Page 89 of King of Ruin

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Roman

I makethe short drive to the Kincaid building, the air in the car thick with tension.

Lucia and Josh sit in the back seat, giving each other several long glances, as they silently communicate with each other.

I already know they’re worried.

I’ve done my best to soothe Lucia since that first phone call. But she knows the man I am now and she isn’t going to respond to anything I say.

Funny, just when I started to trust Maddie’s best friend, I lost her.

All I can do is prove that I have Maddie’s best interest at heart. And one thing I have always been is a man of action. That isn’t changing.

And that’s going to mean going toe to toe with Mason.

I’m ready.

“Lucia,” I say into the silence. “Can you tell me what the inspector said specifically?”

“He said,” Lucia lets out a long breath, “that he was foreclosing on Maddie’s house by order of the city.”

“Anything else?” I remain patient. This isn’t my first conversation with an unwilling and angry party. It’s part of my job. In the casinos, I can frequently add the words drunk and belligerent to the adjectives used to describe people I’m talking with.

“And that if I had a problem with it, I could take it up with the Kincaids.”

My mouth presses into a thin hard line. This is not good. Her eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror and she gives me a hard glare.

“I said that it couldn’t be true. That the owner of the house was dating Roman Kincaid. Then he said that you were the man who approached him in the first place and that you were exactly who I should speak with about the foreclosure.”

Why would a city inspector, who had taken a bribe, tell Lucia he was affiliated with us? It makes no sense. Tell her to take up the fight with me?

Then my teeth grind together. Unless he was paid a whole bunch extra to specifically mention the Kincaids. To put the blame on me.

I know who did this.

Mason is trying to make certain Maddie and I break up.

Fucker. He is going to pay for this.

I hit the gas, speeding toward the tower and my brother. But before I get there, I spit out a voice command. “Call Charlotte.”

Because two can play this game.

My sister-in-law picks up on the second ring. “Roman, what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong is that your husband just foreclosed on a blind woman’s house, while framing me for it,” I spit into the speaker.

Charlotte gasps. “Why would he do that?”

“To close his tunnel deal. To break up me and Maddie.”

“Roman?” Maddie whispers, soft and hurt, but Charlotte’s gasp tells me that she heard Maddie’s voice.

“Charlotte, meet Maddie. Maddie, Charlotte.”

“Hello,” Charlotte says in the sweet voice with which she speaks to everyone. “It’s a pleasure, Maddie.”

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