Kellan shouldn't be a lawyer. He should be a fiction writer. "Yeah, sure."
"You two will come home after all the chaos has died down. Can we get Kinley to support that story?"
"Not yet."
"Ah, she's still emotional and feeling the aftereffects of the medication designed to calm her nerves. Well, call me when she's better. With so much going on, I understand it could take a day or two. Whatever you do, I would advise you not to confess to crimes. How is the investigation going? Has Kinley explained where the invoices are coming from?"
If they could come up with evidence that would make the RICO charges stick, the feds would take up the case again. The whole idea had been that if Kinley saw how she was being used, she would forgive them for abducting her. He'd been so sure of that. He wasn't anymore. "She's not talking yet, but then we just hammered her with the fact that her fiancé, sister, and father have all betrayed her."
"Is she all right?" Annabelle asked, obviously concerned.
"How would you be if you found out your family was lying and planning to off you?" Law couldn't imagine it. Riley, for all his sarcasm, was such a part of Law, he couldn't fathom not having his brother around. For all of Kinley's privileged upbringing, other than Annabelle, she was utterly alone in the world.
Law wanted her to know that wasn't true, that someone was willing to fight for her. She needed a man who wasn't so self-absorbed or insecure, who would stand up for her, risk himself to keep her safe and happy. The woman Mike had met deserved that.
"Kinley's stronger than she knows. Let me talk to her. Maybe if she knew that I believe this is best for her, she would cooperate," Annabelle said. "She knows I don't have any motives other than saving her."
"That's a horrible idea," Kellan said. "If Kinley even once said where she was or explained that she wasn't, in fact, still recovering from her emotional bout, then Annabelle would become an accessory after the fact if she didn't go to the police."
"I can handle it, Kell," Annabelle insisted.
"Not on your life, baby. You're not doing this. You're lucky we allowed you to be involved in this in the first place."
"Allowed?" Annabelle wasn't trying to keep her voice down now. She was practically screeching. "Allowed! You don't own me. She is my best friend. I brought this case to you."
"And now you're out of it. If you don't obey me, we're going to have a long talk."
"I am not one of your club subs, Kell. I will talk to my friend if I want to. And I will lie to the cops all day long if the mood strikes me."
"Gentleman, my assistant and I are going to go and have a brief discussion. I am so happy to hear that Law and Kinley are settling into their future as a couple. I will advise any law enforcement that comes my way to that effect. Unfortunately, I was not given the whereabouts of your love nest. And Annabelle isn't privy to any of that information, nor will she be. Oh, and unfortunately Annabelle has dropped her phone and stepped on it, rendering it utterly useless for finding the phone numbers of her most recent calls. So sad."
"No need," Riley explained. "This is a burner. We have about fifteen in our possession. No names are attached to the numbers, everything was paid for in cash, and they come from completely different parts of the country. We'll call in again. And we'll get rid of this line. Talk to you later."
As Riley pressed the End Call button, Law could hear Annabelle arguing. He wasn't sure what was going on at that law firm, but Annabelle was going to be in trouble. He'd seen Kell, Tate, and Eric watching their administrative assistant like she was a fluffy bunny and they were lions who had gone without a meal for far too long.
Rather like he watched Kinley.
"I'm going to go to the kitchen and talk to her again."
"I don't think that's a good idea," Dominic said. "She needs time to process all we've told her, and we're probably the last people she wants to see."
"I should at least check on her." He wasn't going to leave her alone in there with all the evidence of betrayal around her and no shoulder to lean on. Law knew to his core that she was a good person whose only sin had been in trusting the people she should have been able to.
Law turned and walked back into the kitchen, ready to talk to her, to try to make her understand what was really going on. And he froze because she no longer sat in the chair in which he'd left her.
His heart nearly stopped, but then Gigi was at his heels, whining up at him. He looked around the kitchen and saw her. Her body was facing the large pantry door, her hands covering her face. Though she wasn't making a sound, her body shook with the force of her tears.