7. Anastasia
Isit in a rooftop restaurant, the midday sun streaking through the window as I sip my tea. It’d be beautiful, peaceful, if it weren’t for my company, which leaves little to be desired about being here.
“You seem ... distracted today, darling,” Jacob says across from me.
This venue is exclusive, private. Alistair’s men can’t follow me in here, and I always arrive a half hour after Jacob and leave first so he’s never spotted. Alistair agreed to let me have an hour here alone when I begged after a month with him, telling him I needed the moment of complete unsurveilled freedom before I lost my mind.
“I’ve given you intel on several of Alistair’s movements,” I say.
A smile shadow’s Jacob’s mouth. He’s dressed in an impeccable casual light suit, the top buttons of his shirt undone. It’s almost frighting how innocent and charming he looks when he harbors so much evil.
“You have,” he drawls, taking a sip of his coffee.
He knows I’m about to ask for something. My adrenaline threatens my composure as I reconsider despite lying awake all night reeling over what to do with Rix’s information.
“I need something in return before I can take down Alistair for good.”
His dark brow hooks with intrigue. “What can I do for you?”
“Find Rhett Kaiser.”
Both his brows shoot up then as he sets his cup down. Jacob leans back in his chair skeptically.
“Where did you hear that he’s even alive after all this time?”
“That doesn’t matter. Can you do it?”
“If you’re asking if I know every possible location my enemy owns, then yes. You could say it’s a particular hobby of mine to store meticulous intel so our networks don’t cross territories.”
Hope sparks in my chest. “We’ve tried many of his estates and locations, but we can’t have them all.”
“Ahh, and by ‘we,’ you mean Kaiser’s adorable vigilante group effort.”
The mockery and belittlement of Xoid makes my teeth clench. “Can you find him or not?” I grind out.
“Perhaps.” He shrugs as if it means little to him as he looks out over the city. “But you forget he owes me a lot of money, darling. It’s brave of you to tell me he’s out there. What’s stopping me from finding him myself and having my vengeance?”
“Me,” I say. Confidence squares my shoulders as I grab his attention.
“I have you,” he counters.
“Do you know Silas Belenheizer is in town?”
“Of course. I’m guessing Lanshall is making a move now if he’s told you.”
“He wants to use me to gain full allegiance with Damien.”
A muscle in his jaw shifts. I’d like to think I’ve become observant of his tells after all our meetings. He’s calculating as he always likes to figure things out for himself.
“Marriage,” he concludes.
My lips press together, and Jacob smiles at his own brilliance. “If you find Rhett, I’ll follow Alistair’s plan, but it’ll be you I’ll tell Silas and Damien I want to ally with.”
Jacob chuckles. “I’m not a fool, Anastasia. If I find Kaiser and you and the savior crew somehow manage to get him out with your lives, Kaiser will never let you go. I would have to kill him.”
“He’ll let me go if I say that’s what I want.”
“Again, I don’t know what you take me for, but I don’t believe that for a second. Then I would have to kill you too for the lie, and what a pretty waste that would be.”
“What if I can get Damian and Silas to ally with you without the marriage?”
“That would be your ideal situation, which often makes it the hardest to achieve.”
“Would we have a deal?”
Jacob’s eyes flare with intrigue. “If you can arrange for Silas Balenheizer to meet with me and convince me of an alliance, I’ll get you Rhett Kaiser’s precise location.”
It’s a dangerous game I’m playing, but Rhett is worth it. I feel triumph in my strides toward getting him back, and I can only hope it won’t take much time. I don’t know how I’m going to pull it off with Silas. Truthfully, it’s the most frightening prospect I’ve faced so far, but I have to make this work.
I turn cold suddenly at the thought of Silas telling Alistair about my proposal with Jacob. It would all be over. Alistair might even reveal Rhett to me just to make me watch as he puts a bullet in his head for the betrayal.
“Backing out already?” Jacob muses as if he can hear my every haunting thought.
I take a deep breath to compose myself and have a drink of my tea to make sure I can speak. “No. I’m just planning out my strategy.”
Jacob knows it’s a lie, but he doesn’t call it out. “You think you’re ready to play in the lion’s den?”
“I’m already here, and I’m not the prey this time.”
Not the little bird. She belonged to Rhett and always will.
Jacob smiles, and it’s all intrigue and desire. “Don’t rush, darling. It makes for reckless decisions, and I won’t be able to save you if your master finds out about your double agency. It may take a bit of time to locate Kaiser.”
“You claim to be better than Alistair, yet he can find a person in days.”
“Don’t provoke me, Anastasia. It won’t work. I’ll find Kaiser tomorrow just to lay his body at your feet and prove a point.”
Jacob is evil incarnate in the prettiest form. He’s younger than Alistair, which gives him an added air of innocence, as if someone with less than thirty years on this earth can’t possibly be so corrupted by it. That’s because he wasn’t. Jacob was born this way, with a silver spoon in his mouth and nothing to blame but sinister taste.
What I’ve come to learn about Jacob Forthson is that he likes nothing more than a tango of fire.
I stand, leaning my hands on the table as I say, “If I can get Silas to agree to an alliance with you and you don’t have Rhett’s location by then, I’ll make sure he knows you’re a man of hollow promise.”
As I move to walk away, Jacob catches my wrist. His smile shows bright teeth, and he stares up at me with a spark in his eye. “What if I have another offer?” he says, tracing that hand up my forearm.
I don’t give him the satisfaction of balking, but my cold eyes pin him.
“Abandon this pitiful Lanshall family feud. Forget Silas and be with me instead. We could bow empires and move mountains together. I would give up D.C. and a very powerful prospective partnership with Balenheizer for you.”
I discover that Jacob has everything a person could ever want; he can gain anything. Control everything. But he’s never had love.I wonder for a moment what his version of the word translates to in a person, in actions, but it doesn’t matter. For all his heinous crimes, I condemn him to always be wondering about the one thing he’ll never truly feel.
“You could have bought me yourself at your gala,” I say.
“There’s no satisfaction in that. I want you to want me.”
“You look at me and you see a sparkling ruby. As soon as it’s in your possession, you’ll realize red isn’t your preferred color after all.”
“What if I said it is my favorite color?”
“I’d say there aren’t enough rubies in the world to make you feel the power you do when you win.Giving up this alliance to have me is a forfeit to your enemy.”
Jacob lifts my hand to his mouth, planting a chaste kiss there. “I think you know me too well in too little time, Anastasia. It’s what makes you so tempting that I’d contemplate giving it all up.”
I smile. “It’s only to my benefit to know you, Jacob. Double agent, remember?”
As I try to pull away again his grip tightens, shooting adrenaline through me.
“I remember,” he says with an edge of warning. “As I hope you won’t forget that if I get one hint of suspicion, one reason to believe you’ve betrayed me, that you’ve been telling Lanshall about me, I’ll make you watch as I kill every person you hold dear. I’ll start at the beginning—your parents, Liam Forbes, Riley O’Neil, Adam Sullevan, Rhett Kaiser?—”
“You’ve made your point,” I snap.
His stare is made of steel now, nothing of finesse and elegance. This is the monster that lurks within.