Page 62 of The Kingpin's Omega Lover
“Wait, does that mean Aleks was responsible for running you guys off the road last week?” Malori asked.
King shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. I did ask about that. He said he heard about the accident, and that he was briefly interested in collaborating with whoever was trying to either kill me, or send a message, but he didn’t have the right connections in this city to do so. I still think it was a warning not to continue searching for Marta.”
“Either way,” Bishop said, “Yovenko’s connections here or anywhere else aren’t going to save his life.”
“So, we’re going to kill him?” Malori asked, perfectly neutral.
“Not necessarily,” King replied. “Bishop floated the idea of trading him to Marta for information.”
“About my daughter?”
“Correct.”
“But why would she want him? He was a paying Farm client. He’d have everything to lose by going to the authorities with anything he knows about her or her operation. If he knows anything at all.”
“Yes, but if he’s arrested for some other reason, he has everything to gain by spilling his guts to the police or FBI. He has no loyalty to anyone, not if it saves his own ass.”
“Did he try bargaining with you?”
“No. He understood there was no deal to be made with me. Absolutely nothing he could tell me that would guarantee his release. He’s a gifted liar and manipulator, Mal. I wouldn’t trusthim saying the room was on fire even if the flames were licking at my toes.”
“Right. So, Marta could consider Aleks a possible loose end, because of what he knew about the Farm. One she needs to clip before he unravels?”
“Precisely.”
Malori’s face brightened with the first hints of hope since he’d entered the kitchen. “If she was involved in my daughter’s sale to someone else, do you think she’d trade information on her whereabouts?”
“I don’t know, but it’s worth asking, don’t you think?”
“Fuck, yes!” His excitement dimmed as quickly as it had flared. “But she’s three years old, King. What if…fuck, but what if she has a good life with whoever bought her? Do I have any right to tear her away from that? Junior is still young, he’s a baby, but she’s walking and probably talking. What if she already calls them Mom and Dad?”
King circled the island and pulled Malori up into a firm hug. Malori’s arms cinched around his waist, and he pressed his face into King’s neck. “I don’t have any of those answers for you, angel. First, we need the information. Proof of life, of adoption, and of her current whereabouts. Until we have that, there are no answers to the other questions.”
“You’re right.” Malori released a long, angry sigh. “Do you think Marta will kill him? Aleks, I mean?”
“Probably. Does that bother you?”
“No. It should, because Aleks did give me my son. Not, like, he handed him over willingly, but the pregnancy. Junior exists because of him. I shouldn’t want him dead, but I do.” He looked up, right into King’s eyes. “Does that make me a horrible person? That I want my son’s father dead?”
“No, it doesn’t. It makes you human and flawed, and it makes you the man I love.”
Malori’s lips parted, and his eyelashes fluttered. “Yeah?”
“Yes. I love you, Malori. Pretty sure I fell in love with you a little bit the day we met. With your courage and tenacity, and your will to live. And every day since, you’ve shown me a man I want by my side, now and in the future. For all the days of my life.”
Malori closed his eyes. A single tear slid down his right cheek, and when he blinked them open again, his eyes shined with joy. “I love you, too. I have for a while, but I never had the words to say it. Because everyone who’s shown love to me in the past has betrayed me. I didn’t trust that word. Love. But you gave it back to me, Alexander Kingston. My King.”
King’s own eyes burned. “It’s my honor to give that word back to you. I can’t promise life with me will be easy.”
“I don’t want easy. I want honest. I want genuine. I want you.”
“You’ve got me.” King glanced around, but Bishop had cleared out at some point. “Malori, I have to ask you something.”
“It’s a little early for a proposal.”
That made him laugh out loud. “Not that. Not yet. I’m curious, though. When we’re together, do you ever feel…connected to me? On a more spiritual level?”
Malori smiled so sweetly that King fell in love all over again. “Are you asking about the charum connection? If I think there’s something like that between us?”
