King Me (King Me Duet Book 1) Read online

  King Me

  Terri E. Laine

  First Edition

  Copyright 2021 Terri E. Laine

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. The scanning, uploading and distribution of the book via the Internet or via any other means without permission is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchased only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support for the author’s rights is appreciated. For information address to SDTEL Books.

  Michele @ Michele Catalano Creative - cover design

  Author’s Note

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  Contents

  BEFORE

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Thank You

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Terri E. Laine

  BEFORE

  There were some things in a man’s life that had to be done. Though the world had gone tits up, I had to get to New York to do one very important thing. Something that had been a lifetime in the making.

  Before I left, I stopped at Grant’s cabin to let someone I trusted know where I was going. He may have been my cousin, but he was also my closest friend. Though with more than six years separating us, he treated me more like a little brother at times.

  He was outside when I pulled up and hopped out, forgetting about the new world order. He held up a hand to stop me from getting closer and walked over to the other side of my truck. He leaned on the edge of the truck bed, and I mirrored him on the other side.

  “What brings you around?” he asked.

  I lifted the ball cap off my head and ran a hand through my unruly hair before putting it back on. He eyed me but I said nothing, letting him pin me with his gaze as I thought about what I was going to say and how he would react.

  “I think I’m going to New York,” I finally said.

  He whistled long. “Why now?”

  There had been a report on the news that had forced my decision. “They say the old man is dying.” That was the speculation at least and according to my mother, the King of New York himself was my father. “They are starting to quarantine?”

  I shrugged. “No one really knows what’s going on. It could be my last opportunity.”

  People were getting sick, but some thought the virus would disappear as quickly as it had started. So far, they’d ruled out wearing mask. So how bad could it really be?

  “What are you going to do? Ring his bell and declare you’re his long-lost son?” he asked.

  “I’ve got to do something,” I spat. “They say in his will, he limits the time for heirs to produce themselves.”

  Grant appeared shocked by my revelation. “How did you find out about that?”

  “Reporters. There’re have been rumors about him and his sons since the reported fraud at his company and the scandal that followed with the oldest son has put him in the news more than ever,” I said.

  One of his sons had been accused of defrauding the family business.

  “So this is about money?” he asked.

  “It’s about making things right for Mom.”

  As the story went, when Mom confronted my father about paternity, he’d threatened to take me from her if she was right about that assumption. With no money to legally fight him, she’d given up.

  She wasn’t the only one coerced by Royce. The very person she’d met him through, Grant’s father and my uncle, had signed over his rights to the family business to his brother. “And what about what he did to your dad?” I tossed out.

  “Dad made a choice. He didn’t have to sign,” Grant said.

  “How do you know?” I asked. “He could have blackmailed him the same way he did my mom.”

  “That’s Dad’s battle to fight, not mine.”

  “He owes me,” I said, gripping the bedside of the truck like I could bend the metal with my bare hands. “I need to know the truth.”

  “What if you get stuck there? I heard they might close the state.”

  The recent virus outbreak was spreading like wildfire through the city. “That’s a risk I have to take.”

  “What’s your plan?” he queried.

  I shrugged as I let go of the truck before I did damage to it. Frustrated, I took two steps back. “I don’t know. Connor has a club in the city. If I can’t get to the old man, I’ll reach out to him.”

  Connor was one of two brothers I’d never met and neither had Grant. My father had written both of us and his brother out of the family.

  The door to Grant’s cabin opened and a gorgeous brunette was framed in the doorway in the thermals that clung to her. I gaped not only because she was that beautiful, but because Grant didn’t bring women to his cabin. Grant didn’t do girlfriends after the last one had burned him.

  “Jo, honey. Why don’t you put on a coat?” he suggested.

  Honey? Since when did he call a woman ‘honey’? I grinned because I would razz him about it later.

  Grant glared at her and the next thing I knew she crossed her arms over her chest and went inside. I chuckled. The man had gone all possessive over a woman, which was something. “Sorry, cuz. Uncle Ted told me you weren’t alone, but he didn’t say you were hiding a smokestack.” I whistled. “I can see why you’d quarantine with her.”

  “It isn’t like that,” he said, “Mind your manners.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. I’m just saying—” I joked.

  He glared at me and I cut off anything else I might have said. I raised my hands in surrender just before the smoking hot brunette came out wearing jeans with her coat zipped up tight and boots on. She stopped far enough that we formed a socially distant triangle.

