White Rabbit: The Rise (The Kingmaker Saga Book 1) Read online

  The last bit was said through a cloud of smoke, and while his shoulders sagged the farther away from the jail they walked, he was still utterly and undeniably pissed off.

  “Uilleam?” she asked, unable to keep the surprise out of her voice. Not just because she was in disbelief, but because this was about Uilleam. “He had you thrown in jail?”

  “I was in the middle of making a drop,” he explained with a shrug, though he didn’t expand on just what he had been doing. He never did. “I’d barely made it down the block when I was stopped and picked up.”

  And she knew far too well the sort of ties Uilleam had within the NYPD. She had also been in the unfortunate position of being grabbed by officers who were in his pocket.

  She also remembered the look on his face when he had asked her about Orion—how he had seemed annoyed that she had chosen to take his phone call instead of entertaining his invitation.

  She hadn’t thought he would go this far though.

  But if he wanted her attention, he had it now.

  And he wasn’t going to like the way she responded.

  Karina could count on one hand the number of times she had ever visited the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. Not only because her job at the paper meant she absolutely could not afford it, but she had always thought the building, as beautiful as it might have been, wasn’t to her taste.

  Smiling at the doorman as he opened the door and allowed her in, she didn’t bother stopping by the reception desk to find out Uilleam’s room number.

  She could guess what floor he would be on.

  As the doors to the elevator slid open, the concierge inside stood a little straighter as he asked for her floor.

  “The penthouse, please,” she said with all the confidence that her order would be heeded. “He’s expecting me.”

  He only hesitated a moment before obliging, inserting a key and giving it a twist to the left before pressing the silver button next to the engraving of a star.

  The floors ticked by, the glowing numbers making her heart skip a beat. This wasn’t like before when she’d had time to prepare herself. When she was walking into a familiar place and wasn’t completely on his turf.

  But if she hadn’t allowed him to walk all over her when it was about an article she was writing and the man at the very center of it, she certainly wouldn’t do it when it came to the people she cared about.

  The doors opened to a white marble foyer, an orchid in a black vase sitting on a pretty table to her left. Sure, she had anticipated how beautiful the penthouse suite would be, but she was still just as fascinated by all the luxury all the same.

  But the feeling only lasted for as long as it took for her to hear quiet voices and the clinking of ice hitting crystal.

  Uilleam might have been one of the most powerful and dangerous men she had ever crossed paths with, but that didn’t stop her from rounding the corner with her head held high, more than willing to stand toe to toe with him.

  He might have made her feel a lot of things, but fear wasn’t one of them.

  She had only just rounded the corner when she caught sight of him, looking far too good in his relaxed attire. His tie had been abandoned somewhere, the top few buttons on his shirt left undone, and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

  He looked as if he had just come home, and she could only imagine the kind of things he got up to in a day.

  Like throwing innocent—relatively speaking—men in prison just because he had a complex.

  Uilleam wasn’t alone, however. Skorpion was stretched out on the couch that seemed far too small under his impressive height and weight, one booted foot kicked up on the table. As if he didn’t aspire to grace and didn’t care if anyone else noticed either.

  But as their gazes turned to her, his in relative surprise—from the way his brow arched up at her entrance—Uilleam didn’t look surprised at all to find her standing in his suite with her arms folded across her chest.

  He looked expectant.

  “Give us the room,” he said without taking his gaze from her, “if you would.”

  Even as she wanted to lay into him, to tell him exactly how furious she was at what he had done, she waited until the elevator sounded as the concierge disappeared and Skorpion turned to follow him, his fading footsteps the only thing that told her he wasn’t sticking around to listen.

  “Karina,” Uilleam began with a smile. “You look radiant as always. Care for a drink?”

  “Would you care to tell me what it is you think you’re doing?”

  With a downward tilt of his mouth, he looked from the glass of whiskey in his hand back to her. “Having a drink?”

  His sarcasm grated on her last nerve. “I know about Orion.”

  He didn’t even blink. “As you were intended to.”

  “Why?” she suddenly snapped. “Why would you do that? And don’t say it’s because he made a deal with you.”

  He tossed back his drink, his expression becoming less indifferent. “In case it might have escaped your notice, I don’t like to share.”

  She glared at him even as he crossed the distance between them. “I’m not yours.”

  “Aren’t you?” he asked before he caught her face in his hand, gripping her jaw and forcing her to look up at him. “I don’t think you would be here if you weren’t.”

  “Mighty full of yourself,” she said through gritted teeth, more annoyed with herself that she was reacting to his words as much as she was reacting to him.

  “Go on then and deny it.”

  “I’m not—”

  He took her lips before she could get another word out.

  She wished she could say it was a surprise, but she’d watched the moment his gaze flickered down to her mouth, even the slight knowing grin on his face, before she couldn’t see anything.

  But she felt him just fine.

  The softness of his collared shirt.

  Smooth but hard forearms.

