82. Cassian
82
Cassian
T he sound of banging on a door burrowed into my brain like an irritating worm. As my consciousness slowly came back online, I realized I wasn’t alone in bed. Landon lay on his stomach, mumbling incoherently.
For a moment, I struggled to make sense of why Landon was here. Then it all came back to me. Thea. Her tears. Landon’s arrival. And the sex.
Where was she?
I sat up abruptly, rubbing sleep from my eyes. Had she left us? Thea was flighty as hell, so leaving without saying goodbye was definitely in character. I was surprised to discover I cared about that. Then a small hand touched my arm and I realized she was still here, in bed.
I exhaled, releasing some tension, but before I could say a word, the outside door opened and a loud voice announced the police were here.
What was happening? Was it my father?
Reaching for a towel slung over a nearby chair, I dashed out of the bedroom.
“The fuck, dude?” Landon yelled, irritated his beauty sleep had been so rudely interrupted.
Thea appeared from the bedroom wearing a fluffy complimentary robe. She looked a lot calmer than I felt, her usual mask of indifference firmly in place.
This was where I needed to give her the cold shoulder. Make it clear last night was a one-off. But to the surprise of both of us, I strode over and grabbed her hand.
“Don’t worry, I’ll handle this.” Her eyes widened in surprise.
She was beautiful, even with purple shadows beneath her eyes and wild, untamed hair. I itched to take her back to bed, but now wasn’t the time.
“I hope you have a bloody good explanation for disturbing me and my friends,” I growled when I turned to face the three waiting officers and hotel manager.
“I’m so sorry, Mr Forsythe. These officers have a warrant to search the suite,” Mr. Green, the manager, explained. He refused to meet my eye, but I ignored him. He wasn’t the problem here.
“A warrant? For what reason?”
The officer in charge, a taciturn thug of a man with a shaved head and a give no shits attitude, handed me the warrant. I scanned the contents and frowned. They were looking for drugs? That made no sense.
There were no drugs in here. Landon and I weren’t users, recreationally or otherwise. I’d learned my damn lesson long ago. The most any of us did was a bit of weed at parties, and that was only on campus where everyone smoked weed and nobody gave a damn.
“There must be some mistake,” I said in a calm voice, tacking on a smile to let them know I wasn’t offended at being so rudely awoken.
“No mistake, son.” The officer pushed past me, followed by his colleagues and the simpering manager.
“Your father is on his way,” Mr. Green said under his breath. Shit. Father had probably tried to call me and got no reply. But there wasn’t time to worry about that now.
Landon appeared wearing some pants. He went straight over to Thea and pulled her into his arms. “Are you OK?” he murmured, nuzzling her hair.
“I’m fine,” she replied robotically.
I saw one of the officers give her the once-over, his gaze lingering on her tanned legs.
“Get your filthy eyes off her,” I growled.
There was nothing respectful about this officer. He threw me a smirk and then turned to his superior, the thug with the shaved head, who was busy tossing the contents of the kitchen.
“I’ll make a start on the bedroom,” the creepy one said. I had visions of him picking up Thea’s discarded panties but forced myself not to react. The third officer stood close to us, watching our every movement.
We all sat on the sofa while the police went through my bags, pulled everything apart, and found nothing.
“We should bag the clothes,” the asshole officer said, wandering from the bedroom with Thea’s bra in his hand. I saw the way she cringed with embarrassment and anger overtook my common sense.
“You’ll be hearing from my lawyer about this,” I seethed. “There better be a damn good reason why you thought there were drugs in here, when clearly there are not.”
The officer in charge shrugged. “Just doing my job, sir,” he replied.
My jaw ticked with anger, but I resisted the urge to punch him in the face. That would not help my case. Ten minutes later, the door burst open and my father appeared with a face like thunder, flanked by his two bodyguards.
“Cassian, get dressed. We need to leave. There’s a press pack waiting outside.”
“The press?” Was this whole bullshit exercise a set-up?
“Yes. Now get some clothes on.”
Landon shot me a worried look that said, fuck, we’re all screwed , and I sent one back to say protect Thea with your life .
We headed back into the ruins of the bedroom to retrieve our clothes. The asshole officer hovered in the doorway, probably hoping to cop a look at Thea’s tits while she got dressed, but I kicked the door shut in his face and stood in front of it in case he tried to open it again.
“Can you get a car organized, Lan?”
He nodded. “I’ll call the car service once I find my phone.”
“Good. Take Thea with you. She can’t be seen with me.”
