“Enough, Reuben,” Father’s voice breaks us with finality and I can only allow my words to trail off. “Get to work before it explodes into something we can’t control. We’ll think of what to do with you later.”
I look to my brothers, who’ve been quiet this whole time, but Baal is watching with pursed lips, and Aster only shakes his head once.
And it’s like ants crawling beneath my skin.
Because they don’t see the value in Christian.
And I don’t want to leave here without convincing them.
Father steps forward and I’m prepared for a war. There’s a ball of tightness in my chest that’s screaming for it. That refuses to back down because it feels like Christian is on the line.
“Calm yourself, Reuben.”Baachan’s hands on my shoulders are like a wave crashing down on all the hot energy inside me, and like a spell, my blood cools immediately at the sound of her voice.
Her eyes are gentle when I finally pull my gaze away from father, “Let the air clear before choosing to fight another battle. It’s late. Why not take this to him?” She takes my hand to place a small trinket in my palm, closing my fingers over it. “He’ll recover faster if you can chase any lingering spirits away.”
The small charm is a flurry of silvers and blacks, with a silver crescent moon and black cat at its centre. I recognize it immediately, the one Christian’s eyes lingered on, the day we went into her shop, and it’s like my frustration and anger have finally ebbed away into something bearable.
I say nothing but I hold the trinket in my fingers gently, careful not to crush it, before giving her a grateful look.
Now, I just want to see him.
I give my father and mother a curt nod as I leave the room, but the moment the door closes behind me, three sets of eyes are locking onto me expectantly, leaning off the walls to stand upright, waiting for my orders.
Recalling my conversation with my parents, it’s a good thing at least, that the rooms are soundproof.
Xavier’s face always has the habit of showing the most, his worry and his exhaustion from the last eight hours are clear as day on his face, but there’s a strong light in his eyes that tells me he can go for a little longer. God knows we’ll all need to, if we want to control this safely.
Gabriel and Tobias’s expressions have always been more closed, and it’sonly because I know them well that I notice the crease between Gabriel’s brows, the restlessness in the way Tobias flexes his fingers, both waiting on my order.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to talk next steps with Father, so my mind has to work fast to give them something to go on.
“The events of the last eight hours are going to be all over the news before dawn,” which leaves us with about two hours. “We need to get the jump on it now before the press spins everything out of control. Today, Tobias and I will visit each of the guests and families of those caught in the crossfire, starting with those who lost their lives.”
Tobias nods in agreement.
“We’ll need to prepare something for each of them, a token of the Taiga’s goodwill at least, and a formal apology.” It will be difficult. It’s not as though we can throw money at High Society. We’ll need to come up with something sincere and forthright, so we don’t shoulder all the blame. Success will depend on how reasonable the families are. Failure will create enemies we can’t afford to make.
“Xavier will make the calls to every reporting station on our side of the map. Give them the story before anyone can inflate it into something we can’t control.” That way the families will hear the story before we visit. They’ll be more inclined to reason if we can control the media.
“What do I say?” Xavier’s brows are furrowed.
“The truth. Josei took the diamond under his family’s nose to offer to Camille as a proposal gift.”
There is a flicker of sadness and frustration in his energy, but the light in his eyes only burns stronger as he stands straighter.
“Neither security nor the crew knew anything about the diamond,” I instruct, “so safeguards were inadequate. You must emphasize our ignorance as subtly as possible.”
“How did the attackers find out?” Xavier’s expression becomes sharper.
“Speculation.” My gaze hardens, “So for now only give them what we know. Act fast with facts first and we’ll act on speculations later.” Xavier nods and I turn to Gabriel, “Before returning to port we made sure to clean everything we could offthe attackers. Aster’s team will be dealing with identification and analysis. Provide them with any details they need. Anything you can remember or that sticks out, write it down, run through each scene in your head, don’t leave anything out.”
Gabriel nods as I continue, “We need as much information as we can, before the feds can shut us out. The whole state will have its eyes on this.”
“Josei wouldn’t be so stupid,” Xavier’s gaze is far-off as he tries to put the pieces together in his head, and I know it’s only a matter of time before he reaches the same conclusions I came to a moment ago.
“Not if someone encouraged him,” I muse darkly, “guaranteed everything would go well. Someone with a high enough calibre to do so—”
“Someone he trusted,” Xavier concludes with a fierce expression, and the anger emanating off him takes on bold streaks of red and orange.
