35. Thea
35
Thea
T he ring Kyril had given me sat heavy on my finger. I couldn’t stop staring at the sparkling stones. They were large enough to need their own zip code. It was too much. Kyril was insane. He had officially lost the plot.
“Hey, how come the step-bitch no longer has the ring?” Cassian asked when I tuned back into the conversation.
“Because the bitch is dead.”
That caught my attention. “I’m wearing a dead woman’s ring?”
“Yeah. Dad snapped her neck and then took back the ring. Now it’s yours.”
“So you proposed marriage with a ring plucked from a corpse?” Kyril never ceased to surprise me.
“Um…” He had the grace to look slightly uncomfortable. “I’ll get it cleaned.”
I snorted. The dead body issue didn’t bother me. Hell, I’d pinched a sweet pair of boots from a dead woman at a crime scene. She’d tried to kill me, so I hadn’t felt guilty about it.
“Never mind that. Why is Ekaterina dead?” Cassian asked.
“Because my father finally realized how fucked up she was.”
“Good. That bitch deserved to die.”
“Now what’s going on with Lucian?” I looked up at the TV and scanned the ticker-tape headlines running across the bottom of the screen. What the fuck?
“Certain members of the press received evidence of his crimes in relation to the Highgate Clinic where he sent my mother. He’s struggling to dig his way out of that hole currently.”
Kyril chuckled. “And your mother?”
“I’m hopefully picking her up this afternoon.”
“I want to meet her,” I blurted.
Cassian looked surprised but then he smiled. “I’d love that.”
“I’ll come with you.” Kyril squeezed my leg. “Lucian might try something. He’s like a rat stuck in a barrel right now.”
Cassian nodded in agreement. “He doesn’t know I’m behind the information dump, but he probably suspects I am, given it’s led to Mom being freed. He’ll likely try to get her back, so he can pretend it’s all been a huge mistake.”
I read the latest headline and shook my head. “Looks like he’s been suspended from his government role.”
Milo stepped out of the room he’d been using as a workspace. I noted the dark circles beneath his eyes. My sweet nerd wasn’t taking care of himself properly.
“It’s about to get a lot worse. I dug up evidence of bribes and other financial irregularities between Lucian and several high-up people in the Met. There’s no way the government can brush all this under the carpet. Lucian’s going down.”
“What if all this sticks to you, too?” If Lucian implicated Cassian, he’d end up in prison alongside his father. I slid out of Kyril’s grasp and moved on to Cassian’s lap.
“Are you worried, baby girl?” he asked, amused, his hands resting on my hips.
“Yes,” I admitted. As much as I hated being vulnerable, he was important to me. They all were. Milo hovered nearby, watching us with interest. He’d seen the ring but didn’t say a word. Dario was the only person who didn’t know Kyril and I were now engaged (God help me).
I had a feeling he’d react much like Landon. As in, not well . I sighed. I’d deal with that shit show when it happened.
“Where’s Dar?”
“Not sure. He disappeared after Kyril stole you away. Said something about work.”
Work? That made no sense. With my father locked up for the foreseeable, Dario didn’t have a job. And I doubted he planned to go back to Abernethy since the only reason he’d gone there was to watch me.
“I should go look for him.” He’d been happy when we walked to the bakery, our hands interlinked like a normal couple out for a morning stroll. Then Kyril kidnapped me.
I huffed with irritation while Kyril asked Cassian something. These men really needed to learn now to share, or we’d never make this stupid harem thing work. Maybe I should call Eden. She’d read a ton of reverse harem books. I bet she could offer me some advice on wrangling a harem of hot fuckboys.
When the elevator pinged, I looked up expecting to see Dario, but it was Landon. He stormed over and yanked me away from Cassian.
“Hey! I am not a fucking toy, so stop treating me like one!”
Landon dropped down on one knee and pulled a ring from his pocket. This one was massive. Many, many carats. Not that I was an expert or anything, but even my uncultured self recognized a stupidly expensive diamond when I saw one.
