by Eden O'Neill
I’d driven some really nice cars, but his Mercedes would be an even greater level. My sister’s Range Rover ran some digits, but his Mercedes Benz was easily well, well over six figures. I’d be more intimidated by that if I didn’t want to get this done. Ramses told me he didn’t need anything else, and after pointing out his keys, he lay back down. I got my coat zipped up the rest of the way, then stopped at the door.
“Where am I going by chance?” I asked, tapping on my phone to prepare looking up directions. I was almost out of a phone last night too, thanks to him. I’d found it in the woods only after we found him.
Ramses put a towel over his eyes like a diva. We’d dampened a few for him last night. He burrowed into his bedding. “Prinze Jewelers. It’s down on Main Street. Can’t miss it unless you’re an idiot.”
He eyed me when he lifted the edge of the mask, and I flipped him off. I started to ask him about the name of the place before I left but I wasn’t an idiot. Royal’s family obviously was in more than the veterinarian business.
Hell, it wouldn’t surprise me if they owned the damn town.
Eight
December
Ramses’ car was a stick shift, and I killed it about seven times on the way to downtown. The last time I’d been behind the wheel of a stick shift was literally when I learned to drive on my aunt’s old Cutlass.
I managed to get the thing in a parking spot, and after hitting the key fob a few times, I got it locked too. The issue was the car kept unlocking itself every time I got the fob anywhere remotely close to the door. I’d call the thing a piece of shit except for the fact that I was mad at it for being smarter than clearly I was.
Huffing, I got myself out of the street and up to the jewelry store, which stood alone between a couple mini malls. It was like Prinze Jewelers was its own display, the shops around a fair distance away. Glass windows displayed shining jewels, and when I opened the door, a ping chimed my arrival. I got the attention of about three people, all staff, and the one in the center holding up a diamond necklace the Queen of England herself might faint for looked at me as well. This place was ritzy. This place was quiet, and I stood out like trash inside it. Mostly because everyone else wasn’t under the age of thirty, nor were they wearing any coats like it wasn’t cold outside.
“Can I help you, miss?” Mr. Holding-the-Queen’s-Jewels immediately asked me. I’d barely had time to set a foot inside the place before he was handing the necklace off to an associate and approaching me. “Are you looking for someone?”
I noticed real quick how he didn’t ask me if I was looking for something. In this town with all these richie rich kids, I definitely could have been here to spend mommy and daddy’s money. Since I wasn’t, I gave the guy the benefit of the doubt. I waltzed right up to him, flashing Ramses’ card.
“I’m here to pick up something for Ramses Mallick,” I exclaimed, more than a few eyes on me. I suddenly felt like a girl Friday retrieving something for my boss. I faced the guy in a suit. “A ring?”
Taking the card from me, the man stepped away and slid back behind the corner. Following him, I watched as he ran the card on some device.
His eyes widened. “There appears to be a mistake here. This is Mr. Mallick’s card, but you’re not Mr. Mallick.”
What gave it away? I rolled my eyes. “I know. He sent me.”
He eyed me, pursing his thin lips a little before placing the chrome card on the counter. “It’s not customary to give out other customers’ merchandise. Even with their buyer’s card.”
“I told you he sent me. You can call him, and he’ll tell you.”
He smiled a little. “Even still. It’s not customary.”
Completely over this, I pulled out my phone. I came all the way out here, and I wasn’t leaving without the damn ring.
“What up? You get the ring?” Ramses asked, chewing on something. It was a pretty loud something and almost sounded like popcorn.
Well, he must be feeling better.
I rolled my eyes again. “Yeah, so can you get this guy at the counter to give me your ring? He’s handling me and won’t let me get it without you.”
“Ah. Is it Benjamin?”
I eyed the guy behind the counter, his look curious as he watched me on the phone. The man had no nametag, but he looked like a Benjamin if I’d ever seen one. I explained what he looked like to Ramses and heard a smile in his voice when he responded.
“Give me to him,” he said in my ear, more of that crunching into the receiver, and I did, handing the phone over to “Benjamin.” From over the counter, I heard a lot of “yes, sir” and “no, sir.” Basically, there was a lot of kissing ass, and at the end of the call, Mr. Benjamin looked like he sucked a lemon.
Benjamin lowered his head. “I will have the piece for you in moments, and I apologize for the inconvenience, Ms. Lindquist.”
So I was Ms. Lindquist now? Feeling a little smug about that, I thanked him before putting the phone up to my ear. “Thanks.”
“No problem, ’Zona. See you when you get back. Call me if Benjamin gives you any more lip.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
Chuckling, he told me he’d see me later again, and after I hung up the phone, Benjamin returned with a black bag with a silver bow on the front. Out of it, he pulled a black box, presenting me a ring.
It was a Court ring all right, gorilla mouth and everything. Up until this moment, this all hadn’t really felt real but here was that reality right in front of me.
We really were doing this.
Once that ring was on Ramses’ finger, he was Court officially.
“I take it the piece is to your liking?” Benjamin stated, and after I nodded, he wrapped it up and returned it to the bag. He slid it over to me, swiping Ramses’ silver card right after. He started to give it back to me, but something on the screen gave him pause.
