Page 75 of Vicious Souls

I give her a smirk, reminding her how good she is at playing multiple roles. She laughs in response, and I lose her momentarily as her mind goes back to that time when I had her in a cell.

“So when did you realise who I was?”

“When your disguise came off, I thought you were a cleverly placed distraction to fool us, and the real Murray Junior was still out there somewhere. But when my father saw you on the camera feed, he confirmed that you were Maddog’s offspring.”

“How could he have known if he’d never met me?”

“Apparently, you bear a striking resemblance to your late mother. He had no doubt.”

“And the endgame?”

“He told me to keep you safe, and then all hell broke loose when the Savages came looking for you. I knew then that you were in trouble.”

“You risked a lot to keep me safe so you could get to the docks,” she points out, and it seems like she’s testing me.

“No.” I shake my head slightly. “The docks were forgotten the minute we realized someone meant you harm. The mission then became about saving you only. No matter the cost.”

Kingsley shakes her head, confused. She is trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

“If my father specifically asked to see your father, and asked him to keep me safe, it means he had his suspicions about Tate.”

“It would seem that way,” I agree with her.

“He also said something to me... at the hospital. Which I didn’t think of until recently, because it made no sense. Thought he was hallucinating again.”

“Your father was in control of all his faculties up until the very end, Kingsley. What did he say?”

“He told me to trust no one. And Durian. He told me to call Durian. I didn’t know what your father’s name was until very recently.”

“It all makes sense now. Except for one thing…”

She looks at me inquisitively.

“Your father changed his will seven years ago. That’s when he added Tate and wrote the docks in my father’s name. The last change was made a year ago, when he cut Tate out completely.”

“He must have uncovered something about him that made him angry enough to remove him from his will.”

“And kept him close to keep an eye on him. For your father to cut off his number two after so many years of service means he no longer had faith in him. His instincts were not misplaced, King.”

“I can’t believe that Tate would discard his loyalty for my father and go rogue like he did.”

I consider her comment, meet her eyes and hold her gaze for the longest time. There is so much I still don’t know about this woman. She is a mystery I am still trying to unpack, but I desperately want to get into every last corner of her mind and deconstruct her bit by bit.

“Will you tell me why you were so upset your father gave us the docks?”

She looks down at my hand as it moves up and down her leg slowly, takes a moment to collect her thoughts, then turns her gaze back up to me.

“It was never about that. It was feeling that you came in to my life only to gain something, that this thing here,” she pauses and indicates the space between us, “Was all based on a lie.”

“Tate planted that seed of doubt in your head, and he planted it deeply,” I remind her.

“Does this change anything between us?” she asks.

I can’t believe she’s even asking me that. We now have the docks we always wanted, free of charge, but it changes not a damn thing between Kingsley and me. And somehow, I have to make her see that.

“It changes nothing. I’m not going anywhere, Kingsley.”

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