“Anything happens to me, you make sure my girl is safe. You make sure she eats a cupcake a day. You make sure she has five kids, and they love and respect their mother. You make sure Maks loves her more than he loves himself.”
My chest tightens at his words.
“Promise me, Tildy.”
“I would promise you such a macabre thing, Parker, but if I know my daughter like I think I do, then not only are you going to come out of this alive, but you're going to have to drag her out of whatever venomous cesspool Maksim is in after she’s clawed everyone’s eyes out.”
Thismakes the gorgeous American chuckle my way, and he smirksdevilishly. “Damn right.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kane
Age Ten
“I don’t want to put a suit on. I bet all the other children won’t be wearing theirs. Charlie said they’re to have a jumping house. I’d look ridiculous jumping in a suit.” It's only half-true. I look good in everything I wear.
My mother rolls her large brown eyes while she stabs her ears with her pearl earrings. She says those are to be for my future wife. I don’t want a wife. “Kanedrew, please. Just get dressed. We’re going to be late. This is Matilda Winters’s daughter. We must make a good impression.”
I don’t know who these people are. Or why I have to impress an eight-year-old girl. I do not like meeting other children as oftentimes they are not very kind. Which is why I make sure they know I’m not one to push around as soon as they meet me.
“Why do we need to impress the Winters? Charlie sounds funny.”
Mother firmly smoothes down the front of her black dress, which has what she calls a ‘sweetheart’ neckline. At times, my mother reminds me very much of Jackie Kennedy with the way she dresses. Very posh. Very stylish. Very professional. No nonsense.
Which is why she has me dressed in suits more than half the time. I represent her.
Again, my mother’s eyes flash. “David is a very powerful attorney in New York. That’s why Charlie sounds funny. They spend more time there than here, only coming on holiday. But Matilda is bringing them back for a year or two to go to school here. Get to know their home country. That sort of thing.”
I blink a few times. “Grandfather says I will like her.”
She smiles grandly at me before swiping on mascara. “I very much think you will, too, Kanedrew. We’ll see him there, as well. Now, go on. Get your suit on. You know as soon as I put my heels on I’m ready to go.”
Though it is a bleak October day, thereisa jumping house. And ponies. But it is cold. And the children running around the Winter’s estate are very loud, squealing and running like animals all over the place. They have no composure. No… decorum, Mother would say. While I am the only one in a suit, the rest are dressed in their coats and large sweaters andtrainers. While dressed well, they still look… comfortable.
I am not comfortable. I have loafers on. There is also mud everywhere as it drizzled just this morning.
“Go on, Kanedrew, go play. Make some friends. Matilda! Hello!” she greets with forced enthusiasm at the beautiful, thin blonde woman with stark green eyes.
My feet stay planted in my spot. I do not wantfriends. I want to go home. I believe if I run around like these idiots, I’ll catch a cold. Or worse--the tiny little air sacs in my lungs will freeze and I'll bleed out. I watch the children squawking about, tilting my head as I stare and watch one specific boy without a coat. My eyes follow and track him as the noise around me whirs to a complete stop. My brow quirks as he begins to grab at his chest, coughing. His hand flies to his throat as he seems to choke, blue eyes widening into saucers and reddening with tears as blood spittles out of his mouth, down his chin and onto his sweater with each hack. He falls to his knees there… staring at me. I do not panic. I do not help. I simply watch him die.
“Kane? Did you hear me?”
The noise comes back like thunder as I blink rapidly, finding the boy still very much in the midst of a game of tag, hand outstretched, so close to tagging a girl in a red peacoat. Hmm. Pity. Watching him die was far more entertaining. I peek up at my mother. “It’s a bit cold. May I go inside?”
Matilda puts a dainty hand on my shoulder and smiles down at me. “Absolutely, Kane. There are snacks inside. We’ll be heading in shortly to cut the cake, it seems you’ll just be a little early.” She winks like she’s just told me a very large secret and I'm the only one who will ever know it. How odd.
“Thank you,” I reply, turning toward the manor and away from the sprawling lawn and messy children. Matilda was right. There is a table lined with snacks and sweets, particularly cupcakes of all kinds. And in the center, a three-tiered cake. It’s white and gold, with decorative pale pink roses. It does not say Happy Birthday. It only holds eight candles on the lowest tier. It’s much more mature than that of eight-year-old girls usually are. I grab a bowl of strawberries and ask one of the maids where the library is. They point me to the stairs and tell me which door on which floor and up I go. To enjoy my strawberries alone.
But I am not alone.
In the library there’s a girl with golden spools cascading down her back like ribbons and a little pink princess dress that poofs out. Shoes off, she sits on the arm of the sofa that’s against the window, perched there, observing the thirty or so little animals running amuck and all the parents standing around and chattering. In her hand she holds a cupcake. The sunlight pouring in through the large window creates a kind of spotlight on her. She turns her head to face me when the door behind me shuts with nothing more than a barely audible ‘click.’
Her green eyes find me and she looks surprised. “Who are you?”
I stab the tiny fork into a sliced strawberry and lift it to my mouth. “I’m Kane… Kane Burton. And you are…?” I trail off, waiting for her to answer as I take a bite of the fruit.
“Sabrina Winters.”
