by R. S. Lively
“When?” my father chokes, not even looking at me.
“Three days from now.”
“Three days! Three? You expect me to agree to this? I’ve had thirty-five years and you expect me to say goodbye to her in three?” The king’s face is angry, but more than anything, fear shows.
“It isn’t up to you, is it?” my mother’s sickly voice wobbles from the bed.
“Don’t do this. You could have months left. I need you. I need you with me.” My father falls on his knees next to her. My father kneels for no one. It just goes to show how much power my mother really has. It looks like he has kneeled a lot of the past few days from the look on his face and the worn indents in the wood floor.
“Or I could have years left. I could have forever with you.”
“If you survived it.”
“Oh, this is the same thing every day, Amour. When will you understand that I’m dying? I’m going to die if I don’t get this, and I’m just going to suffer along the way. What you are doing is selfish.”
“I’m not ready to lose you.”
Rosie backs away from the bed until she is at my side. I know the feeling she must be experiencing. She feels like an intruder. “I’ll come by later with more details,” I say, placing my hand on Rosie’s lower back and steering her toward the door.
“Wait a minute. I want to get to know this lovely woman that has my son all up in tangles.”
“You knew?” I ask, flipping over the last few days in my mind to see if I told her anything about Rosie. I haven’t, because every time I came up here to tell her, something else happened.
“Well, no, but I do now. Plus, Marcel filled us in on the intrusion,” she coughs. “I’m so sorry that happened to you, dear.”
“I should have listened to Luca from the beginning about Kimmel. If I would have listened, that wouldn’t have happened to you,” the king admits, which is very rare.
Rosie clears her throat, her cheeks red from being center of attention. “I don’t think it would have mattered. He seems to have always had his sights set on me. I would rather it happen here than back home in the States.”
My heart sinks when she refers to America as her home and not here with me. Maybe it’s just a slip of the tongue. I know how she feels about me, and America has been her home since the day she was born. It will take some adjusting to Belgium being the new place that she can call hers.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Why would you work for a man like that? Come sit. I want to know more about you.” My mother gestures her skeletal hand in a come-hither motion and Rosie sits on the edge of the bed, looking at me to see if she this is what she is supposed to be doing.
“There isn’t much to know. I needed a job. My father died and left everything to my stepmother, so I didn’t have much. It sounds silly complaining about it, but I had to drop out of school, and since I never had a job, I was desperate for anything. She kicked me and my brother out, and the rest is history. I stayed at Kimmel because I had to. No one else would hire me.”
My mother squeezes Rosie’s hands and looks at her in sympathy. “That’s right. You are Caldwell’s daughter. He was a very wealthy man. And you didn’t hire a lawyer to have that will investigated?”
“Here we go,” my father grumbles under his breath.
“My mother used to be a lawyer,” I chime in, giving Dad a scathing look. He never liked it when she practiced law, and I never understood why.
“I can’t afford a lawyer. I have to accept what is and move on with my life, which is what I am doing.”
Rosie’s defenses start to go. She feels like she’s being attacked. I can see it all over her face.
“I didn’t mean to insult or insinuate anything. I understand. I just find it odd that your father wouldn’t have left anything to you. Do you have his original will?”
“No, but I can get a copy for you if you like.”
“Please.” My mother wheezes and leans her head back against the pillow, shutting her eyes. “I’m tired.”
“Okay, Mother. Thanks for talking with us.” I bend down and kiss her cold forehead and take Rosie’s hand, helping her up off the bed.
“I wish I could talk more. Maybe later. I just need a nap,” she mumbles under her breath and shuts her eyes, falling into an immediate sleep.
The king walks us to the door again and opens it. “Still no luck on the person who broke into her room?”
“No, nothing.” I clutch her hand tighter, hating that I wasn’t there for that.
“Keep me updated. I want to know where our system failed. I’m sorry that your stay here has been stressful.” My father turns his gaze to Rosie, the dark circles aging his eyes a few years.
“It hasn’t been all bad.” She tilts her head up at me, stretching the smooth column of her neck as she bats those long lashes at me.
I’m hungry for her.
“My son pined over you for months.”
“Father!” I hiss, trying not to sound like a petulant child.
“It’s true. He sulked around and never wanted to do anything. I wondered if he was a teenager again. Worst years of my life, by the way,” he adds.
I nod. “Thanks for that, Father. I’m sure that will win her over in no time.”
“I’m sure that is something you don’t need to worry about.” He shoots her a wink, and when I look down to her face, that pink hue has taken over her cheeks.
“You’d be right, King Addington.”
My father doesn’t tell her to call him by his first name, unlike my mother. He is way more formal and insists on being called by his title. It makes sense. He holds a very high position of power—the highest. But sometimes it can be annoying. It puts a divide between the family. It’s another reason why I don’t feel as close to him as I do my mother.
I place my hand on the curve of her back, telling her quietly that it is time to go. “I’ll be in touch later about the surgery. I’ll arrange travel arrangements and make sure she is comfortable.”
