I pullthe throttle back to accelerate. My heart races.
Pain... Fear... Dread... One punch after another to my gut.
I’m going to be sick. Minutes later, I pull up outside the casino, throw my keys at the valet, and bolt to the garden. As I bend with my hands on my knees, vomit rises and I retch until there’s nothing left. I’ve never been sick over my emotions, but Zara makes me feel everything.
I’m going to lose her again... What has Audrey done?When I stand, I take a couple of deep breaths, though my throat burns.
I walk to the glass entrance doors. They open wide, allowing me to stride inside. Two women with casino uniforms on are standing behind the stone counter.
“Hi, Knox,” one says in an overly cheerful voice. I don’t have time for pleasantries. I yank my phone out of my pocket and press Kane’s number. When he answers, I say, “I’m at the casino. Where are you?”
“I’m in my office.”
I hang up, walk to the elevator, and quickly and repeatedly press the button to call it to the ground floor.
When the doors open, a man walks out as I walk in. I swivel and press the button for the third floor, then swipe my access tag. No one but my family and managers are allowed on that level. As the elevator rises, I tap my leg. When the doors open, I step outside, march down the corridor, and yank my brother’s door open. It bangs as it hits the wall.
Kane stands at his desk. “What the fuck, Knox!”
“Did you know?”
His brows furrow. “Know what?”
My chest heaves, but then a thought comes to mind.What if he doesn’t know, or what if Misty wasn’t pregnant?I choose my words carefully. “Audrey paid off Iris after Misty left. Did you know about it?”
Kane tilts his head, his eyes hardening at my accusation. “How would I know that?” He plonks down in his chair and leans back. “You’re pissed off. Why? Why does it matter?”
“It matters because Iris told Helen and Audrey”—she’s not my mom anymore—“that she thought Misty was pregnant.” I focus on Kane. He gasps and stills. I watch for any tell that he knew, but he shakes his head.
“She wasn’t pregnant.”
“Well, Audrey turned up with her bodyguard the next day at Iris’s house. Audrey said her employment with the Pratts was terminated and she was to abide by the terms and conditions of her employment, which included an NDA.” The longer I speak, the paler Kane gets. “Then she offered Iris a bonus if she signed another NDA to not talk about the case to anyone and because she didn’t want you,”—I point to him—“being pulled into the case.”
“Don’t point your finger at me,brother! I always wore protection. I’m telling you she wasn’t pregnant.”
“So there wasn’t one time that you even started having sex, then put the condom on afterward? You know condoms aren’t one hundred percent effective.”
Uncertainty clouds his face. He shoves himself up out of his chair, which tumbles backward, hitting the wall. “It was a long time ago. I don’t remember.”
“You need to think real fucking hard. If there was even the slightest of chances Misty was pregnant, it changes everything. If Audrey paid Iris off, then she knew. She knew, Kane... all this time.”
Dad walks in. “What the hell is going on?”
I pull my gaze from Kane and turn to Dad, who is standing in the doorway. “Shut the door and come in,” I tell him.
Dad pauses first, his eyes darting between Kane and me. He opens his mouth, but he says nothing and gently closes the door before turning to us. In my peripheral vision, I see Kane pacing by his desk.
“Did you know?” I ask Dad.
“Uh... know what?”
“Mistycould have beenpregnant.”
He chuckles. “What are you talking about? She wasn’t pregnant. We would have known about it.”
“By the sounds of it, Audrey knew, and when Iris made a comment about her thoughts that Misty was pregnant, Audrey terminated Iris’s employment and paid her for keeping silent.”
Dad blinks repeatedly and looks at Kane. “Is this true?”
