Emily
Shut in the room with Thayer, I turn to him. I'm not even sure what I should ask him first: what in the heck was going on in the hall or why he didn't tell us he was coming. Did Oliver even invite him?
I cross my arms over my chest. "I know I'm glaring. What else should I do? Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" A bubble grows in my stomach. It’s not anger, but it’s not not anger.
"Why didn't you tell me you were going?" he counters.
I purse my lips because that's a good question.
"I didn't know until this morning. Oliver surprised me with the trip.
" I look around the room, searching for cameras or other surveillance.
If there's one thing my sister-in-law's guys have taught me, it's that we're always being watched.
I know Holloway is continually walking around with a bug detector that can pick up on recording devices and micro cameras.
"Still, that's a fair question. But you go first."
Thayer's eyes widen. "You're not safe from my father here. Especially if he hasn't found out things yet."
"I understand."
"This is the opportunity we needed. This, combined with the Joneses' summer party, will cement everything.
There'll be enough public photos to get back to James without us having to leak anything.
While my father doesn't like Oliver, he doesn't have the same sort of feelings toward him as he does your family. "
"Because they're royals?" I hug my arms to my chest and wander over to the window. There are lovely gardens below, with meandering paths and manicured boxwoods. Just the sort of thing that I imagine my mother would've loved.
"No, because he has power over them. He could leak what Oliver and I did in college.
Leverage he hasn't used yet. But I'm sure he has a paper file full of things that none of us would want leaked.
" Thayer steps close behind me. With his head over my shoulder, we both stare out over the awakening landscape, our breaths in sync.
"Despite what you think of me, Emily, I don't want you hurt. I don't want anyone hurt."
"I know. Without me in play, you could've just blown things up from the inside, and I do thank you for that, Thayer.
This isn't easy for any of us." I close my eyes and realize that while I understand it on a rational level and an intrinsic level, drawing Anders and Ryder into this, and Oliver too?
It makes it even more dangerous for everyone.
I should leave them alone. Tell them to go.
It wasn't their family's mistake. I'm just putting them at risk.
"I don't want anyone to get hurt either. "
"Then you know what you have to do." Thayer pulls me back against him and wraps his arm around me. His body heats against mine, and I let my head rest back on his chest. "You can do this, Emily. I know you can do hard things. They'll understand eventually."
"Not today. When we get back to England. I'll tell them then."
"You've always loved your birthday. I wouldn't take that away from you." He squeezes me back against him.
I take a deep breath in and turn in his arms. Breaking our contact, I nod. "Thank you."
"Of course. I got you a present."
"You didn't need to do that, Thayer."
His finger runs down the side of my chain. "Yes, I did. But it's back in England."
I step away from him. "I don't care about presents." I expect him to say something about me using his black card to buy the supplies for the soccer club next to Havenwood Hall: team uniforms and two new goals for their pitch. I search his eyes, but he shrugs.
"I know; we need a careful plan."
“We can go out to a local restaurant. Have the Castoria royal public relations team tip off the press and take a picture of Sutton and me both with our hands on our stomachs. Half the time when female pop stars have eaten half a sandwich, there's theories about them being pregnant on the internet."
There's a knock at the door. "Are you decent?" Oliver comes in. "Darn. Well, there's always next time."
The glare on Thayer's face could cut glass. "Oliver," he growls.
"What's the look for? I've just come to tell you dinner will be, well, now. Are you ready?" Oliver looks from Thayer to me and back to Thayer.
"Should I change?"
"No need. This is just a family dinner with guests. You're the guest."
"Of a king and queen," I add.
"They're not scary, really. Not unless you're their daughter and get knocked up by someone they don't like," Sutton says from the hall. "Pardon me, I was just passing by. Honestly, though, they're just normal folk."
I bite at my lip but nod. "I’m ready."
They might be normal folk, but the room dinner is served in is anything but normal.
The family dining room of Winterborn Palace is four times the size of the dining room at Havenwood.
With thick silk and satin draperies. Linen wallpaper and a mural of a mythological beast feasting on a dinner of bread and grapes by Giuseppe Bezzuoli hang on the wall behind the king.
I’m no art expert, but I did read about Winterborn on the plane.
The king and queen are dressed in everyday clothing. If everyday clothing was something a movie star would wear.
I follow Oliver's lead and get through the dinner without much distress. The queen’s soft-spoken and tells several funny stories about Oliver as a child.
With the meal over, I’m ready to go back to the suite and sleep off a long food coma.
But the double doors to the Butler's pantry open with a start.
Servers wheel out a three-tiered birthday cake blazing with candles.
The room bursts into a version of the birthday song, half in English, sung with a French accent.
I have to stand to blow out all the candles, and it takes me more than one breath.
"That's how you know you're getting old." I laugh and sit. "Thank you very much," I say to Oliver's parents, and repeat it to the servers.
"It's the least we could do. Thank you for sharing your special day with us. I'm glad that Thayer has finally found someone who can rise to his level and be a good match. Happy birthday." The queen raises her wineglass, and the rest of the table does the same.
"Happy Birthday, Em," comes from Anders, Ryder, and Oliver. My eyes focus on each of them.
"Happy Birthday, Emily, darling," Thayer says, his voice dropping to just above a growl.
