The Rebel King (All the King's Men Duet #2) - Kennedy Ryan Page 0,81

his son, “and the job is now. There’s an appetite for your vision and leadership.”

“Don’t think if he does decide to run you’ll be pulling his strings. If you want a Cade for your schemes, find yourself another one.” I position myself between the two men, pressing my back into Maxim’s hard chest and glaring up at his father. “This one, you can’t have.”

35

Maxim

My father’s head may explode. His will and possessiveness collide with Lennix’s, and neither one backs down. He glares at her, red crawling up his neck.

“Dad, if you keep looking at her like that,” I say, my voice soft, but absolutely serious, “we’re going to have a problem.”

He flips his heated gaze up to me, and it cools by slow degrees. He’s not used to being defied, and he and Lennix have a long history of disliking each other.

“Maybe you should leave so Lennix and I can discuss this?”

“You’d let her affect the most important decision of your life?” he spits.

I cup the curve of her neck, caressing the raging, pounding pulse there, reassuring her. “Nix is the most important decision of my life, and you’re not helping your case by antagonizing her.”

I pause, for the first time noting the toll Owen’s death has taken on him. His face is now mine in thirty years, not twenty. He’s thinner, more drawn. He’s lost a lot, and something in me wants to reassure him, too. “I’ll always choose her, but I want to choose you, too.”

Lennix looks up over her shoulder at me, her eyes questioning, slightly uncertain. I squeeze her shoulder.

“I want to be able to choose you both. Dad, we lost Owen. We’ve lost the last fifteen years. I’d prefer we not lose anymore, but you can’t hurt Nix. You can’t threaten or insult her. You accept her, or there won’t be a place in my life for you at all.”

My father and I stare, mirroring each other’s will and determination. I’ve always believed I was so much like him, been afraid of it, but he’s not evil. Gregory Keene is evil. My father is privileged and arrogant and sometimes misguided, but he’s the only father I have, and I want a relationship with him. Sometimes loving your family is awkward and hard, especially when you don’t believe the same things, don’t choose the same paths, but losing Owen has blown a gaping hole in my life where my family should be. He wanted Dad and me to reconcile, and so do I.

“Do we understand each other?” I ask him, kissing the top of Lennix’s head.

He shifts his stare from me to her, and he draws a deep breath. “Yes.” He turns and strides toward the door. “I’d like your answer by the end of the week.”

And then he’s gone.

36

Lennix

“Lennix, no.”

Maxim throws the words down, a gauntlet. A challenge, not a choice.

He sits on the arm of the couch and draws me to stand between his legs.

I rest my hands on his shoulders. “I’m not afraid of Gregory Keene.”

“I am,” he says, his eyes pained. “How can I not be? Not for myself, but for you. Baby, this man killed my brother. He almost killed you. A campaign run right now tempts the devil.”

“Let him come. Look I get it. I’m scared for you, too. God, I am, but we can’t hide forever. Grim will make sure you’re impossible to get to. And you can wrap me in cotton. Give me a dozen security guards. Load me down with diamond-crusted geotrackers. I don’t care, but don’t let this opportunity pass you by.” I frame his face between my hands and look into his eyes. “I’m going to ask you one question, and I want you to answer absolutely honestly.”

He hesitates, then nods.

“Is there any part of you that gets excited at the prospect of leading this country?”

He doesn’t nod, but that telltale flare of passion and ambition I noticed our first night together brightens his eyes.

“Do you believe you could do it?” I ask. “If safety weren’t an issue, would you want to?”

“That’s three questions.”

“You haven’t responded to any of them.” I lean down to whisper in his ear. “Because you know the answer is yes.”

He drops his gaze to our feet, a dark fan of lashes casting shadows under his eyes. I slip my hand in the pocket of his sleep pants and pull out his phone.

“I want you to watch something with me.” I turn, slotting my hips between his legs as he sits