Free Maybe Never (Maybe #2) by Ella Miles

our lawyer thinks you and Dad did this. What proof do the FBI have?”  
    “Five years ago, when you were arrested and they found the drugs had come from one of our casinos, the FBI began investigating the company. They thought the company might be tied to a drug ring or something. It wasn’t, but it made them very suspicious, suspicious enough to plant undercover agents in the company, except we didn’t know that. We thought, when the FBI stopped talking to us about a year after your incident was over, that they had found us innocent.
    “Killian, the FBI agent they planted, never found anything. After five years, he never found anything, but the FBI couldn’t give up after spending five years investigating us. Killian framed us because his superiors had told him to. Killian had things to prove after he’d made a mistake that should have put him in jail.”
    “What mistake?”
    “It doesn’t matter. What matters is, you stay away from him. He’s the enemy, not me. He’s the criminal.”  
    I nod. I believe the man sitting in front of me that I have known my whole life versus a man who has lied to me.
    “Good.”
    I watch my grandfather’s movements the whole time he is talking, trying to decide if he is telling the truth or not. I don’t know if he is telling the truth, but I feel like he is. I feel like he has to be because I know my father. My father wouldn’t have done something like this, and there is no way my grandfather could have done something like this without my father knowing.  
    “Don’t worry about the company, Granddad. I just want you to focus on getting better and staying out of jail.”  
    Granddad frowns, and I know he is going to protest.  
    “I still don’t think you are strong enough or capable of running the company—”  
    I narrow my eyes at him. “You don’t exactly have a choice. Killian was a terrible choice. You chose to give half of the company to the one man who had been working against you. Tony is a worse choice. There is no one else in a high enough position who can run it. At this point, it’s me or nobody. I can do this. I’ve made no worse decisions than you have.”  
    Granddad winces as he reaches over to the bedside table and grabs a piece of paper. “I was going to say that, despite my reservations, you’re right. I don’t have a choice.”  
    He hands me the piece of paper that he had typed up, and I quickly read it. He is giving me temporary power over the company until he is healed and his trial is over.
    “Thank you. I’ll do you proud.”  
    He smiles. “You will because you’ll do everything I say.”  
    I shake my head. “No, I won’t. I’ll do what is best for the company, no matter what that is. I’m not sure I have the best judgment in the world, but now, I know that it can’t be any worse than yours. If I sign this, I want full authority over my life and the company. I want your trust. I don’t want to be your puppet.”  
    He thinks for a second and then smiles. “I was hoping you would say that.”  
    He hands me a pen, and I hesitate over the papers.  
    Can one signature change your life? One signature, whether mine or not, sent me to jail. I’m about to find out for the second time if one signature changes everything.  

CHAPTER TWELVE
Kinsley

    I pull the car into the driveway of my family home. A home that I feel both closer to and further away from due to the events as of late. Closer because I feel like I have to rely more on my family in order to get through these next few months. And further away because I’m afraid the walls of this house hold secrets that I’m not ready to face.  
    I turn off the car and then walk over to the passenger door. I open it for Granddad and help him out of the car.  
    “Thanks, princess,” he says.  
    I smile at him, not correcting him, just allowing him to use the name that only my father ever really called me.  
    And Killian…
    Now, neither of those men will ever call me