CHAPTER FIVE
I stalked the midday streets in stealth mode, always circling back around to the port of New City, waiting for my contact to arrive. One of my long distance contacts, James, was delivering a transport for me to use—for as long as I wished since I bought the damn train with one of my undisclosed accounts. I’d used him once before, and he had come through for me. I hedged my bets that he would again. I hoped I was right since he was running late.
“Did you see that article?” a man whispered near me.
His friend leaned in close to him, and spoke quietly, “I saw it. What do you think is going on behind closed doors?”
“I bet it’s a threesome.”
“Maybe.” His friend scratched at his forehead. “But who is the ‘son’? I’ve never seen that man before. For that matter, why call him the ‘son’? He looks the same age as Mr. King.”
“No clue, but rumor is that he’s from the King Eastern Province. That’s what my accountant thinks anyway. My assistant agrees too.”
My lips trembled in amusement.
I kept moving along, creeping in the shadows and hearing whispers of conspiracy theories around every corner I turned.
My bank account was filling up by the second.
Not that I cared about money at this point.
My mind was fixated on the fact James hadn’t shown, an hour late. Where the fuck was he? I peered down at my new bracelet, this one untraceable, and stated, “Order: Call James.”
He answered quickly. “Noelle, I’m delayed at the port. There are too many trains right now to land. Give me a half hour.”
I sighed in relief. “I’ll be there in a half hour then.” A street vendor selling skewered meat came into my line of sight. “I’ll have a bite to eat, I guess. Order: End call.”
I stood in the long line with my rolling luggage at my side. So close to the port, with travelers arriving and departing all the time, I didn’t stick out at all. I kept a tight grip on my luggage handle, though, noticing a few local thieves lying in wait for the unaware bystander.
“How do you think Ms. Carvene is handling all of this?” an old woman peered down her nose at her young male companion. They were both directly in front of me, waiting to get lunch, too, my view unhindered. “After losing Mr. Godric King, this can’t be the kind of publicity she would want. It looks like she’s in a relationship with the other Mr. King! He’s Godric’s brother, for goodness’ sake.”
Actually, Theron was Godric’s dad.
The world would soon learn about his fib to the public.
The man nodded solemnly. “I agree. But I want to know who the other man is. Weston ran a facial recognition screen on him. Nothing! Nothing came back. It’s like he appeared out of thin air. In my opinion, he might be a long-lost relative of Ms. Carvene. She’s originally from King Western Province, you know. I’ve heard it’s rather sketchy over there…”
Now, Cassander would be Godric’s actual brother.
I choked on a laugh and quickly covered it with a cough, throwing my fist in front of my mouth when the elderly woman and young man looked back at me. “Sorry. A little dust flew into my mouth.”
There wasn’t even a breeze today. They didn’t notice.
I tuned them out when they turned back around, and I glanced down at my silver bracelet. I had fifteen minutes left. This line needed to hurry up. I tapped my fingers on the handle and threw dirty glares at the thieves glancing in my direction—and waited as patiently as I could.
Ten minutes later, I hurried to the docks and munched on my quick meal of a meat stick. Not my term. The vendor had called it that.
“Meat. Stick,” he’d corrected me rather loudly.
It had been really hard not to laugh in his face.
I could see James, his bald head gleaming under the sunlight. His way of greeting me was to say, “I did bring you a sandwich. All travelers get a meal.”
I waved off his comment while I threw the stick away in the nearest traveling trash bin. “I’ll eat that too. Don’t worry.”
James grinned, flashing me his missing front tooth. “I saw your article. No wonder you’re skipping town.”
I snorted. “No one will think to look for me on the outskirts of Poppy’s old town. It’s the perfect hiding spot that still has access to the internet.”
