Chapter 9

The next day, I drive upstate for my first meeting with my new client after binge eating ice cream with my sister and then falling asleep to the memory of my mystery man and me snorkeling. It all seemed so right.

Until it went so wrong.

Making sure to hide my depression over being ghosted, I hold my head high and walk into the meeting knowing I'm the best fixer around. At least I'm good at something.

My legs buckle and nearly give out when I see the man who disappeared into thin air after spending hours having sex with me down at that resort. So this is Mr. King.

An immature jackass who sleeps with women at the workplace and ghosts others. And I have to be the professional I always am and fix the mess he's made.

Instead of my usual speech I give every new client, all I can think is how much I want to lash out at this man and scream, "You left me in your villa without even a goodbye! What kind of asshole does that?"

I can't say any of that, though, so I swallow hard and take a deep breath as I plaster a smile on my face. Matthias King hired me to be the fixer his company needs, so that's what I need to be.

"Let me introduce you to everyone," he says and points to two men on the left side of the room opposite my mystery man. "These are my brothers, Marius and Ronan."

The two men shake my hand and politely thank me for helping them. Then Matthias turns to the third brother and in a distinctly less pleasant tone says, "And this is Kellen."

I meet my mystery man's gaze and see he's thrilled to run into me again. He shouldn't be. I'm not the same woman he left behind at his villa.

"Kellen."

His smile fades quickly, replaced by a scowl I imagine I'll be seeing a lot from now on. I can't deny I miss the lighthearted way he was back on the island, but that was then and this is now.

And unlike the rest of the women he ghosts who I'm sure are just happy when he pops back into their lives, I don't forget so easily. And forgiving takes even longer.

I immediately turn back to deal with Matthias since he's the person who's hired me and my firm to clean up his brother's mess. With a smile, I say, "I've read up on everything there is to know about what Kellen and Gina have said, so I'm up to speed and ready to go. I'll fix this and rehabilitate your brother's reputation."

Matthias and his two brothers smile, but I notice Kellen has no happy face to give me now. If he thinks this is bad, just wait until he hears what I'm going to insist on to continue this job.

"I've heard only great things about you and your sister and how your firm handles situations like this. I appreciate you taking us on, Miss Roberts," Matthias says.

"Please call me Salem. I'll do my job, but I'm going to require a few stipulations to be put in place first. I cannot fulfill my contractual obligations if your brother can't meet my demands."

The three men turn to look at Kellen, and I follow their gazes to see him glaring at me. For the first time since I walked in, he speaks up, and it's not a promising moment for either of us.

"I'm not a big fan of anyone demanding anything of me, to be honest," he says angrily.

Matthias quickly works to smooth things over. "Not to worry, Salem. Kellen will do what he must, and whatever you insist needs to be done on his behalf, I promise you he will."

He turns to look at his brother and adds, "Or he knows what will happen if he doesn't."

I ignore the nasty look Kellen is giving and concentrate on Matthias King. "Very good. Okay, here are the rules. First, no talking to the press or anyone else about what happened with any female employee. Let your legal department handle that. They know best how to protect your company."

The three brothers nod while Kellen mumbles something. None of us bother to address his comment, so I continue. "Kellen will take a leave of absence from King Industries. He needs to be out of sight and out of mind for everyone."

"Okay. I'll have that handled immediately," Matthias says without even consulting his brother.

"Next, he needs to disappear from society as much as possible. We're going to make people first forget who this person was and then introduce who we want the world to think of when they hear the name Kellen King. That means no social life and no women."

I see him immediately begin to shake his head at my mention of that stipulation. Turning to look at him, I say, "You will only continue to make a mess of your reputation if you don't do as I say."

"Forget it. I'm not turning into some hermit simply because some woman has decided to lie about me."

Looking at Matthias, I shrug. "I'm sorry, but I can't fulfill my obligations on this job if he won't do as I say. I'm the best in the business, so I know what has to happen. It won't work and I won't be able to fix anything if he's going to fight me every step of the way."

The stress of the situation settles into this King brother's expression, and he sighs like he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. "I understand. Don't worry. Kellen will do as you need him to."

"I will not. Fuck this!" Kellen snaps.

The three brothers glare at him and in turn yell that they're sick and tired of dealing with his problems. I back away as it looks like they're about to break into a fistfight.

As they berate him for all he's done, he turns toward me and snaps, "This is because I left you at the villa the other day. This is payback."

The three brothers look at me with shock before returning their focus to Kellen. Shaking his head, Matthias asks, "Is there no one you haven't slept with or pissed off?"

Unsure I even want this job, I step forward and say to Kellen, "This isn't anything other than you having to deal with the consequences of your actions. I'm the best at what I do, so if you ever want to be anything other than a social pariah, you want my help."

That shuts him up, so I say to Matthias, "I'll give you all some time to discuss things. I'm sorry that I can't accept anything other than Kellen following my rules to the letter. To be honest, I'm not sure he is a candidate for the kind of fixing I specialize in."

"Please, just give us a couple minutes."

I nod and turn around to walk out into the hallway where his girlfriend is waiting. She gives me a big smile and says, "Let's go downstairs and give them some time."

As we walk down to the first floor, she asks me, "So you know Kellen?"

I chuckle, not really pleased that's out in the open now. "I do, but that won't have any effect on my work for King Industries."

We stop in a large room that looks like a living room, and she offers me a drink. "No, thank you."

Cupping her tiny belly, she beams a smile. "I can't because I'm expecting, but I thought I should offer you one."