He held up a hand. “It seems Mr. Mallick has one more piece of merchandise. If you’d excuse me for a moment. It requires special handling.”
After handing me the card, he backed away, and I got my phone out again, prepared to give another call if this guy was trying to pull something. Spinning around, I decided to use the wait to look inside the cases, and look I did. There was easily enough precious metals in this place to purchase a town and maybe even had. Royal was clearly influential at school and why not his family the same? That all had to come from somewhere. I also remembered Birdie saying he and some of the guys had come from a few of the first families who founded the Court. He came from riches obviously.
“Benjamin tells me you’re here to pick up something from our vault for Ramses Mallick.”
I stared up from a jewelry case, my eyes widening at the man in the pinstripe suit before me. I’d only seen him twice, but both times he’d been cruel.
He’d hit his son the last time.
He’d done so right in front of me. Though he hadn’t known I was there at first. I wondered if he’d even resist knowing I was there. Royal’s dad hit him with so much force that day, enough to say he’d done it more than once.
I swallowed as the man came around the counter, came toward me, and he really did look like Royal, older but from the same gene pool nonetheless. Frankly, his dad looked like a slightly older Hemsworth if one of the brothers just so happened to be a dick.
My lips parted. “I just came for…”
“Access to our vault, which only I have access to.” Mr. Prinze put his hands together, staring down at me. “The client has asked for care for this particular piece of merchandise. Care, which requires only handling by the president. It was a good thing I was here today. I was just heading out to my office at the bank.”
Dear God, did he own the town’s banks too? And hell, did he work with my dad? I had no specifics about what my dad did, but I knew his job required work at the bank. The man very well could be my dad’s boss.
Well, that explains why Royal got anything he wants in Dad’s house.
Dad
had been hella submissive the one time I’d brought Royal over. At the time, Royal had claimed my dad simply didn’t have a problem with him. Maybe he couldn’t have a problem, too scared to.
I gripped Ramses’ bag, and for a hot second, I thought about saying I was good. No way did I want to be anywhere near a guy who hit his kid, but stepping back may show him his power over me, which was the opposite of what Ramses and I planned to achieve. He needed to know I didn’t feel threatened.
I lowered the bag to the side. “I appreciate the help, thank you.”
His eyes twitched a little like he was surprised I decided to let him help me, and why not? The last time he’d seen me, he’d basically thrown me out of Windsor House. He’d had no reason, of course, and at the time, I’d believed it had to do with whatever vendetta he had against Royal.
Without words, Mr. Prinze waved a hand forward, allowing me to go first. I did, but did look back. I noticed rather quickly Benjamin decided to stay up front with the rest of the customers.
Bastard leaves when I need him.
I would have liked to have that buffer, but since I clearly wasn’t going to get it, I went to the elevator with Mr. Prinze. He pushed a card inside once the metal doors closed, and a light flicked on to the lowest button. We were going to the lower levels.
Brilliant.
I could basically hear my heart beating in my ears, standing there and pretending I was okay. I had to pretend. I had to be brave.
You’re okay.
The doors opened up and I only breathed when Mr. Prinze stepped out of it. I followed him, the walls lined with little boxes with key holes. Out of his pocket, Mr. Prinze took a key and opened one that said 1451. Behind that number was a thumbprint pad, and after pressing his thumb down on the plate, a little door popped open. Inside, he pulled out a red box, thick but slender. It also had a key hole, gold around the mouth.
He presented the box to me without the key. “I didn’t know you were friends with Ramses Mallick. You must be very close for him to allow you to pick up such value for him.”
I took the box, a little weight in my hands. “No key?” I asked, deliberately ignoring what he said. Who I was friends with was no more his business than his own son’s.
His mouth righted a bit, a quaint smile on his face before closing both the thumbprint and key lock door. He returned the key to his pocket. “No key. You have everything you need.”
I nodded, sliding the red box into the bag. Mr. Prinze, on the other hand, put his hands behind his back.
“How you look so much like your sister,” he said, his smile rising just a bit higher. “I hope you’re staying out of trouble. My son has a way of corrupting people.”
I was sure, if that was the case, he’d only learned that from him, his statement completely bold.
As well as hurtful.
What happened to my sister was more than fresh, but not only did I not let what he said affect me, I stood tall. “I thank you for your help again.” It took all I had in me to say that.
The alternative was punching him in his goddamn face.
Nine
December
I ran into interception after returning Ramses’ car to the driveway, an interception that not only had my eyes widening but definitely gave pause to the guys I ran into. Three mini mountains came out of Ramses’ front door, all wearing coats and looking amped the hell up upon crossing the threshold. In the front was LJ, his blond locks pushed up into a man bun at the top of his head. He apparently had an undercut beneath all that hair, the back shaven, and seeing me, he pushed out a hand and halted the other two. The other two were Knight and Jax, Royal’s other two henchman.
Knight came forward. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you guys the same. Did you do something to Ramses?” I stalked up the steps toward the door, and breaking away from LJ, Knight stalked down, cutting me off. About probably two hundred pounds of thick and sizable male stood in front of me.
