26. Thea
26
Thea
T he Royal Opera House was something else. My pathetic attempt at appearing blasé about the evening had crashed and burned the moment we walked into a foyer filled with society’s finest. Women dressed in couture gowns, dripping with diamonds; men wearing Hugo Boss, Armani, and Tom Ford accessorized with Breitling and Rolex watches.
And that was only my guys.
The three of them had attracted an unseemly amount of attention. Female eyes snapped in their direction, mesmerized by their combined sex appeal. Barely anyone noticed me in my glittering midnight blue dress and diamond pendant, courtesy of Cassian.
I felt like the poor relation. Cinderella’s grumpy cousin from the sticks.
But when I realized none of the guys had even noticed the women staring at them, I soon relaxed. No doubt Cassian and Landon were both accustomed to female attention and ignored it, but even Dario seemed oblivious.
Knowing they only had eyes for me settled my nerves. Lucian was here somewhere, but he didn’t scare me. I knew Cassian would deflect any shit he threw at me. And besides, I had a vicious blade strapped to my thigh, in case Lucian felt like pushing his luck.
Not that he was likely to try. He was far too well-known to do anything in public. Attacking a fellow guest at the opera would cause a political crisis, not to mention ruin his polished public image.
When Cassian turned into a statue at my side, I knew he’d spotted his father. I peered around his shoulder to see Lucian stalking toward us, a stiff smile on his face. Two men in bland suits trailed behind, discreetly pushing anyone away who tried to get too close.
“Father, how delightful to see you,” Cassian said through gritted teeth while placing himself between his father and me. Landon and Dario quit bickering and spun around.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you here this evening, Cassian.”
“Oh? I’m not sure why. I do love a nice evening at the opera with my friends and fiancée.”
Lucian’s gaze snapped down, looking for evidence of the engagement. I pushed my hand out, letting the large ring on the fourth finger of my left hand catch the light.
The engagement ring wasn’t real, at least not as far as I was concerned. Cassian had insisted I wear it this evening, much to Landon’s disgust. He explained it made our relationship look serious, and without some kind of grand gesture, his father would dismiss me.
I didn’t much care what his father thought, but if a ring made me seem like a legit girlfriend, then whatever. I just hoped Cassian had shared his plan with Kyril, or there would be a massive row later.
“Fiancée? Really?” A vein in Lucian’s temple throbbed as a few people still standing around the foyer looked our way.
“I’m looking forward to getting to know my new father-in-law,” I said, fluttering my eyelashes at Lucian while Landon choked on his drink. “Cassian’s told me s oooo many nice things about you.”
Lucian stared at me. His eyes slid down and lingered on my tits. I shifted uncomfortably.
The man really was a piece of work. What a creepy asshole .
“I’m not sure the daughter of a criminal and star of an infamous sex tape is the best choice for your future wife, Cassian.”
Cassian forced a smile as the staff made a last call for all guests to take their seats.
“At least she’s my choice, unlike Camilla.” He pulled me closer, resting a proprietary hand on my ass. “And besides, you no longer get to have a say in who I marry.”
Lucian sneered. “Spoken to your mother lately?”
Cassian’s control snapped a second before he lunged at his father. Lucian’s guards both leaped forward to intervene, even though a public scuffle was exactly what Lucian wanted. He thrived on discord. Anything that made him look like the innocent victim worked in his favor.
Before Cassian could throw a punch, I grabbed his wrist and squeezed hard, digging my nails in, distracting him. I felt rather than saw Dario move closer, ready to haul Cassian away, while Landon scanned the few remaining guests, checking nobody was filming us.
“He’s not worth it,” I murmured in a low voice intended only for his ears.
Cassian exhaled slowly, some of the tension leaving his body as Lucian made a show of straightening his tie and smirking.
“You’re right.” He turned his back on his father - the ultimate insult - and brushed his lips against mine. Then he grinned when Lan leaned in to do the same, followed by Dario. I heard Lucian’s sharp gasp of surprise. I guess he hadn’t expected us to flaunt our relationships so openly.
None of us took any notice as Lucian muttered something that sounded a lot like ‘ whore’ under his breath, probably hoping to provoke Cassian again.
“Let’s go and enjoy the show,” Cassian said, taking me by the hand and leading me toward the sweeping staircase adorned with sparkling lights and fragrant spruce pine garlands.
This was my first opera. Cassian had explained the story of Madame Butterfly, but nothing prepared me for the emotional impact of the performances.
On stage, Butterfly sang ‘ un bel dì vedremo ’, pouring her hope and longing into the music. I felt her pain. This might only be a performance, but in the darkness of our private box, it was all very real to me.
As the aria ended, I sank back into my chair, wrung out. What the fuck was wrong with me? It had to be pregnancy hormones.
I didn’t do emotions. Rarely, anyway. Yet recently, I’d cried at the slightest thing. Only this morning I burst into tears when I realized the hotel had no blackcurrant jam. How embarrassing.
The server had almost shit herself when Kyril threatened violence if they couldn’t find a pot of blackcurrant jam. Luckily, the hotel hurriedly dispatched a member of staff to hunt down some jam, skillfully averting the crisis.
“ Cara , are you alright?” Dario’s soothing words snapped me back to the here and now, and I sniffed. Loudly.
“Something in my eye,” I lied, wiping a few stray tears away.
Landon nodded. “I feel like that when I watch the Lion King. That bit where Mufasa dies gets me every fucking time.”
The Lion King? I’d never actually seen it.
On stage, Act 2 ended, and the lights went up, signaling the intermission.
“I need to use the bathroom.” Yet another fun side-effect of pregnancy. Yay.
