Page 10 of Ruthless Prince
“I doubt she was actually in charge of the guest list. She has people forthat.”
“Whatever.” He sniffed and gestured around the room, eyes narrowing again. “Did I ever tell you how long my mother was given to move out of this place after my daddied?”
I shook my head. “Don’t thinkso.”
He held up one hand, fingers outstretched. “Five days. Five fucking days for a grieving widow to pack up her life and get the hell out of her ownhome.”
“Sorry, man. I didn’t know.” I patted his shoulder. As fucked up as the situation was, I was glad he was finally talking about this stuff. In the previous few months, he’d barely said a word about it to me or anyone else. He’d barely even opened his mouth at his father’sfuneral.
“It’s that fucking bitch.” He sneered in the president’s direction. “She always wanted to take his place, and she just couldn’t wait, even if it meant throwing my poor mom out on herass.”
A wild look was flaring in his eyes now. I held up my palms in a placating gesture. “I know it’s shitty, but to be fair, I don’t think it was up to her. She was sworn in because she was the VP, and that meant she had to move in here rightaway.”
Teddy rubbed a hand over his stubble-lined jaw. “Well, about that…” He motioned for me to come closer and lowered his voice. “You wanna knowsomething?”
I shrugged. “Sure.”
“I think she killed him. That’s how she pulled itoff.”
I raised my brows. “What the fuck are you talkingabout?”
“Quinn Rhoades killed my father so she could take his spot. Just think aboutit.”
I frowned and looked over at the president as I considered Teddy’s crazytheory.
I knew Stephen Rhoades was a scummy piece of shit (he sold his own daughter, after all) and Willow was an evil little bitch too, but I’d never seen any evidence that Quinn was a terrible person. She had no idea about the contract Stephen signed almost twenty-one years ago with my father, and as far as I knew, she had no idea what her daughter was capable of either. She might be brash, politically-ruthless and ambitious as hell, but a heartlessmurderer?
Doubtful.
Teddy spoke up again, drawing my gaze back to his face. “A few months before Dad died, I was talking to an aide here. She used to work as an intern at the EEOB, and she said she overheard something while she was in the vice president’s office. Apparently, Quinn was thinking about running against my dad in the nextelection.”
I cocked my head to the side. “So? It’s not completely unheard of for a sitting VP to run against their ownpresident.”
“She had to know she wouldn’t win, though, right? My dad was way morepopular.”
“That’strue.”
Rutherford was elected in a landslide based on his no-bullshit approach to problems. He was a very charismatic guy, and unlike many sleazy politicians, he seemed to genuinely care about the state of the country. He also confidently espoused the view that things could and would get better despite recent problems, and he believed the collapse so many naysayers warned of simply wasn’t going to happen as long as the economy was managedproperly.
He was obviously going to run for a second term in 2020, and Teddy was right—he would’ve won over Quinn Rhoades. Or any other candidate, for thatmatter.
“I think she realized she couldn’t win and would have to wait till 2024 for a shot. But she got sick of waiting, so she had him taken care of so she could steal the office for herself. Then she could run her own campaign in 2020 like she originally wanted. With my father out of the picture, she’d probablywin.”
Christ, he was really losing hisshit.
I exhaled deeply. “Teddy, man… I know you’re still upset about your dad, and you have every right to be, but I really don’t think Quinn Rhoades could or would have donethat.”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you kidding?” His voice dropped to a harsh whisper. “Dad was fifty-two and perfectly healthy. Zero history of heart disease in the family. Am I seriously meant to believe he could just drop dead like that out of the blue? Noway.”
I cocked a brow. “My grandmother on my father’s side died of bowel cancer when she was only forty. No history of cancer anywhere in the family. Sometimes that shit justhappens.”
“I guess so,” he muttered. He rubbed a hand over his chin. “I dunno, I just can’t stop thinking about it. He was fine one minute, and then… bam. Stone cold dead on the floor. At the Rhoades’ house, no less. Remember, it was Quinn’s birthday party thatnight.”
I nodded slowly and pressed my lips into a tight line as I wondered about the possibility of a secret assassination. As far as I knew, only one group had the necessary connections and capacity to pull something like that off, and that group was the Order. I’d heard that they’d arranged for the untimely deaths of certain presidents in the distant past, but there was no way they were behind Rutherford’sdemise.
For one, I hadn’t heard anything about any such operation, and I’d been an Order member for three years now. Secondly, Quinn wasn’t an Order member herself, so it’s not like she could’ve tried to secretly use their connections behind the rest of the member’s backs. She didn’t even know the societyexisted.
Lastly, when the Order brokered the deal between my father and Stephen Rhoades twenty years ago, it was to pay off a massive debt Stephen had accrued. That was it. There was no mention of helping his wife in her political career, and there was no way she could’ve pulled off such a high-profile murder on herown.
