All The KING'S Women: The KING Duet Book 2 Read online

  All The KINGS Women

  By Nadine Catalano

  Copyright © 2019 N.M. Catalano

  Published by N.M. Catalano

  All rights reserved.

  No portion of this work may be copied or reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without the express consent of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental, except in actual circumstances.

  Purely for entertainment purposes for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy.

  Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  DEDICATION

  This one’s for you, Laney.

  Your friendship means more to me than you will ever know.

  But know this, you are more than you believe.

  Other Works

  The Stranger Series

  STRANGER, Book 1

  SWITCH, Book 2

  KINK, Book 3

  PERFECT, Book 4

  HIDING, Book 5

  SUSPICIOUS, Book 6, coming soon.

  Black Ink Series

  BLACK INK, Part I

  BLACK INK, Part II

  BLACK INK, Part III

  BLACK INK, The Complete Trilogy, all three parts in one book.

  The Program Series

  THE BEGINNING, The Prequel

  CANVAS, Book 1

  TRIFECTA, Book 1.5

  BREATHE, Book 2

  TORTURED, Book 3

  VENGEANCE, Book 4

  The King Duet

  THE MAKING OF A KING

  ALL THE KINGS WOMEN

  Stand-Alones

  THE ROOSTER CLUB, The Best Cocks in Town

  HAWK’S REVENGE – Program Series Spin-Off

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Books

  Contents

  Synopsis

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

  Excerpt From Black Ink

  A Note From Me

  About The Author

  All The KINGS Women

  They hated me, it wasn't a secret.

  Hell, I would too, I'm a bastard.

  But they loved me more.

  Five women are dead because of that.

  They tried to pin a murder on me ten years ago.

  They didn't succeed. This time, they just might.

  There was only one thing that saved me then,

  The only one I'll do everything in my power to protect.

  Her.

  In the secret world of the wealthy where

  nothing is forbidden,

  everything comes with a price.

  Sex. Power. Murder.

  Lucas King pushed Evelyn away ten years ago to save her.

  This time, the only way to keep her safe is to

  claim her.

  In a race against time amid lies, corruption, and every dark desire money can buy, Lucas must catch the killer who's leaving a trail of dead women.

  Straight to him.

  Evelyn is the only woman who matters.

  Now the killer is coming for her. Can Lucas save her, or will the ultimate trophy be claimed,

  destroying Lucas and his empire?

  **18+, mfm, romantic thriller, contemporary women’s, crime thriller**

  Feel Like I’m Drowning – Two Feet

  You Don’t Own Me – Grace Feat. G-Eazy

  F#cked My Way To The Top – Lana Del Rey

  Toxic – Yael Maim

  Desire – Meg Myers

  Bad Guy – Billie Eilish

  R U Mine – Arctic Monkeys

  I Still Love Him – Lana Del Rey

  Selfish Love – Jessie Ware

  Hurricane – Theory Of A Dead Man

  Adagio For Strings And Storm –

  Nico Cartosio

  Hold On, We’re Going Home –

  Arctic Monkeys

  “I want to know

  You moved

  And breathed

  In the same world

  As me”

  F. Scott Fitzgerald,

  Benediction

  CHAPTER 1

  The call came around three o’clock in the morning. Isn’t that when all things tragic arrive? Desperation and devastation, and every single monster comes to life. We aren’t immune to it, none of us are. Sometimes we create them, other times they are us. The strangest thing is I wasn’t surprised. Maybe I’d been waiting for him to call all this time, maybe I knew he always would.

  Maybe he knew it too.

  He knew he’d call me. Eventually. I heard it in his voice.

  My heart beat an erratic rhythm inside my chest, a normal reaction to an unexpected ringing phone in the middle of the night, but the moment his voice came through, I was no longer the woman I am, but the girl from all those years ago. Three words and everything was gone, the time, the distance, the pain, nothing. It was just him, and me, and those words. At that moment I was the clumsy girl with glasses sitting across from the guy who’d made my heart beat frantically, and my life hell.

  “I need you.”

  I reacted the way I always knew I would; the way he knew I’d react. The same way I always had.

  “Where are you?” I didn’t hesitate.

  His reply came after a long intake of breath. “Jail.”

  I registered a wave of shock somewhere in my subconscious, but it was secondary to my natural instinct to go to him. First, as the woman who had loved him more than anything else all those years ago. Then, as an attorney. I knew where he was, on South Harbor Island. I knew the same way he knew my phone number. We just did.

