CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Az
"I'm not sure I'm the right choice to leave behind to babysit the Princess." I said.
Rich's eyes flicked to where I sat across from his desk. "You're the face of our legitimate business, Az. We can't afford to risk you getting locked up again. Joey and Leighton are already getting the guys in place, and Craig is already set up across the street watching the security systems. That means one of us needs to go watch Craig's back, and it can't be you."
Two days ago, one of Joey's informants had called with intel the Jackals would be attacking our warehouse on Senna. None of us wanted to leave laying a trap for them up to our guys after finding out there was a mole in our organization. It had been decided that the four of them would lay in wait to catch Lenny Moretti and however many Jackals they could in the hopes of learning more about how Rinaldo Marino had managed to purchase Victoria. Or, at the very least, reveal a weakness we could exploit to get the consigliere to back off.
"We don't exactly get along." I groaned, raking a hand through my hair. "There's no guarantee she won't realize she's here alone with me and take off."
"Jace and his crew are on the grounds. If, and that's a big if , she tries to bolt, she won't get past them." Rich replied. "Besides, this could be the perfect opportunity for you to stop antagonizing her and show her who you really are."
Rich glanced at his watch as I shrugged. "I'm not promising anything."
"As much as I would love to sit here while you sort yourself out, Az, we don't have time for it. The Princess is already aware that you're her babysitter, so unless you intend to let her run, I need to head out and get in position."
"I'm not going to let her run, you know that." I balked.
"Good. Now go put on your big boy pants and watch her." Rich said, standing from his desk. "If I waste anymore time holding your hand, I'll be leaving Craig without cover."
"Go," I sighed, waving my hand at him. "I'll figure out how to hold down the fort."
Rich shook his head and strolled toward the door. He paused for just a moment and looked at me over his shoulder. "Stop acting like she's the monster under your bed. She's not going to bite." He chuckled before disappearing out of sight.
I remained in the chair for a few more minutes, gathering my thoughts. It was still early. The guys had all agreed that the best plan was to get into position around dusk in case the Jackals moved up their planned attack time. Craig had left even earlier than the rest, claiming he had more cameras he wanted to set up around the warehouse to ensure there weren't any blind spots. That meant he hadn't been home to cook dinner.
My stomach growled, allowing my mind to lock onto a plan. I couldn't remember the last time we'd had takeout; we hadn't eaten out since we arrived at the manor. Deciding I was in the mood for pizza, I allowed my feet to carry me toward the Princess's rooms. Before I could let my doubts creep back in, I knocked.
"Can I help you?" Victoria scowled after she jerked the door open.
"I thought you might be hungry." I shrugged. "Craig's not here to cook, and I'm a microwave chef, so I'm gonna order pizza. If you're interested."
Her eyes narrowed at me. "Why are you being nice to me? What's the catch, Az?"
"No catch," I replied, raising my hands in the air. "Figured I'd make the offer. But if you'd rather sit in here and sulk, be my guest."
"I'm not sulking." she scoffed before jabbing a finger into my chest. "You just have a tendency to be a raging Az-hole, so excuse me if I question your motives."
"You're not exactly a basket of roses yourself, Princess. But I'm tired of this, so I'm offering a truce. How long it lasts is up to you, I suppose." I stepped back and motioned to invite her out of her room. "I can be nice, can you?"
I walked away from the door, leaving her to her own choices, and made a quick call to place the pizza order while I made my way to my bedroom. I texted Jace to let him and his crew know we were expecting a delivery. He responded with something vaguely vulgar, reinforcing my displeasure with him being on the grounds. Ignoring his crude reply, I stuffed my phone in my jeans pocket. I gathered my Dungeons and Dragons books, notebooks, and dice bag before heading to the dining room. I barely spread my stuff on the table when the Princess strolled into the room.
"What are you doing?" She asked, pausing just inside the entryway.
"Well, since I'm stuck here tonight, I figured I'd plan out the next D&D session." I replied.
"Oh?" She perked up a bit and moved toward the table. "What does that entail?"
I allowed my eyes to roam over her, assessing her sincerity. "I can teach you, if you want. None of the guys are ever interested in DMing, so I usually do this part alone."
I pulled a chair out and motioned for her to come sit. She hesitated momentarily, looking like she wasn't sure she wanted to, before closing the distance and sitting next to me. I stared at her briefly, surprised she'd actually done it.
