31. Anastasia
I’m halfway through dinner with my parents in the White House, hardly able to keep my sights off the clock on the mantle. All I want is for it to be over so I can get back to Rhett.
Adam sits beside me. Across from us, Aurora Van der Laize dines with us while her parents chat with mine and Adam’s. We’re not friends, but her family is close to mine, and we’ve dined together or attended the same parties often enough that maybe people expect us to be.
She’s strange though not in an off-putting way. I just can’t figure out what is about her that makes me uneasy. It’s like her smile is an alluring mask. She has electric blue highlights through her long, curled dark hair, which she wears in a high ponytail, but I’ve seen those highlights in purple, silver, and neon pink. She has heterochromia, with one eye dark brown and one a mossy green. Adam tried flirting with her once, but even he agreed there was something that made his hair stand on end in her presence.
“Can you stop that?” Adam mutters to me.
“What?”
Aurora says, “The incessant bouncing of your knee. It’s shaking the table.”
She doesn’t speak much, but I’ve often noted the different personalities she adopts. As if she knows how to craft her entire being to be what someone wants.
“Sorry,” I say.
Adam eyes Aurora, who goes back to acting as if we’re that last people she’d give her attention to. “You haven’t stopped checking the time. What are you getting up to after this?” He leans in to whisper to me.
I can’t risk talking about it here. Even though our parents are loudly engrossed in conversation, I don’t trust Aurora can’t hear. She might not know the specifics of anything, but she knows about Rhett from the tabloids and likely my father.
“Not here,” I whisper back.
“No fun,” Aurora whines, lifting her wineglass.
She’s my age of twenty-four, but she never went to college. I don’t know much about her other than the times my father would say he was glad I had the ambition to get a higher education when the Van der Laizes were at their wit’s end with Aurora. She got kicked out of three high schools before they sent her away to boarding school for her final two years.
I find her unpredictable and unnervingly observant. When we were younger, I used to admire her confidence and rebellious streak, but now I’m cautious about it.
We finish up dinner, and our parents all migrate to a lounge room, where they’ll drink, likely smoke, and keep talking for hours.
I plan to slip out undetected.
Adam and I are heading into the main foyer when Aurora’s voice stops us.
“You look like two people on a mission.”
We stop, exchanging a look, and I’ve plastered on a kind smile by the time we turn to her.
“I don’t care for the extravagance of this place,” I say casually.
She doesn’t usually take any interest in us. Like I said, she’s too observant, and the last I saw her, I wasn’t part of the underworld. I was just Anastasia Kinsley, the hopeful president’s daughter, and an absolute hollow existence.
“Agreed. Can I come with you?” she asks.
I look to Adam for help. His brow curves, and he flounders as much as I do.
“We’re just going home,” he says.
“Are you two a thing again?”
She’s so bold, brazen, in the way she speaks and moves. Aurora slides a hand over the round table in the center of the foyer and then hoists herself onto it. It’s against all etiquette and decorum, but while the staff around shift like they should scold her, no one does with the tilted eyes and daring smile she casts over them like a spell.
I decide she reminds me of Silas, wearing her madness on her sleeve, but her composure is enough to pass it off as confidence—or arrogance, depending on your perception.
“No, we’re not,” Adam answers.
“Because you’re all hung up on that dead boyfriend still, right? I wish our parents wouldn’t keep repeating the same boring bullshit,” she says, canting her head at me.
My jaw tightens at that.
Aurora sighs, swinging her legs. “Ana, the tragically heartbroken and cold kid. Adam, the reserved and uninspired kid. Me, the unhinged and troublesome kid. We’re all lost causes—may as well live up to the hell we seem to give them.”
Adam says, “They say I’m reserved and uninspired?”
Aurora hops off the table, giving him a playful smile. “Unlike them, I know closet doors when I see them,” she says.
That turns Adam sour and me defensive.
She stops shoulder to shoulder with me. “And it takes one with a secret to see another is hiding one too,” she says, personal to me. Then she sighs, seeming bored of our company already. “I have something better planned for tonight anyway.”
Adam and I watch her as she leaves, her black heels clicking off the marble, ponytail swaying as she descends the front steps.
“What’s her deal?” Adam comments.
“I don’t think we want to know,” I say.
Both of us shake off the presence of her that lingers like a ghost.
“Want to tell me what your deal is then?”
“Rhett and I are going to see Silas tonight,” I tell him after a careful scan around.
Adam’s brow pulls together. “What are you hoping for with that?”
“He saved Rhett. I have to believe he’s still open to an alliance.”
“If Kenna is involved.”
“After we take down Alistair, we’ll get her out. It’s the longer way, but Silas will benefit more than anyone if he can maintain the patience.”
“I don’t like this.”
“None of us do. We’re not in the clear yet—not even close. There’s no telling how any of this shitshow will go.”
“Rix is out of his mind with worry with Jeremy still missing.”
Adam looks out of the doors as if his mind is drifting to be there with Rix now.
“Is that where you’re heading?” I guess at his thoughts.
“Yeah. I might not have his skills, but I’ve bounced a few ideas around that I don’t think are completely hopeless.”
My chest warms as I watch his firm expression looking at nothing in particular.
“You’re anything but hopeless.” I nudge him. “What happened to still hopeful Henry?”
His head snaps to me. “Why do you ask? It’s not like it’s this or him. Or that I’m finding interest elsewhere. I just like hanging out somewhere and?—”
“Relax,” I chuckle. “I just mean no one will hold it against you if you take some time for yourself. I know you were hoping to travel and see him more.”
Adam’s shoulders visibly lose tension. “Right. Well, he seems pretty serious with that other guy anyway.”