  The line of his body pressed against hers.

  He robbed her of rational thought. Made her forget every reason she was furious with him.

  All she could focus on was how good it felt to be kissed by him.

  She could taste the whiskey on his tongue, the bite of alcohol sparking every nerve ending inside her.

  But as quickly as she was lost in the feel of his mouth, he pulled away, his smile growing a touch at the way she was still leaned up toward him. His free hand trailed down to the curve of her thigh beneath the dress she wore.

  It was hard to ignore the way he he held her face—or even the grip he had on her thigh—and the way the sensation had heat racing down her spine.

  She could deny what she felt when it was just words, but she couldn’t help the reaction her body gave when he had his hands on her.

  “If I got my hand between these legs of yours, would I find you wet for me, Karina?”

  She hated the smugness so clear in his voice—the surety.

  She hated more that if he shifted his fingers just the slightest bit, he would find her wet. That there would be no denying the way she wanted him.

  And God, what did that say about her that she was already aching for his touch when she should have been furious with him. When she’d had every intention of coming here and telling him off, yet the second he got his hands on her, all the fight fled and her anger turned to something else.

  She was weak where he was concerned.

  “It’s okay,” he whispered against her mouth a moment later, his own lips curling up in satisfaction. “It can be our little secret.”

  She should have said no.

  She should have retained her power by denying him what he so clearly wanted.

  No should have been the one she was chanting inside her head, but her brain and body were on different wavelengths.

  She had never been so close so quickly, and with so very little work on his part.

  “Ask me to make you come, and I will.” He added just a bit of pressure with his
thumb right in the spot where thigh curved into hip, and if he moved the barest amount, he could be right beneath the lace. “I’d give you anything if you ask for it.”

  The question—the plea—was right there on the tip of her tongue, and she knew the moment the words were hanging there between them that he would give her what his eyes were promising.

  “Uilleam, make me—”

  His phone vibrated so loudly against the glass table it rested on that she jolted, her heart racing again for entirely different reasons this time.

  As quickly as she had been drowning in him, more than happy to lose herself in this bliss, she snapped out of it.

  Shit.

  Shit.

  Uilleam sighed as he slid his hand from between her legs.

  As he moved over to the table to answer it, she didn’t miss the hard outline of his cock through his trousers.

  It had been one thing to feel it pressed against her, but now seeing the impressive length of it—and how he seemed as utterly affected as she did—she knew she had to go.

  Before she did something incredibly stupid.

  “Don’t misunderstand me,” he said before she could take a step after tossing the phone back down, his gaze drifting over her face. “The only reason he didn’t suffer worse was because I was sure you’d be cross with me.”

  “You want to have a go at me, Uilleam, feel free. But the people I care about are off-limits to you.”

  That cocky smile of his was back. “And if I ignore that directive?”

  “I’ll make you regret it,” she vowed, meaning every word.

  “I can tell you truly believe that.”

  She could tell, just from the way his lips twitched, he was fighting a smile. He wasn’t worried about what she might do, or even if she would do anything at all.

  He thought he was untouchable.

  Now he was the one underestimating her.

  Then it was decided.

  If he wanted attention so bad, she would give him exactly what he wanted.

  From the moment she had walked away from Uilleam in that penthouse, ignoring him calling her name, Karina hadn’t allowed any time to go to waste. When she wasn’t at the paper working on assignments, she was working on her other project. One she had put off for a while because she had finally met the man she had been researching.

  Now, it was better.

  Now, she knew enough, if not a lot, about him that she could use it to her advantage.

  But it wasn’t just Uilleam’s attention that she wanted—she wanted a reaction.

  She wanted to see his discomfort.

  At first, her goals had been loftier, hoping to step in and ruin another of his deals, but she doubted he would be making the same mistakes in that regard when it came to her. No, he would see that coming.

  And then it had hit her, out of nowhere, while she’d been lounging on the couch with the top of her pen between her teeth and a notebook open in her lap.

  If nothing else, there was one thing, for certain, she was arguably good at.

  Writing, even in school, had always been her strength. The one subject she excelled at even as she struggled in others before learning to apply herself more.

  It would be explicit enough to make her threat to him abundantly clear but still subtle enough that others wouldn’t directly connect it to the man she was up against.

  Now, she just needed to dangle the bait and watch what he did with it.

  “Have you lost your entire fucking mind?”

  Karina barely had the door open before Orion was shoving his way inside, his eyes narrowed with rage as he moved past her.

  “By all means,” she muttered dryly, waving after him though he had already disappeared past her. “Come on in.”

  She’d hardly had the door closed before he was speaking again.

  “Have you never listened to a fucking word I’ve said?” he asked once she turned to face him, his hands gesturing wildly as he spoke.

  “I like to think I listen to everything you’ve said.” Even when he probably thought she wasn’t.

  “Don’t bullshit me. You know what I’m talking about.”

