Chapter 11

Kaine had so far madeit two days without contacting his mate. But by Saturday night, there was a clawing in his veins nothing seemed to sate. It helped that he was busy, putting things in motion, liaising with Dalmon and arranging for Malcolm to come to the city—which neither he, nor Gerrit, were thrilled about.

But Kaine was willing to bet that the only reason they were watching the building from the bar across the road was because they were waiting for Malcolm to turn up at the Coven. And if that’s what they were waiting for, that’s what he was going to give them.

So far, they hadn’t made any demands of Everest, but then he’d only been in the job for three weeks. They wouldn’t be able to stretch out Gerrit’s recovery much longer. The Board must know that Everest was only filling in.

“You’re distracted,” Everest said.

Kaine had thought having dinner with Everest and discussing the Shadow Board would distract him for another night. It wasn’t working. “There’s a lot going on.”

“More distracted than usual.” Everest took a sip of wine. He’d eaten the steak as if he was starving. Was he looking a little too thin, even for a bird shifter?

Even if Everest wasn’t shifting regularly, he was still burning up calories like only a shifter could. “Are you holding up, okay?”

“There’s a lot going on.” He threw Kaine’s words back at him. “And no, I have nothing new for you. I have given you everything they have told me.”

Kaine snarled in frustration. They had a list of suspected Shadow Board members, and only a couple of definites whom Everest had met. One of whom was acting as his handler.

Had he been wrong about them wanting Everest on the throne?

No, he didn’t think so. They were waiting for something. Probably Malcolm.

When Malcolm turned up, he needed to make a show of arresting him. After careful negotiations with his brothers, he had agreed to name Malcolm a hero and such, but only after this was concluded because they needed him in play as the would-be assassin of the king.

He tapped his fingernail against the base of his glass, sure he was missing something. Yeah, his mate, that’s what he was missing.

Quentin was fine. He’d completed the drop as expected and attended classes and work. Orion had made regular updates, as requested. Apparently, Quentin was now stressed about it all.

Who wasn’t?

“What’s really going on?”

Kaine drew in a breath, ready to tell another lie by omission, but paused. He couldn’t keep his connection to Quentin a secret forever. That never worked, so it was better to tell a plausible lie. And once they had sorted the Shadow Board drama, he would tell his brothers the truth. He didn’t want them worrying, and the fewer people who knew, the better.

“I may have found someone, a cryptographer with an interest in dead languages. I’m running background checks at the moment. Extra background checks given what he’ll be reading.”

Everest leaned forward and stared at him as if he’d just claimed that he was no longer a shifter.

“I’m happy for him to look only at my books. I don’t expect everyone to be?—”

“If he reads yours, he may as well read about all of us because we’ll all be exposed.”

“I realize that, which means it will be put to a vote. But I was actually thinking of the personal things we put in our books, not our history.”

Everest shrugged. “I’m not sure the thoughts and feelings I considered important six hundred years ago or two thousand years ago matter. What I want to know is were there more of us? How many brothers have we lost?”

Kaine frowned. “I know from my books that the thoughts and feelings I have today are not that dissimilar from the ones I had three hundred years ago. It seems as though a lot of my hopes and fears carry across lives.”

Everest’s lips curved. “I have been looking at mine more closely. Bodyguards and men in power have always been a draw.” He took another sip of wine.

Kaine groaned. “You’ve only been here a few weeks. I don’t want to replace your bodyguards already.”

“Please, don’t. Give me at least one thing to enjoy. Because I can tell you that running the country is like dousing my feathers in iced water. I can’t believe I did it for so long last time.”

“You were good at it. You will be good at it again.”

“And if I don’t want to be?”

“There is no one else…you caused this clot of ages. And I can’t see anybody volunteering to die so that you can have a child and put the pressure on them.”

Everest slumped back in his seat and stared up at the ceiling. “I know. And I know Papa isn’t going to abdicate any time soon. I made him this unhappy in my last life and in this one. Do you understand how that feels? I feel like the worst parent and the worst kid at the same time. Meanwhile, I’m trying to read through hundreds of pages of bloody boring policy documents.”