Knight snorted. “Did we do something to him? You gotta be joking.”
“I’m not.” I shoved him for good measure, and a hand crossed in front of us, LJ. He physically pulled us apart when he grabbed Knight by his puffer coat, tugging him away and making him walk down the Mallick household’s grand steps. LJ followed after him after that, shaking his head at me.
I stood the high ground, watching them go. When Jax started to move that way too, I frowned at him. “You guys have some nerve coming here. After what you did to him, what Royal had all you guys do to him? You have some nerve.”
I wanted to say more, so obviously having the floor here. Even Knight and LJ had stopped at the bottom of the steps. Jax crossed in front of me, though, and this time, he shook his head.
“If only you knew what the hell you were talking about, Lindquist,” he said, frowning too. “Maybe if you did, you’d—”
“Jax?” LJ cut a hand across his neck, immediately silencing Jax. The blond waved him to come on, and despite doing so, Jax continued to stare at me.
Jax tipped his chin. “Maybe if you did, you wouldn’t be so hard on him.”
My brow twitched up at that, but even still, I wasn’t backing down. In any case, the boys left after that, and I was too busy running inside to make sure they hadn’t killed Ramses to read into anything he’d said. The first place I headed was up to his room, and when I found him sitting on his bed in front of his big-ass TV, I allowed my first breaths of relief. He was completely fine, sitting on his bed playing video games of all things. He was still in his bedclothes, aggressively fighting off some orcs or some shit on the screen, and seeing me, he shot me a look.
“What’s with that face?” he asked, his attention back on the screen. He shot more orcs. “You look like you’re about to kill someone. You get the ring?”
Dangling the bag, I showed him I had, and going over to his bed, I threw a pillow at him to make him drop the controller.
“I thought you might be dead, idiot, and yeah, I got the ring,” I said, putting the bag on the bed. I took off my coat. “I ran into Knight, LJ, and Jax at the door. Thought they might have killed you.”
With as skilled as he apparently was, Ramses not only didn’t drop the controller but leveled up when he threw a fist into the air. Moving onto the next adventure on the screen, he got back into it. “Why would you think that?”
I rolled my eyes, tossing my jacket before taking a corner of the bed. “I don’t know, because they almost did like a day ago.”
He chuckled. “That was before. But now, things are different.” He jutted a chin toward the bed, and by his feet were a couple of keys. He grinned. “Keys to Windsor House. Can you believe that?”
I didn’t, picking them up. “They gave these to you?”
“Yep. One to the main doors, the clubhouse—sorry, that part’s just for guys—as well as an access code into the whole facility.” He put a finger up to his head for that part. “All in here. I guess I’m in, and not only that, they wanted to make sure I was okay. I guess you guys scared the shit out of them by pulling me out of the woods the way you did. They were just trying to see what happened to me.”
Wild.
I threw hands through my hair. “Okay.”
“Just okay?” Letting his character die, he put the controller down. He raised his long legs. “’Zona, this is exactly what we wanted. Their trust?” He shook my leg. “With them out of the way, we can go into Windsor House and ask as many questions as we want. This is a good thing.”
Yeah, I guess so, and I watched as Ramses reached over and slid a hand into the bag.
“With this,” he paused, opening and unleashing that shine of his big-ass ring. He pulled it out, sliding the chrome over a knuckle. “We literally have the keys to the castle.”
“And that?” I asked, the red box peeking out of the top of the jewelry bag. “Something for your mom or something? I hope so. I had to talk to Royal’s dad to get it.”
“Really?” he asked, pull
ing that red box out. Without talking to me more about it, he opened his dresser drawer and slid it inside. “Surprised he left the bank for that.”
“He was already there, and he owns the bank?”
Ramses’ nod was subtle, but inside I said, Jesus. This was really what we were looking at here, people like that and with that kind of influence. I raised my legs, hugging them.
“What’s up?” Ramses asked me, pulling in. “You don’t look happy.”
I should be, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated. If I wasn’t scared to find out the truth.
I mean, look what happened to my sister.
If it was a haze gone wrong and people surrounding that haze got the authorities to keep silent about it, what could we do? “You really think we can do this? That people will listen to us?”
“They will.” Ramses nudged me with a shoulder. “I may not have much stake left in this town, but I am still the mayor’s son. We can do this, but we need information before we can do anything.”
“So that’s what we’re going to do?”
“That and a couple other things. This is going to be a process, but if you’re game, I think we can really pull this off.”
I was willing to do anything, do what I had to do to make sure whatever we needed happened. “What’s next?”
Dropping long arms over his legs, Ramses faced me. “What’s next actually starts tonight, and needless to say, you’re definitely not going to like it.”
Ten
December
I got what Ramses was trying to say. For this next leg, things probably should appear to be normal in my life...
But seriously, what the fuck?
He wanted me to move back home, go home to my dad’s house and under my dad’s rule. He said doing so would give the guise of stability in my life. If I looked like I made amends with my father, wasn’t making waves, no waves would ultimately crash around me. I’d just be a normal girl going to school. I had healed and moved on with my life.