"So, uh, when the last session ended, your character, Elarra, killed the dragon Uldr. I have some loose plot notes going ahead, but I need to make sure I'm prepared for the return trip and what happens next."
"How do you figure that out?" she leaned closer, scanning my books and notebooks lying open on the table.
"Well, Princess. What do you think happens next?" I prodded.
"I just sort of assumed that when I killed the dragon, the game was over." She shrugged.
I chuckled softly and shook my head. "The game lasts as long as we want it to or until we finish the story."
"And you're the one that decides the story." She said as her eyes flitted to me. "No wonder you're such a prick. All that power must have gone to your head."
I rolled my eyes at her teasing tone. "Yeah, sure, Princess. The only place I have power is at the head of the nerd table."
A laugh burst from her lips, and she slapped a hand over her mouth as if to contain it, her eyes sparkling with amusement. I couldn't help but laugh in return.
"But… yes, and no. I help direct the story loosely, but I write it alongside what you guys choose to do. You wouldn't believe how many times the guys have taken my best-laid plans and thrown them out the window. Reminds me of someone else I know…" I smirked, raising a brow at her.
"I can't say I blame them. It's freeing to make your own decisions without some grumpy guy telling you what you can and can't do." She shrugged, a slight smile on her face. "Though I'd imagine Leighton does ruin everyone's plans."
"Actually, it might surprise you, but L is a pretty decent tactician. It's actually Rich running around with a white knight complex trying to get every kitten out of every tree. It's amusing, but means I have to make sure there's someone for him to save periodically."
She straightened up, crossing her arms over her chest and shooting me an incredulous look. "Mister Bossy? I don't believe it. That man has such a tight grip on controlling everything, I'm shocked he hasn't given himself an aneurysm. He's so stuck on whatever he decides the plan is, he can't see when he's out of line."
"Well… I can see where you're coming from. But he has a lot of people to be responsible for in his position. We all do. But in the game, in fantasy, you can be whoever you want to be. It's my job to make sure everyone gets their chance in the story."
Victoria leaned toward me, reaching a hand out to turn my face toward her. My breath caught in my throat, not sure what she was about to do.
"Okay, you've been body snatched. Where's the real Az?" she said, her face inches from mine. "I'm not sure how I feel about this alien replacement. At least I knew what to expect with the original."
"Princess, the last time you saw the real Az, you were introducing him at the Gala. And for that, I'm sorry." I leaned back slightly and sighed. "I've… been working through stuff."
Victoria heaved a sigh and turned her gaze to her lap. "Yeah, I guess me pointing you out as my attempted kidnapper that night probably didn't help any. For what it's worth, now that I know the truth, I really am sorry about it."
"It… was a traumatic night for you. It doesn't take much brain power to realize it'd be easy to mix up the memories. Sitting in jail, and then coming out to all this… Well, I have a habit of letting emotions lead more than logic. You caught the raw end of that with this."
"Well, this got heavy fast." She laughed nervously. "Maybe we should go back to this story planning that you insist Rich is gonna fuck up."
I cleared my throat and returned to the game notes spread out in front of us. "That's because he's going to, you'll see–"
"How about a wager, if you're so sure?" She interrupted a hint of humor in her tone. "Twenty bucks, mister control freak stays on task."
"Twenty bucks? At least make it interesting, Princess. A hundred says he throws the party off course." I laughed.
She tore her gaze from her lap and grinned at me. "Oh, I don't think a hundred makes it interesting." There was a mischievous glint in her eyes. "How about we up the stakes?"
I eyed her suspiciously. "What's interesting look like to you, Princess?" My mind flashed back to her coming undone in my hands at Temptat!on.
"If I win, you have to do whatever I say for an entire day, and tell everyone we see how obsessed with me you are." She replied, raising a brow in challenge.
"Alright, and what do I get if I win?" I asked, shaking my head. It wasn't even the worst terms I'd ever agreed to.
"I'll stop calling you Az-hole." She shrugged.
I made a show of mulling her offer around a moment before shaking my head. "It's kind of grown on me, and now the boys use it too. Try again, Princess."
She leaned back in her chair, her eyes squinted as she considered what to offer when she lost the bet. After several minutes of silence, a smirk painted her face, and she jolted toward me, leaning so close our noses nearly touched.
"Fine, if you win, and I still don't think you will, I will call you whatever you want me to for twenty-four hours, and…" She paused, her tongue flitting out to wet her lips.