Kaine laughed. “You don’t have to read any of the security ones as they come to me.” And he read every page.

“They are so boring.” He sounded like any nineteen-year-old, not like a king in the making.

Until recent events, there had been a lot more trust in the ministers, and Gerrit had only skimmed and signed. Between the two of them, they were reading everything. Or at least he trusted Gerrit was reading everything.

“So, how much are you skipping?”

Everest’s jaw worked, and it was several heartbeats before he answered. “I’m reading most of it.”

Kaine’s gut clenched. “They aren’t going to make the request to you. They are going to slide it through in the policies and laws. In the trade agreements.”

Now he was going to have to read everything. He needed to ask Gerrit to double check anything he signed.

“Why? What are they hoping to gain by having me here, aside from a friendly face?” He made quotes around friendly face.

“This is their foothold in Europe. They know we sit on a mountain of gold and that we have a high population of shifters and witches, as well as a witch on the throne.” Unless that animal talker had revealed their secret, in which case the Shadow Board knew they were phoenixes, and then they were on the countdown until they were fucked. Everest had enough to worry about without adding that. Another lie of omission, as Quentin would say.

“You checked all the ministers and their aides.”

“That doesn’t mean I didn’t miss something.” There was so much blackmail and bribery going around. It wouldn’t be hard.

Everest reached across the table and put his hand over Kaine’s. “You can’t suspect everyone. No one can live like that.”

Yet there he was, alive and living.

He needed enough distrust for the both of them.

“Let’s slow everything down further and wait to see who gets frustrated.” That way, he could also catch up since he was behind. He’d bring the government to a halt if that’s what it took to draw them out.

“What is it? You’ve got that look on your face.”

It wasn’t only the gold and the kingdom. “That meeting you had with Hastings… He was interested in the security businesses and wanted a meeting with Dalmon.”

At the time, Hastings had been hoping to join the Shadow Board.

“Or were they interested in the Coven? If they seized control of that…” Everest lifted his eyebrows and drained his glass.

“They didn’t do that when they had Dalmon’s PA. She could’ve handed over control.”

Everest grinned. “I doubt that. You and Dalmon are both too paranoid.”

“Fine.” He let Everest take that point. “But they would’ve come close.”

“So if they took over one of the security businesses, what would they gain?”

“If they have someone who knows what they’re doing, a back door into everything.” And not only Mont de Leucoy but every business and country that used their security systems and software. That was much more effective than taking over one tiny country.

Everest watched him. “One of them is privately held, so there are no shares to buy. The other one is publicly held, and we can’t stop them from buying shares if people are selling. But even then, we hold the majority.”

“They might be able to buy enough to become a major shareholder and impact votes. To put their own person on the board. To hire their own people. I need to check the share registry.” And about a dozen other things. He needed to talk to Dalmon since he sat on the board of both.

“You’re suggesting that it’s not going to be a kingdom takeover but a corporate takeover?” Everest didn’t sound convinced.

“And who is the biggest holder of stock in the public company?”

“The royal family?”

“The king, which is you at the moment.” He needed to check the laws about acting kings.

“That’s why they wanted me on their throne?”

“But Gerrit is alive.” And he’d just ordered Malcolm to the city, the man who would protect his lover with tooth and claw until his last breath. Fuck.

Everest’s face paled as if he’d just had the same realization. “I’ll call Papa.”

“Yeah. I’ll make some other calls. And I want to speak to the minister of defense tomorrow.”

“It’s Sunday tomorrow. Most people take the day off. Do you ever take the day off?” Everest shook his head and pulled out his phone. “Of course not. You don’t care about the weekend. You’re as bad as Dalmon.”

“Keep going, and I will remove your favorite bodyguard from your personal servicing.”

Everest gave him an exaggerated pout. “The straight ones are always more fun.” His expression changed as the phone connected. “Papa, I was having dinner with Kaine, and we think it’s going to be a corporate takeover via the shares the king holds.” With those few sentences, Everest sounded like a veteran agent, not a king.

