

He glared down at the blood on his handkerchief before returning it to his nose.

"The eldest sons were a good place to start. The past fifteen years hadn't seen the Royals do much more than host a party now and then. Those were too soft, we needed to start younger..."

"Lucky us," I muttered. Because a lot of things were making sense now. Why he'd played it so secretive. Why he hadn't let anyone identify him. His end goals… "What was your endgame?"

That was the one thing that truly eluded me. King manipulated, invested, blackmailed, and killed his way to the top.

"You can exert a lot of power, or you could have—once upon a time. But you'll never take over the Graham fortune. Or the Reeds. Or anyone else's for that matter. Most of that is tied up in family trusts and codicils. So what did you plan to achieve? You wanted the Vandals gone to punish your son."

"Well, none of you could manage that, so it doesn't really matter now. Does it?" He pushed away from the wall and took a couple of swaying steps back to his chair. Sitting abruptly, he looked like someone had cut his strings. "Everyone thinks you have to be in front, leading, to be powerful. There is far more power in the shadows."

"Unless someone cuts you off. What's a puppet master without his dolls?" Lainey sounded almost intrigued. Rising from where she'd been seated she set her empty glass on the bar before she turned to face him again. She linked her fingers together, head tilted as she studied King. "You expected that betrayal… you've expected it for years. You know you have enemies. Most of which were created due to your own actions. You had no one to trust…"

It was like I could hear the moment she solved that puzzle. The silent ‘o' that she didn't release, and the way her head straightened.

"That's why you wanted Milo," Em said slowly. "You wanted to punish him, but then you really wanted him as a son?"

"It was a fool's errand," King said, waving it all off like the fact he could dismiss it would make it not true. "I had a son. A son I was going to raise right. No mother to mess him up or teach him to make stupid choices…"

"But she took him away," Lainey murmured. "Using your resources and your methods. You've been trying to find him, haven't you?"

"If you wanted him found," Milo said abruptly. "You could have saved us all a lot of time and grief by just telling us about him."

"Tell you?" King challenged him. "Your sister can barely look at me. She refuses any kind of relationship because of you. No, I wasn't telling you. At least with…" He mopped at his face again.

The bloody nose seemed to be getting worse. Had Doc broken it when he punched him?

"No, I would not give you the access to deny me another child."

"You're insane," Emersyn said abruptly. She was on her feet and right at Liam's side. The anger practically rolled off of her. "Milo didn't turn me against you. You did when you abandoned us. Don't tell me that was different. I was a baby, you didn't want me, and now you do? Why? Because I look like the woman you abandoned? No, it's not about me at all. It's about giving you access to change Milo's mind. You don't give a damn about family. It's always about power."

"Family can be power," King argued and he lurched to his feet only to sit again.

He stared down at the handkerchief then at his legs. The pain on his face wasn't manufactured.

"Family…" He panted out the word, then frowned as he looked at all of us. Blood began to trickle from the corner of his eye. "What is this?"

"It's the end of the road," Lainey told him. "You see, we needed some answers, but we also need you gone. Em and Milo don't deserve the pain of having to be the one who did it. The boys couldn't really decide between them."

She glanced at her watch, then lifted her chin.

"I'm afraid I took matters into my own hands," she continued. "Sorry, Pretty Boy."

"Nothing to be sorry about," he told her and the hint of awe in his expression wasn't lost on me. Yes, she continued to awe me too.

King coughed, the handkerchief to his mouth was soaked in crimson. "How?—"

"Cognac?" Lainey reminded him.

"You poured both glasses from the same bottle. I watched you…"

"I poisoned the bottle."

I snapped my head toward her and I wasn't the only one.

"When you finished your drink, I took the antidote." She patted her purse.

The mints.

Holy shit.

"You see, I'm very done with you, Mr. King. You won't hurt anyone I love ever again. I am afraid, however, that the poison is going to be a rough way to die." Not that she sounded remotely apologetic. If anything, it was coldly practical. A fact she offered him so he could get used to it now.

King's shocked stare turned furious and he lurched forward like he had a hope in hell of getting to her. Bodhi closed the distance and got there first. One hand on his throat, he shoved him backward until he hit the wall.

Once he had him pinned to the wall, he stripped the man of his weapons. Twice, King tried to fend him off. On the second attempt, Bodhi slapped him across the face. The crack of the blow echoed in the stunned quiet of the room.

Blood from King's face splattered on the wall. For his part, Bodhi inspected his own hands. Not even a speck of blood. The man really did have his talents.

"No easy ways out," Bodhi informed him.

"Agreed," Lainey said, drifting over to take a seat on a chair of her own. She leaned back with a kind of casual grace and patience. She looked ready to settle in for the day. Head tilting back, she glanced up at Milo. "I won't tell you what to do, but neither you nor Em needs to watch this."

"But you do?" Milo asked, the frank wonder in his voice found its match in me. Just when I thought she couldn't get sexier or more attractive, she proved us wrong.