  During the long drive as the sun broke over the horizon as it tried to burn the fog and the mist from the air, I flicked through the file in my mind of everything I’d read on him over the years. Successful (ruthless businessman). Wealthy (stinking rich). Shrewd (cold). Unattached (womanizer). Not the stereotype to spend a night in jail, although we’d both been there before. He’d changed from the person I’d known, but in some respects he hadn’t. In each article I’d read over the years, in every picture he was featured in, and he was featured often because the press apparently loved him, he was breathtakingly beautiful. When we had known each other, he was a man/boy. Now, he was what every man wanted to be, and every woman wanted to belong to, just like back then. Today, he is larger than life. Even from my detached position, I knew he was the king in his world.

  As I crossed the bridge that led to the island from the mainland, to our hometown, under normal circumstances I would have been in awe of the spectacular view I’d almost forgotten. The ocean was just a few short blocks from the top of the bridge, and it called to me the same way it had every other time I’d crested the peak in the past.

  I was tired, but alert. I knew he didn’t call me to catch up on old times. I’m a lawyer, he’s in jail. Why he chose me, because a man like him with his position and all that money, made me believe that this was a special kind of bad, just like before. He called me here to represent him, but I wasn’t sure I was going to, not until I heard what this was about.

  The small town we’re from was just waking up, school buses were picking up kids, and people were heading to work. I reached over and turned on the radio, looking forward to the familiarity of home.

  “Police confirm,” the news was on, “the body that washed up on shore late last week was a female, the fifth over the past six months.” Oh, my God! I’d heard about these cases. I’d been following them like everyone else. I turned up the volume, the story piquing my interest. “The Chief of Police has released a statement saying the primary suspect in the investigation was placed in custody late last night. A full investigation has begun.”

  My hands gripped the steering wheel tightly.

  No. Way!

  The air inside my car suddenly seemed to have disappeared as my breathing became labored. My vision receded to a tunnel as everything around me faded.

  It can’t be, I felt myself shaking my head in disbelief as the blood drained from my face in shock.

  There’s no way Lucas King is a murderer.

  It felt as if I’d been punched in the middle of my chest as the weight of the situation crushed down on me. All the facts pointed to something so unbelievably farfetched, but still seeming to fit together. Everything within me screamed it couldn’t be possible, but my lawyer mind couldn’t help but snap the puzzle pieces together, the ones that appeared to be perfectly aligned.

>   Some commercial came on for a local business and cut off any further information from the tid-bit of news headline that left me confused and in disbelief.

  “It has to be some kind of wild coincidence,” I murmured as I signaled to turn at the intersection of the main road that ran parallel to the beach, the strip of asphalt I used to call the end of the world. Just beyond the dunes in front of me was the Atlantic Ocean spread out as far as the eye could see, the place where nothing else existed, or the rest of the world was just beyond reach.

  It's been ten years since I left. That time is still a painful haze, those last months I was here before I left for college. I recall the last time I saw Lucas. It was his back as he was exiting the courtroom after we’d been cleared of all charges. After the case against him for murdering his father was dropped. The irony does not go unnoticed that he called me because he was arrested, the same situation that both of us were in the last time we had anything to do with each other. I knew he didn’t do it then. He’d been with me, that was the night I gave him my virginity. It had been perfect. He was perfect. Until it wasn’t. But as I’d laid in my bed during the trials, hiding from the world, avoiding everyone, even my father and brother, I replayed every second we’d spent together. The more I did, the more I couldn’t believe what I’d accused Lucas of that night. Not after he’d tried to get rid of me that day in the diner before we’d been arrested.

  He knew. He knew something bad was going to happen that day, and he tried to spare me from the consequences the only way he knew how: by being a total dick. It was that reason alone I couldn’t believe that he and Preston were playing some sick game of who would get me into bed first.

  The letter he left me at college only solidified it.

  That letter.

  When I found it, I’d barely been holding myself together with scotch tape. Those few lines he’d written had ripped the tattered and weak pieces apart and left me broken once again. But I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

  The wounds had closed, but they’d never healed. Even now, after his call, I feel them weeping once again.

  If he was brought in as the prime suspect for the murders that were on the news, I can’t believe in my heart that he’s capable of it. Granted, Lucas was a bastard, he was mean and cold and ruthless, but he wasn’t a murder.

  However, I couldn’t ignore the fact a lot of years have passed since I’ve seen Lucas King. A man doesn’t achieve the kind of success he has by being a mild-mannered boy scout. The rumors that had surrounded him when he was a teenager were all questionable, to say the least. He was a legend before his time. He was every dark desire you ever wanted, feared and admired, loathed and adored, and for a few brief hours, he’d been mine. Not the persona everyone knew, but the man he kept locked up inside. Raw and primitive, and so, so dirty. The memories still make my breath catch.

  A thrill of excitement courses through me as I imagine what kind of man he is today.

  Who is the mysterious man that lurks in that mind of his? What thoughts fill that brilliant head?

