Page 119 of Heir

He picked up on the first ring, his voice clear, which told me he hadn’t gone to bed either.

“Kai—” I heard some shuffling on his end before he spoke again, his voice slightly muffled. “No, it’s just Kai. Go back to sleep, wildcat.”

I could hear Emmy respond but couldn’t make out her words. The door closed, and he must have gone downstairs to his office, because when he spoke again, it was in a normal tone.

“What is it, son?”

I swallowed as I looked back down at the screen.

Fuck me.

“Do you think you can come over? It’s kind of hard to explain over the phone.”

“Yeah, I’ll be over soon.”

I hung up and walked over to the window, taking in the Sacramento River. Things with Gemma just got even more complicated.

And if I was having trouble letting her out of my sight before, it was going to be damn near impossible now.

I was going to fucking glue her to my side. She might even feel suffocated by me, but fucking hell, she wasn’t gonna go anywhere without my eyes on her. Not for a long while, at least.

Gemma might have had a misfortune in meeting me.

Because as of right now, she had just kissed her freedom goodbye.

My fists clenched. I was pissed at myself for not having caught on to this earlier.

I should have pushed her for answers because something told me she was aware of the fucking site.

Of her on the fucking site.

And more of the pieces were coming together. Of Frank Gallagher’s involvement with the Bratva, and of her mom.

The eviction notice on her mother’s house. It was all tied together.

And Gemma was at the center of it all.

I didn’t know how long I stood by the window, but it was long enough for Dad to come over. He let himself in.

I turned to him.

“Sorry, we have to be quiet. Gemma is asleep in the bedroom,” I said.

He came up to me and cupped the back of my neck. “Not something you have to apologize for, son. Are you okay?”

I nodded, and he squeezed my neck affectionately before he let go. “What did you want to show me?”

I indicated the couch, and we sat.

I brought the laptop back to life and turned the screen toward him. I knew the moment he realized what he was looking at.

“Fucking hell. How did you come across this?”

“I’ve been surfing the darknet every once in a while to see if there are any threats to the King’s Men and to the Four Horsemen’s empire. I hadn’t looked at it in a while. I should have, and I should have also put a ping on Gemma. I didn’t think to because why would she show up when she had no involvement in William Gallagher’s business?”

“And what made you decide to do it tonight?”

“From bits and pieces of what Gemma told me. From Frank Gallagher’s involvement with the Savkin Bratva, to how she thought the men in the SUV were after her. Did you get them?”

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