“Wouldn’t want to cast doubt on your engagement,” she sniped under her breath, and I inwardly groaned.
Not once had the topic of Camilla come up. God dammit. I should have realized she’d know I was engaged. She must think I was a complete bastard for fucking around on my fiancée.
“Camilla and Cass aren’t real, Thea,” Landon explained while pulling on his shirt.
“Is it a showmance, like Taylor and Travis?” she asked with a sarcastic edge to her voice.
“Not quite,” I admitted. “It’s a business arrangement my father set up. I’m trying to get out of it, but for now, the official line is I’m engaged.”
“To a troll,” Landon interjected
“Not fucking helpful!” I grumbled, even though he made a good point.
Thea’s expression softened, and I saw a fleeting flash of sympathy flutter across her face before the mask fell again. Then she sighed. “OK, even if it’s fake, I can see why being seen with me is a bad idea.”
“Yep, hence why father has gone into damage control mode.” I was in for a whole world of pain later. He’d want to know why Landon and Thea were here. What a mess.
When we left the bedroom, my father looked at Thea for way longer than was polite, his lecherous gaze taking in her barely-there dress, which Landon had attempted to cover with his suit jacket.
We picked up our phones while Thea collected her purse from the bathroom.
“I assume you found nothing?” Dad asked the lead officer through gritted teeth.
“No, sir, the room is clean. The information we were given appears to have been incorrect.” The officer glared at me as if suggesting I’d somehow hidden the stash of drugs. Not sure where, given there were no drugs.
Lan made a quick call, and then we left the room. My father stayed silent until we stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby. Outside, hordes of photographers with cameras milled around while security staff held them at bay. A few lone hotel guests peered at our little group curiously, probably wondering whether we were famous.
One young Chinese couple twittered with excitement, pointing their phones at Landon.
“I look like that K-Pop star, Jungkook,” he explained to Thea while my father barked instructions into his phone and the police officers who’d ruined our morning left without a backward glance.
“Only if a person is extremely short-sighted,” I remarked.
“Pfft, as if you’d know. You only watch fucking documentaries!”
“Better than rotting my brain with the shit you watch!”
We bickered some more while Thea chewed her nails and stared at the floor. Landon didn’t appear to notice. Despite our rude awakening, he seemed remarkably cheerful. At least until the elevator opened and Elaine Jordan stumbled out wearing dark glasses, looking very hungover.
I’d met her twice, both times at the whiskey awards, which Landon usually invited us to because the open bar was legendary.
The woman had an unhealthy obsession with young men. She’d tried hitting on me, but I’d given her short shrift. After the second time, she avoided me, which suited me just fine.
I watched as she clocked our little group and then the press pack outside. Any remaining color in her cheeks drained away, probably because she didn’t want her mug posted all over the Daily Mail Online.
None of us did, frankly.
Landon hadn’t noticed her. He was too busy stroking Thea’s hip and dropping kisses into her hair. If my father hadn’t been two feet away, I might have ripped her away from him, but it wasn’t worth riling him up anymore.
Elaine’s glasses concealed her eyes, but from the way she tensed up, she didn’t appreciate seeing Landon’s hands all over Thea. It was pretty fucking obvious Lan and Thea were a thing. Even my father had noticed, which was good because he’d assume she was with Lan not me.
The bitch’s lip curled in annoyance. Then she caught me grinning and forced a smile.
“Cassian. Lovely to see you.” Thea looked around and saw Elaine at the same time Lan did. The color leeched from Lan’s face while Thea glared. Thankfully, my father chose that moment to announce we were leaving.
“Derek’s waiting outside the back entrance. We need to get out of here before more reporters arrive. Fuck knows who called them,” he muttered under his breath.
Normally, he’d be all over the press. Publicity was his oxygen, and he loved having an opportunity to wax lyrical on camera, but not this morning. There were too many variables, not least the fact Lan and Thea were here.
“What’s going on?” Elaine asked in an imperious voice. Mr. Green, who was hovering nearby, ready to lick my father’s shoes, stepped forward.
“Just a small misunderstanding, madam. If you’d like to leave without any bother, we can call a cab for you.”
Elaine huffed some more and checked her phone. “Thank you, that would be most agreeable.” She threw one last venomous look at Landon and Thea before following Mr. Green to the concierge’s desk.
Father pushed his phone back in his pocket.
“Let’s go,” he barked.
“Look after our girl,” I said to Landon as I brushed past him.
“Always,” he replied.