  “Jolene, this is my cousin, Liam. Liam, this is Jolene.”

  I held out a hand, then remembered touching wasn’t recommended. “This is going to take some getting used to.” I lowered my hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Jolene. Take care of my cousin here.”

  She grinned. “I’ll do my best, and nice to meet you too.”

  “Well, I best be getting on,” I said, repeating her word ‘best’.

  “Where are you heading?” Jolene asked.

  “New York.”

  “Best of luck,” Grant said, with the emphasis on ‘best’. “Make sure you keep me
updated with what’s going on. You know your mother is going to be on my ass about where you are.”

  He knew me well enough to know I hadn’t told her what I was up to. We both knew she would talk me out of it.

  “I will. You two stay safe.” I gave him a knowing look while he stared back in warning. “Though I have to say, not much to do up here.” I glanced at them. “But I’m sure you guys can figure out some way to pass the time,” I teased.

  “Bye, Liam,” Grant said as I laughed and hauled myself back into my truck.

  I made it almost to the Maryland border when I decided to stop and grab a bite to eat at the last rest stop before crossing into Delaware. A bus pulled in at the same time.

  When I reached the entrance, I held the door open for the woman behind me. If I’d though Grant’s Jo was hot, this woman topped her.

  She smiled and said, “Thank you.”

  I managed a, “You’re welcome,” before I swallowed my tongue. I caught myself watching her ass and had to glance away because there was someone else I should be thinking about.

  There were two people I wanted to see in New York and one of them was my ex. We’d been a thing while growing up and though I hadn’t seen her in four years, it felt like my duty to see if that spark was still there.

  I grabbed my food and left. The same woman I met at the entrance was on her way out too. This time she held the door for me.

  “Uh, thanks,” I said. It hadn’t come out right, but she was just that attractive. It was hard not to notice.

  “What’s wrong? A woman can’t hold the door for you?”

  “Uh, no. It’s just—” What was it exactly? I shouldn’t have been tongue tied given my plans when I reached the city, but I was.

  She didn’t wait for me to finish. She just rolled her beautiful eyes and walked off. Fuck my life. The view was perfect going and coming.

  “No ‘you’re welcome’?” I called after her in amusement because I couldn’t let it go. I wanted to hear her speak again.

  She didn’t stop. She just glanced over her shoulder to roll her eyes again before joining the line to board the bus. At least she hadn’t given me the finger.

  I shook off our encounter because she wasn’t the only beautiful woman in the world…

  I got in my truck and continued up Interstate 95. Hours later, when I crossed into New York, I dialed a number I hadn’t deleted from my contacts four years ago. I had no idea if it would work.

  “Liam.” The voice was as soft and sweet as I remembered.

  “I’m in town and wanted to see you if you’re not busy. I know there’s the quarantine.”

  “Here in New York?”

  Since she was on the phone, I was forced to say, “Yes.”

  “It’s fine. You can come over. I’ll text you my address.”

  We ended the call, and she did as she said. I tapped the address in the text and a map came up. I hit the directions icon and let the navigation led me to her place. Street parking was nonexistent, but luck was on my side. Someone pulled out of a spot on the other side of the street. I wasn’t sure if it was legal or not, but I swooped around in time to snag it.

  Inside, the building had a doorman and I had to be called up. After I’d been given the all clear, I took the elevator up and went straight to her door. There wasn’t time to prepare myself for this reunion. This was it.

  I barely knocked when the door was opened.

  Carrie had been a stunner in high school. Time had only improved things. She wasn’t that innocent girl I’d deflowered in the back of my truck in a field on a Friday night after a football game. She was all woman and wore a robe that was open enough to reveal her sexy bra. Things were looking up as I forced the woman from the rest stop out of my head.

  “Come in,” Carrie invited, opening the door wide enough for me to enter. The apartment was small but cozy. Before I could sit on the sofa, she said, “I need to tell you something.”

  I didn’t like her expression and remained standing. “Go ahead.”

  She looked at the ground as she spoke. “You know I wanted to be a journalist, right?”

  I nodded without uttering a word, and she was forced to meet my gaze. “I’ll just say it. I got curious about your brothers. I heard about the club and I went there.”

