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Will was almost amused. Almost.

“Will? Frank Stapleton. Wondering if you’d have a minute today for coffee,” the GOP kingmaker said in a friendly tone.

Will wanted to reply, “It couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that Sandstrom was arrested, would it?” but he didn’t. He’d learned a long time ago from Drew and his father that it was smart to keep your enemies close, especially if they were old friends.

“Sure,” he answered in an upbeat tone he didn’t feel. What are you up to, you wily old fox?

They set up the time, in an hour, for a local diner.

Will called Drew.

“You know what this is about, don’t you, Will?” his trusted mentor asked.

“Search and rescue.”

EN ROUTE TO SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

An hour into his flight to Seattle, Sean stopped wrestling with what he would say to Elizabeth. He had to trust in the plan. So he tackled his other concern. How would Sarah respond when she found out Sean was her half brother? Was Bill right in wanting to protect her from that knowledge, even when the rest of the family now knew?

Would that knowledge really change anything for Sarah? She and Will had still backed him even when faced with “proof” that he’d met with the Polar Bear Bomber.

Now is not the time, the gentle voice said.

On Corvo, he’d learned to trust that voice, even though he hated to wait.

For now, he would follow his heart in a different direction—toward a leggy, opinionated blonde.

NEW YORK CITY

“So what do you think, Will?” Frank Stapleton spread his arms wide, dwarfing the small diner booth where the two of them sat.

Stapleton, the acting chairman of the AF board, had just offered Will the CEO position on a silver platter.

“You’re the obvious choice,” Stapleton proclaimed. “No doubt about it.” He was in his usual kingmaker mode, relaxed and confident that his offer wouldn’t be turned down.

“I’ll think about it,” Will replied.

Stapleton stiffened. “What do you mean, you’ll think about it?” He leaned forward. “Will, this is what you’ve been working toward, what you’ve wanted all these years—to be CEO of the most powerful company in the world. What’s there to think about?”

“Still, I’ll think about it and let you know.” Will’s voice was firm. When his eyes met Stapleton’s, he saw a flash of concern before the man composed himself.

“Okay then. I’ll hear from you . . .” Stapleton’s brows raised in question.

“When I’m ready,” Will announced.

The two shook hands. As soon as Will was around the corner of the building, he phoned Drew.

“Was it what we thought?” Drew asked.

“Indeed.”

The timing of the offer wasn’t a surprise. The CEO position had been suddenly vacated. Stapleton was correct—Will was the obvious choice. However, was this the moment he’d been created for? To lead a powerful company through its worst imaginable crisis and onto the right path? Or was it a distraction from another path that would be revealed?

“Your dad’s flight will be at JFK in less than an hour,” Drew said.

“You called him.” It wasn’t a question.

“I did. I was pretty sure how your conversation would run. I knew the two of you would want to discuss it in person.”

Good old Drew, always a step ahead, Will thought.

So it’s Frank Stapleton, the old snake charmer, the man thought. He’s the real force behind trying to take the Worthingtons down. But why, besides the obvious?

He tugged his cap lower over his face when Will Worthington and Frank Stapleton exited the small diner. Seeing the pair together wasn’t unusual. For years, Stapleton had been grooming Will to become the next GOP candidate for president of the United States.

The problem had come when Will had decided to run for Senate as a Democrat, thus threatening not only the Republican Party but also the long-standing New York senator James Loughlin, who was beholden to Stapleton and Spencer. With Worthington muscle and financial backing, Will was a shoo-in to win, especially as New York tired of Loughlin.

With Will as senator, it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch for him to decide to run for president. That would put him in direct competition with Spencer’s reelection campaign. That threat in itself would be enough to get Spencer to back anything Stapleton wanted to make happen. With rumors of tantrums in the Oval Office, plus his backing of AF, a company now buried in scandal and criminal negligence, the president’s ratings had dipped.

Was Will Worthington aware of how much Stapleton was pulling the strings behind the curtain? If so, Will was even smarter than the man thought, to play it cool and keep his now-enemy guessing.

So Stapleton and Spencer had teamed up to promote Sarah, to distract her with the glitz of the AG job, to keep her from going after AF with guns blazing. The man shook his head. Clearly that hadn’t worked.

That meant Stapleton also likely had something to do with the photos of Sean and the bomber—or at least had been looped in that Sean would be taken down. Sean had been the one single link that could break the Worthington resolve. The man knew from his history with Bill that the Worthingtons would protect their own.

Disgust spewed from his lips in a long exhale. And Spencer was weak enough to allow himself to be manipulated into trying to destroy a blue-blood family, all over reelection money.

Greed had made people and kingdoms fall throughout history. It was an old, well-trod story.

The story would replay again when Stapleton and Carson were taken down. The man wouldn’t rest until that happened. Spencer? That would be more difficult.

But nothing was impossible.