Logically, in the back of my mind, I acknowledged that he hadn’t been pushing the issue anywhere near as hard as he could’ve been. In fact, he’d been kind of leaving me alone for the most part.
It was suspicious, and I made a mental note to mention it to Jordan just as soon as he could erase Alex’s touch from my skin.
My ex-boyfriend just shrugged, reached over to his bedside table, and grabbed a small velvet box. He tossed it over to me, but I didn’t catch it. Instead, I let it land on the comforter in front of me and stared at it like it was poisonous.
“What the fuck is that?” I demanded.
Alex let out a sigh, like I was being dense. Okay, sure. I was. “Lesser of two evils, Violet. Make smart choices.”
Without waiting for me to open the box or even for me to respond, he climbed out of the bed and disappeared into the bathroom. Seconds later, the sound of the shower running reached my ears, and I released the breath I was holding.
Curiosity pulled at me, and I picked up the velvet box, even though I already knew what I’d find. My fingers pried the lid open, and my heart stopped beating for a second.
Nestled in a bed of black velvet was a ring with the largest diamond I’d ever seen. It was so huge it would take up most of my knuckle, not that there was a chance in hell it would ever touch my finger. The jewelry was typical Alex in that there was nothing special or personalized about this ring. Huge rock, square cut, no other adornment.
He didn’t know me at all, and this was just another show of money and power, neither of which I was interested in.
Dropping it like it was a snake about to bite me, I backed away, looking anywhere but at that fucking box.
How could this be happening? In this freaking century. If anything, the monarchies had taken us back ten decades instead of forward into the future.
The twenty-first century had seen the abolishment of most monarchies, and arranged marriages had not been the norm, but somehow all of these years later, after the Monarch War and everything, we were back to this bullshit.
Well, not today. Not with me. I’d die first.
Chapter 24
Alex left me alone for the next week, and I spent my time avoiding everyone—scurrying to classes; hiding from the nurse, who’d taken to knocking on my fucking door at ten at night; and listening to the student body rave about the big dance that was coming up next week, on Saturday. The Spring Ball was Arbon’s first chance this year to show off to the monarchies, and they were wasting no time revamping the entire school to make it a showpiece. Or more of one than usual anyway.
I personally was freaking the fuck out because I had almost no doubt that Alex’s parents would be there. Along with Rafe’s, Jordan’s… Jesus, I had to stop fucking princes. They were too complicated for my life.
During my last class on Friday, the buzzing of my palm reader distracted me, and I glanced down to find a new message.
Jordan: It’s done.
Fuck. Yes. This was the first good news I’d had in days, and I needed it desperately. He’d run into a few snags in making sure the virus would not be traced back to us at all. It required him to use the school server, ping it all over the world, scramble the data… I’d tuned out the rest of his explanation because this sort of thing was not my strong suit. It was Jordan’s, though, and I trusted he had done an exemplary job at ensuring its success.
Kinda helped that he had the best tech at his fingertips and probably the best teachers growing up.
Me: Great work.
I didn’t reply with anything incriminating, just in case they decided to investigate anyone other than Alex. I was already regretting my big fat mouth mentioning a “project” to Jordan the other day. Hopefully Alex was too stupid to put that together with this frame job. It’d be better all around if he wasn’t suspicious that this had anything to do with us.
Wishful thinking, no doubt.
Jordan: Meet me after class. Rafe’s glass cage of emotions.
I silently snorted out some laughter at that. Apparently Jordan was the only other person privy to knowing about Rafe’s secret escape from the world.
The rest of whatever class I was in now passed super slow. I’d stopped paying attention. Stopped taking notes. I wrote my name on the test papers and handed them in, only to get a top mark back.
It had actually turned into a game now of how bad I could be and still pass all my classes.
So far I’d discovered that even if I didn’t turn up to class, I’d receive full marks, but I also had Alex up my ass about appearances, so I’d taken to showing up. And that was all.
When it was over, I hurried out of the room before anyone could stop me.
