43. Doc
A s much as I hate the dog and pony show, I do love the way Daddy looks in a tux.
His pale blond hair is neat, with a slight wave to it, and his big, bright blue eyes are striking, complemented by the dark blue of his bowtie.
The black of his jacket makes him look paler than he is, and therefore, the freckles across his cheeks stand out more.
All in all, he looks like an angel—one I want to debauch. As if he can read my mind, Daddy raises one blond eyebrow at me, and I give him an innocent smile.
“Do I need to give you a reminder, Baby?” he asks.
I shake my head. “No, Daddy. I’m a good boy.” I try for innocence again, and this time, it earns me a small head shake and a grin.
Daddy helps me into my jacket, and I get a kiss afterwards.
“We could just stay home?” I offer. “I could carefully peel you out of your clothes, and let you do whatever you want to me.”
Daddy presses another soft kiss to my lips and pulls away, grabbing my hand. “We promised Cristian. Besides, I’ll do whatever I want with you, whenever I want, anyway.”
I sigh, but allow him to pull me out of the room, to where James is waiting for us. “Fit check?” I ask as soon as we're standing in front of him.
My best friend rolls his eyes, but says, “You look as pretentious as your name, Ash. Your Daddy looks too innocent to be with you.”
“Perfect!” I grin. “Let’s go.”
James sighs, but leads us out to the car, which is a limo, because you can’t show up to a charity event in an SUV. The scandal! My mother’s circle is already going to have a conniption when I show up, not only with Daddy on my arm, but Dr. Ranlen as well.
The timing of everything took a bit finagling, but the drivers of both cars deserve an award for being able to make it work.
We pull up to the event at the same time as the Martelli car, and James has Daddy and I ready and waiting for when it’s Sarah’s turn in line.
Her driver opens the door, and I step forward to help her out of the vehicle. “You clean up nice,” I comment, as I take her hand and pull her onto the sidewalk next to Daddy.
Her aubergine colored dress is gorgeous, accentuating every curve in a tasteful way, and helps her fog gray eyes stand out. Her hair looks shiny and soft, and I wonder how much product she had to use in order to get it like that.
“So do you.” She looks me up and down, and when her eyes meet mine, there’s something there that I feel the need to brace myself for. “Do I actually get to learn your first name now? I assume the people here don’t call you Doc .”
I laugh. “Not on your life. You can call me Wescott if you need to. Though I’m sure all the available men, and probably women, will be hopeful you’re alone, and won't care who you walked in with.”
Her lips curl in distaste, but she can’t necessarily disagree. “Shall we go in?”
I offer my arm to her, and Daddy takes mine on the other side. Together, we walk into the venue, trailed by James and the Martelli guard that Allesandro sent.
Inside is just as pretentious as I assumed it would be.
Everyone is dressed in their finest, as if being invited to the event isn’t already a glaringly obvious sign of how much wealth one has.
No, the exorbitant amount of money you need to donate to be offered an invitation isn’t enough, you must also dress in ridiculously expensive clothes and jewels, and heaven help anyone who doesn’t wear the right designers.
It’s enough to make me want to stab myself—after killing everyone else first, of course.
Normal people might question how I could turn my back on all this.
After all, my parents were never abusive, just cold and indifferent, and cared too much about the wrong things.
Why would I care about being loved when I could have all the money in the world and the connections that go with it?
“David is already here,” Daddy says softly, nodding to where his cousin is holding court at a table.
Letting go of my arm, Daddy leads the way, and I happily ignore the stares we get as we pass people who know who Daddy and I are. I recognize a few faces from previous events, and those who were at the country club when we kidnapped Cor.
Good. That’s what we wanted. To see and be seen, and hopefully, the right people will say the wrong thing and make our jobs easier.
When we approach the table, David’s smile goes from pleasantly fake to real.
He doesn’t hesitate to hug Soren, and says something in rapid-fire Russian that has Daddy shaking his head.
Nobody else knows Daddy doesn’t speak the language, but the ruse is enough to get them to excuse themselves, leaving the four of us alone—which was the plan.