My father grunts in response and shuts the door in our face. Knowing him and how much he cares for his wife, he is crawling into bed with her, like he has spent most of his days. I know he is about to pass the torch to me. Even if she survives the surgery, he will not want to be the king anymore. He will want to take my mother out and travel. For some reason, she has always wanted to go to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
It’s an odd thing to want, but once my father isn’t the king, he will take her and give her the riches of the world. That’s just how he is.
We head down the steps and Rosie sighs, like the weight of the world is on her shoulders. I want to take it away. I want to carry it on mine, so her footsteps aren’t as sluggish.
“What’s wrong, my sweet?” I spin her around when we get to the bottom of the steps only to find tears swimming in her eyes. “Hey, what’s going on? Talk to me.” I invade her space, stepping close until our feet touch.
She wipes her tears away, glancing away from me. Rosie shakes her head and stares down at the ground.
“Hey.” My finger pushes on her chin to tilt her head up, so she has to look at me. “It’s me and you. And I’m here for you whenever you want to talk.”
“I need to be alone,” she says, the words gutting me like a fish.
“You need to be away from me?” I ask. My hands hide away in my pant pockets, not knowing what to do. I rock on my heels, staring at the ground with shame. Is she already tired of me?
Her delicate fingers rub over the lapels of my jacket, wrapping around the material and tugging me toward her. She gives me a long, hard kiss. No tongue, no urgency. Just a kiss full of reassurance. “No. It’s me. I need time. I’ve had a lot happen, and I need some me time, I guess.”
I let out a huge breath and smile. I wrap my arms around her, and we start to dance, right there at the bottom of the stairs. “How about you go for a spa day? Hair, nails, toes, massage, facial, or whatever it is you women do. All I ask is that I go with you. I will give
you space. I’ll even stay in the waiting room, but I can’t leave you alone. Not with him still out there. Or I can bring the spa to you?” I plea with her, hoping she will say yes.
“I would actually love it if there was a spa in the castle. I don’t want to go outside of the walls yet. Everything you said for a spa day sounds perfect.”
I kiss her, showing her how much I appreciate her compromise. “Anything for my sweet little fox.”
“You’re going to have to tell me why you call me a fox.”
“Maybe one day.” I wink at her and the flush deepens, traveling down her neck, disappearing down her neck and under her shirt.
When we start walking back to the chambers, her phone rings, and she slides it out of her back pocket, allowing me to slip my hand in there. That’s better.
“Hey, Jesse,” she greets with a smile, but it falters, a look of pure fear taking over her features.
Life knows how to throw a wicked curveball, that’s for sure.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Rosie
“Jesse, calm down. What’s going on?” I can’t understand what he is saying. He is talking too fast and the sentences he’s trying to form don’t make sense. “Breathe, Jesse. Take a few breaths.”
“Rosie, Tabitha came by the apartment. She came all the way to New York City just for a five-minute visit, nothing that couldn’t be said over the phone. She is planning something, Rosie,” he says with wild gasps.
“What? What did she want? We haven’t heard from her in months.”
“She said that she changed her mind about me. She said that she never should have kicked me out with you. She wants me back. And she said I would never have to worry about money ever again as long as I do what she says. Rosie, I don’t want to go back. Don’t make me go back. She had this look in her eyes though, like she would do whatever it takes to get me. I don’t understand it. I’m eighteen in a few months. I’ll be able to do what I want. I don’t see why she cares. Fuck! I hate being an underage kid that people can control. It’s such bullshit.”
I usually correct him with his language, but given the circumstances, I’m going to let it slide. “She isn’t going to do anything. We are going to figure this out, okay? I’m coming home. We will go somewhere. I don’t care where. You aren’t going back to that house.”
“And just run?”
My heart thumps in my chest as I stare in the eyes of the man I love, not wanting to really answer Jesse, but he is counting on me. “And just run. I won’t let her get her hands on you. She is just going to use you. She wants nothing to do with you. You know that house, it’s just full of hate.”
“What about your business trip?” he asks. “Aren’t you still in Belgium?”
“That’s a long story.”
“Can’t wait to hear about it,” he says with a forced laugh.
“Okay, is there anywhere else you can go until I get home?” I glance at my wristwatch and scoff. It doesn’t matter about the time. I won’t be home for another ten hours, and that’s if I left right now.
He sighs, and it creates static in the microphone. “Yeah, I can crash at the diner. There’s a cot in the back. If I work, my boss won’t mind if I stay there.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah, he told me before. I work tonight, anyway. So, it’s good timing.”
I shake my head and squeeze Luca’s hand with fright. “Nothing about this is good.” I know if she gets her hands on him and he gets to that house, I’ll never see him again. And Tabitha and my father took my brother away from me long enough—I won’t allow it anymore. I refuse to let my only family left be controlled by someone who isn’t. “I won’t let her come near you. I’m going to get ready now. Okay? I can leave a few days earlier than Luca and I planned.”
“Luca? Who’s Luca?”
I roll my eyes when his voice deepens to ‘protective brother.’ “He is someone very important to me.” Luca kisses my forehead and rubs my back with one of his large hands.
