Page 44 of The Sinners Gambit

“Hey! I was just about to call you,” he answers the phone.

I rub my fingers through my hair. “You hear back?”

“Yes. I have good news and bad news.”

“Tell me.” I lean on the counter and brace my hand that’s not holding the phone on the edge.

“Good news is we got a match,” he starts.

“Okay . . .”

“And the bad news is that it’s your uncle, like we expected.”

I squeeze the granite so hard in anger I swear I could rip it off. “Fuck!” I whisper, not wanting Naomi to startle awake.

“Killian?”

“Yeah,” I whisper as my brain goes a million miles a minute, realizing what this means.

“I think he’s the one who’s been pulling the strings. My friend in the department found that one of the officers on the case was paid a lump sum to swap the results when it happened.”

“And he could’ve done the same after the Society found the real ones.”

I hear rustling in the bedroom which draws my attention to the door. “I’ll come down soon and we can all talk; Nai’s waking up.”

“Killian, we’ll get him,” he says before hanging up. I nod my head in agreement even though no one’s there to see.

I walk back to the bedroom and smile at my beautiful queen. “Good morning, firecracker.”

Her face immediately splits into the most radiant smile when she says to me, “Good morning.”

“How’s my g—”

“What’s wrong?” she asks, cutting me off.

I sit down on the bed and lie down on her. She strokes my hair gently as I use her heartbeat to keep my own steady. “How did the Society get you the results for the test?” I ask.

“They couriered it with one of their people,” she says.

“Did you scan your ring?”

“Yeah, I did and—” she pauses in thought, “but I didn’t get to open it before I got paged to work for a six car pile-up. I left it in my safe until I got home later that night. I wanted to peek so badly, but I knew if I did that would be my focus for the rest of the night. So, I decided to wait. I already waited almost two decades, a few hours wouldn’t hurt.”

I squeeze her thigh. “I think my uncle swapped the results knowing you were on his trail.”

“Why would he do that to you?” she asks in disbelief.

Sitting up I say, “My uncle and parents never had the greatest relationship. He was always jealous of the love they had. The power and prestige too. But he truly stepped up when they died. He got me through school, life, and helped me channel my anger.”

“Through murder? The Mortes Ostium?”

“Yeah.”

“I can wrap my head around him killing my mother. She was nobody to him. But to frame his nephew? And I assume the will isn’t an issue since he would’ve just killed you off earlier.”

“Actually, the will was pretty ironclad. It said that my guardian would be allotted a certain amount to take care of me, but I would get it all upon my eighteenth birthday. But if I died, then the entire estate and capital would go to charity.”

“So, that’s a dead end. He couldn’t get more power or money.” I feel her tapping her fingers along my back, deep in thought.

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