“Violet,” Alex called, waving from the back of the class. Moron. He knew by now that I was always the first out, and still, he’d been too lazy to hurry.
“Not a dog, Alex,” I yelled back. “I don’t come when you call.”
A few students nearby that could hear us snickered, and I knew I’d pay for that later. Honestly, I had zero fucks left to give.
Dashing down the hall, I took the longest route to the secret room with all the windows and the peaceful view. The room was empty, but someone must have been there earlier, since the fireplace was roaring, sending warmth around the space. The harsh winter months had disappeared a while ago, but it had become apparent that it never actually got hot here. Not like back home.
A longing for home slammed into me, something I hadn’t really had before this point, but I missed the simplicity of my previous life. Missed my friend. Missed my freedom.
I might have been poor and an orphan, but in many ways, what I was now was much worse.
“Hey,” Jordan said, distracting me from my morose thoughts. I swung away from the window and that mesmerizing view to focus instead on his darkly gorgeous face. “We ready to do this?”
I was nodding before I even said a word. “Fuck, yes. I am so ready to have Alex out of my life. I’ve been lucky so far; he’s left me alone, no doubt so I can come to terms with my new reality. But that’s gonna end soon. I mean… his parents...”
I hadn’t really told any of them what had happened in Alex’s room, not in any sort of detail, but they had seemed to understand enough to know that his parents were bad news and them being involved was a huge problem.
“How long is this going to take?” I asked, stepping closer as Jordan started to set up a bunch of equipment. He was pulling it from a large metal box, and in all honesty, I had no fucking clue what any of it was.
“It’s going to take a few hours to send out, a few days to take effect, and a week or more to be discovered by the authorities and traced back to Alex,” he said, his focus on wires and small black boxes that were all hooking into each other. “These devices will amplify the signal so that I can reach the main servers across the world and infiltrate the network as quickly as possible.”
Like last time, this was the point where I started smiling and nodding.
After he was finished explaining, I realized how much work he’d put into this project. “Thank you,” I said, “for helping me. You didn’t have to—this isn’t your problem—and I need you to know how grateful I am.”
It wasn’t just the work either; he could get into a ton of trouble if he was discovered. He was really putting himself on the line for me, and I didn’t know how I could ever repay him.
He lifted his head, hands still wrapped around the black cord he held. “You don’t get it yet,” he said softly, “but you soon will.”
Huh?
“Get what?”
The smallest smile teased the corner of his lips. “Your problems are my problems.”
I had to swallow hard as a sudden burst of emotions took me by surprise. Jordan and his sweet talking was going to be the death of me. And unlike Alex, who had laid it on thick in the beginning, there was a sincerity about Jordan that spoke of someone with an innate good nature.
No wonder he was best friends with Rafe. They were yin and yang. The perfect balance.
One a little too dark, the other a little too light. Together, though, they were perfect.
Jordan went back to his tech shit, and I spent time watching the view again, the mountains soothing me in a way I hadn’t felt in a while.
“Okay, I’m ready,” he said, leaning back and admiring his work. “Just waiting on one final piece. Should be here soon.”
He settled in next to me, close to the fire, and in the silence we watched nature. Time passed, and I leaned against him, the soothing way he was playing with my hair sending me to sleep. At some point I felt him move, and he draped a soft and warm throw over me as he spoke to whoever had entered the room.
Somewhere deep in my subconscious, I knew it was Rafe. This was his secret place, after all. I tried to fall back into that cozy sleep place I’d just been in, but as they talked more, I found myself listening in.
“Our little princess is tired,” Rafe said, and surprisingly enough, he didn’t sound like an asshole. There was almost affection in his voice.
Jordan made an unhappy rumble of a sound. “I don’t think she’s sleeping well. We need to end this fucking asshole once and for all.”
“Told you we should have just killed him,” Rafe said nonchalantly.
Jordan snorted. “And I didn’t disagree, but that’s messy in a way we don’t need right now. We have to be smarter about this, make sure we’re around to keep her safe—to keep all of our families safe.”