Chapter 37 #2
Loud shouts and many hands clapping to the rhythm of the music filled my ears.
There were people everywhere: huddled against the bar, stuffed into booths, crowded around tables.
Servers in short dresses weaved between tables, and men pinched at them as they passed.
I frowned, scanning the smoky room for my brother.
“Can I get you two anything?” asked one of the women circling the tables.
“Is Bennett Mireaux here?”
The woman smiled and blushed. “Word travels fast, don’t it?”
“What do you mean?” I snapped.
The woman turned and pointed. “He’s right back there, honey. But get in line; he just won a fortune.”
My lips curled in halfhearted thanks as I pushed my way into the bustling room, Vanya clutching my hand.
We snaked past tables where men and women held cards close to their chests.
Colorful chips sat in piles on some tables, while other tables were entirely empty, save for the drinks. Then I spotted him.
Bennett lounged in a booth at the back of the large room, his arm draped over the shoulders of a redheaded woman.
He held a pipe in one hand and a drink in the other.
The woman had two cards in her hand and seemed to be asking him questions about them.
When he looked up, his easy expression hardened and he was shoving the girl aside, slipping from the booth without so much as an apology.
“Ari, what are you doing here?” His eyes flicked to Vanya and lingered.
I stiffened beside my friend. “I need to talk to you.”
Bennett squinted and turned back to the table. “Now?”
“Yes, now.”
He sighed and nodded forward. “This way.” He stepped around us, and the crowd easily parted to let us pass as he led us to a door behind the bar.
We filed through the kitchen, then out into a small hallway that spilled into an alleyway.
Two steps through cool air and we were back inside, this time in a room with warm paneled wood, a velvet couch, and two high-back leather chairs before a cold hearth.
Bennett spun to face me. He had a pistol on his hip and a beard I’d never seen him wear before. The snake tattoo on his neck was fully visible now, and it made a shiver rake down my spine.
“What’s the matter? Are you okay?” he said, words rushing out.
“I’m fine.” Following my brother’s stare, I said, “This is my roommate from school.” I didn’t supply her name in case she didn’t want me to.
Tonight, Vanya had, for once, worn something rather plain, a belted dark gray dress with buttons up the front.
She still looked royal and prettier than every other girl in that entire place we’d just left.
Bennett clearly thought so, too, judging by the way he kept staring at her.
He smiled and bowed. “Pleasure to meet you.”
“Where did you last see Rush Covington?” I said, fiddling with the folds of my skirt.
He scratched absently at his neck.
“Bennett,” I warned. Bennett coughed and covered his mouth with a fist. I nodded. He knew. I could see it in his eyes. “Where is he, Ben?”
My brother’s jaw worked. “It’s not that simple.”
“It is, actually. Tell me where he is.”
Bennett paced around in a small circle, rubbing his mouth. “Tell me this, then. What do you have to do with the Dragon Duke’s boy?”
“He’s my friend.” My palms were sweating.
A half-laugh, half-hiss spewed from his mouth. “Is he now?”
I stormed forward. “You know where he is. I know you do.”
Bennet’s face hardened into something fierce, something foreign. “You shouldn’t care what happens to him. You shouldn’t be his friend, Ari.”
“Don’t tell me who to be friends with.” I gestured back at the gambling hall we’d just left. “What happened to him?”
My brother’s eyes flickered with darkness. “I’m still your older brother, and I will protect you from danger when I can.”
“Is he the danger you’re talking about?” I wondered what he’d say to my fire-breathing dragon.
“Yes,” he growled.
My cheeks were growing hot. “Without him, I’d still be in that jail. And since the duke killed my dragon, I don’t think he’s planning to leave me alive. Now, what happened to Rush?”
Vanya was now sitting on the couch, trying her hardest to look everywhere but at us.
Bennett crossed his arms. “The Covingtons can’t be trusted.”
“You betrayed him.” The words fell out, quietly, furiously. My brother wouldn’t look right at me. Confirmation. “He paid for my bond and you just…set him up? People have been trying to get to him all year. To use him as bait for the duke. You saw an opportunity.”
Bennett’s arms fell loose at his sides as he stared at me with a hard line between his brows. “So what if I did? These people, Ari, they reward loyalty.”
“Oh, they do, do they?” I shouted. “That’s why you looked so comfortable in there? Well, what about loyalty to family?”
“He’s the enemy, Ar.”
My arms flew up. “Why? Why is he the enemy? Just because he’s always had more than we do?
Because he’s the son of a powerful man? Because he got chosen by a dragon and you did not?
I used to believe you. I really did. I thought the godspawn were all the same.
All privileged fools who hate those who walk beneath them.
But what’s really foolish is to hate an entire group of people, no matter if you’re looking up or down to do so. ”
Vanya was trying to hide a smile, but my brother’s stare was growing harder and less recognizable.
Nearly growling, he said, “Asking after Rushland Covington will get you in trouble here.” He tried to usher me toward the door.
“I’m not leaving without him.”
Bennett laughed. “You can’t just take him. We’ve been trying to capture him for months.”
I stepped away from my brother, examining his dark brown eyes, the same as mine, his messy hair, the way the skin on his face looked like it belonged on a man much older than him.
A memory flashed through my mind, of Ben bringing me a wrapped mint on Rending Night’s Eve.
It was the only gift I’d received that year, and Rending always tasted like mint in my mind because of it.
“What happened to you? What did they do to you?”
He looked away. “They made me rich, Ari.” He turned my shoulder toward the door. “Tell your pretty friend it’s time to go.”
“They paid you to give him up? How could you?” The fancy taxi suddenly made more sense. My stomach turned.
Vanya stood up, holding out a fisted hand. “Can we buy him back?” she asked, voice calm and melodic.
Bennett sputtered. “Buy the Covington boy?”
“If it’s money you want, I have plenty of that. Take this. And when you take us to him, there will be more. When you release him, safely, I’ll give you the final installment.”
Bennett strolled to her and took her wrist in his hand. She spun her hand over and opened her fingers, revealing five stacked gold coins. Bennett whistled.
He tugged her closer. “I could find the rest right now, sweetheart, but I won’t since you’re my sister’s friend.
” He released her wrist, and she jerked away.
“The Serpents will get much more than you can offer from the duke. But I will help you, just this once.” He turned to me. “And only because he helped you.”
Bennett walked to the door, but before pulling it open, he pressed one hand to the wood and said over his shoulder, “Do you know what you’re doing, Ar? That boy isn’t just a pretty face. Whole city knows he’s being primed to take over his father’s Empire.”
“The duke hates him,” I sputtered.
“He’s hardening him. It’s what he needs.
The older son gets the title, the spot in parliament, all that.
The younger son gets the dirty work, and he’s got to be hard as steel when the time comes for the duke to hand it over.
Ask him. When you see him, ask him if his father hasn’t promised him the Empire. ”
My jaw clenched. “Take me to him.”