The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 26

Chapter 24-2

I close my eyes briefly. “Dad.”

Dad ignores my warning completely, because he’s my father and therefore genetically incapable of leaving anything alone when he can turn it into strategy.

“Tell him,” he says, nodding at Locke.

I exhale. “It’s not a party trick.”

“No,” Dad says. “It’s a weapon. And right now, we need one.”

Locke looks from him to me. “What is?”

“Well,” I say. “I – I remember things.”

Dad huffs. “She remembers everything. Documents. Numbers. License plates. Faces. Doesn’t matter. If she saw it, it stays in that pretty little head for-fucking-ever.”

Locke’s gaze returns to mine, and there’s no mockery in it, only attention. “You memorized Knox’s documents today?”

I sigh. “Three properties. Two businesses. About two dozen bank accounts. A continuation agreement he wanted me to sign. Maybe twenty subsidiary company names I can list.”

Locke stares at me. “Jesus Christ.”

Dad grins. “Yeah. That’s usually the reaction.”

Locke sits back down, not as close as before, but close enough that my body notices anyway.

“What were the subsidiary company names?” he asks.

So I list them, just one after another, pulling them from the clean, exact place in my mind where they’ve sat since Knox spread those papers across his desk and mistook my silence for helplessness.

Locke’s expression changes on the fourth name, and I pause.

“You know it,” I say.

“I moved money through it six months ago.”

My stomach drops.

Dad’s gaze sharpens. “For Knox?”

Locke nods once. “For Knox.”

Dad looks at him. “How bad is this?”

Locke doesn’t answer immediately, and that alone tells me more than I want to know.

“If Zara’s name is tied to what I think it’s tied to,” he says finally, “then pulling her out clean isn’t impossible.

Chapter 24 –

But it won’t be simple.”

“Can you do it?” Dad asks.

Locke’s eyes meet mine. “Yes”

Clam

One word, zero hesitation. The certainty of it moves through me like heat… though I should probably not find competence sexy at a time like this Apparently, my body disagrees.

Dad sees my face, and his eyes start to twinkle “Well,” he says, looking between us, “that settles it.”

“What settles what?” I ask warily.

“You two are working together.”

I look at my father. “I can work with my lawyer.”

“You will work with your lawyer,” he says. “But lawyers need to know where to look, and Locke knows how Knox moves money. You know what Knox showed you. Between the two of you, we might actually get ahead of this before Knox figures out how badly he fucked up.”

So this is real. Not just Knox threatening me in his office, not just forged signatures and paper trails and the ugly truth of a marriage that was never what I thought it was. This is bigger. Dirtier. More dangerous.

Locke looks at me. “You understand what this all means?”

“That I get to spend quality time with the man who nearly strangled someone for elbowing me?”

Dad laughs then, low and delighted. “From what I just saw when I opened that door, I don’t think either of you will object to working closely.”

“Dad.”

His eyes twinkle. “What, sweetheart?”

“Please don’t.”

“I’m observant.”

“You’re unbearable.”

“I’m President. It’s part of the job.”

Locke says nothing, which somehow makes it worse, because when I glance at him, his mouth is almost smiling.

Almost.

Dad stands, clearly far too pleased with himself. “Locke, tomorrow morning you start with the company names she remembers. Zara, you write down every damn thing you saw in Knox’s office. Everything.”

I nod.

“And sweetheart?”

214

Chapter 24-2-

Hook up: The teasing is gone now.

Clam

“If Knox calls, you don’t answer. If he shows up, you don’t meet him alone. If anything feels wrong, you call me or Mayhem or Locke Understood?

I swallow. “Understood.”

Dad looks at Locke. “You keep her safe.

Locke’s answer comes immediately. “I will.”

The room shifts again, but this time it isn’t danger or embarrassment or the echo of an almost-kiss interrupted. It’s something heavier. A promise neither of us asked for and both of us heard.

Dad notices that too. His expression softens for a second, just enough to make my chest ache. Then he opens the door.

“Try not to make out in my back room until after we handle fucking Knox McVale.”

“Dad.”

He grins. “What? I said try.”

Then he leaves, closing the door behind him.

For a moment, neither Locke nor I move. Business sits between us: danger, Knox, my name attached to things I never agreed to. But so does everything that was here before Dad walked in.

The almost-kiss. The heat. The way Locke’s eyes still return to my mouth before he seems to catch himself.

Finally, I say, “So.”

His gaze meets mine. “So.”

“We’re working together.”

“Looks that way.”

“That going to be a problem?”

Locke studies me for a long second, gray eyes steady and unreadable except for the heat that he doesn’t quite manage to hide.

“Probably.”

My pulse betrays me immediately. “Professionally a problem?”

“No, baby.” His mouth curves. “I think it’s all gonna be personal.”

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