“Did you get a smaller gun?” I asked, trying to feel around for it.
He moaned as I grabbed him through his pants, squeezing tightly before pulling away. I was having so much fun toying with him tonight. His green eyes glared at me as I turned to Sedric and Evelyn cutting into their dance.
“Evelyn, do you mind if I cut in? Liam wishes to dance with you.”
Evelyn eyed me carefully, as if she could read my damn mind. The woman had her own set of superpowers, I swore.
Shaking her head at me, she kissed Sedric before turning to Liam who glared at me evilly.
“Watch out, Sedric has two left feet. It’s taken me years to work around it.” She winked before taking her son’s hands.
“She exaggerates.” Sedric huffed, offering me his hand.
“I’m sure, just don’t step on my toes.” If he did, I would ram my heel into his knee.
“I will do my best, your highness.” He laughed, looking around the room. “I must say, your plan for this country is worrying me.”
“Why, because it’s possible?” I asked.
He nodded. “Exactly. I would have settled for a Supreme Court judge. But, then again, I no longer have that type of power.”
“No, you do not.” He always seemed to forget. “My father gave up power because he was dying. Why did you? You’re young…enough, and you don’t seem to be dying.”
“You know the answer to that.” He sighed, looking over to Evelyn. “This was never supposed to be my life. I saw what my father did for a living and he enjoyed it. He enjoyed it like you and Liam enjoy it. He saw that and only forced me to work harder. I never understood why my older brother was going to take over.”
I already knew this but let him speak anyway.
“He died young,” he whispered sadly. “We all die young. He was around your age then. I had just turned eighteen and met Evelyn. We fell hard for each other. Any moment I could find, I was with her, which in turn led to her getting pregnant with Neal. My plan was for us to take my inheritance and live on some remote island somewhere. But, when my brother died, I had to step forward. I hated the life with a passion.”
“And now you can’t let go.”
He was good at what he did. The stories of young Sedric were the things that nightmares were made of.
“It’s like a possession,” he whispered. “It crawls into your soul and takes root. You have no control over it. You allow it to grow, because it helps. It’s the reason you can let blood flow across the floor like fine wine and not flinch. It helps you become the monster you need to be. The only side effect is that it’s always there. No amount of holy water can wash it off. So there’s no letting go. I will forever be who I allowed myself to be, and the person I allowed myself to be enjoys the chaos.”
Truer words were never spoken.
“Evelyn must love hearing about that.”
“She understands. There are two halves of me, always at odds with each other, but she always wins out.” He chuckled glancing back at her.
“True love conquers all,” I mocked, rolling my eyes before glaring at Liam.
“So, why are you torturing my son?” he asked as we danced much slower than everyone else.
“Because he’s keeping things from me. Important things you wouldn’t happen to know anything about, would you, my dear father-in-law?” I looked into his eyes and he raised an eyebrow at me.
“So now I see that my thoughts are worth something?” he questioned.
“Yes, now they are. So again, what do you know?” I hated when people made me repeat myself, why waste words?
“Nothing, dear daughter-in-law,” he replied, spinning me around a little awkwardly, but I adjusted. “Which bothers me, seeing as how Liam was speaking to Interpol.”
I stopped. “Repeat that last part again.”
He froze, realizing that he did in fact know something that I didn’t.
“Sedric, now is the time to use more words, not less.” I dug my nails into his arm.
“Anna, the blonde woman he spoke with upon entering, she’s family—or ex-family. Liam’s second cousin, her parents planned to betray the family, my father killed them. Anna was given money, but no connections and went into…”
“I don’t give a shit about who she is or how she came into being. I want to know why the fuck Liam is speaking to Interpol.” Now I was pissed, pulling myself away from him, I turned towards Liam and his mother.
They were speaking causally, but after tonight, they wouldn’t be speaking at all if he didn’t tell me what I wanted to know.
“Once again, Evelyn, I’m so sorry,” I cut in, glaring into Liam’s eyes. “But it seems your son and I need to have a little chat.”