“Thea, my future wife…” He threw a murderous look at Kyril. “All of me loves all of you. You complete me. You kiss me in a way that’s gonna screw me up forever. You’ll be 87 and I’ll be 89, and I’ll still look at you like the stars that shine in the sky. You came along and you changed everything…”
“Is he seriously quoting from a medley of Taylor Swift anthems?” Milo muttered, scratching his head.
“… we’re going to get married, have 10 kids, and teach them how to dream…”
“Yep, he is channeling Taylor Swift. I have no words.”
“Um… 10 kids?” That wasn’t in my future. No fucking way.
“Your name, forever the name on my lips…”
“Kill me now,” Kyril groaned.
Landon took my hand and pushed the ring on my fourth finger, next to the corpse ring, as I had christened it in my head. “My angel, my one true love. Will you marry me?”
“Um…” Shit. Two proposals in an hour. That had to be a world record, right? “Yes?”
“Oh my god, she said yes!” He pulled me into his arms, planted a kiss on my lips, and then danced me around the room, not stopping until I could barely stand with dizziness.
Then he pulled his phone out and took a selfie of the two of us, making sure the ring was in shot. Both rings.
I keeled over onto a chair, not sure what to make of my life. Six months ago, I existed. Barely. Now? I had two fiancées, a baby on the way, and three other boyfriends, one of whom was obscenely wealthy. Oh, and I’d starred in a sex tape that broke the internet for a while.
New achievements, unlocked.
“Ohmigod I need the deets!” Eden yelled down the phone, almost deafening me.
“Deets?”
“Tea. Details of how that sad bastard popped the question. Tell me, was it a flash mob? One million red rose petals? Or did he drop the ring in a Starbucks chai tea latte and you choked on it? It’s all over social media. You’re trending again!”
Like always, the drama her imagination conjured up was way more exciting than the actual event.
“None of the above.” I sank down onto my bed, still reeling from my new relationship status. The guys were busy arguing over the proposals. Yes, both of them. Landon refused to accept Kyril’s proposal and vice versa. Cassian was currently acting as a referee, but it wouldn’t be long before they were killing each other, and blood was spilled.
I had a feeling that once Dar returned, the conflict would escalate even further. Speaking of… I checked the message app to see if he’d replied to my last message, but there was nothing. He’d still left me on read.
“Never mind the proposal,” I interrupted as she attempted to wheedle out more information from me. “Are you OK since, you know, the thing that happened ?” It was best not to spell it out. Paranoid, perhaps. Sensible, yes.
Eden went quiet for a moment. “I’m OK. Declan went nuts before ordering me to attend PTSD counseling twice a week for the next eight weeks.”
“But you like talking?” I pointed out. From the way she scowled at me in the video chat window, she didn’t appreciate my insights.
“Not to someone being paid to poke around in my head. I told him I’d go if you came too. I pointed out you had way more issues than me, you know, because of your fucked up family and shit, so therapy would help.”
I scoffed loudly. “There’s no way I’m seeing a therapist with you.” Not fucking happening .
“He says you have to or he’ll stop paying Verity’s school fees.” Wow . I never thought Declan would stoop so low. What a bastard .
“So we have an appointment next week with a Mrs. Tavistock,” Eden continued, apparently not caring that I was about to lose my shit. “She has a clinic on Harley Street, so we can do lunch and maybe go shopping when I visit.”
“Eden, I am not talking to some quack!”
“I’ll take your opinion under advisement,” she replied, which told me unless we left the country in the next few days, I was being dragged to a therapist whether I liked it or not.
“Anyway, so I have something else to tell you, seeing as how you refuse to spill anything about the engagements!”
“Go on…”
“Sooo Michael and I might be back on…” Not what I was expecting her to tell me, but OK. “He feels bad. Says he panicked about the pregnancy test, but once he’d had a chance to calm down, he realized he didn’t want to lose me.” The words came out in a rush, like she’d been practicing what to say before calling.
Not that I was in any position to criticize her poor relationship decisions. It was pretty obvious I had no fucking clue in that area. I glanced at my messaging app again while Eden told me all about her makeup sex with Michael, in horrific detail.
Still no reply from Dario.
Was he angry?
It sure felt like it.