“Something you wanna tell me, Sory?” David asks, looking between Soren and Sarah.
Daddy laughs and shakes his head. “David, this is Dr. Sarah Ranlen, she’s an administrator at one of the hospitals, and associated with the Martellis. Dr. Ranlen, my cousin and heir to the Petrov Bratva, David.”
Sarah drops my arm to take David’s hand, looking less than impressed when he presses a kiss to her knuckles.
“Dr. Ranlen, so nice to meet you. If you ever get tired of playing with the Italians, give me a call, yes?”
“You don’t even know if I’m a good doctor,” she replies cooly.
David smirks. “If the Martellis are anything like the Amatos, then I know they only work with the best. They’ve poached my cousin, after all.”
A server comes over with flutes of champagne, and Daddy sighs when I grab one, but doesn’t say anything. He just takes his own with a small smile and a “thank you.”
“Anyone interesting here?” Daddy asks.
“Few key players on your list—whoever gave you those names knows what they’re doing. Some people I didn’t expect have shown up, including your parents, Doc.”
Dammit. I didn’t plan on that. This isn’t my mother’s usual event, so I counted on it being an easy night of, hopefully, getting what we need and escaping with only rumors of our outing to go off of.
“Great.” I plaster on a fake grin and hold on tight when Daddy reaches for my hand.
David checks his watch. “We have some time before dinner, I highly suggest you make yourselves known and start getting people interested in you. The ones who are most likely to have the information you want are busy holding court with far more important people right now, but if you make yourselves desirable— the people to talk to—you’ll have more luck getting close to them. ”
“Thanks, David,” Daddy says. He sets his glass down and reaches for mine, though I’m far from done with it. I pout, but let him set the glass on the table. “We’ll be back.”
“If you let me know what you’re searching for exactly…”
I shake my head. “The Bratva already knows too much,” I tell him mildly. “All due respect, we’d prefer to keep our tab down from now on.”
“Understood.”
I turn to Sarah. “Divide and conquer, or…”
She sighs and drains her glass before handing it to Daddy. “It was like you said, all the single men and women are more likely to speak to me if I’m alone.”
“Come find us if you need to,” Daddy says.
She smiles and adjusts the clutch she’s holding. “Don’t worry about me, I can handle myself. I’ve come prepared for all eventualities.” With that, she walks off.
As we watch her get swallowed up by the crowd, her guard discreetly following in her wake, David says, “I suddenly don’t want to know what’s in her purse.”
I laugh. “Probably best. Come, Daddy, let’s go find some trouble.”
Daddy sighs at my wording, but threads our fingers together and allows me to pull him into the crowd.
“ O ne of you better dance with me,” Sarah says around her glass, as she sits between Daddy and I while we finish up dinner. “If I get stepped on one more time tonight, I’m going to stab someone.”
“Doc is the one who grew up poised for this,” Daddy says quietly.
“You’re the cute twink,” I shoot back. “You two would get noticed more. Hopefully, by the right people this time.”
“Ugh,” Sarah groans. “If something doesn’t pan out, I’m never going to let Il Padrone live it down. I didn’t get all dressed up for nothing.”
“I appreciate it,” David says, from her other side. “I don’t even like girls.”
Somehow, this doesn’t make her feel better, and she glares at the Bratva heir. Daddy sighs at the two of them and scoots his chair back.
“Any suggestions, David?” Daddy asks.
Before David can respond, I hear the last thing I wanted to—my mother.
“Ashby.”
Grimacing, I push away from the table and stand, meeting her head on as she walks up to us, my father and an unknown man in tow. “Mother, I apologize for not coming to see you sooner.”
She purses her lips in disapproval, but will never outwardly say anything.
“Yes, I saw you talking to the Williams’s son, and to Robert Grady.
Both are good people to know, but really, Ashby, I taught you better than that.
” She takes a few steps closer and lowers her voice.
“Especially after the things I’ve been hearing… ”
“I explained about my assistant?—”
“I know what you said, but then tonight?—”
I interrupt her, which earns me a glare, despite the fact she did the same to me.
