The Waiting
Delores
“You know, I’m a bit surprised at how well Chess is doing over there,” Felix says as he gestures for the waiter to get refills on our drinks. “He’s so quiet when not among his close family and friends.”
I shake my head, giving my dominant tiger an amused expression. “I think you’re still seeing him like you always have, Sir. Chessie has a lot of hidden talents, and he’s never asked for recognition, but he manages so much with no one asking.”
Fitz grins and nods. “It’s true; he’s a marvel at shit even I didn’t know about until our girl came along and let him loose on shit. My sexy little cheetah runs our lives like a well-oiled machine, and I don’t just mean when we’re all naked and greased up.”
“Merciful Horus, just kill me,” Aubrey mutters. “Fitz, you can’t blurt shit like that out in public.”
“Why not?” The younger tiger shrugs as he looks around. “As if I give a rip, roaring fuck what all these stodgy-ass dickweasels think. Chessie is a hot piece of ass, and my Baby Girl knows I’m right. Tell ‘em, D.”
Pressing my lips together, I look down at my hands, trying not to laugh at his disdain for polite society.
I enjoy the hell out of it, and he’s definitely correct about Chess.
But his twin is going to snarl about acting suspicious, and my dragon will get so grumpy that he’ll be difficult to work with.
That said, Fitzy knows that and is baiting them because it amuses him.
I’m not sure on which side of this little scenario I want to fall on.
Rennie winks at me when I finally look up, and I know he’s also figuring out what he’s going to say when asked.
“Chessie is super hot, baby, but do you really want everyone else to know how sexy he is? I think it’s only for us.
” I smirk as the words pop out, and Renard gives me a surreptitious thumbs-up as he beams. I danced along the battle lines well, I think, and by the scowls I’m getting all around the table, it’s confirmed.
“Besides, we can’t get him discovered by talking about this too loudly. ”
Felix sighs in relief, clearly happy that I added the safety part.
He’s used to his twin babbling prolifically about their adopted brother, so he mostly scolds him with little follow through.
Aubrey, however, will set his ass on fire if he pisses him off enough.
My dragon knows that would be bad on the train, but he’s also patient enough to get his revenge at a later date.
He and Fitz have spent a long time fucking with one another, and their random prank battles have tempered since I arrived, but they didn’t stop.
“He must be getting a lot of good stuff,” Rennie muses as he inclines his head toward the table a tiny bit. “Whether you thought he could do such an extroverted thing or not, our feisty little cheetah is staying there a decent amount of time. It has to be good, non?”
I grin a little. “Maybe. I’m not sure if he’s just basking in the celebrity gossip he apparently loves, or if he’s getting excellent intel.
He was really into the tale of India Shirdal when he explained who those people were.
I’m not worried about it; let him have his fun while we can.
He’ll have to work for that bitch again when we get back, you know? ”
Aubrey groans, tipping his head back to look at the ceiling.
“I do not know how we’re going to survive another year of that bullshit.
The appointments at Capital Prep were bad enough, but the increased bullshit at l’Academie was very distracting.
It pulled our legal friend from his focus and made you unhappy far more often than I prefer. ”
“No shit, big guy,” I reply with a rueful smile.
“Her demands made everything harder, and I don’t think Farley can remain close by forever.
That means he will be farther away if she does horrid things or tries to up her game—and I bet anything that she will.
People like Rockland ally themselves with evil so they have a plausible excuse to do the nasty shit they already want to do.
It’s in her psyche, and she will always do to others what she’s doing to me, eventually. ”
Felix sighs as he runs a hand through his growing raven waves.
“We need her to get the fuck off the board so we can focus on the real baddies. Your ex-friends have mostly been kidnapped or sent elsewhere, so their efforts aren’t a distraction anymore.
The staff at l’Academie are a problem, but not big enough to keep us moving.
Rockland is the D-List villain who just won’t die, and she has to go. ”
“You’re telling me,” I grumble as I lean against Fitz.
“I know Farley and his guys are working hard to keep her from doing the awful thing we all know she’s going to do, anyway.
But it will happen, and when it does, all that nonsense from Apex and more will kick up with it.
It’s why she hasn’t just fucked off; she knows she can regain infamy if she gets it into the media, and it doesn’t matter if it’s packed full of lies and libel. ”
“I still vote for skinning the bitch alive in the press,” Renard says.
“She is not…real. The image projected is a feint, and if enough pressure is applied, the facade will crack like an egg. Revealing who and what she is should be sufficient to show the world she cannot be trusted. Since all three of you are not guilty of anything but being secretly abused by her, it might back her off for the light to shine on the truth.”
Aubrey shakes his head, looking at us regretfully.
“I fear we will only embolden her if we give her that attention. People with that kind of dysfunction feed off of it, even if it is negative. And it will bring far too much scrutiny on the nibblet and us—which will make it very hard to keep the sneaky Fae and magicals from using that to their advantage, love. It will be like stealing from a deity and hoping that will help you outrun the wrath of another.”
Wrinkling my nose, I mutter, “So we’re all stuck with her fucking shit unless she makes a mistake that Farley can run with under the table.