  There was no way this conversation was leading anywhere good, so I remained silent. “I met him.” Again, I said nothing. I would let her hang herself. “Connor that is. He owns the club.” She glanced at me. “You knew that?” Instead of answering, I just stared at her. She was beginning to look like a stranger in my eyes. She took a deep breath. “Anyway, it just happened. I didn’t mean for it to. But he’s magnetic, exciting—”

  Everything apparently I wasn’t. I cut her off mid-sentence. “You fucked him,” I finished for her. It wasn’t a question.

  “Don’t be crass. We had a relationship… of sorts…” She glanced away. “Until some months back… Anyway, I still love you.”

  I laughed. It wasn’t out of bitterness or anger. I laughed at myself because I’d been the fool to come here. She had been one of two people who knew one day I would have a reckoning with the King family. Grant was the other. Finding out she sought out the brother I’d never met and he’d seduced her had been the final blow to any possibility between us. There was at least some satisfaction as it sounded like he’d been the one to break things off.

  “Does he know about me?”

  She blinked, probably because I hadn’t professed my undying love. “Yes and no.”

  I fisted my hands, not because I wanted to hit her. I wanted to hit the wall. “Which is it?” I gritted out.

  Had she spoiled all my best laid plans? If Connor knew, then for how long as he hadn’t reached out to me.

  “Yes, I told him about you, my boyfriend.”

  “Ex-boyfriend. You broke up with me, remember,” I clarified.

  “I shouldn’t have.”

  I let my silence urge her on.

  “I didn’t say anything else about you. Though when he ended things, he suggested I go back to you.”

  “Too late for that.” His suggestion only pissed me off more. A rich guy like him discarded the small-town girl, thinking she was good enough for me, her small-town ex-boyfriend.

  I moved to the door.

  “Liam,” she cried.

  I didn’t wait. I left with an anger I couldn’t put words to.

  Something else I realized was I wasn’t pissed at her. Her betrayal hadn’t hurt much. I was angry that my brother had the life I didn’t and now had also had the girl that was once mine. She’d dumped me and he’d dumped her. He’d had it all. I had nothing.

  That fueled my drive. I’d found an address for the notable King before I drove to New York. It was time for that reckoning to finally happen.

  One

  Liam

  Bolstered by everything that brought me to this moment, I stiffly knocked on the door in front of me. Though I’d prepared a speech in my head a thousand times, everything changed when a different man than the one I’d come to see opened the door.

  He looked every bit the billionaire’s son. Though he wore jeans like me, it was clear he hadn’t gotten them from the same store I had. Even his black tee shirt looked like it cost more than my flannel one. Hell, it likely cost more than everything I wore, including my prized boots.

  We sized each other up a minute before I held out my hand and said, “You’re Connor King, right?”

  It was a guess that turned out to be a good one. He didn’t return my offer of good will, keeping his hand on the door. I was reminded most people had stopped handshaking in light of things. “And you are?”

  This was it. I said the words I’d waited most of my life to say. “Liam. Your brother.”

  That wasn’t all I’d longed to do after the conversation with Carrie. I’d assumed I’d marry her one day. Yet here I was with a different motivation.

  I stepped forward swiftly and swung my fist at hi
m. Anger made me sloppy. I’d underestimated the privileged bastard before me. He turned out to be a lot quicker than I expected and had me pinned to the wall like a fly. Damn. I hadn’t lost many fights in my life, and it was a bitter pill to swallow that he’d gotten the drop on me.

  “What the fuck?” he yelled near my ear.

  If I’d been thinking correctly or at all, I wouldn’t have said what I did. “That’s for Carrie,” I gritted out.

  “Carrie—” At the tail end of repeating her name, I heard the realization as he trailed off. “You’re my brother?” he asked like maybe he could accept the idea.

  Still pressed to the wall, I growled my assent as I nodded.

  “Do you have another brother?” he asked.

  I was thrown by the question until I assumed he was testing me. “Jeremy—King.”

  “What about Grant King?”

  What he asked, left me speechless.

  My cousin wanted to give the King’s of New York the benefit of the doubt. He suggested that Royce King’s sons may not have known about their uncle and him.

  Deep in thought, Connor shook me out of it when I hadn’t answered his question. “Are you sure you don’t have a brother named Grant King?”

  I was about to respond when a heavily accented Scottish voice barreled out, “What’s going on?”

  A beautiful, heavily pregnant blonde followed the man I suspected to be my other brother, Jeremy King.

  “I think Royce has some explaining to do,” Connor said to them.