“Oh, you mean escorting a beautiful, single woman to the event?” Holding my hand out, Sarah takes the cue and puts her hand into mine, allowing me to gently pull her into my side.
“Mother, this is Dr. Sarah Ranlen. She and I are colleagues, and she asked Soren and I to accompany her tonight. Dr. Ranlen, my mother, Madeline Wescott. And my father, Arthur.”
My father takes his place at Mother’s side, and she lets him touch her, because we’re in important company. “Your mother is right, Ashby, we expected better from you. Making us come to you...”
I pretend to be sorry. “I do apologize. You’re correct, I do know better. I let my ambitions get the better of me, and that is no excuse.”
Mother sniffs, but appears to be mollified, for now. “Very well. This is better anyway, as now we can introduce you to the senator.”
I try to keep my surprise down, but as connected as they are, my parents don’t know anyone that high up…at least, they didn’t. Seems I need to keep more of a bead on society gossip, for more than one reason.
Daddy steps up to my side as the stranger takes a few steps forward, closing our little circle.
“Senator Seán Dowing. Pleasure to meet you, Ashby. Your parents have done nothing but sing you praises all night.” I’m sure they have.
“The pleasure is all mine, Senator. I do apologize for not coming over earlier. Had I realized?—”
“Nonsense.” The senator waves me off. “You’re a busy and important man, I understand. And even approve.” There’s something about the way he says important that gets my hackles up.
Dark blue eyes—not quite as pretty as Carter’s navy, but close—study me carefully. I thank all of my mother’s lessons on how to keep my emotions hidden, from showing him things I don’t want to.
“Still, my mother raised me better.” Gesturing to Sarah, I say, “This is Dr. Sarah Ranlen.”
“Ah, yes,” Dowing replies. “I recognize her name from a few other events. I hear you’re an accomplished doctor yourself.”
Sarah gives him a bland smile. “I do my best, which is all any of us can do.”
I introduce Daddy next. “And this is Soren Knightly, my partner.”
“It’s nice to meet you all,” Dowing says. “I’m sure taking time out of your busy schedules to attend something so…pompous was a difficult choice to make. Especially as, from what I understand, you’ve been busier than normal lately, Ashby.”
I tilt my head. “I wouldn’t say that. There’s always something to do at the clinic, but I make sure there’s time for fun events like this as well. Giving back is important.”
Dowing smiles that slimy politician’s smile everyone in government seems to have. “Yes, but your mother was saying you’re also the personal doctor to Cristian Amato. And well…I get the newspaper. From my understanding, they’ve run into a string of bad luck.”
Sarah’s hand in mine tightens. It takes every ounce of training my mother ever gave me—both intentional and not—to keep my true reaction under lockdown.
“Don’t believe everything you see in the news,” I respond mildly.
“I’m sure the paper prints things about you that are less than factual, Senator. ”
“True, true,” he says. He goes to speak again, but James cuts in, breaking our circle of conversation and earning himself a dirty look from the senator and my mother.
“Apologies,” my best friend says. “But we need to be on our way, something has come up.”
“Really?” Mother huffs. “Isn’t there anyone else Mr. Amato can call? He has to know how important these events are.”
“Mother, please. He wouldn’t interrupt unless he had no choice. You know better.”
She grumbles, but lets me press a chaste kiss to her cheek anyway. “I expect to see you for lunch soon, Ashby.”
“Yes, Mother.”
I shake both my father’s and the senator’s hand. “I do apologize.”
“I’m sure we’ll see each other soon, Ashby,” the senator says, with a smile that is…far too cheerful to be real. “And you, Sarah.”
James places his hand on Sarah’s other arm, and gently but quickly urges us away from the group.
I follow along behind him, concern and dread filling me as we make our way outside.
My best friend wouldn’t ever interrupt, especially not so blatantly, unless something catastrophic occurred.
The thought sends a wave of terror through me.
Outside the event room, I dare to ask, “What’s going on?”
The Martelli guard and James share a look before my best friend’s somber brown eyes meet mine. “The Amatos are… They’ll need you both.”
Fuck.