CHAPTER 6 #4
The light from the windows was starting to burn his eyes. All he wanted was to crawl back into bed and sleep until nightfall. Unfortunately, he had a press release to attend to. He managed to find a dark alcove and pulled out his phone.
No messages from Dani. He felt physically sick, thinking about what he was about to do.
Which was ridiculous. There was nothing between them.
Not really. While there was… attraction there, he barely knew her.
Any pull he was feeling towards her was likely also being driven by the inescapable dread at the thought of having his future signed away in a marriage contract to a woman he detested.
That and a bit of passing bloodlust was making him crazy with desire for her now that he could taste her in his veins, smell her on his skin. Nothing more.
Quickly, he typed.
Alex: I can’t see you again. Something has come up. You’ll probably see the announcement in a little while.
He waited, staring at the screen in the hopes that the trio of dots might start to blink, indicating she’d read his message and was writing back. But when a minute passed, then two, and the message remained unread, he slumped back against the wall.
I’m sorry, he started to type, before quickly deleting it.
No, he couldn’t send that.
It would only make her wonder, only invite a response. Dante had been harsh, but in the end he was correct. Any contact between him and Dani had to end, for her safety, and for that of her sisters.
Shoving his phone in his pocket, he headed upstairs to get ready for the press briefing.
By the time Lara Cavalieri’s press team had finished revising the statement, and her hair and makeup team had finished making demands that the announcement be moved to a different room, the lighting be given a glow up, and that Alex change into a different outfit because apparently the brown sweater he had on made him look dour, it was close to dusk.
“I’m so excited that we’re doing this,” Lara gushed, reaching over to press cold fingertips to his arm.
“It’s wonderful, isn’t it?” He smiled tightly, resisting the urge to recoil.
Lara’s team had dressed her in a delicate white silk blouse with a draped bow at the neck, paired with slim dark slacks and kitten heels.
Her dark hair had been blown out and curled so that it fell in loose waves nearly to her waist. They’d applied the barest hint of blush and powder to her cheeks.
The intent was obvious, positioning her as wholesome and innocent, the future princess standing at his side.
It was a sharp contrast to the tabloid pictures of Dani kneeling at his feet in a torn red dress that barely covered her nakedness, the poor human girl from the worst slums of the sector who’d gone to the auction house to sell herself to buy medicine.
“Of course, we’ll want to make an in-person visit to one of the local hospitals, perhaps next week,” Lara continued.
“Fine,” he said absently, cracking his wrist. He examined a dark bruise that was forming, and remembered Henri’s hockey stick making contact earlier during a particularly hard check. He’d have to get some ice when they were done with their little charade.
“Your brother is a doctor, isn’t he?”
“He’s a nurse.”
“Well, that’s even better,” Lara said brightly. “All those sick children will make for a good photo op.”
Alex pinched the bridge of his nose, unsure how he was going to get through this press conference, let alone the rest of this month.
He thought of the rest of his life, forced to listen to Lara every morning over breakfast, exclaiming cheerfully about how fortunate it was there were so many sick children in the sector to make her pictures turn out nicely, and understood why so many of his relatives had turned to drink.
He turned to her. “His hospital desperately needs the medications your father has been refusing to produce for the past two years. You’ll get your photo op, but I’ll be providing you with a list of every drug they need ahead of time, and I won’t be showing up until I have confirmation they’ve been stocked. ”
Her nostrils flared. “Is that a threat?”
He smiled coldly. “Just so we understand each other.”
“Your Highness?” Henri cleared his throat. “We’re ready to start.”
Alex took his place beside Lara. The lights burned into his eyes as he struggled to read from the teleprompter.
They were making the announcement live. After his third mistake in two lines, Lara swiftly stepped in.
Speaking in a soft, honeyed voice, she spoke of how thrilled they both were to be supporting all the vulnerable children of the sector, that this cause was so important to her and Alex, especially at Christmas.
He would have rolled his eyes if he wasn’t having so much trouble remaining upright.
Lara paused, and he realized it was down to the final section, which he was supposed to read. Clearing his throat, he squinted at the screen. Black spots obscured his visual field, blocking out half the words.
“Um,” he croaked. “I need to—"
That was when the first explosions rocked the capital.
Beside him, Lara screamed.
It was the last thing he heard before the world went black.