‘This is crazy.’
‘Carrigan—’
‘You’re talking about multiple ops while professionally guarding high-risk kids and walking a legal tight-rope.’
‘Which is why I’m telling you everythingandmaking it clear that this would be a personal favour.’
‘Pay scale slanted down?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s because he’ll offer incentives to rat you out.’
‘We can demonstrate believability.’
‘You’re mounting an insurrection.’
‘I’m protecting the kids.’
‘Don’t give me bullshit like that,’ she insists.‘You’re dragging me into this, the least you can do is tell me why.’
‘What do you want me to say?’
‘Give me the ugly reason.I trust ugly.’
‘I think…’ He shakes his head.‘Ifeellike there’s something fucked up circling the eldest kid.If I walked away or gave up on him, I couldn’t stand it.’
‘From what you’ve told me, the father wants him house-trained for an arranged marriage.No socialising means no support network.That’s how these people operate.He’ll be gifted to someone on his twenty-first.Is that obscene?Yes.Does it turn my stomach?Always.But to put twelve lives including mine in mortal danger for a kid who doesn’t know what it feels like to be hungry or cold… that’s unreasonable.’
‘Hence why I’m telling you before you sign, if you do.I want you to know what you’re getting into.’
‘I need time to think about it.’
‘Let me know what you decide.’
The third interview sees Priscilla Carrigan signing the contract in Lachlan and Clara’s presence.No meetings with Alistair.The lawyers oversee it all.Her contract is almost identical to Lachlan’s own, save for the acknowledgement of her rank below Lachlan and the lack of Latin leftovers.
Carrigan gets her own quarters given that she’s his second, but the others Lachlan eventually hires will sleep in a newly commissioned barracks attachedonlyto the East Wing.
It'll take another two months before Carrigan comes to him with a list of who she knows is solid and who she expects will subvert their authority to impress Alistair.The latter column only has two names on it and Lachlan will make sure they’re assigned to perimeter patrols and grounds checks, almost never allowed inside the East Wing.He will also gradually “promote” them to the wider mansion with a pay bump so as not to elicit suspicion or resentment.
Despite Jules refusing the training, Lachlan assesses his strength from a distance.He speaks with the chef about nutrition and discovers that, although all food served and prepared is top of the range, most of what Jules eats is nutritionally shallow.Organic, yes, but stripped of protein, fats and complex carbohydrates in favour of aesthetic purity.Endless juices, raw greens, chia puddings, micro-salads and controlled portions of white fish obscured by finery, truffles and gold-rimmed plates.
Knowing it’ll flag, Lachlan makes no alterations to the menu itself but plans to make changes in the future if and when he can.Mimi’s diet isn’t controlled at all from what he sees but then he doesn’t know much about what three-year-olds are supposed to eat anyway.
After two months since signing, Lachlan truly has his lay of the land.
No bloodshed incidents.He has a second in command now.He can finally take a day off, although he doesn’t because all he’ll do is think about the East Wing and how he can make it safer. He can take a fuckingbreath.
And then in the third month, the East Wing is attacked.
?
It happens fast, always does.
There’s no warning, never is.
It justhappens.
