King's Treasure (Oil Kings Book 3) by Marie Johnston (great novels .TXT) 📗

I put the phone face down on the table and looked around. Chief was working Gentry King hard. He was even talking with Kendall, and since Chief was very old school when it came to women, I could only assume Kendall had a shit load of power within the company. That left Lex, who oozed I’ll cartwheel while I kiss your ass as he tried to work what he thought was magic as Chief’s wingman.

I had to admit, Gentry King wasn’t what I’d expected. Congenial and not falling for my dad’s smoke and mirrors, he wanted cold, hard facts and clear declarations about what the security consulting company could do for his business. Kendall held her own too, firing off questions that made it obvious she was more than just a side piece.

They were a couple, huh? So he’d not only fucked around with his assistant, he’d married her. Xander had said his mother died when he was young, so at least Gentry had been single when he’d met Kendall.

I suppressed a maniacal giggle. My middle sister, Pearl, wasn’t going to believe how this had gone down. I thought I’d been brave to get married in Vegas. She’d flexed her independence by running off and joining the military after telling Chief and Mother she was studying abroad. I looked like a child playing at being a grownup next to what she’d done.

Xander leaned close and murmured, “I feel obligated to point out that Dad met Kendall before she was his assistant.”

Dad. God, this was surreal. I whispered back, “But did he sleep with her before or after she started working for him?”

It wasn’t my business. If I could find fault in King Oil, then the way I’d ruined my chances of ever working with them wouldn’t sting so much.

The corner of his mouth hitched up. “While I try not to think about my dad sleeping with anyone, they met when she was flying to interview with my brother. But they got stranded. Then he offered her a job at the company and after seeing how invested she was, he asked her to work in the inner office.”

“Inner office. Is that what they call it nowadays?” A company rife with nepotism. And I’d married into it. Real fierce and independent, Savvy.

His expression flickered, but his faint smile remained in place. “Well, my brother works there too, so it’s not like that.”

Gentry King employed his wife and son. If he recognized my name from the canceled meeting, would he think I’d married Xander because of who he was? I was here as Chief’s assistant, but I wasn’t taking notes, because he was thrilled that I’d married Xander.

I would never be taken seriously. I couldn’t take myself seriously. “I came here to meet with him professionally and now I’m his daughter-in-law.”

“You can still talk to him professionally. When it comes to business, he’ll listen.”

I could pitch him right now. Maybe he’d listen to my spiel on new technologies for harnessing wind power other than the massive turbines that many landowners balked at. He backed a research and development project into wind-powered micro-generators. Part of my position at Saving Sunsets was to do the footwork on these up-and-coming technologies and compile data for companies like King Oil.

How would it look if I launched into my pitch? Chief had retired from the military and started his own successful business. Mr. King ran an oil company. They’d both had a healthy resume by the time they were my age. In contrast, after I’d lost my first job, I’d married the first man I’d met. “How old is your dad anyway?”

“He’ll be fifty-one soon. My oldest brother was born when he was nineteen and then it was pretty much a baby a year after that.”

And he’d accomplished everything with small children. Super. “And Kendall?”

He ran his thumb over his lower lip. How was this guy single? He was the first guy I’d dated whose family was probably wealthier than mine. “She’s the same age as my oldest brother.”

I cocked a brow. It wasn’t like I didn’t see age gaps in marriages. Many of Chief’s friends were on their second or third spouse, and each one got younger. What I hadn’t seen before was the equality in the relationship that Kendall and Gentry displayed. If the woman in the relationship gained power and success in her own right, the marriage soon dissolved. It’s why Em didn’t work—and why Pearl wasn’t married or serious about anyone. She had big plans and no one would stop her.

Was I going to be Em or Pearl?

“What do I even call them?” I hadn’t meant to snap, but it came out bitchy. This day had twisted in a way I hadn’t seen coming. “Gentry and Kendall? Mr. and Mrs. King?”

“Gentry and Kendall are fine. We’re just poor country folk,” he drawled. “We don’t stand on formality.”

I scowled at him but when he broke into a grin, I couldn’t help but return it. “I think Chief won’t care what you call him.” I shook my head. “He’s so happy.”

Xander’s lips thinned. “He wasn’t before he learned who I am.”

I didn’t bother to deny it. Chief thought I should be with a guy like Lex, but it’s Lex who wished he was more like Xander.

Our food arrived and the talk of business died down.

“So, Xander,” Chief said. “What do you do?”

“I’m a freelance photojournalist.”

Chief covered his ripple of displeasure. That wasn’t what he’d wanted to hear. “And what is that exactly?”

“I use pictures to tell the news of the world.”

Chief’s interest perked up. “You go to war zones and take pictures of the front lines?”

Chief liked to talk like he’d been big shit in his day. Maybe he had been and I didn’t understand. What I did understand was that his “front line” had been a desk, and any immediate danger to himself had been minimal. We hadn’t been the normal military family, getting uprooted