“I’m eighteen now. The system doesn’t care about me anymore, and I’m not their problem. If I do something wrong and get kicked out, I have nowhere to go.”
Ryder’s nostrils flared in and out a few times, letting me know that he was quickly growing upset. His hand was curled into a white-knuckled fist as it sat on the armrest between us. I reached out and put my hand on top of his and squeezed it.
“I promise you that won’t happen. You’re an Omnia now and are an instant part of a family. You will never need to worry about where you will rest your head or when your next meal will be.”
“What if I do something to piss someone off and get kicked out?”
“It won’t happen. If something needs to be corrected, we’ll discuss it.”
“What if I continually do wrong or bad things?”
“Then you and I will work on correcting it together. I’m bound to you, Ryder. I’m not going to allow you to go down a destructive path. I’m here to help guide you to success.”
“What if I don’t succeed?”
I stared into his eyes and squeezed his hand a little tighter.
“It’s on my shoulders to give you the mental and emotional tools to succeed.”
“What if I still mess it up?”
I smiled at him. “There are two things you need to understand. One, if you don’t succeed, then the failure is on me. Not you. And two, I don’t fail at anything. I’ve never had a mentee not get selected by a King. Ever.”
“I could be your first.”
He could easily be the first mentee that I might have an extremely difficult time turning over at the end of his four years. Ryder pulled expertly on all the strings that made me want to be everything for him beyond his time in training.
“I won’t fail, Ryder. You won’t either.”
He nodded, which showed me that he trusted me. All I needed from him was his trust. As we neared the hotel, I looked at an incoming text on my phone. It was a notification that Dawson & Clarke’s had just dropped off Ryder’s suit at the hotel for this evening. I glanced at my watch and figured I had enough time to drop him off and go back to my place to get ready, then come back and get him to head to the party.
“Before we head upstairs, we need to stop at the front desk. Dawson & Clarke’s just dropped off your suit,” I said as soon as we walked into the hotel lobby.
“Cool.”
“We’ll pick it up and go up to your room and take a look at it.”
Once we collected the garment bag along with a shopping bag from the front desk, we got into an elevator and headed up to his floor. I was eager to peek at the suit but refrained from unzipping the bag in the elevator.
“There should be shoes in the shopping bag,” I said as I peered into the bag Ryder held.
“Yes, it looks like a box at the bottom under the tissue wrapped stuff.”
“Probably a belt, socks, and undergarments,” I said.
In his suite, we took everything to his bedroom, and I hung the hanger over the hook on the wall beside the full-length mirror. As I unzipped the garment bag, Ryder took items out of the shopping bag and set them on the tufted bench at the foot of the bed. I removed the hangers from the garment bag and showed Ryder the suit. I had no doubt that it would fit him like aglove. I set the hanger with the suit on it back over the hook and held up the hanger with the pressed white shirt.
I pointed to the plastic bag that hung over the neck of the hanger. “The tie is in here, and I’ll help you with it.”
“Thank you.”
I hung the hanger on the hook and turned to look at the items on the bench. Shoes, socks, belt, undershirt, underwear. Perfect.
“I’m going to go back to my place and get ready for the party. I’ll be back here in an hour or so to pick you up.”
“Do you want me to wait for you here or in the lobby?”
I glanced at my watch. It would be at least an hour’s drive to Kaleb’s, and depending on traffic, time could be tight. I wanted to make sure we weren’t the first or last to arrive.
