Page 75 of Heir

“Why not?”

“Because they’re not good people.”

I tensed. “Did they do something to you?”

I was gonna fucking kill them. Especially because she didn’t answer me right away.

I touched one finger to her lips. “Before you answer me, remember this, Gemma. There will be no lies between us.”

Fire flashed in her eyes. “So you’ll be honest with me?”

“As honest as I can be.”

Her shoulders sagged. “I don’t want to tell you.”

I took that as a yes, her family had done something to her.

Fuck.

“What about your uncle? The recluse?”

“Uncle Frank? What about him?” she asked warily.

“Doesn’t he live in Sacramento?”

I already knew the answer. I knew everything there was to know about William Gallagher’s family. For two long years, that fucker had been my target. He was my way into the club. I wasn’t just handed the patch because my old man was the president. I fucking earned my way in, and Gallagher had been how I did it. I also knew Gemma’s mom was broke as shit, and she was weeks from being evicted from the three-million-dollar home she lived in with her husband.

“He does,” she answered. She sighed. “What makes you think he’s any better than the rest of my family?”

Fuck.

I held her a little closer to me. My dad might be a criminal, and I had shit I had to deal with, but maybe I had it better than her. My family wasn’t a bunch of narcissistic psychopaths.

She hesitated. “He’s not a good man. He’s associated with some very bad people, Kai. Which isn’t good because I think he wants to run for mayor next term.”

Then we would just have to make sure the fucking bastard wouldn’t win. I could make that happen. I frowned. “What bad people?”

She licked her lips, drawing my eyes to them. I wanted to kiss her again.

“Uh, people like Grigoriy Savkin.”

I didn’t react to that, but fuck if I wasn’t surprised.

How interesting.

What the hell was Frank Gallagher doing hanging out with the head of the Savkin Bratva when the members of the Bratva killed William Gallagher in the first week of his twenty-year sentence in prison?

How could we have missed this?

I had a feeling the Savkin Bratva would be a problem for the King’s Men pretty soon. How unfortunate for those bastards.

“Kai, are you okay?” Gemma asked, bringing my attention back to her.

I blinked and looked at the pretty girl in my arms. If my protective instincts were roaring to life at the mere sight of her this morning, it was nothing compared to how I was feeling now.

I pulled her closer to me and buried my face in her neck.

“Kai?”

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