“Damn, that sucks.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
He’s acting strange, but I can’t really blame him when this is all new to him. It’s still new to me, and the shit we’ve found ourselves wrapped in would send our parents to an early grave.
“What are you and Kaiser going to do? You know, if we all manage to come out of this with our lives.”
It’s a question I don’t want to face. That time has to come, and I’m determined we will be triumphant. But even when we succeed against Lanshall and Forthson, the fact Rhett and I can never be seen together shatters my heart.
“I don’t know,” I admit.
Adam’s face falls in understanding. “I mean, if you want help with faking your death too ... epic lengths for love, if you ask me.”
I chuckle, and we head out. My dad has a car waiting for me outside the White House gates, but I know somehow Rhett will have found a way to take their place. Giddiness erupts in me as I slip into the passenger seat and I’m met with his stunning face.
“Hi,” I say.
“Hi,” he echoes, then he leans in to kiss me.
“None of that with the kids in the back,” Rix grumbles.
Rhett’s mouth twitches with a near smile as he drives off. I’m longing to see a full one. A bright, rare smile feels like distant treasure, but I’ll wait for it.
We drop Adam and Rix off at the Den as night falls, and then we head to Lumina.
“Are you sure about this?” Rhett asks as we get close to pulling up.
“I haven’t been sure about anything when it comes to playing in the devil’s playground,” I say.
Rhett takes my hand. “I’m torn to say this, but welcome to my world, little bird.”
Outside Lumina, I don’t think Rhett’s ever held my hand so tightly before.
“I’m not waiting outside if he decides to only see you,” Rhett says, handing off the keys to the valet.
I don’t mention that’s a high possibility. Silas is very particular about who he lets in. He might have saved Rhett for my sake, and to gain Lanshall and Forthson assets at the end of all this, but he knows Rhett is also the leader of a notorious network.
When we get to security, we both press our fingers to the scanners.
“Silas will only be seeing Miss Kinsley tonight,” one says.
Rhett’s hand flexes in mine, but I sigh dramatically.
“Pity,” I say, turning to Rhett. His eyes ask what I’m up to as I reach up his chest. “I’m not here as Miss Kinsley. I’m here as Mrs. Kaiser, and Silas will see us both or not at all.”
I might have officially lost my damn mind as I reach under Rhett’s formal coat, pulling his gun from his concealed holster, and aim it at the security guy’s head.
Rhett slips a tense arm around me as the other guy arms himself, pointing his gun at my head.
“We don’t have time to play, Silas,” I say. I’m confident he’s listening in.
“This wasn’t part of the plan,” Rhett says in my ear.
“Plans always go to shit anyway.”
“You continue to surprise me, princess,” Silas says with a smile in his voice.
He emerges from behind the security guards. They try to block him, but he makes them yield. The moment he’s in view, I shift my aim to him. Silas pulls out a cigarette, lighting it with a hint of a devil’s curve on his mouth.
“I wanted to see what happens when you try to separate the Kaisers. I’m not disappointed.” His gaze roves over Rhett as he blows out smoke, slipping a hand into his pocket. “You look more patched up than when I found you at least.”
It’s then I notice Silas is the first guy I’ve met to match Rhett’s tall height.
“I was under the impression you weren’t interested anymore when I came here and you declined to see me,” I say. I’m indebted to him for getting Rhett out, but I can’t smother my note of resentment that I might have avoided being taken that night if he’d let me in.
“Come—we have much to talk about,” Silas says, heading back inside.
Security look pissed as hell when we hold our aims for a few seconds longer in challenge. I smile sweetly, lowering my gun, and the one I aimed it at holds out his hand for it with a disgruntled expression.
I hand it over and pat Rhett’s chest. “See? Job done.”
He shakes his head, with a huff somewhere between amusement and incredulity. Our fingers link as we follow Silas in.
“I can’t tell if I’m proud of you or concerned for you.”
“It’s your role as my boyfriend to be proud, and your job as my bodyguard to be concerned.”
Rhett presses a kiss to my temple as we walk, and the music grows louder.
“When do I get the upgrade to husband for real?”
“When my left hand feels a diamond heavier.”
He chuckles, and it’s the most genuine sound of happiness he’s made since I got him back. He squeezes my waist. “That’s a fair bargain.”
We wind up the spiral stairs to Silas’s personal level of the club and find him already reclining in his usual spot on the sofa, facing us. He finishes the last drag of his cigarette and leans toward the ashtray on the table as he flicks his gaze up.
Silas tips his head, and one of his men lean in to hear his request. As Rhett and I sit on the sofa opposite him, everyone on the level starts to leave.
I cross my legs, angling toward Rhett, who claims me with a hand over my thigh. As the men leave I cast a look over the balcony, and I’m stunned to see a glass panel rising from the ground. It’s one-way tinted glass. No one below is able to see us, but we can still see them. I shift with a note of caution at why it’s necessary, until the glass screen drowns out a lot of the music, leaving only a distant beat.
The bartender comes over with a tray, setting down three glasses, then he’s the last to leave.
We’re alone with Silas, save for one guy lingering at the back wall. I wager he’s Silas’s right-hand man.
“We didn’t expect such exclusive treatment,” I say lightheartedly.
With the screen and the emptiness, this space feels more like an elaborate office.
“With what we have to discuss, I won’t take any chances with anyone leaking information. I don’t like mess in the midst of a well-crafted plan.”
My eyes flick to the guy in the shadows across the room.
Silas says, “That’s Julio. He doesn’t have a tongue to speak, but even then, he’s been my guy for a decade. I don’t say this lightly—I trust him.”
I’m curious about how he lost his tongue, but it’s not appropriate to ask.
“Now, you have this one night to convince me to trust you,Kaiser. And if you don’t, my saving you from Lanshall will become a worse fate than if you were still there.”