“Okay. I can’t wait to meet him. Will he be coming with you?”
“I don’t know. I’ll call you when I leave, okay?”
“Okay, sis. And thanks. I love you; you know.”
“I love you too, Jesse.” I click the red button to end the call and stare at the device longer than necessary. Did that conversation just happen? What is it with Tabitha wanting him? He serves no purpose for her. There has to be something else I’m missing.
“What was that about? What’s causing you to want to leave me?” Luca says, tracing over the ridge of my knuckles with his fingertips and flipping my hand over to traces the lines in my palm. He doesn’t meet my eyes, and I know why—he doesn’t want me to see the ache in his eyes.
“I never want to leave you, Luca. Ever. My brother needs me, though. Tabitha, my stepmother, visited him in the apartment, saying she wants him back in the house. Making false promises to him.”
“Aren’t you his legal guardian, though?” Luca asks.
“I think so? I really don’t know, but he is underage for a few more months, so I need to do everything I can to make sure he stays with me. I can’t lose him too. He is the only family I have left.”
“That’s not true.” Luca frames my face with his hands, burning his eyes into mine. “You have me. You have my family. We won’t let her take him. We are much more powerful than she is.”
“Don’t underestimate her, Luca. She is a terrible person. She will stop at nothing if it means getting what she wants, and if she wants him…” I trail off, unable to finish my sentence.
“Did you forget that I’m royalty? She can’t win.”
“Don’t be so surprised,” I say. I’m not doubting him. I know her, though; she is more powerful than anyone thinks.
“I think you’re underestimating me, silly little fox of mine.”
“What am I going to do, Luca?”
“You mean, what are we going to do? You need to remember you aren’t alone anymore. You’ll never have to go through something like this again by yourself.” He reaches into his pocket and takes out his phone, texting someone. His fingers fly across the keypad until it dings and he shoves it back in his pocket. “Okay, everything is ready. We leave in three hours with my mother.”
He begins to walk, but my feet plant firmly on the ground. When I don’t move as he pulls, Luca comes back, waiting for me to say something. Words fail me though. It takes me a minute to think about what I want to say. “Already? How did you get everything situated that quick? We need plan tickets, for everyone. How?”
“We have our own plane. I messaged our pilot.”
“And he just happened to be available?”
“Rosie, everyone is available when you’re royalty.”
He makes a valid point.
“Right. You’d think I’d get that little piece of information after staying in a castle and stuff.”
“I don’t expect you to truly adjust in less than a week. I’ve had my entire life to live like this. It will take time, but it’s time that I get to be with you, so I’m thankful to be able to show you my way.”
How did I end up with a man like Luca? A man so kind, generous and protective. I don’t know where I fit in his life. I’m just a girl. A plain, ordinary girl with no money, and he has riches upon riches, and a throne to take when his father deems fit. How can I be worthy of the life he leads?
“Don’t do that.”
I avert my eyes, casting them to the floor. “Don’t do what?”
“Doubt this. Doubt us.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I see it in your eyes, Rosie. Your eyes speak when you don’t or can’t. I know what you’re saying. And right now, you are doubting us, and I don’t like it.”
“It’s hard not to. I mean look at all this.” I wave my hand around the castle, trying to open his eyes at the reality of this situation. “I live in an apartment on the not-so-great side of New York City. I come from a
crap family. A family that doesn’t love me. If they don’t, why would—”
He cuts me off by pushing his index finger against my lips, silencing me. “Don’t finish that sentence. Ever. Do you understand me?” The hard, angry look he gives makes me gulp. “You have everyone you need in your life that matters. You have me, your brother, and right now it may not seem like it, but you have Alice. It isn’t about quantity, my sweet. It’s about quality. And not to brag, but I’m pretty great,” he chuckles, giving me a sly smile that brings out my own.
“You’re more than great,” I say, sliding my hands around his hips until my palms flatten against the curve of his ass. “You’re perfect,” I drop my observation to his wide chest. I know what it looks like bare, and it makes me giddy.
“You’re thinking dirty thoughts,” he says, taking another step closer to me.
“I am not.” Oh, but I really am.
“You are. Your nipples are hard, and you have more color to your cheeks. You’re thinking of something.”
“Whatever I am thinking has nothing to do with you,” I say indefinitely, keeping my chin up and back straight. I’m not going to let his hungry gaze get to me like it always does.
“Sure, sure. I just bet it doesn’t.” He swipes a hand over his mouth, giving me a cheeky side eye.
“We don’t have time for this.” I shake my head out of the fog he always gets me in. He has to be a wizard of some sort for me to always lose my train of thought. I shove his shoulder playfully and go to the corridor.
The stone beneath my feet is cold, and I wish I would have worn socks. I turn left and then right and stop. I don’t know where I’m at.
“You look like a lost little fox,” Luca says behind me.
My hair fans as I turn around to see him a few feet back, running his hands along the historical walls of the castle. His arms are spread, reminding me of wings. “I’m not lost. Just turned around. I can find my way.”
