Chapter 7 Chapter 6

“With what I pay them, they’d better figure something out.”

“From what you’ve said, the locations are too widespread to be one person. It’s a team.”

“Yes, but how do I find users of stolen explosive gems that are supposed to be tightly watched and monitored when I'm working on a deal to sell the exact same gems to my target partners?”

“That’s what I’m saying! There are at least twenty other explosive gems on the market, both above and underground. Why are they using our product?”

Edward bit back the words at the tip of his tongue.

Our product? Indeed! He sneered inwardly.

Outwardly, he pursed his lips, his brow furrowing as he rested his chin on his fingers and sat back into his high-backed chair.

He was gazing away from the person on the screen, his eyes narrow.

“They know…,” Lord Kramer mumbled pensively. “They are sending a message,” he breathed, “dangling it in my face that they know what I’m doing.”

His eyes snapped up to the face on the screen. “This deal is secret. It’s still confidential, need to know basis only.”

“Are you trying to say I have a leak on my end?” the other party droned.

“Or they do on theirs,” Edward pushed forward unapologetically, “but if it IS from their end, it should be their property getting attacked, not mine.”

“So…,” Edward paused, his gaze shifting to the side. “Someone in Ashrone is trying to interfere with Karmer Holdings,” he declared, his eyes widening as he turned back to the screen.

“Who would be so bold?” he droned incredulously, a feral smile on his handsome face.

“They’re sneaking around, and you call that bold?” the guest remarked dispassionately.

Edward’s smile shrank, but remained, his eyes bright.

“They are too small to face me. No one is big enough to face me,” he rumbled. The other man held the Lord’s gaze without flinching.

Edward continued.

“They have information on my secret dealings and are using ghost products. So, they have money…or sponsors. And, they are not causing any harm to humans, yet, my business is bleeding. So, I am the target!” Edward Kramer declared softly.

The other man eyed Lord Kramer.

“Someone wants to hurt ME. Someone is attacking ME. Someone has the audacity to strike at what matters the most to me at a crucial time, a key juncture, in my life.”

“It’s personal,” the guest summarized.

“Yes. Quite so,” Lord Kramer droned.

“That’s a long list,” the other man commented flatly.

“But we do have one,” Edward Kramer replied snidely.

“WE do, do we?” the man retorted dryly.

Edward’s gaze shifted back to his guest. He smiled cordially.

“Yes. WE,” Edward replied casually.

The other man sat back, shaking his head lightly as he joined Lord Kramer with a confident smile of his own.

==========

Upstairs in Lord Kramer’s home, Lady Kramer was occupied with her own troubles.

“Vincent! Get up! What are you doing? Where is your gift for your father?!”

“Mother! Get out of my room!!” the sleepy heir to the Kramer empire mumbled.

“Why?” Lady Ginnie Kramer shot back icily, “Because of your friend? Or should I say friends?” she continued caustically as she eyed the girls in her son’s bed.

“Are you still messing around at this hour?” she complained, her soft voice rising exponentially.

“Mother!!” the heir to the great Kramer empire groaned as he turned face down on his palatial bed.

“See them out, wake him up, and get him down to the design room,” Lady Kramer ordered frostily as she spun around, breezing out of her son’s room the same way she had breezed in.

“Yes, ma’am,” the head butler of the Kramer household droned, bowing his white head to his Madam.

==========

An hour later, Master Kramer sauntered into the design room, where his mother had been waiting for him. His workroom. His office in the Kramer Estate.

Her eyes were on four large paper designs. A cold cup of tea was at her elbow.

Vincent ran a slender hand through his thick mane, his dangling earring trembling from his fingers brushing against it.

A long, gem, bead, and silver, single-drop earring of Vincent Kramer’s own design – his protection gem.

Just as the images his mother was gazing lovingly at were his designs.

His irritation faded as he watched his mother’s eyes. The young heir smiled sweetly.

“Which do you prefer?” he called out respectfully as he approached the slender beauty at his crafting table. His mother. A slight, graceful woman in her late forties who could easily pass for younger.

Ginnie Kramer smacked her cheeks, eyes still on the drawings. Well, more like diagrams. Each one contained not only a sketch but also details of dimensions, weights, and materials for each part.

“I can’t choose!” she gushed.

Vincent laughed contentedly. His mother’s praise never failed to delight him. Just as her consistent intrusions into his privacy never failed to piss him off.

He moved to her side as a maid entered with a full tray of breakfast foods, even though it was well past noon.

Vincent ignored the maid, just as he ignored the implication of the food. His mother always liked her little punishments.

He leaned over his mother’s shoulder, gazing at the papers. “So, these four, huh? The others have been weeded out?” he murmured, looking at his mother’s selection.

“Yes, these ones, my sweet!” Ginnie Kramer breathed, turning to her son and kissing his cheek, holding his face in place with her palm on his other cheek.

Vincent grimaced, but he wasn’t upset. “Mother…,” he fake-complained.

Ginnie wiped her lipstick off her son’s clean-shaven face, smiling proudly up at him. She turned back to the papers. “The colors, the gems, they’re all… All so…,” she commented, mesmerized.

“Magnificent?” a deep voice rolled into the room, cutting off Ginnie Kramer’s next words.

Mother and son glanced up at the same time, and they both flipped the drawings face down as they smiled at the intruder.

“Father!”

“Edward!”

Lord Edward Kramer strolled in, his expression tight. “Do you know what time it is?” he shot off-hand at his son, while nodding gently as his wife, his expression tight.

Vincent’s brow furrowed. He moved away from his mother as his father approached.

Vincent, the heir, was a crafter. Gifted in the art of designing and fashioning items from gems.

His father, the current Lord Kramer, had none of the three nobles’ talents: mining, alchemy, or crafting. Most nobles had one gift. Gifted ones had two, in any combination.

What he was, however, was an astute businessman and top strategist. He had moved the Kramer wealth forward since taking over as Head.

The businessman was staring down at his only child, who had slept into a workday.

“Daytime?” Vincent tossed casually at his father.

“You –” Edward snapped.

“Darling! Our son has been working tirelessly on your present, even late into the night –” Lady Kramer cut in, her eyes pleading.

“Genevieve, please,” Lord Kramer stated patiently, his tone softening.

Edward closed his eyes. His wife was always like this when it came to their son. And the boy let his mother stand between them. Defend his actions.

Edward’s mind drifted to someone he had not thought of in years.

He frowned.