"Congratulations! I hope this situation isn't causing you stress. I believe it's upsetting Matthias."

She shrugs and then smiles. "Matthias has always been intense. Things bother him. Kellen hasn't always been the way he's been acting, though. Before his brother Theo died, he wasn't like this. Now he seems very argumentative and careless about people's feelings. That isn't the Kellen I've known all my life, though."

I like hearing that, even though I shouldn't care one way or another. What happened between us at that villa has nothing to do with the job I have to do to fix the problem he's caused. The two people who had such a great time down there don't exist here.

"Well, I hope I get to meet this person you talk about. It would make my job a lot easier."

Her eyes wide and filled with concern, Ava leans in toward me and whispers, "Do you really think if he disappears from the public eye that people will forget all that's happened?"

I nod and answer, "Yes. The hard part is getting people to forgive him for what he's done. That's going to take some work, but I've handled more challenging jobs before, so I can do this for your family."

That makes her smile again. "I hope you can because I don't want Kellen to be a social pariah. He's a good person at heart. He's just had a difficult time since Theo died. He looked up to him, so his death hit him hard. I really believe all his behavior has a lot to do with that."

Matthias interrupts our conversation, and I notice how relaxed he looks now. Smiling, he walks over to where Ava and I are standing by the fireplace in the living room and wraps his arm around her waist.

"Thank you for giving us a little time. I know Kellen sounds like he's going to be difficult, but I think you'll find him more accommodating now. He told us what he did down in the islands. I'm sorry about that. I feel like that's partly my fault since I told him he needed to get back here immediately. I hope that won't affect your willingness to help us."

I smile as I hope I'm not blushing at how embarrassed I am that now all the family knows what happened between Kellen and me. I was a nameless woman enjoying herself with a nameless man at the villa.

That's not who I am here. Now I'm a professional woman getting paid handsomely to make Kellen look like something other than the world's biggest villain.

"Please, it wasn't anything serious. The difference between me and the woman who's claiming Kellen sexually harassed her is I wasn't working for King Industries at the time. There's no need for apologies."

That pleases him. "Good. Okay, let's go back upstairs and finish our meeting."

He kisses Ava and the two of us walk back upstairs in silence to rejoin the rest of his brothers. I notice a distinct difference in Kellen when I walk into the game room. He doesn't seem so angry now.

Good. Maybe we can work together successfully.

Matthias stands with his two brothers and says, "Kellen has agreed to do whatever you say he needs to. No social life. No women. He'll take a leave from the company. Basically, he understands he needs to lay low for a while."

I look at Kellen and see him try to smile. "Good. I didn't mention this earlier, but I think it would be best for him to not stay at his place while we're working to make people forget what he did. Is there a chance he can stay here or somewhere else that we can be assured the press won't descend like locusts?"

"So now I'm sent into exile? If I knew I'd be shunned like this, I would have committed some real crimes," he mumbles, clearly not as willing to be cooperative as Matthias believed a few minutes ago.

The brothers talk for a few moments before Matthias says to me, "Our grandmother's house is somewhere nobody really knows about. I think he could be safe from the press there."

The suggestion makes Kellen lose his cool. "No fucking way. I live in a penthouse in the greatest city in the world. You're sending me to stay in Grandma's house that hasn't been updated in half a damn century. What the fuck am I supposed to do out there? That place doesn't even have Wi-Fi, for God's sake!"

"What the hell do you need Wi-Fi for?" Ronan asks, obviously frustrated by his brother's unwillingness to work with all of us. "No social life means no social media, dude."

Hoping to defuse the situation from descending into another shouting match, I say, "To be honest, I do need some way to reach the outside world. I'm going to be monitoring him for at least three months, and from what I've seen here tonight, I think that's going to mean I need to stay with him to ensure he doesn't undermine any work I'm trying to accomplish with rehabilitating his reputation."

As his brothers begin to bicker around him, Matthias finally loses his cool. "Enough! I'll get Wi-Fi at my grandmother's house. It's not as bad as Kellen's making it out to be. Whatever you need, just let me know and I'll get it for you. Does that work?"

I nod, happy he's willing to support my efforts. "Thank you. I think we're going to be fine there."

He shakes my hand, but on my right, Kellen simply glares at me. "Is no one going to ask me if any of this works for me? I am the one who has to endure living at Grandma's, after all."

Finally tired of hearing his complaints, I say, "I'm willing to stay away from my home for three months to ensure you can someday walk into parties without people verbally abusing you or your company forcing you to quit. I'm doing all the work here. All you have to do is not offend people anymore. Can you do that?"

The room falls silent as we all wait to hear his answer. After what feels like forever, he lowers his head and sighs.

"Yeah. I can do it."

"Great! I'll get started on the Wi-Fi as soon as possible. Do you want to wait until it's available?" Matthias asks me.

"No. I'll be fine for a few days. I'll handle everything the old-fashioned way by phone until you get it installed. I think we should begin staying at your grandmother's immediately. I can drive into the city and be there tonight, assuming that's okay with you."

Kellen sighs again. "Tonight? Jesus, I already miss my place."

Pleased by how this meeting has gone, I turn to him and smile. "See you there, roomie."

Matthias and his brothers shake my hand again and thank me, but Kellen doesn't say another word. That's fine. I don't need to hear any more from him.

The look on his face tells me all I need to know.

As I walk down the stairs, I have to remind myself I can't use this job to get payback like he thinks I will. It's tempting, though, and who deserves it more than Kellen King after what he did to me back at that villa?

Kellen and Salem's story concludes in Wild King!