  I’m a lawyer, my father’s a lawyer, I’d grown up with the need to look at all the facts before I make a decision. It’s my job. I have no doubt that’s why Lucas had called me.

  As I turn onto the road where the jailhouse had been when I’d lived here, I wonder how Lucas knew how to contact me, although it doesn’t surprise me. But how did he know I’m an attorney?

  What else does he know? Maybe more importantly, why does he know anything at all about me?

  As I pass through the streets of the place I couldn’t wait to leave, familiar and as comfortable as the pair of shoes you hate that fit you the best, I know the detention center is only a couple of more miles up the road. Thankfully, I never saw the inside of it as a guest. Lucas hadn’t either.

  When they’d dragged us in for questioning, I’m sure my father being in the district attorney’s office played a big part in the credibility of our alibis, we were never detained because of the drugs. Lucas was never held for the murder either.

  We’d been very lucky.

  It seems Lucas’ luck has run out.

  As the miles diminish to the jailhouse, my heart begins to pound faster. If he’s being charged for the murders, and if he’s called me to act as his legal defense, I’m not doing him any favors by reminiscing.

  “Call dad,” I tell my phone, already hooked up to the Bluetooth in my car.

  It rings only once when my father, the District Attorney now, picks up the phone. “Honey, what a nice surprise. How are you?”

  My father is the best man I know, which is why calling him was making me a little nervous. He had represented Lucas pro bono back then. Later on, I assumed there had been something in it for him. I just haven’t figured out what yet.

  I wasn’t calling him as his daughter, but as the attorney who might be representing a defendant. Against my father. “Hi dad. Actually, I’m not sure yet. I’m pulling into the jailhouse now. Care to fill me in?”

  I slid my Honda Prius into a space in the still empty parking lot in front of the intimidating building, only the police cars and employee vehicles were lined up neatly at this hour, it was still too early for visitors. I didn’t need to tell him why I was here; my father was an intelligent man, he’d figure it out on his own.

  “What the hell are you doing, Eve? How did you find out?” the fatherly concern didn’t disappear, but it was laced with legal allegations. It wasn’t working.

  After putting the car in park and turning off the ignition, I grabbed my phone, took it off speaker, and placed it at my ear. “He called me.” I pulled the purse strap up my shoulder and got out of the car.

  He knew who he was.

  “Goddamn it, Eve,” he grumbled. In my mind, could see him running a hand through his wavy hair, then pushing his wire frame glasses up the bridge of his nose, gestures he’d always made when he was frustrated. “Haven’t you had enough of his problems? You were so damn broken after what he put you through.”

  Everything inside me recoiled from his harsh words, the poison from the truth still stung even after all this time.

  “I guess he needs a lawyer,” I pulled the heavy door open, ignoring the lingering pain from the past his comment elicited. Inside the building, I dropped my belongings into the plastic box to be scanned, I was now in work mode. I pulled the phone away from my face and glared at the officer on duty. “Counsel for Lucas King,” I informed him. I caught the barely there flicker at the corner of his mouth as he fought a smirk. I fought the eye roll I inwardly made from his patronizing glare.

  “Sign here,” he swung the sign-in book around toward me.

  I bent and signed my name in the book, then signed in at the computer as the machine took my picture.

  “Jesus Christ, Eve, you’re really doing this?” now I imagined the veins in the middle of my dad’s forehead bulging, another thing that happened when he was really frustrated.

  I handed my phone to the guard without disconnecting the call as I stepped through the body scanner. On the other side, he handed it back to me. “Right now, I’m listening. So, make it fast because I’m going in.” I stopped in front of the door that led to the detainees and stared at it as I braced myself.

  “Goddamn it,” he cursed again, which was followed by a loud thump. My father cursed only when he was really upset. I knew he was extremely pissed off. “Alright…alright,” he sighed. “There are five unsolved murders. Females.” I heard him hiss a heavy breath through gritted teeth. I held mine and waited for him to continue as my eyes were fixed on the clock on the wall, the seconds hand clicking by, tick, tick, tick. “Each of them were connected to Lucas.”

  There were no unusual noises outside, only inside me, as a silent bomb went off behind my eyes, the destruction that would be left in its wake yet to be seen.

  I pulled in a deep breath, straightened my spine, and took hold of the doorknob. “Thanks dad. I’ll call you later to set up an appointment to review the information you have,” I knew my words were barely audible. I didn’t hear my father as he asked me to wait a minute, I just turned off my phone and shoved it in my purse.

  I opened the door and stepped through. My heels echoed on the tiled floor as the door thudded shut behind me. There was a guard waiting to escort me on this side. I peered through each door as I followed him down the hallway, searching for only one face.