Hidden Motive - A Hamilton Kane Mystery

Chapter 16

"You had me tagged?! What am I? A pet?!" I blurted out when my father shared with me how they located me so easily.

"Well, more like a lost little lamb, if you ask me," smiled Nick smugly while sitting across from us in the limousine that greeted me outside the safehouse gates.

"You! You stay out of this!" I glared at him which only made him laugh that smooth laugh of his that was masculine and oh-so sexy.

"If you don't mind, Sir. I believe my role here is done. I will see you at your office next week," said Mr Chase as he shook my father's hand and walked off to his silver Porsche.

"So what? Is it on my clothes? My hair? Is it in my ear rings?" I checked myself once we were in the limousine still feeling the annoyance of all this.

"You ingested it when you had your breakfast, Hamilton," replied my father, matter-of-factly.

Hearing this, it suddenly dawned on me. Nick got in my space right as I was gulping down the last bit of the juice. Seeing the look on my face, Nick smiled wider.

"You pretended to seduce me to distract me?!" I asked in disbelief.

"Well, to be fair, you were already pretty distracted trying to solve everything on your own, Little Lamb. I just thought I'd lighten your mood a little," he replied with a casual shrug.

"I was not trying to..." before I could finish my sentence my vision suddenly drained of colour and tunnelled as I felt hands grabbing for me before I could fall flat on my face.

"Hamilton! Can you hear me?" I could hear the frantic voice of my father but I could not speak. I was struggling to breathe. I couldn't suck in the air I needed. Like the signal from my brain could not reach my lung, telling it to breathe.

Suddenly Nick's face came into view and I saw him open a small vial and tilted it into my mouth. I could feel the liquid in my mouth but I couldn't make myself swallow. Nick suddenly covered my mouth tightly and pinched my nose shut. Instinctively, I swallowed the liquid and shoved him away from me.

"What the hell, Nick! Are you trying to kill me, too?!" I gasped desperately for air as I eyed him and hurriedly moved away from him.

Nick sighed and said, "You're welcome, Little Lamb. I'm glad I can help you breathe again."

Hearing this, I realized he was right. I was breathing normally again and my vision was slowly returning back to normal. "What did you do to me?" I cast him an accusatory look.

"You're beginning to experience the symptoms of the poison. I merely gave you something to relieve it," he answered with a hint of dejection as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Not sure if I could trust his words, I turned to look at my father who nodded. Realizing that I had accused him of the opposite of what he was actually doing, I cleared my throat to hide my embarrassment and muttered a 'thank you' to him.

"What was that, that you gave me?" I asked as I failed to meet his eye.

"It's called Zam-Zam. A holy water from the Muslim holy land of Mecca. We do not know which of its properties reacts to the poison yet but it's the only thing that helps relieve the effects," answered my father instead.

I nodded and adjusted myself in my seat.

"What are the other symptoms? How far apart are they? Could we gauge when the next one will be?" I asked, directing the questions to Nick who had turned away from us while my father was explaining about the Zam-Zam water.

He was quiet for a while that I had thought he did not hear me. But before I could repeat myself, Nick reached forward and tapped Harold on his shoulder and the limousine eased to a stop.

"I have something to look into, Sire. I will return once I have concluded my task," he informed as he stepped out of the vehicle without so much as a backward glance at me.

"Is he not going to answer me or does he not know?" I asked out loud, annoyed that for once Nick chose to ignore me.

"When a man chooses to pursue a woman, nothing can persuade him against it. But when the one he pursues keeps denying him, nothing can dissuade him if he has decided to leave," my father answered in a sage-like tone.

"That's not fair, Father. You were not around so you don't know what happened between us," I started to answer him back angrily.

"I know very well what transpired between the two of you all those years ago! I was King! And, I know for a fact that he was not the one who gave up," my father raised his voice harshly.

"I am an officer of the law, Father. How can I live with myself knowing Nick was living on the opposite of everything I stood for?" I snapped back, heat running through me that he, once again, was never took my side or understood the position I was in like he always had.

"Nothing is ever black and white, Hamilton. Reality is in shades of grey whether you like it or not!" my father's voice was climbing a notch higher as fire burned in his eyes as well.

"Is that how YOU justify who you are and what you actually do?!" I glared, never ever backing down whenever we butt heads.

For the first time, the look of shock and hurt came over my father's features. He just looked at me for a moment then looked away.

We remained in silence for what felt like forever when he sighed heavily and handed me a folder.

"What's this?" I asked, realizing that I was too distracted to not noticed it lying next to my father's seat in the first place.

Get your head together, Hamilton. Time is ticking.

"It is what Nicholas had put together on your murdered colleagues," he answered.

"Elena confessed to killing them," I started to say.

"Then maybe something in here will help you find out why," he cut me off as we arrived back at his manor.

"Do not tell your mother of what is going on. Her health is already in a fragile state. I don't want her to worry about anything else," he said as we entered the front door.

"Good evening, Master Kane. The mistress is in the den with a guest," announced Eliza, mother's personal nurse. "Will you be requiring anything else of me?" she added and smiled warmly at me.

"That is all, Eliza," father dismissed her and made his way to where mother was. The way his body went rigid at the mention of a guest told me he was not expecting anyone and he was not pleased.

Whoever it was, they are about to get kicked out Hamilton-Kane style. That's to say, it's going to be a spectacle whether the unfortunate person deserved it or not. The poor soul.

I followed him, preparing myself mentally to help de-escalate the encounter and usher the unfortunate person out when father stopped abruptly at the threshold of the den causing me to bump into his large back.

"Good evening, Father. It feels wonderful to finally be welcomed home. I was just telling Angela here how my mother died," the guest spoke as my breath caught in my throat and a deathly chill ran across my skin.

That voice.

"Hey there, Hamilton. Or should I call you big sister instead?"

I step forward and stopped cold as Elena sat at the foot of my mother's wheelchair, grinning from ear to ear with a sinister glint in her eyes.

Fuck.