Page 116 of The Ruling Class

Note to self, I thought,kill Asher. But a second later, I had bigger things to worry about, because apparently Bodie hadn’t come by himself to pick me up today.

Ivy had come with him.

“Incoming,” Bodie coughed, and that was all the warning I had before Ivy swooped down, intercepting me before I made it to the limo and the man who was standing there.

“Tess,” Ivy said calmly.

“Yes?”

“What is Adam’s father doing here?”

I looked to Bodie, who gave me a look that said, oh so clearly, that I was on my own.

“What is Adam’s father doing here?” Ivy repeated.

There was no way to sugarcoat it. “Apparently, he’s giving me a ride home from school.”

We’d acquired enough of an audience that Ivy lowered her voice. “And why would William Keyes do that?”

“Because he knows,” I said. “About Tommy. About me.”

Ivy had to have suspected that was what I was going to say, but that didn’t keep her nostrils from flaring slightly the moment I said it.

“We needed a pardon.” I said the words below my breath, so low that no one but Ivy could hear them. “I did what I had to do to make sure you came home alive.”

I didn’t regret it. No matter who—or what—my paternal grandfather might be, I couldn’t regret it.

“Ivy.” William Keyes stepped forward and greeted Ivy with a cat-eating-canary smile. “You look well.”

“What are you doing here?” she asked him.

He smiled. “I’m picking my granddaughter up from school.”

Ivy forgot about keeping her voice low. “I want you to stay away from her. You have no legal standing—”

“I’ll stay away from her when she asks me to stay away from her,” William Keyes replied.

Ivy looked at me. “Theresa,” she said, her voice low. “Tess Kendrick. Tell him.”

His name was on that list. But there were other names, too.

“I gave him my word,” I said. This was the bargain I’d struck: the kingmaker’s presence in my life in exchange for saving Ivy’s.

It was a deal I would make all over again.

“In this business,” Keyes told Ivy, still looking altogether too satisfied with himself, “your word is the most valuable asset you have.”

He gestured toward the limo, and I stepped toward it.

“What’s your endgame here?” Ivy asked the man she’d once worked for. “What do you want with my daughter?”

“The same thing I’ve always wanted, dear,” William replied. “An heir.”

Unlike the rest of us, he made no move whatsoever to lower his voice. All around us, my fellow students were buzzing.

“By the way,” the man who made kings told Ivy, “her name isn’t Tess Kendrick. She’s changing it—to Tess Kendrick Keyes.” He smiled smugly. “There’ll be a lovely profile of her—and her courageous father, God rest his soul—in tomorrow’sPost.”

For once, Ivy was speechless.

Nearby, someone snapped a picture of the three of us on a cell phone. Keyes opened the door to the limo. With one last look at Ivy, I climbed in. My paternal grandfather climbed in beside me.

“Ivy’s going to kill me,” I said.

“You’re a Keyes,” he replied smoothly. “We excel at thinking five steps ahead. I’m sure you can handle it.”

As the limo pulled away from Hardwicke, I could see Ivy’s mind racing, looking for a way to undo this—and quite possibly plotting my immediate demise. I thought about Justice Marquette and the likelihood that there was a fourth player who’d gotten away with his part in the murder.

I thought about the fact that the person in question might be sitting beside me in this car.

And then I settled back in my seat and responded to his assertion that I could handle it. “I can try.”