Page 28 of Furever Loyal
“What exactly were these troubles?” she asked, unable to stay silent about it any longer. “Both you and the Queen told me about them, but all she told me after that, was to shut down the accounts of a list of names and fold them into the main corporate account. Nothing else.”
Kincaid looked away, clearly thinking his words over before he spoke. “A faction tried to take over. It was a…hostile...takeover attempt.” He glanced down. “It didn’t work, but it came close.”
She absorbed that information, carefully not pointing out that it sounded very much like there had been an attempt to kill the people in power. If there was one thing she’d learned about working with House Ursa over the years, though, it was tonotask questions about things she didn’t need to know about. Now she had some idea of what was going on in there, she understood that even more.
“Well, there’s something I don’t understand,” she said, factoring in all this new knowledge, and the way this world seemed to operate.
“What’s that?”
“If they wanted you out of the way, why the hell wouldn’t they just kill you instead? Wouldn’t that be easier, if killing is something you—what did you say, shifters?—if it’s something you shifters are comfortable with.”
“Holy shit.” Kincaid slapped a palm against his forehead. “You’re right!”
“I am? I mean, of course, I am! But why are you acting so surprised about it?”
“Because for one, I didn’t expect you to be right.” Kincaid was running his hand over his head now, messing up his steely gray hair.
“Ass.”
“But the second reason, is I think they already did!”
Haley was thoroughly confused now. “They did what, Kincaid?”
“Kill me. Or try to I mean. Someonedidtry to kill me. Just before you came to the House. I thought it was just him not liking me or being a little crazy but…” He fell silent, deep in thought.
This time, she let him think without interrupting. Obviously, he was onto something, and she wanted him to figure it out. Maybe they could find another lead out of it.
“We need to look up the bank records of someone else in the House,” he said, looking up suddenly. “You can do that, right?”
“The ones that are tied to the accounts I have access to, yes, of course. Why? And who?”
“You also have a list somewhere, of the companies associated with Canis, right? That you can cross-reference if you need to. For reasons exactly like this?”
“Yes.” She did have such a list, though she didn’t use it often. Despite their stated dislike for one another, the Houses did enough business together that sorting through it all would be a nightmare. But she had it, just in case.
“Okay, I need you to cross reference the records with the list of transactions on the bank account.”
Haley shook her head. “I can’t do that, Kincaid. That’s not what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m supposed to be helping you.”
Kincaid’s face hardened. “You can, and you will if you want to remain neutral in this. You’re not altering anything Haley. Just looking them up, that’s all.”
She wanted to fight, but he was right. “Fine, but why this man?”
“A hunch,” was all he said.
“Okay. What’s his name?” She sat down at her desk and opened her files.
“Krawll. Krawll Ursa.”
14
“It’ll take me a few minutes.”
“Take all the time you need,” he said, watching the screen as she worked.
Haley stopped, turning her body so she could look up at him. She was pretty. He’d known that of course, it had been one of his first thoughts of her when she’d walked into the Throne Room, on a day that felt like ages ago.
Was it really just yesterday?
