Chapter 28
ASHLEY
Royce: Sweet. She’s gonna love it.
Heath: I hate that you’re getting credit for my car.
Royce: You mean MY car? Deal’s a deal, bro.
Heath:
D inner with Royce’s uncle was not a casual event.
On Royce’s advice, I’d dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a black T-shirt, yet when we pulled up in front of the restaurant, a sharply dressed valet appeared to handle the Bugatti, and I very seriously considered drowning Royce in the koi pond near the front door.
“Why did you tell me this was a casual dinner?” I growled under my breath as we waited for the ma?tre d’ to greet us. “This is a Michelin-starred restaurant, Royce, and I’m in ripped jeans . They’ll probably refuse us entry. Surely they have a dress code?”
Royce tightened his grip on my hand, where he had interlaced our fingers the moment we stepped out of the car.
“They have a code…but it’s more about name and money than dress.
Yes, table for three booked under D’Arenberg.
” He confidently delivered the last part to the politely smiling woman who’d approached.
She gave my outfit the quickest glance before nodding and leading the way through the restaurant to a private table in the back, where a handsome, older version of Royce sat. He was dressed head to toe in Armani, and everything about his attire screamed money. His eyes, however, screamed mischief .
“Henry, Ashley, Ashley, Henry,” Royce mumbled in a sulk, gesturing between us for the briefest of introductions before pulling a chair out for me to sit.
Henry clicked his tongue at his nephew as he extended a hand my way. “Ashley, it’s such a pleasure to finally meet you.” He grasped my hand in his, raising it to kiss my knuckles, while my brows shot up so hard, they must have disappeared into my hair.
“Cut it out.” Royce glowered. “Sit down.”
Startled at his mood, I glanced between the two of them, but Henry just grinned with genuine amusement as we all took our seats. “Don’t mind my nephew, Ashley. He’s scared I’ll steal you away from him.”
“Oh, god, no. Old guys are not my type,” I blurted out before I could catch myself. “Ah, sorry, that was rude. But…no.” I turned to Royce with a hard glare. “And I’m offended you thought that was a possibility?”
He at least had the grace to look sheepish, even as he grabbed my hand beneath the table with a desperate kind of grip. Insecure was an unfamiliar look on him, but it was also a little bit adorable.
Henry smoothly shifted the conversation into updating Royce on his last visit with his sister—Royce’s mom—and after a few minutes, the crushing grip Royce held my hand with relaxed a little.
We ordered our meals, and Henry asked dozens of questions about our classes, our plans for the future, and how the other guys were all doing. It wasn’t until dessert was served that he got to the point of why he’d wanted to meet for dinner.
“I know you asked your father for assistance on this crap you’re dealing with in the Society,” he said cautiously, keeping his voice low to avoid being overheard.
Royce stiffened in his seat. “You know I can’t discuss that with you.”
“I’m not asking you to,” Henry smoothly responded. “But I’m letting you know that I’ve taken liberties to monitor what’s going on in those circles, just in case the relevant information isn’t making its way back to you.”
I pursed my lips, more than happy to stay silent on this subject. I wasn’t up on all the rules with the DBs, but it was pretty obvious they didn’t want us talking to “outsiders,” and even Royce’s deadbeat dad was borderline.
“Okay. What do we need to know?” Royce asked with an edge of curiosity as he cracked the top of his crème br?lée.
Henry inhaled slowly, glancing at me as if to include me in the conversation.
“Jocelyn’s entire project has been shut down, and the data is being systematically destroyed.
The governing bodies want to erase any proof that they have been fucking around with mind control.
Additionally, after the fatalities last weekend, a warrant has been issued for her arrest.”
“That seems like good news, isn’t it?” I asked in a whisper.
Royce shook his head, scowling. “No…it’s not, is it?”
Henry grimaced, leaning forward with his elbows on the table.
“She has nothing to lose right now. If they arrest her, she’s facing multiple life sentences.
Based on everything I’m hearing, she’s also trying to erase any proof that might be held against her in a court case, which includes her test subjects. ”
“I think we already knew this,” Royce muttered with a frustrated groan. “There was an incident earlier this week that the Colonel doesn’t know about. Ashley was nearly murdered as an example for us, to keep us quiet.”
Henry’s brows shot up as he looked between us. “Why does no one know about this? I imagine if you’re all here and whole, there must have been…cleanup needed?” It was delicately worded, and that made me smile.
“It was handled internally.” Royce was no less delicate, but Henry frowned with his whole face. His dislike for the DBs was unmistakable, but in this circumstance, he couldn’t say much.
He eventually gave a worried sort of nod and sat back in his seat. “I trust that you and the guys know what you’re doing here, Royce. Don’t make a fool of me for that trust. For the love of your mother, kid, don’t get killed.”
Royce shook his head with a cocky grin. “Please. We’ve lasted this long. It’d be a pretty anticlimactic ending if we all died now, right?”
Henry rolled his eyes, gesturing to the waiter for our check. “I’ll hold you to that. Ashley, it was a pleasure to meet you. Katie told me how pretty you were, but she didn’t do your beauty any real justice.”
“Fuck off.” Royce glowered, and Henry barked a laugh.
We bid him a quick farewell, then drove home in relative silence.
The guys were all doing a late–night gym session—including Carter, who’d already been, which I guessed that made sense, considering how jacked his body was—but Royce opted to snuggle with me in his bed instead, which I wasn’t mad about.
Sometimes it was nice to just lie in his arms and talk about light subjects, like where we wanted to travel one day and what sights were on our bucket list.
Not shockingly, Royce’s dream list was full of insane shit that could easily get him killed.