I climbed awkwardly over Dario, trying not to get distracted by his hand on my ass. Now was not the time to think about sex. My bladder was ready to burst after the tall glass of sparkling water with a slice of lime I’d guzzled down.
“I’ll come with you,” Landon said.
“I’ll be fine!”
“No, I’m not letting you go alone,” he insisted with a wink. Hmm.
Knowing him, he planned a sneaky hookup in the ladies’ bathroom, but the long queue outside the door soon dissuaded him.
“I’ll wait here for you,” he told me with a quick brush of his lips against mine.
“Gosh, I wish my husband treated me like that,” an older lady chuckled as we both stepped inside the cavernous bathroom and waited for a free cubicle. “Looked like that, too.”
I wondered if maybe I should pinch myself. Was this a fever dream? Maybe I was still imprisoned in my father’s dungeon and my imagination had been playing tricks on me, showing me a future I could never have.
Just as I finished peeing, my phone buzzed in my clutch. Eden . I frowned. She knew we were at the opera, so why was she calling?
“Eden? Everything OK?” I tucked the phone under my ear as I quickly washed my hands. While I’d been emptying my overactive bladder, most of the women had gone, anxious not to miss the start of Act 3.
I needed to get a move on, or Landon would come looking for me.
Eden screamed, a raw, visceral slash of pure fear. A sound so unexpected I nearly dropped the phone in the sink.
“Eden! Tell me what’s wrong NOW!”
My heart thumped like a jackhammer in my chest as I ran through all the possible reasons why she was screaming down the phone at me. None of them good.
“ Ciao, troia ,” a familiar voice purred. “It’s been a while.”
Torrance .
Landon stood leaning against the wall when I left the ladies’ bathroom. He looked up and grinned before all traces of amusement vanished.
“What the fuck’s happened?” He scanned my body, searching for traces of something I hoped never to experience. “Are you… is the… OK?”
I forced my panic and anxiety down. Locked it in a sealed metal box deep inside my mind, along with all the other trauma I’d buried long ago. If Torrance had Eden, I couldn’t afford to panic. He’d capitalize on it and Eden would die.
If Eden died because of me, I’d never forgive myself.
“Nothing’s wrong,” I reassured him, pulling a fake smile out of my magician’s hat and wearing it like a pro. “There was no toilet paper in my cubicle! Can you believe it? Gross.” I rolled my eyes and acted like this was the worst thing that had ever happened to me.
Landon frowned. “Are you sure that’s all?”
I nodded, clutching my purse so tightly my hand ached. I needed to get away from the guys. Torrance had warned me Eden would pay if I tried to ambush him.
The only person who could rescue Eden was me.
It was me Torrance wanted, and me he intended to have. With my father locked up, Marku was on the warpath and Torrance had no allies left. His only option was to hand me over and claim fealty to Marku.
A dumb plan, as far as I was concerned. Marku would likely take me and kill Torrance, but I guessed he’d decided he’d rather take that risk than spend the next few years on the run from Marku’s goons and the DIA.
“I’m fine. Stop fussing.” Torrance had given me 12 hours to get up to Scotland. This wasn’t nearly enough time to come up with a plan, but he and my father had trained me to handle scenarios like this. “We better hurry before we miss the start of Act 3.”
Hopefully, the opera would end soon and I could go back to the hotel, pretend to be exhausted, and then sneak out once everyone had fallen asleep.
A repeat of New Year’s Eve.
Fuck my life.
None of them would forgive me this time, not after I’d promised I wouldn’t go all lone wolf again.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t a promise I could afford to keep. If they tried to help me, we were all dead.
Heavy rain lashed the windscreen of the car I’d taken from a side street near the hotel. Stealing a car wasn’t exactly smart, but there hadn’t been time to do much else.
Telling the guys what was going on would have made my life easier, but it wasn’t an option. I’d left them all fast asleep. Oblivious. Kyril had been AWOL when we got back from the opera, so thankfully I’d not needed to deal with him and his overprotective bullshit.
If luck was on my side, whoever owned this Mercedes wouldn’t report it stolen until the morning, by which point I’d be in Scotland.
My phone flashed from the passenger seat. Kyril calling. I ignored it only for him to try calling again. And again.
By the time I crossed the border, there were dozens of missed calls and messages. I’d have turned the damn thing off, except I was expecting a call from Torrance. Milo would have no problem tracking my phone, but I had a good head-start, so by the time they caught up, either Torrance or I would be dead.
Torrance might think he was taking me to Marku, but this was a suicide mission. There was no way I’d let him hand me over to the Romanian mob boss, gift-wrapped in a pink bow. I’d rather die.
The sleek Mercedes ate up the miles. Thank God I’d boosted a diesel car with a full tank. I’d not needed to stop and refuel once, although I was now down to the last dregs of fuel. Luckily, I had less than 10 miles to go.
As I took a left down a rutted track, Torrance called.
“I see you listened to me for once.”
I peered through the gloom but couldn’t see a damn thing, which meant he’d fixed a camera somewhere.
“Let me speak to my friend.” I heard a faint cry.
“There are rats! Fucking rats, Thea!”
Some of the tension in my chest eased. If Eden had the energy to complain about rats, she was not too badly hurt.
“Rats won’t harm you,” I reassured her in a soft, soothing voice, trying not to lose my shit as the ramshackle barn came into view. “Rats are our friends.”
“Rats are not my fucking friends!” She shrieked loudly before the call abruptly ended and a few minutes later, the track petered out in front of my favorite place: the barn where Torrance had beaten the shit out of me.
“Get out of the car and put your hands in the air,” Torrance ordered, his gun pointing at my chest.
I took a deep breath while picturing my guys. Whatever happened next, the chips would fall where they may.