Page 13 of Free to Judge
Every step I take electrifies my spirit as I absorb the pulsing chaotic energy. Whispers say Keene built this very office to be near his wife when her pregnancy with their eldest daughter was first discovered. A sly smirk curls my lips. After today, I can completely imagine a tiny Kalie in utero throwing punches even before birth.
“Why are you smiling?” Jon growls in a low, demanding tone after catching up to me.
I let him in on my inner thoughts. He bursts out laughing before warning, “I’d keep that story to yourself since we’re about to chat with Uncle Keene.”
We push through the open office space amid the rapid-fire greetings from colleagues—some rallying from our team. Our path takes us past a glass-walled conference room where Liam Payne, Jon’s soon-to-be brother-in-law, is mercilessly tongue-lashing a few miscreants. After listening for a few minutes, Jon and I chortle when we realize it’s over an un-expensed stop at a food truck for one of the company’s higher profile clients.
He elbows me with a wicked glint. “Doesn’t this make you wonder what’s going to blaze across the front page of StellaNova in the morning?”
I scoff, my voice laced with biting sarcasm. “Not a damn thing if they value their jobs.”
“What do you think’s going on?”
I observe Liam more closely as he waves a stack of papers in his hand. “Twenty says it’s because they didn’t fill out their paperwork in triplicate. He was always a pain in the ass about that in the bureau too.”
Jon bellows out a laugh. “Probably.”
“Still, I imagine if your father gets wind of this, it will give him something to mock him over at your twisted spectacle of a family dinner.” I haven’t let myself experience real family in years—not since Tanya opened hers up to me.
And then they cut me off after her brutal murder.
“For all the theatrics you’ve dealt with today pertaining to my family, you’d have one hell of a story to sell to StellaNova. That, or you’re getting used to us.”
I stop dead in my tracks. “Take that back.”
Jon’s brow furrows. “You don’t want to be like us?”
“Be like you? Hell, I figure by the time I’m done, you’re just going to assimilate me or kill me.”
He howls with laughter as I demand, “Tell me I’m wrong, and your family isn’t like the Borg?”
“I can’t. They’re worse. They breed more chaos.”
“Point made.” We walk a few more feet when a clearly pregnant Rachel Aiken, daughter of one of Hudson’s owners, sends us a brisk wave before diving into a corridor that’s so secure that if your biometrics aren’t stored, or if you’re not invited in, you may not make it out alive.
Jon shudders. “She scares the crap out of me.”
I nod. “Her husband has balls of steel.”
“He needed them a few years ago.”
I know there’s a story there, but Jon goes on to tell me what to expect when we meet with Keene. I interrupt. “You know, I have dealt with the man.”
“Yeah, but this is his daughter,” he warns me.
“Then she should have better control over her emotions.”
“That’s not the defense I would go in with.”
“I’m not that suicidal. Plus, you’d have a hard time hiding my body. Every move of mine is being tracked by some media hound with a Mafia fetish—particularly the romance readers on TikTok,” I add, arching an eyebrow at him.
“Better you than me.”
“That’s right. Your pretty face was exposed, so no more gritty fieldwork for you.”
Jon snarls a response. The truth stings him and I immediately feel bad for the dig. Jon was a true chameleon, ever shifting, until that notorious night when Tanya’s life ended and the score Jon and I agreed to settle together began. Still, he’s one of the few people I call a friend. I try to lighten the mood. “After today’s display, I’m leaning toward believing the stories you’ve told me about them.”
“I can’t make this shit up. Ask Liam if you don’t believe me.”