"And?" I breathed.
"And we can finish what we started in the back of your club."
My brain was filled with static at her words, and before I could form a coherent response, the doorbell rang.
"That's probably the pizza," Victoria smiled, pulling away. "I'll get it. You finish working on the next session."
Still in a stupor, I watched her as she strolled from the dining room. The only thing I could think about was how I would make sure Rich derailed us the next time we played. Not that it would take much prodding on my part. He really let loose when we played the game. I wasn't sure how we'd managed to shift things between us so quickly, but I had to admit, I was more than thrilled we had. My mind was starting to get carried away with the things I hadn't let myself admit I wanted to do to the Princess when her scream tore through the manor.
My chair clattered to the floor as I bolted upright and raced toward the front door. Victoria was standing just inside the entry with the door swung open wide. I skidded to a stop behind her, my eyes following her stare to find Jace sprawled out on the porch, gutted.
"Oh, fuck." I breathed, turning her to face my chest. "Don't look, Princess."
"It's too late for that," she replied meekly. "How? Why is there a dead man on my doorstep?" Her voice trembled as she started to shake.
"I don't know. I don't fucking know." I replied, pulling her tight to my chest as I dug my phone out of my pocket. "We can't stand here with the door open though, it makes us easy targets if the dead mother fucker that did this is still on the grounds."
I felt her nod against my chest and released her long enough to shut and lock the door with one hand while I texted the others. Victoria allowed me to tuck her back under my arm and guide her through the house to the camera room. As a precaution, I closed the door and punched the code into the number pad that activated the panic room locks.
"We're safe in here. I've let the guys know what's going on." I said, placing my hands on her shoulders. "I'm going to look at the security footage to make sure the person who did this is gone, and see if I can i.d. him. You're going to sit beside me the whole time, okay? I'm not letting you out of my sight until I know everything is secure."
Victoria nodded and moved to one of the empty chairs at the camera control panel. She silently trembled in her seat as I spent the next twenty or so minutes flipping through every camera in and around the manor. It was clear that whoever had slipped onto the grounds had left immediately after leaving Jace's body for us to find.
Not finding anything useful on the live feed, I punched the buttons Craig had shown us to start working through the recorded footage. It didn't take long to see a bulky male dressed head to toe in black poking around on the grounds. I fought to keep my cool as I watched him peek into different windows around the manor before slipping down the drive toward the security gate. Knowing the man had gotten the drop on Jace and his crew was unnerving enough. Jace was more paranoid than Leighton and nearly as violent. For him to get so close to the manor only heightened my sense of unease.
My mind was working overtime, trying to figure out who in our world had the skills it required to slip past our best bruisers and brutally murder one of them. I was so lost in my thoughts and trying to piece things together with the footage that I'd forgotten Victoria sat beside me until she gasped. My eyes flitted to her and then back to the screens just as one showed the man slipping around the side of the manor after ringing the doorbell, and he came into sight on another, peering into a window.
"That's my room. Az, what if he's in my room?" Her eyes were wide with terror.
"He's not, Princess. Look." I said, pointing to the screen as the man slipped from the manor toward the tree line.
Her hands clutched my arm so hard I was sure her nails would break the skin. "What if he comes back? I– I'll be alone." She sobbed.
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Victoria." I said, gently prying her hands from my arm and taking them between mine. "You can stay in my room, at least until the guys get home and someone you're more comfortable with can take over. I'll be there the whole time, guarding you."
She bit her bottom lip and nodded. "Yeah, okay. That sounds like a good idea."
I rose from my seat, pulling her with me, and tucked her into my side. "Come on, Princess. Let's get whatever you need from your room for the night and get you to bed. There's not much else on the recordings and Craig will need to work his magic to make what is there any use. I'm sure after the shock you just had, you could use some rest."
She allowed me to lead her to her rooms, ensuring I stayed close by as she timidly gathered her things. She refused to change until we reached my room, slipping into my en suite and returning quicker than I thought possible. Tossing back the blankets, I helped her into my bed and tucked her in. As I stepped back, her hand snaked out and gripped my wrist.
"You said you wouldn't leave me alone." She whispered.
"I won't, Princess. I'm just going to be right by the door in a chair."
I felt her hand slip away as she nodded. Fighting the urge to climb into my bed beside her and hold her, I did exactly as I promised. Grabbing the wooden chair in front of my desk, I moved it to my door and settled in to guard her until the guys got home.