CHAPTER FIFTEEN #3
At one AM, Lachlan makes his case for Mimi without saying a word.
As he follows nearby, he makes sure to veer closer to women, smiling at them in a friendly way.
Their attention is quickly drawn to Mimi.
They coo and fuss over her, stroking her hair and Lachlan resists the urge to make their bones go crunch for the audacity because it pays off moments later.
‘Alistair,’ one of them chides playfully, ‘let your little girl go to bed. She’s tuckered out, look at her.’
The old man feigns ignorance, laughing happily. ‘Oh, of course. Goodnight, my darling girl.’ He kisses her cheek and then, much more quietly, tells Lachlan to escort her personally to her room, no handover.
Lachlan tries to be quick.
‘Control, this is Kestrel. I’m escorting Shimmer to Echo Bay. Keep eyes on Cascade. Repeat, eyes on Cascade.’
‘Heard, Kestrel. Eyes on.’
Lachlan tucks Mimi in her bed, grateful she has Blaire to stay in the room with her and then assigns four people to the Cove before he hurries back.
Thus far, the East Wing is contained and untouched.
When he returns to the ballroom, Lachlan scans thoroughly for Jules.
He’d know that boy’s dark auburn hair anywhere, but Jules isn’t in his line of sight.
‘Control, give me a location on Cascade,’ he demands, already irritated, waiting for a response with a degree of impatience he rarely feels.
‘Kestrel, be advised Cascade is in the restroom.’
The private restroom he previously allocated for Jules was expressly forbidden by Alistair. There are four main restrooms.
‘Which one?’
‘East side, near service.’
‘Heard.’
By the time he gets there, Jules is coming out.
‘You OK?’ Lachlan asks, gaze raking over him. ‘Jules, are you—?’
‘I’m fine. I have to get back.’
Without Mimi, Lachlan can effectively shadow Jules from now on.
Around three in the morning, Lachlan very politely guides a woman away because she was trying to kiss Jules’ neck while hugging him. At four in the morning, Jules uses the restroom and Lachlan follows him inside, ignoring the looks from everyone else.
He’s not taking any chances.
Routinely, he checks in with Control, who confirm all quiet and safe in Echo Bay, but Lachlan can’t relax, won’t take own his eyes off Jules for a second.
Dawn eventually breaks and people trickle off to their guest rooms, but a small group of what Lachlan recognises as the elite few move to a luxuriously appointed greenhouse with Alistair while rain pours overhead.
Jules is brought along, so Lachlan goes too.
Ariadne Alderwyck and Mikhail Sorrenko seem especially comfortable with Alistair, more so than Richard Vale or Thomas Whitlock, who nonetheless get to enjoy this select circle of company.
As they settle into comfortable chairs, Ariadne kicks off her shoes and asks Mikhail, ‘When is Roman arriving?’
‘He will come with Vasily tomorrow.’
‘You’re bringing the little one too?’
Mikhail shrugs. ‘It will be good for him to socialise.’
‘I’ve not seen your boys for years, Mikki,’ Alistair comments softly, staring up at the rain while it falls on glass. ‘Have you been hiding them from us?’
‘I like to keep them busy and teach them what I can myself.’
‘And what do you teach them?’ Vale asks, mimicking Alistair’s tone and pace but on him, it comes across idiotic.
Mikhail doesn’t even look at Vale when he replies, ‘Business.’
‘What business is there so far from the beating heart of the world?’
Whitlock snickers. ‘Maybe he’s hunting Paranaturals in the wild.’
When a dedicated server comes inside the greenhouse to ask what he can bring for everyone, it’s no surprise that Vale and Whitlock order four bottles of champagne. Alistair requests bottles of sparkling water.
Ariadne, on the other hand, wants something else.
‘Bring a tray of white.’ She looks at Alistair, rolling her eyes.
‘God, but I forget how dull you two are sometimes. Your son still remembers to have fun, I bet.’ She looks at Jules, who ordered nothing.
The drinks arrive alongside a small silver tray with pre-cut lines of cocaine.
The server leaves it on the table when given a nod by Alistair to leave.
‘Here we are. Can your pretty boy have some, Alistair?’ she asks, stroking the back of Julian’s neck.
The old man parts his lips to speak, but Lachlan beats him to it.
‘He’s allergic,’ Lachlan flat out lies. No apology, it’s better just to say it and give Alistair the opportunity to style it out, which of course he does.
‘See what real money can buy you, Ari? Nicely caught, Lachlan.’
Lachlan might well be lashed for this, who knows?
But he doesn’t fucking care.
Jules is eighteen.
The last thing on earth he needs is a drug dependency.
For his part, Jules remains responsive to the attention he’s given, and he completely ignores Lachlan as the conversation between the elite drifts back to rhetoric about Paranaturals and politics.
‘Once we imprint the connection between the vanishing middle class and population spikes tied to Paranatural birth rates, we can—’
Mikhail interrupts Whitlock with open disdain. ‘You never learn, do you? Same tricks over and over. Class consciousness is rising higher this time around, with neurodivergence rates skyrocketing to support it. This approach is arrogant and lazy. Pattern recognition is the death of every disguise.’
Whitlock snorts. ‘The Delacroix twins would disagree with you.’
‘They always do.’
Alistair smiles at Mikhail Sorrenko with a strange degree of indulgent affection. ‘You still cling to this ideology, Mikki? It is the same cycle over and over. Only the scenery changes. We know this.’
‘Cycles can be broken.’
‘I’ve yet to see it happen.’
Ariadne does another line. ‘So fucking boring,’ she drones, turning her attention to Jules.
Lachlan tightens in anticipation. ‘Pretty boy, look at you. Promise me you won’t end up like him?
’ She giggles to herself and then cups his chin, gaze sliding to the wall Lachlan is posted against. ‘Do you like him?’ she asks, slower, curiously contemplative. ‘Your bodyguard.’
‘He’s fine,’ Jules answers blandly, taking a drink.
‘Fine? Don’t be bashful, angel. He’s gorgeous, just look at him. Alistair, you’re not limiting your son’s preference, are you? All men should fuck a man before they hit twenty. It builds character.’
‘The age is new and full of wonders,’ Alistair drawls softly. Lachlan couldn’t assign an emotion to him if his life depended on it.
‘Bodyguard,’ Ariadne calls out, clicking her fingers at him. ‘What’s your name, sweet thing?’
‘Lachlan Tanner, ma’am,’ he answers politely, checking in on the radio two minutes early to seem busy. ‘Control, this is Kestrel. Give me Echo Bay checks with eyes on Shimmer.’
‘Eight bells, Kestrel. Eyes on.’
‘Heard.’
‘Ooh, Kestrel. That’s a slutty codename,’ she chuckles, eyes wide, pupils minuscule. ‘Julian, do you think he’s handsome?’
Jules takes another sip. ‘No.’