Ryker: Tell Amy if she doesn’t give you that one next, she’s fired.
Me: I’m sorry. I’m going through a tunnel. The reception is terrible.
That will make him certifiable. I’m almost giddy, watching the dots appear and disappear.
Ryker: Nice. Too lazy to fabricate an excuse that makes sense, Counselor? Weak.
He’s baiting me, but I will not bite.
After sixty seconds of my silence, he attempts again.
Ryker: Word around the resort is that I starved myself and got down on my hands and knees to get you here. Any idea how that rumor started?
That’s why Amy mentionedthe methodsRyker used to lure me back here.
And the happiness keeps on coming. What I would’ve done to be there when that rumor reached him. It’s a mild penance for asking me to spy on one cabal on behalf of another that I was unwittingly a member of.
Two minutes pass before Amy sails into the room behind Tessa and Remy, a tense grimace on her face. “I’m not sure if I’m in trouble or you are, but we’ve been given orders. Ryker texted the following to me:Pack up everything Mercy has looked at, including the dress(the dressis in all caps).And send my wife(my wifeis in all caps)home now. You might have gathered,” she adds, “butnowis in all caps.”
Tessa huffs. “That’s some nerve right there. Not even married yet, and he freakingmy wife’dyou. The man needs a good pegging.”
That has all three of us busting up laughing, which makes Remy cackle too.
My mother is rolling over in her grave.
Amy’s face sobers. “He seems irritated, so I’m going to have all of this sent upstairs and grab the dress he picked. It really is the best. I was saving the big reveal until you tried some others on so you would appreciate how perfect it was. Maybe I shouldn’t—”
“Amy, you’re good. He’s stressed about the event—that’s all. He wants me up there to help with some last-minute details.”
My chest deflates as Amy rushes away, so I turn to Tessa. “I wish you were coming tonight.”
“I’ve got a hot date with this little dude.” She ruffles Remy’s hair before rolling her eyes at me. “Besides, they don’t invite the peasants.”
A humorless laugh falls from my lips as I wave a hand over myself. “Sometimes, they do.”
Remy scurries over to an open area of the room and practices his somersaults, so Tessa sits beside me.
She twirls one of the tassels on my dress around her finger. “I like very few people, so take this as the extraordinary truth it is. You are far from a peasant. Ryker’s a smart man. He knows what he’s chasing. Everything about you screams royalty. And it has nothing to do with the Noires.”
That encouragement bolsters me to be far more vulnerable than I’ve been with anyone in a long time. I swallow my apprehension, hoping she can lend some wisdom. “Have you ever had something good so tangled up with something bad that you couldn’t separate them?”
No hesitation. “Yes.”
My thumb skates over the underside of my champagne diamond ring, the weight of it so much greater than before. “What did you do?”
She pops her shoulder. “I put him on my list.”
“And then?” I press because I’m sure that won’t work for me.
She hums, considering her answer. “That’s as far as I’ve gotten. For now.”
I blow out a choppy breath, unable to hide my disappointment. “Oh.”
She takes my hand. “But that’s not your story. Deep down, you know where you belong. The days of people stealing your joy are over. Off the traitors or anyone who gets in your way and claim your damn throne.”
MERCY
Tessa’s words are still flitting through my mind an hour later as I mosey to Ryker’s office, rap my knuckles on the hefty wood, and peek my head past the ajar door.
