Page 1 of A Man of Wealth

Chapter1

Conner

My father is a kidnapper?Her words echo in my head. My father. The more I consider it, the more it becomes a very tangible truth.

“Are you sure?” Sebastian asks. “You didn’t say anything about an accent when you told me.”

Alexis looks from me to Sebastian and back again. “You’re British?” she asks, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

I shake my head. “My father is.”

She turns her attention to Sebastian. “I don’t know why I didn’t think about the man having an accent. I’m still a little foggy about the memory, but that voice…I’ll never forget that voice.”

She has a valid point. My father’s voice is quite distinctive. With his slightly faded British accent and his deep baritone sound, it’s hard to forget it.

I look to Sebastian for guidance. I have no idea what he’s told her.

Sebastian takes Alexis by the hand and leads her to a seat at the kitchen island. She slowly sits and stares up at him.

“There are a lot of things that you don’t know, Alexis.” He looks at me and I give him a subtle shake of the head. He can’t tell her.

“Such as?” she asks, her words slow and confused.

“Confervo may be worse than we thought. There are some very powerful people in this city, who do some very shady things. We may have stirred the pot with our research.” Sebastian sighs and I can tell he doesn’t want to have this conversation with me present, but it’s better I’m here to know what he says. “That’s why I tried to break things off between us. I didn’t want you involved in something that could potentially be dangerous, but now…it seems I’ve just put you right in the middle of it.”

Alexis frowns and looks over at me. “But…why would Conner’s dad be involved?”

I know why, but I’m letting Sebastian tell her. If he wants this woman, then he needs to be the one to speak the truth, or at least as much as we can divulge.

“Think this through. What does Conner do?” he prompts.

She gives him a pointed look, and I press my lips together to keep from laughing. I like this woman. “He runs a lobbying firm for the shipping industry.”

“And how did he come to do that?” Sebastian asks.

Her mouth opens and then closes and then opens again as she looks over at me. “Your father owns a shipping company,” she says. Her eyes widen as the puzzle pieces come together for her.

Sebastian glances at me. We will most definitely need to discuss this later.

“Seriously? I was drugged and hit over the head; I’m not stupid. What the hell is going on? Is your father shipping these drugs into the country?” Alexis says as she pushes back her seat and stands abruptly. She sways a little and Sebastian lunges forward to catch her.

“Whoa, little dove. You need to rest.”

She presses a hand to his chest as she steadies herself. “I’m fine. I’m just a little woozy from the concussion.”

I watch Sebastian as he keeps his hands firmly planted on her hips. Damn, Mr. Perfect has it bad for his little lady. There’s something serious between them. I can’t understand that part of it. I will never have that with a woman, never. I don’t do serious relationships. In my world, serious relationships equal collateral damage.

“He may be. Alexis, are you absolutely sure?” I say, drawing her attention away from Sebastian. She looks over her shoulder at me.

I play the voice message again and she closes her eyes as she listens. When it ends, she nods slowly. Her large eyes open, and she stares at me. “Yes. The way he said…fucking. He says it strangely like he has an accent, but not really. It’s…unique.”

She’s not wrong. It is unique. There are a handful of words that are like this when he speaks. I look at Sebastian again.

“I need to go. Get her to bed. I’ll be in touch,” I state as I stand and walk toward his front door. I turn before I open the door. “By the way, Bryce Gallagher called me today. All our security systems have been hacked. He thinks that whoever hacked them is probably the same person who broke into your office. His team will be out tomorrow to fix it permanently, but they…overrode the hack for the time being.”

“Jesus, maybe you could have mentioned that at the beginning of our conversation,” Sebastian growls.

I open the door and head back to my house. I don’t mention that Bryce thinks we’ve all been being watched for some time now. Because we both know that we’ve been watched. We’ve been watched since the day we took the vow.

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