I swear, everyone who said college would be awesome and a great place to spread my wings can fuck right off.
No one is letting me do that but you guys; everyone else clips them at every turn and laughs. ”
But they’ll get theirs eventually; that, I guarantee.
By the time Chessie stands up from the table full of social mavens, Fitz is fidgeting, and even Aubrey has stopped flicking through newspapers.
I defended him earlier, so I hope the lengthy gossip sesh gave him some leads.
Otherwise, the guys are going to be cranky as fuck—we’ve watched the sunset while we waited with nary a signal to let us know how it was going.
He’s headed out of the dining car toward our rooms, and his ridiculous companions are now on their feet stretching.
I’m not sure if they’re going anywhere—like finally having full goddamn bladders from all the rounds of drinks—and or if they simply need to move after occupying that space for hours.
Either way, I’m ready to get out of here for a bit so I do not feel like I’m in a damn fishbowl.
When our cheetah has disappeared for a moment, I push up and yawn exaggeratedly, making sure all the rest of the car sees me being dramatic. Looking down at the guys, I pout. “I want to go take a nap before dinner. I’m bored.”
Fitz catches on quickly, jumping up to grab my waist with a lecherous grin. “I can think of better things to do in our cabin, Baby Girl. C’mon, bros… she wants some alone time.”
That makes Felix give him a flatly irritated look, but I know that’s only because he doesn’t want anyone imagining me naked because of Fitz’s loud mouth.
I don’t like that idea either, but we need the folks we’re monitoring to believe we’re just a sugar baby and her older daddies rather than be suspicious.
Of course, that won’t work if they know who the hell we are and have been assigned to stalk us.
“Ma petite, hand me all of your things. I will carry them as he escorts you, eh?” Renard winks at me as he carefully doesn’t mention any names.
His avoidance makes me wonder if he found clues in the Erikson Tech guy’s suite, but not any that indicate he’s following us.
That means giving away anymore than we already have by being together is a bad idea.
“Okay, babe,” I reply as I gather the papers and everything I worked on while he and Chessie were doing their super spy shit. “That’s perfect. I’m feeling exhausted after all this work.”
Aubrey chuckles, looking at me as he gets his stuff in order as well. “Nice of you to offer to help her, but not me. I see where I stand, old friend.”
Felix rolls his eyes, grumbling something about ‘getting too into the part’, as he pushes his chair in. “If you’re all done being ridiculous, we should adjourn so we have time for a nap before it’s dinnertime. That is what she asked, isn’t it?”
It’s a shame I can’t snark back at him, but the situation is too delicate to fuck up because I want to rile him up.
Leading me away from the table, my crazy tiger leans in to whisper, “You know, maybe we need to do more stuff like this at school to blow off steam. Sneak around and look for shit together—it’ll make big bro nuts, but I think we’d have a lot of fun.”
“Don’t even think about it, Princess,” Felix growls as he comes up on my other side. “There’s no need for you to be in danger when we can do that kind of crap.”
I smack his arm lightly, giving him an offended look. “I am absolutely qualified to do more of that stuff, and if you think ordering me not to will stop me, you have another thing coming, F—Mister!”
The Raj grins as he hears me stumble over saying his name, his brows bobbing playfully. That highlighted the flaw in my statement, and the puffing out of his chest tells me he’s going to be insufferable about it later on. “Oh, I think it will.”
“Would you two stop flirting until we get to where we can do something about it?” Fitz grumbles petulantly. “This entire afternoon has been tense as shit, and I’m ready to be let off the goddamned leash. Move it or I’m taking charge.”
“Fitzgerald, your patience is waning with every step. Find your calm until we’re—”
Aubrey is cut off when we reach our cabin and Fitz plugs the security in fast enough to rival Chessie.
He throws the door open and holds his free arm out, glaring at everyone until we all hustle inside.
Once we’re in, the hyper tiger slams the door shut and locks it before he blows out a long, annoyed breath.
Even Felix is looking at him curiously, but Fitz holds up his hand to keep his twin from speaking.
“Chessie, are you okay? They didn’t upset or hurt you?”
My heart melts as the younger tiger walks over to cup his mate’s face and examine him. Chess smiles brightly, and then clears his throat to reply, “I’m fine, baby. I promise.”
“Thank fuck.” Fitz lets go and steps back, his posture relaxing immediately. I walk over and wrap my arms around him from behind, laying my cheek on his back. “I didn’t think you couldn’t do it, but I was so fucking worried they’d step in something painful.”
“Like my parents’ death? Come on, Fitz, I highly doubt the Raj has told anyone outside of the inner circle of the Society what happened on that island. Certainly not random relatives of the inner circle.”
Frowning, I lift my head and spin the tiger around to look at him. “What did you think they would use to hurt him? I… I’ve got a basic idea of why Chessie was taken in, but not all of it. If you thought our enemies would use it to fuck with him, it must be worse than I imagined.”
Felix’s lips press together as he looks anywhere but at me, and I know I’ve hit a sore spot.
That’s just too damn bad because we will not keep things secret that others will use as weapons.