  Uilleam.

  Because at the moment, that was all they could talk about.

  Which meant he knew what she had done, though she had been careful not to share that with him. It would definitely explain his irate appearance in her apartment this late at night.

  The thing about criminals? They didn’t always check the local news for information. They also sought out information that was only available via the black web. The chat rooms on those sorts of websites weren’t readily available to the public, and considering the proprietary nature of the sites themselves, it was hard to trace who posted what and from where.

  Karina had counted on that.

  “All the shit I’ve been telling you for the last year wasn’t so you could make an enemy out of Uilleam fucking Runehart. And you sure as shit shouldn’t be on Red Rum.”

  There were more than a dozen websites on the dark web specifically for offering up information. On some you had to pay for access, but on Red Rum, one could post at any time from anywhere.

  There was even a feature that allowed certain posters to curate followings—and the bigger their following, they more they could potentially earn for the information they provided.

  It had been the perfect place to write an informative piece about a man everyone seemed to fear …

  Though she could tell Orion was upset with her, she couldn’t bring herself to regret her actions. “It’s hard to avoid someone when they’re seeking you out.”

  Orion blinked.

  Actually blinked.

  “You’re not fucking serious.”

  “Orion—”

  His glare told her everything she needed to know.

  Not that she expected otherwise after what she’d done. She’d known it had only been a matter of time before he would read it too, but she hadn’t expected it to reach him so quickly. At the very least, she thought he’d be busy recovering from whatever havoc Uilleam had wreaked on him.

  Because while he might have been out of jail at the moment, he had still been caught with whatever he’d had on him at the time.

  “You got some kind of death wish, babe? Because you’re asking for a problem, and this ain’t one I’m gonna be able to solve.”

  “I’m not worried—”

  “You should be!” he shouted suddenly, so loud and forceful that her thoughts blanked entirely. “Have you any fucking idea what he’s capable of?”

  “Yes,” she said with a swallow. “I know very well what he’s capable of.”

  “Then what the hell are you doing?”

  “Making it clear that he can’t walk all over me.”

  Which was a point he seemed to be missing.

  It went beyond the pettiness of the deed, and realistically, it wasn’t about Orion at all.

  It was about her.

  That he didn’t want to share, as if she were some sort of toy in his possession that he could put in a box when he wasn’t in the mood.

  Orion muttered a curse, stripping out of his jacket and tossing it on the couch before he helped himself to the bottle of vodka in her kitchen. He didn’t even bother pouring the drink in a glass, but rather took the whole bottle for himself.

  “Him having you pulled over wasn’t about you, necessarily,” she explained, though his expression said he didn’t care one way or the other. “He was trying to send me a message.”

  “A message you’re electing to ignore, looks like,” he muttered before taking a healthy swig. Not even grimacing as he swallowed.

  “What would you have me do?” she asked, coming over to sit across from him.

  “He’s a master manipulator … do you get me? This type of shit is what he’s good at—what he lives for. You’re trying to compete in a game he’s already winning.” Orion dragged in a heavy breath, leaning back as he sighed. “What’s he want with you anywa
y? And how the fuck do I factor into that?”

  “He … well …”

  This was a question she didn’t think she would have ever had to answer—and even if she had, she didn’t think this conversation would have happened with him, of all people.

  Orion arched a brow, waiting for her to elaborate, but after a few awkward seconds of silence, he formed his own conclusion.

  “You’d be a fool to even entertain that.”

  Oh, how she wished she could tell him that she wasn’t thinking about it—that she had spent the last week focusing on anything other than his offer—but it would be a lie.

  A big one.

  Uilleam Runehart was all she could think about.

  He plagued her every thought.

  He was intriguing and different, and she wanted to see what he was like when he wasn’t actively manipulating people around him.

  This was a rabbit hole she wanted to willingly fall into.

  Orion shook his head, knowing what her silence really said. He looked disappointed, but something else she couldn’t put a name to darkened his expression.

  “Whatever this is, however the fuck it ends, leave me out of it, yeah?”

  He didn’t give her a chance to respond before he was exiting her apartment, leaving the door wide open in his wake.

  For a long time, she stood there staring after him, wondering whether this was all a mistake.

  Karina tucked her notebook back into her purse, her focus on her task rather than her surroundings. Had she been paying attention, she might have noticed that the elevator she was boarding wasn’t, in fact, empty as she had first thought upon entering.

  But it wasn’t until the doors slid shut and the elevator started to ascend that the person cleared their throat and made her look up.

  “For a journalist, you’re extremely hard to get a hold of.”

  She was glad her heartbeat wasn’t an audible sound considering the way it sped up when she heard Uilleam’s voice. “That should tell you all you need to know, shouldn’t it?”

  “I don’t like to deal in assumptions,” he answered, pushing off the wall of the elevator, but instead of moving closer to her, he turned in the direction of the control panel and pressed the STOP button, grinding them to a halt.