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

shone bright, but we were shaded by the overhang. Vehicles cruised through the loop in front of the building, dropping off and picking up tourists. “No, Savvy. If you wait to divorce me until after my thirtieth birthday, then you get half. The trust is one hundred million. You’d get fifty.”

Xander

Savvy was quiet all the way to her hotel. I’d expected excitement. I suppose that was too optimistic after the way she’d shut down at lunch. But surely she’d tolerate me for a year?

I let her work through everything I’d told her. I’d meant what I’d said. I wanted to be with her for much more than a year, and when she’d come up with the idea to marry, I’d jumped at it.

Yes, I wanted the money. I didn’t need it, just a small portion that I would keep. The total amount was staggering, but I could do a hell of a lot more good in the world with it than the Cartwrights. They’d buy up land and businesses in King’s Creek, where my family had been for generations, and do their damnedest to push us out. Or worse, Danny would kill himself drinking it away, but only after he’d spent every penny, whether it was on boats, lakes for that boat, or a herd of horses and cattle he couldn’t take care of. And the one thing he wouldn’t spend that money on were competent employees to care for those animals.

I knew that better than anyone, except maybe Dad.

We wound through the hotel, the soft dings of the slots fading the closer we got to the elevator bank. We didn’t speak as we rose to the thirtieth floor. The hallway was quiet and there were only a few doors on this floor.

Savvy let us into her suite. Music blasted from a Bluetooth speaker propped on an end table in the vestibule.

“Brady?” Savvy called.

“Savvy,” a man drawled.

I wasn’t a jealous guy. Never had been, but as Brady swaggered out with only a towel slung over his hips, grinning at Savvy like he knew her better than I did—because he did—my vision turned a little green.

He was about Savvy’s height. His hair was fresh from the shower, but styled with more effort than I’d ever given mine a single day in my life. His was the wiry sort of muscular.

He stopped when he saw me. “Well, well, well. I can guess part of your long story.”

“This is Xander.” The bold, confrontational woman I’d met last night had vanished once we’d met with Chief, and she wasn’t making an appearance with this Brady either, who was supposedly one of her best friends.

Brady stepped forward, his gaze guarded, but I couldn’t tell if it was for Savvy’s benefit or because he thought he should be in my place. And since he didn’t know my place was as her husband, I was even more curious. He held his hand out and I shook it. “Brady Younger. How’d you two kids meet?”

“On the Strip, not far from here,” Savvy answered easily. “He was taking pictures.”

“Oh yeah?” Brady ran a hand through his dark wet locks. “Then you focused on Savvy?” He grinned at his pun.

This was weird as hell, but more comfortable than meeting her dad. Brady didn’t dismiss me like Chief had. But he didn’t size me up like Lex had either. He wasn’t overly concerned that Savvy had brought a strange man back to their suite. My muscles eased. Towel or not, I didn’t sense any animosity from Brady.

“That’s about how it went, yeah.” She’d been my focus since I’d met her.

“We, uh . . .” Her gaze flicked to me. “We got married last night.”

That wiped all of Brady’s humor away. “Be serious now. I’m not hungover, but I haven’t gotten much sleep.”

“I am serious. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Ouch.

As the story spilled out, Brady’s brows shot up and for the first time, I could see real concern. When it came time to tell him about the money, she glanced at me and I nodded. All my brothers knew about the trust, so it was only fair she had someone in her corner who knew.

Brady shook his head. “Savvy, if what he says is true, that amount could be revolutionary. But do you even know this trust is real?”

Savvy looked at me, vulnerability and uncertainty mixing in her expression. She hadn’t thought about not believing me.

“I can have Grams fax you a copy of it.”

“Maybe you should send it to my family’s lawyer.” She grabbed her phone, her fingers flying. “I’ll send you his info.” She paused and glanced at Brady. She chewed on her lower lip a moment before asking me, “What’s your number?”

Brady barked out a laugh. “You exchanged vows but not numbers? Classic Savvy.”

What was so classic about that?

As if he’d heard my thoughts, he added, “Our Sav can be impulsive. Hence how she’s in debt with her parents for majoring in something that isn’t business or, I dunno, how to be pretentious.”

I got the part about owing the parents for college money, but Savvy hadn’t mentioned that she was in debt to them for it. Her cheeks flushed when she met my gaze. “I insisted on majoring in environmental science, and I had to pay for it. Fiscal consequences and all that. But they paid my loans when I moved home, and I’m repaying them. Saves me from interest.”

I’d thought the cost of living in the city was the reason she was still with her parents, but after meeting Chief, this explanation made more sense. He was willing to let her stretch her wings, but he’d make sure she lost a few feathers for it.

Brady’s head bobbed. He’d heard it all before. “What’d your sisters say?”

“They don’t know yet.”

Brady’s mouth dropped and he put his hand to his bare chest. “The proper Mrs. Abbot?”

“I’m sure Chief’s told her by now.”

Brady’s gaze slid to me but he addressed Savvy. “You gonna tell them about the trust?”

Savvy