"Oh yes," she murmured, one corner of her mouth curved upward and she glanced at King. "I've waited a long time to see justice served for you, Pretty Boy. I'm not going anywhere until his cold dead corpse is on the ground and ready for disposal."

The words hung there, suspended in the air, and they held every ounce of the promised malice in her voice.

"We'll have to gut the house, I'm afraid, but I didn't think you were particularly fond of it." She lifted one shoulder and let it drop as if, what could you do?

I suppressed a chuckle because King yanked at his tie. He fought with his shirt, like he could make the air come more easily. The struggle was real.

Milo traced his fingers down Lainey's cheek. "Mayhem…"

"You're welcome," she said, her voice as low and confidential as his own. "I promise you, it was very much my pleasure to deal with him."

I flicked a look to where Emersyn stared at the man who wanted far too late to be her father. Her grimace at the blood dripping down his face didn't offer a shred of pity, only disgust.

"You don't have to stay, Hellspawn," Liam said, not quite blocking her view. They trusted her to handle it.

"I feel like… maybe I should?" Her hesitance echoed beneath the words.

"Ivy…" King choked out as he shoved his way forward. Liam snapped his arm back, his elbow catching King in the face and it knocked him on his ass.

"You don't have to do anything," Rome told her. "If you don't want to see this, you don't have to."

A chair shrieked as Freddie dragged it over the wooden floor and out of his way before he leaned against the back of the sofa.

"They're right, Boo-Boo, Liam will make sure he's pushing up daisies… I'd offer to hurry it along but this all feels dramatic and kind of fancy." Freddie flashed a grin at Lainey. "Ball Cracker's got style."

"Thank you," she murmured, then switched her attention to Em. "You really don't have to stay. I promise you, he's a dead man. The antidote… it's effective, but it has a narrow window."

She shot King a smug look.

"A very narrow window."

King could barely stand, and seemed to be leaning on the wall to keep from collapsing. Didn't stop him from glaring at her. "It's like my body is on fire…"

"I've read that's the way junkies feel when they are going through detox. I imagine that's how their mother felt before she died… Seemed fitting."

Beautifully, epically, poetic.

"I'm staying," Doc said, then looked at Milo. "Your girl is right, you and Little Bit don't need to see this. But I will make sure he's dead and gone. No more worries about him."

It was the strangest sensation. No more worries about King. I'd cut ties months before, but… for the first time in a long while, I took a deep breath.

My father was gone.

Wallace Graham was gone.

Now King would be gone.

Our lives were our own again.

In the end, Em did go. She and Lainey hugged, then Em left with about half of her guys. Us? We stayed. King kept shooting looks at us when pain didn't crush his expression.

Liam and Ezra watched King a lot like I did. We didn't want to miss a thing. For years, he'd jerked us around. Pulled my strings. Pulled theirs. Made us dance for his amusement.

No, I wanted to soak in this moment. Doc seemed to be of a similar mindset. Milo was harder to read. He sat on the arm of Lainey's chair, one hand braced behind her and his expression impassive.

Bodhi was positioned halfway between Lainey and King. He was also working on his phone, but it would be a mistake to think he wasn't paying attention.

Arms folded, Ezra let out a long sigh and I cut a look at him. "What?"

"Thought this would be more interesting. But he's almost as fucking boring dying as he was at trying to make dinner conversation."

I couldn't tell if he was serious, but then he slid a grin at me and I shook my head. "Don't be a brat."

"Can't help it," Ezra said. "I'm good at it."

"That's the fucking truth," Liam muttered and it was my turn to smile. The simple fact was, it took a while for King to die and he suffered through a lot of it.

When he finally started to beg, I kind of wondered if she would relent. I didn't think so. King had cost all of us and he'd hurt Milo and Emersyn. Then there was the death threat to me and the abuse he heaped on Ezra.

No, I didn't think she would relent. Her mind was made up. Her determination was resolute. Not for the first time in her life, but maybe the first time in our adult relationship, I saw the true influence Leopold had been on her.

She was her grandfather's protege and she reflected his values. Particularly one of his favorites—if you wanted a job done, you had to be willing to do it yourself.

The begging and pleading didn't last long either. He was having trouble staying conscious, but the pain? That wasn't abating. Even half out of it, he kept moaning.

A little over seven and a half hours after she poured his cognac, Julius King was dead.

Doc pronounced. Bodhi checked it.

Then we wrapped up the body.

Definitely burning him and making sure there was nothing left but ash.

And maybe some salt.

Yep, ding dong, the king was dead.

I flicked a look toward Lainey and found her watching me with that steadiness that we all needed more than she could possibly know. Or maybe she did.

Didn't care. Loved her and wanted her in my life. Every single part of it.

"What?" A hint of curiosity populated her question and my grin only grew.

"The king is dead," I told her. "Long live the queen."