“You have all the money to do everything you could ever want,” I murmured, sleepy enough that my eyes were already shut. “How come you haven’t done any of those things yet?”
He gave a small sigh, his arms tightening around me. “Because I never wanted to do them alone. I want to share the experience, share the joy, with someone I love.”
A sleepy chuckle bubbled out of me. “Does that mean I’m jumping out of a plane with you sometime soon?”
“I guess that depends, Squirrel. Do you love me?” He whispered it teasingly, not really expecting a response, but why the hell not? I needed to stop being so fucking scared of my own emotions.
Cracking my eyes open, I lifted my head from his chest just enough to meet his eyes. “I do love you, Royce. Enough to jump out of a plane just to see you sparkle.” He seemed almost shocked that I’d finally said it, so I just smiled and settled my head back on his chest with a yawn. “Good night.”
“Sweet dreams, Squirrel,” he whispered back, his voice hoarse.
As always when I shared a bed with Royce, I woke up early the next morning all tangled up around him like he was my personal comfort blanket. He was always awake first, but usually waited for me to wake before mauling me for an early-morning session.
This time, though, he seemed to be waiting for me to wake for something else entirely.
“Get up,” he urged me when I groaned and stretched sleepily. “I have a surprise for you arriving soon. Go shower. I’ll make you coffee.”
“Mmm, what’s the rush? Can’t we stay in bed a little longer? I don’t have a job anymore, remember?” I tried to grab his hand as he slithered out from under the covers, but he was a man on a mission for some reason.
Right when I thought he’d leave me to go back to sleep, the blankets were abruptly ripped away and his palm slapped my ass. “Get up, sleeping beauty. I promise it’ll be worthwhile.”
Well, shit, I was awake now . Grumbling under my breath, I crawled out of bed and made my way back to my own room to shower. Carter was fast asleep in my bed—technically his bed—so I tiptoed past him to grab my clean clothes and freshen up.
Surprisingly, he was still out cold when I finished and quietly slipped out of the room in search of coffee. Unsurprisingly, Nate was running the coffee machine in the kitchen while Royce leaned against the counter and scrolled on his phone.
“What time did you guys come in last night?” I asked as I finger-combed my wet hair into a ponytail. “Carter is sleeping like the dead.”
Nate grinned and shrugged. “We weren’t that late, but I heard him move into your room around three in the morning, muttering about Lady farting too much. Someone fed her eggs yesterday.”
Royce looked up from his phone with wide eyes. “Not me. Must have been Heath.”
“Aw, poor puppy,” I laughed, heading over to where the mutt had just woken up and was watching us with her tail wagging. I sat on the floor beside her doggy bed and scratched her ears. “Has Carter thought any more about what Mrs. Brown offered?”
The woman from downstairs that often dog-sat for Lady during our weekends away had offered to take her in as more of a permanent arrangement, since we were gone from town almost every other weekend. It was a lot.
“Yeah, he’s going to take her up on it. At least for the time being, while everything is so…
volatile.” Nate said that with a grimace, rubbing the back of his neck.
“As much as he loves the stinky dog, it’s not fair that she misses walkies when we’re tied up with classes and DBS and… you know, serial-killer mothers.”
I agreed, but shit, it was sad. “He’s right, you know?” I told the pup as I scratched her ears. “Mrs. Brown always takes such good care of you too. Carter’s gonna miss you, though.”
Royce’s phone dinged in his hand, and he straightened up with excitement. “It’s here! Come on, Squirrel. We’ve gotta go downstairs.”
Confused, I glanced at Nate in question, but he just yawned and continued making coffee like he wasn’t the slightest bit interested in whatever Royce was buzzing about. With no hints, I hopped up, stuffed my feet into some shoes, and let Royce badger me out of the apartment.
“Not ground floor?” I asked when he stabbed the button for the parking level. “Are we going somewhere?”
He just smiled and said nothing. I scowled and folded my arms in irritation because I didn’t like surprises. But I also knew Royce well enough to know he wasn’t going to crack if he was set on this.
We reached the parking level and stepped out, then he grabbed me and whirled me into his arms with a sly smile on his lips. “Hey, remember last night?” he murmured as he dipped his head to kiss me sweetly. “Remember what you said?”
Butterflies erupted in my chest. “I said that I love you,” I replied with a smile of my own. “And I meant it.”
He gave a low groan, kissing me harder before reluctantly pulling away. “Good. Because I love you too, Squirrel. So I got you something, and you can’t decline it because that’d be super offensive.”
Without waiting for me to argue that point, he spun me around by my shoulders to face the line of cars once more.
It took me a minute to work out what he was trying to show me.
There was his Chiron, Nate’s truck, Carter’s Koenigsegg, with Heath’s bike tucked in beside.
Then in the last space, the one I used to use, there was an unfamiliar car.
For a moment, I wondered if someone had parked in my space…but then the pieces clicked in my brain and I rushed forward with a gasp. “Is this mine?” I squealed in shock. “Royce! It’s…it’s…”
“It’s yours,” he said firmly. “Because I crashed your Firebird, so this is the least I could do.”
Tears welled up in my eyes as I ran my fingertips over the shiny silver-blue paint of the 1971 Plymouth Hemi ’Cuda Convertible. “Royce, how—? There’s only twelve of these ever made; this must have cost a fortune! I can’t?—”
“You can. Besides, it didn’t cost that much.” He grinned, like he was laughing at a private joke. “Nothing I wasn’t willing to do for a lot less, anyway.”
Overwhelmed didn’t even begin to touch on what was rushing through my body, so I did the only thing I could logically do. I launched myself into his arms like a fucking spider monkey and started kissing his face all over.