A Little Knowledge (The Split Worlds #4) - Emma Newman Page 0,13

right now.”

“Why?” Sam couldn’t understand why anyone would be interested in him being there, let alone wanting to take a picture of him.

“We should take your friend home too,” the minder said, ignoring his question. Sam nodded, trying not to think about how thick the man’s neck looked in the polo shirt. Being surrounded by huge blokes who could crush his skull like a ripe plum didn’t make him feel safe, even when they were on his payroll. “We can’t guarantee what he’d say to the press in his current state.”

“Shit.” Sam wasn’t looking forward to explaining it to Dave. He shouldn’t have come.

An hour later, with Dave’s complaints still echoing in Sam’s thoughts, he was in the back of a limousine on the M5 back up to Cheshire. He was supposed to be staying in the hotel he now owned in Bath but once word was out that he was back, fuelling rumours that the local boy made good was planning to buy his old local and half the city, he just wanted to avoid any more reminders that it could never be his home again. That hotel was the place where they’d held Leanne’s wake. Perhaps he wasn’t as ready to face seeing it again as he’d thought.

He ignored a text that came through on his work phone. He didn’t have the energy, but then he started to worry that it was Cathy, as she had that number as well as his old one, so he checked it.

It was from Des, his PA, a six-foot-tall polyglot with a passion for order. Sam liked his quiet efficiency and the fact that he’d never worked closely with Amir. He was sick of constantly being compared to the previous Lord Iron by the team he’d inherited and was stuck with for the next ten years. Your mother phoned and would like you to call back as soon as possible. It’s currently 6:30 a.m. local time if you want to call now. Sam also liked the way Des prevented time zone befuddlement. A second text arrived. I’ve emailed you the crib sheet for the meeting with the Elemental Court. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

He didn’t open his email. He’d look at that in the morning. There was a lot to remember, mostly names, faces, and how those people’s businesses intersected with his own. From the look of the notes he’d been given already, and the small amount of coaching Mazzi—or Lady Nickel, as she was also known—had given him, the Elemental Court was nothing like he’d imagined it would be. It was a relief; he was worried he’d have to face some weird shit like Cathy mentioned about her court, with thrones and bowing and all that bollocks. It sounded more like he was going to give a speech at some sort of symposium for the wealthy elite, none of whom he’d ever heard of before. So elite, the newspapers couldn’t get near them. Certainly the articles about him demonstrated ignorance of the extent of Amir’s empire. His empire now. He shook his head. He just couldn’t think of himself that way.

He looked back at the first text and then searched his contacts for his parents’ phone number. They rarely called and Sam tried not to imagine news of a heart attack as he dialled. They would be awake, both early risers.

“Hello?”

“Mum?”

“Sam! Hello, dear, how are you?”

She sounded okay. “Fine. You called.”

“Yes. I wanted to talk to you about something I saw on the telly.”

Sam slid down the soft leather until his nose was level with the bottom of the windows. Had she found out about one of the atrocities carried out by CoFerrum Inc under Amir’s stewardship? “What was it?”

“It was about this charity that looks after cats. In London.”

He released his relief with a protracted sigh. “What about it?”

“Oh, these cats, Sam, people do terrible things to animals. I cried, I did.”

“You called me to tell me that?”

“No, I called to ask you to support them. They need money to stay open. And I thought that you could give it to them. They might put your name on a plaque. Wouldn’t that be nice? And you’d be saving them from—What’s that noise? Where are you?”

“In the car. I’m on my way home.”

“You called Australia on your mobile?” Sam had to move the phone away from his ear to protect it from the shriek. “That will cost a fortune!”

“Mum, just…just email me the details about that charity,