Page 66 of Crave Me

“And I will continue to be. I’m an excellent multitasker.” He sent a final command that had a whirlwind of information, photos, maps, financial records, witness statements, police reports, flashing one after another on the screens, then he stepped away, obviously done with coding that portion of things, and told me, “Caspian, if I don’t intervene, Caleb could be returning home to a shitshow of epic proportions. He’s worked too hard for us to allow that. With my efforts regarding my father’s dollhouse network, I’m familiar with this sort of thing. I’m in a position to manage it. I’ve already reached out to his heads of staff, as well as Sven Nielsen.”

“All right. Thank you.”

“Great. I’ll continue.” As he spoke, I noticed him veering toward the far left monitor, seemingly trying to block its view with his body without drawing my attention in the process.

With how good he was, normally that would have worked, but I was in a highly paranoid and intensely alert state.

“Asher,” I spoke deceptively calmly, as I drew closer. “I trusted you with access to my entire system because I was certain that you had no interest in acquiring any part of King for yourself, given your refusal to take the seat of power at your father’s company when the opportunity was thrown at your feet recently. And because your focus was on Caleb.” I stopped in front of him, right up close, looming over him and fingering the collar of his black designer shirt. “My judgment is known for being virtually infallible. Although, that has taken a hit with Elijah’s actions lately, I’ve failed to predict his movements, to see certain things coming. So maybe that wasn’t a one-off.”

His enthralling silver eyes held my gaze steadily. “It is a one-off.”

“Prove it. Step away from that monitor.”

He snagged my hand on his shirt.

Just as I was about to react to the rough and aggressive move, he startled me as he stroked my fingers up and down. “We need to focus on Caleb and Elijah. What I’m working on beyond that doesn’t pertain to any of that. It needs to be dealt with later. It will only complicate things, something you absolutely don’t need, that none of us need.”

I frowned. “Does this concern Caleb’s ask of you concerning investigating Dante?”

“It does, but my investigation isn’t complete.”

“I saw your text. You told him you’d found something.”

He gritted his teeth.

“Didn’t expect me to be able to crack his phone?”

“No. Not this quickly. Respect to King-Tech.”

I eased my hand from him, ignoring the rush of heat that rolled through me as our fingers lingered before I broke away fully.

I blinked and stepped back. “Asher, just show me.”

“You’re not going to let it go.”

“You know I’m not.”

He scrubbed a hand over the sexy rough stubble on his chin, then stepped aside. “As you wish.”

I peered at the monitor, startled by what I saw. “What the—why do you have a scanned copy of my Birth Certificate?”

“It’s not a copy. It’s the original.”

“That’s even worse. What does this particular document have to do with looking into Dante?”

“This was forged.” He eyeballed me. “By somebody in Mancini Syndicate employ.”

I studied it. “What are you… no.”

“It’s an exceptional forgery, very hard to determine the falsity. Fortunately, I have more experience than most when it comes to this particular thing. I spent a long time trying to prove that I wasn’t the son of Carson Monroe. It didn’t pan out how I wanted obviously, but it’s helping you out now, because I can tell you without a doubt that this is a forgery. Not just this either. All the information surrounding your birth. You weren’t born in Rossun General. It wasn’t a natural birth for Laura King.”

“Wasn’t a natural birth… so a C-Section then? What of it? All of the rest was them likely playing the press game, trying to protect their son from the media and their enemies alike.”

“Oh, it most definitely was. But it wasn’t them spearheading the efforts. It was Dante.”

Our eyes locked.

“Like I said, I’m still looking into it, my investigation isn’t complete.”

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