25. Liv
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
LIV
F or the first time in my life, I don’t see the parade, though I had the best seats. There’s no party later. The upper echelons of Anderia likely hate my guts now, because Callum cancels his orgy at the last minute for my sake.
It’s not until the next day that I realize what the dread coiling in my stomach is about.
Callum’s clean-up crew wiped away the incident like it never existed. There’s no report of death by knife on the news. No policeman comes to question either of us.
But someone did know the thug was coming after me today. Someone who would kick up a fuss, if only to get my attention. Blackmail me with the information.
He sent him. He sent that guy, no doubt telling him to hurt me if I didn’t comply. And maybe after I complied too, to make sure I stayed in line the next time he texted.
“My father is a problem.”
My voice is so broken. I don’t think I’ve talked all night, and most of the morning.
Callum has stayed glued to my side. He’s pulled me on his lap now, and is feeding me grapes I wouldn’t eat if he weren’t shoving them right into my mouth.
“I know,” he replies simply.
My eyes meet his, now gray and cold, as they get sometimes. I’ve always found it hot—the way they can turn to ice. Now I understand it.
He knew exactly how to kill. Quickly. Efficiently. Like someone who’d done it before.
“You’re going to kill him?” I ask.
He presses a fruit to my lips. I part them obediently.
“I don’t have to, love. He wants cash. I’ll give it to him.”
My stomach drops; that’s the last thing I want. Dad doesn’t deserve a reward for…well, anything he’s done my entire life, and certainly not yesterday.
“A substantial amount that can turn his life around, attached to a laundry list of conditions in an ironclad contract. First of all, he’ll have to leave the country.”
That’s a start, but he wasn’t there last night. He still found a way to get to me. What’s to stop him from doing it again?
I make myself nod. It’s not like I can ask Callum to kill someone else for me. He was right anyway; it was self-defense—or my defense—with my aggressor. If he went to my father with the deliberate intention to kill him, it’d be an entirely different story altogether.
I can’t ask. So I don’t.
“I’m sorry you had to live through that. I thought…” He sighs. “Foolish of me, but I believed that while we were just dating, you didn’t need a security detail. You don’t have enough money, or a rank, to make you a person of interest to the wrong crowd. I never considered this. You’ll have a security detail starting tomorrow.”
Some of my dread fades.
If someone had told me before yesterday that I’d want someone to follow me around, I would have rolled my eyes so hard. But right now, it sounds amazing.
“I will?”
“Of course. No one is hurting you but me,” Callum promises, holding me tight against his chest.
I lower my head to his shoulder and let him.
I don’t try to go out for the rest of the weekend. On Monday, I have to force myself to leave the safety of the penthouse.
I know Callum drew up the fifty-nine-page long contract over the weekend, and brought it to my father’s attention. The asshole was only too quick to accept, of course.
He’s going to get a million euros by the end of the business day; the likelihood that he’ll come after me right now is low.
But after he blows the money, that’s another story.
I make myself go to class.
By December, I don’t even flinch when I hear loud noises.
I’m good. Everything is good. Manageable.
The next time Cal asks me to move in, I accept eagerly. I rarely ever leave the apartment, anyway.
“Would you like to see someone about the attack?” Callum offers. “I…my cousin and I—we’ve been trained to expect that sort of thing since childhood. Kidnapping, attempted murder. There are people who don’t like the fact that aristocracy exists. Besides, we’re filthy rich. So we’re prepared. I know it came as a shock to you.”
As usual, he knows exactly what I need.
I go to therapy, which helps a bit.
But nothing entirely removes my newfound anxiety until Christmas Day comes, bringing many gifts, including one I never would have expected.