My stomach flips, and I don't lift my gaze until I've eaten half of my cake.
When I glance up, the queen is staring at me.
Her smile softens, but there's a flick of knowing. Scanning the room, Sutton’s focusing on her brother before she turns her attention to me.
I crinkle my nose and turn back to my cake.
Thayer takes my hand on the walk back to the room. It's not the way he would with a child, like I might wander off, but it's not romantic either. Inside the room, Thayer throws the door lock. "More careful than that, Emily."
"What? I didn't do anything. It's not like I was playing footsie under the table with Anders."
"Fuck me."
"No."
He pinches the bridge of his nose. "That wasn't a command."
"I know." I cross my arms over my chest and move to the window. The garden's evening lights make the whites of the early flowers glow. He puts me on edge. They all do.
"You can't flirt with them in public."
"It was a family dinner with the two least likely people on the planet to tell anything to James. Well, other than my family. Say what you mean, Thayer."
"They need to be gone. They're distracting you from what needs to happen."
My neck muscles tighten, and I look up at him.
Yes, for the last few weeks I've lost sight of the bigger picture.
"You agreed I’d tell them when we're back in England.
But tell me, Thayer, what are you doing to bring James down, really?
It feels like we're playing a dysfunctional version of House from the 1950s.
Rich man, kept woman? What are you doing to make our endgame happen? "
His eyes glaze over, and he glances over my head and out the window.
I tighten my arms around my chest and waist. I’m giving him the space to answer me, but I want to attack him more.
It’s been bothering me, not knowing the specifics of how he’s taking down James.
I've lain awake staring at the ceiling, wondering what he's really doing.
I've wanted to roll into the no-man's-land of his bed and poke his firm shoulder and yell at him, How. Much. Longer?
"I'm making progress. I told you it's going to take all the time we have." His eyes flit to my mostly flat belly.
"No, Thayer. I want in. I want to be part of the plan."
He shakes his head. "No. If I tell you, it puts you in more danger.”
"You think your father will kidnap me and torture me?"
"Yes, if he learns the truth." His eyes flick to my stomach.
"Then we don't let him know. I'm in this. I've committed. I've told my family, for fuck's sake."
His lips tip up at my swear word.
"Thayer?"
"No."
"Yes."
He rolls his eyes, and now my lips tip up.
"You're rolling your eyes at me."
"You're a bad influence."
"Me?"
"I suppose I started it. I . . . fine. I'm working on getting on the good side of his main supplier in Kuwait.
I want to take down the entire network, not just my dad.
And that means knowing every piece of it.
James is clever. He keeps things on paper.
No one knows his entire web. Every time I think I might have a grasp on his reach, I learn more.
Another source, another link he's kept hidden. "
"I want to help. It's terrifying, but maybe we can make it go faster. Both for myself and for all the victims who are caught in his vile greed. Every day we cut off the time it takes to bring him down could save someone."
Thayer nods. "I understand. But if we don't do it completely, someone will move into the void the absence of my father creates. We have to take out all his associates so we don't create another, even worse, James Zambrano. If you're bored, we can get you back to work."
"We?" I cock my head at him. He just convinced me that for the safety of the guys I need to let them go.
"Yes, we do. You and me."
Every cell in my being is screaming there's no we. "There's—"
"I know, Emily. I know . . . but you like what you do." It's a statement, not a question. Which is interesting because I've never talked to him about my charity.
When I told my father I wanted to start a foundation, he assumed it would be for reading.
And honestly, I did too. I have an undergraduate in English and a master's degree in teaching.
And reading is important in getting kids to grade level at the right time.
But our minds need our bodies. And kids are spending more and more time on their devices.
I wanted to get the kids outside and in nature.
That's why my foundation funds kids going to camps.
All kinds of camps. Getting outside, running, climbing, and swimming.
"I do."
"I've done my research into your foundation. It's impressive."
"It's not just my foundation. Actually, the team there has taken it to a new level. Hiring people smarter than you is the key to success."
"It takes a good person to know that you should never be the smartest person in the room."
"That's what my father taught me. It did him well until—"
"Until James's greed stained him."
"Oh, his ex-wife was already there pouring the ink." I nod at Thayer. My dad's had some really bad taste in women. Then again, I've had some bad taste as well. Starting with the man in front of me.
There've been a lot of late-night wine sessions over the years.
With many groups of girlfriends. Whitney, Lilith, and the gang from high school.
My college friends, work friends from the publisher I worked for for five years, Shayla and her stew friends, and now the gang at the Live Well foundation.
All of it comes back to Thayer. And I'm done with it.
This will be a clean break, a new start.
I'll get to move away from him and . . .
what? I've picked horrible men, and now I've got three great ones.
Three amazingly great ones. And I'm letting this rotten one tell me I have to send them away?
"Emily?" Thayer leans forward. "What's going on?"
"I'm not sending them away," I snap back.
His eyes flash, darkening. "You think that's wise?"
"Maybe not, but I don't care. I agree; we need to be more careful. But I'm not telling them to go."
"Emily."
"Don't Emily me." I put my hand on his chest and push.
There's a rattle in the wall, and a panel opens. "Hello there, love." Oliver pops out of the wall with Anders and Ryder behind him.