Kaine walked away from the table and called Dalmon. Giving him much the same rundown as Everest was giving Gerrit. It was nice to hear him calling him Papa again. “I don’t suppose you know the answers off the top of your head?”

Dalmon paused. “I don’t, but I can look into the company tomorrow, and I will go through personnel records and such.”

“Do staff still own shares?”

“They have the option to buy them if they are available. The only reason the king might sell shares would be if he needed money, and we don’t. I have a feeling someone sold some in the eighties as part of a company acquisition. Oh…”

Kaine waited several heartbeats for Dalmon to continue. He didn’t. “You can’t say that and then go quiet.”

“One of the directors is looking into an acquisition of another company. I can’t remember the details. I skimmed through it because I was dealing with the Hastings issue.” Dalmon swore in a couple of different languages.

“But we have the funds to buy the company outright.” They didn’t need to sell anything.

“Unless the current owners of the company want shares and a seat on the board. And then if they think they’ve got the king’s shares as well, and he will vote with them…”

“They then have a controlling block in how the company runs.” Kaine finished.

They didn’t need to take over the kingdom physically; they could take over the kingdom and the Coven with electrons and code. They could take down every country that used their security systems. Every power station, every water pump, every food producer. Fuck, even some militaries would come to a standstill.

That was how they were going to take over and put witches in charge. “They know we’re shifters, and they’re going to blame us. And they’re going to sweep in as saviors of humanity.”

And that’s when they’d take over the kingdom and destroy it for its gold.

Everest went silent.

Dalmon said nothing.

He wanted one of his brothers to tell him he was overthinking and being paranoid. That this time, he’d gone too far.

“Papa wants to be on speaker,” Everest said, sounding less sure of himself.

“Put me on speaker, too,” Dalmon said.

They put the phones on the table, but Kaine couldn’t sit. “I don’t think we can let them have this one, but as soon as Everest refuses to vote with them, they will know.”

“Agreed,” Gerrit said.

“We can refuse to buy the company. There’s been no binding agreement drawn up. That I would be aware of. I will go through the company records, acquisitions, as well as staffing. Do you need extra manpower to protect Everest and Gerrit?”

Kaine closed his eyes for a couple of heartbeats. Most of the people who worked in National Security were witches or shifters, but very few had military or agent training. They were analysts, not agents. And his black Ops team was small. He often made jokes about how it wasn’t the size of the army but how you used it. But right now, he needed more than a dozen who were trained to fight. Because once the Shadow Board realized they weren’t playing the game, they would change the game.

“Can you spare anyone?” He didn’t want to leave the London office short-staffed when that’s where the Shadow Board was based.

“I’ll send them from France or Germany. Maybe a team from each. I’ll let you know, but they will be coming in as tourists and unarmed.”

“I can sort that.” Weapons were the easy bit.

“I will alert teams in the countries that may be impacted and put the Coven on standby. If they think we know, they may attempt to hack in and release a virus.”

“Can we not halt any updates?” Gerrit asked.

Kaine ran his fingers through his hair. That assumed they hadn’t gotten to one of the staff and that there was a package waiting to be deployed. “Not without waving a red flag.”

“Or create a dummy, which is what everyone thinks they are updating, while the real one is locked away…you can do that, right?” Everest stared at him as though he expected Kaine to nod and solve all his problems.

“That will take time, and we don’t know where we stand,” Dalmon said.

“It is something that I can action,” Kaine said cautiously. Not a dummy, but he could take steps to lock down the amount of potential damage. “But I need forty-eight hours.” It’s not as though there were other things he’d rather do with that time. He wanted to lose himself in Quentin.

What if he died, and they’d only had one night?

That wasn’t fair to either of them. The idea of the soul bruise that would cause made him shiver.

“And what about Malcolm?” Gerrit asked.

“He will approach the Coven as planned.”

Gerrit grunted. “Make sure you return Malcolm to me in one piece and with all his pieces. And once this is over, we are going to sit down and have a long talk about how best to reveal the existence of shifters and witches because technology has moved past our ability to stay hidden.”