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

alone in the house, flipping through the pictures I’d taken the day before. I kept going back to one shot of Savvy with her fingers in the shape of a square frame. Her smile was highlighted, like the sun had peeked out of the clouds at just that moment.

All the other pictures paled in comparison to the ones of her, but this one was downright stunning.

I had my computer set up in Mama’s office. Eva and Beckett had flown back to Denver last night. Aiden and Kate had left this morning. And Savvy was out with Dad, Kendall, and Dawson, learning about cattle and ranching. I’d like to be with her, and I wasn’t purposely avoiding Dad, but my talk with Savvy after our picnic had kindled a slow burn that was growing.

My fingers itched to comb through my pictures and figure out how to use them. Make my own damn publication. I needed to create a portfolio, an initial one to share with the world—or a few people at a time as I grew a following and figured out how to monetize it.

I glanced up from the screen. Dawson hadn’t changed much in the office. He’d moved Mama’s things out but left her art on the walls. Her art remained all over the house and in King Oil headquarters. Kate had showcased several of Mama’s photos in Billings’s library.

We worked hard to remember Mama. But my brothers and I had a harder time remembering this office as any place other than where we’d found her the night of the attack.

I swallowed hard and went back to my work. That was why I’d chosen to work in here. Other than the normal mother-son relationship, Mama and I had bonded over photography. I’d make new memories in this office in the place the person who’d believed in me had spent so much time in.

I pulled up the pictures I’d taken of Hector and Eris’s property. They were good. Damn good. But I could do better. Later next year, I’d have enough money to buy a new camera. I could take better action shots, even video.

The door creaked further open. I expected Savvy, but Dad came in, shutting the door behind him.

I sighed and sat back, closing my laptop. I’d gotten the feeling Dad wanted to talk to me—alone—since we’d arrived. Shame boiled out of the carefully walled-off reservoir I usually kept it in. I should’ve talked to him before. I should’ve done what Savvy had been asking me to, and I should’ve done it without her having to ask.

“Dad.”

“Xander.”

Dad sat, looking like the man I’d grown up with. His jeans were an older pair he’d worn for years, his boots were scuffed, and his hair was flattened around his head from his cowboy hat. He would go into the office wearing suits when the office used to be in King’s Creek, but when he’d come home, he’d change clothes and ranch. My brothers and I had grown up doing chores and living a mostly normal life.

Dad crossed an ankle over his knee, a position I doubted he ever took while in a board room. “How’s life been treating you?”

“Good.”

“You and Savvy are doing well?”

I kept my mind off our sex fest today. “Yes.”

“She’s a wonderful girl.”

“Yes.”

Disappointment flickered in his eyes. I couldn’t help it. I’d rather not talk to him at all than lie to him, and since my life revolved around a whopper of a lie, it left little for me to say.

A long exhale left him. “I had an in-person meeting with Walter Abbot a couple of months ago.”

I refrained from closing my eyes and pinching the bridge of my nose. More failure welled inside. He knew. He knew and it wasn’t because I’d told him.

“And you talked to Lex?” I asked.

“Lexington? Yes. He had a lot to say about you.” Dad slapped his knee, his jaw clenching for a moment. “I have to say it was hard to sit and pretend to know what the hell he was talking about.” Dad lifted his solemn gaze to mine. “It was also hard to come to the realization that what he said made a lot of sense when I looked back on the years.”

My head bobbed. “I dropped out of college.”

I thought I’d experience more of a relief to tell him that, but it was ten years too late and he already knew.

Dammit.

“Why?” All Dad’s disappointment drained into that one word.

“I knew what I wanted to do, and I knew you wouldn’t agree.”

“I don’t care about the photography—”

“Exactly, Dad. You don’t care. You think it’s just a fun hobby for me like it was for Mama. You would’ve pushed me to finish college, then you would’ve pushed me to find a job, a respectable one, and then whatever I picked wouldn’t have been good enough.”

Confusion filled his eyes. “What do you mean? Finishing college, yes. I mean, hell, Xander, it was already paid for.” He inhaled sharply. “How fast did you spend that money?”

Giving me and my brothers the full amount for school was supposed to have been the first lesson. Save and use wisely. If you can finish college and pay for it all, then you’re on the right track. This was back before we’d all known we had an obscene trust fund waiting for us to say I do.

“It’s almost gone.”

He shook his head like he hadn’t heard right. It’d been a lot of money, but not enough for someone to live off of for a decade.

“I worked,” I explained. “Wherever I went, I earned my living. I only used it to get me by, or to fly home.”

“Then why lie? All these years—”

“Because of this. Because you think I made a bad decision, just like when I wanted to drop out of wrestling.”

“You were good.”

“I hated it.” That was a strong statement. I’d resented it. I’d only been in it for two years. Practice every damn day and tournaments every time I turned around. By the time