Her hands flew up in the air, fingers splayed wide. "Really? Oh, my God." She fanned herself. "No. Really? No. You're messing with me. You are teasing me again!"
He laughed. "If they're free, they probably will."
"Oh, wow." Yeah, all his family would have to be invited. "Does Willem have to come?"
"My brother must be invited. Protocol."
"Can the invitation be addressed wrong? That works sometimes."
Casimir laughed. "We'll plan it tomorrow. Arthur and Maxence will stand up with me, of course. You?"
"Brandy, if she can get away. She has a lot going on."
Beside her cheek, Casimir's chest shook with laughter.
She knew exactly what he was chuckling at. "Oh, stop."
"Who else? Your father? People from the office? Other friends?"
"All that. I'll put together a list." She let her head rest against his chest.
Beyond the leaves shingling the gazebo, pale pink strands of light glimmered in the air.
She asked, "You were kidding about eight kids, right?"
"I was thinking somewhere around two to four, with discussion, assuming everything works out."
"That sounds not quite so insane."
She leaned against his shoulder, feeling his arms around her in the dark.
That damn cell phone buzzed the bench yet again.
"What on Earth is going on with your damn phone?"
He shrugged, his tuxedo coat shifting under her cheek. "I've been getting these all day. It's around eight o'clock in the evening in California, so I imagine that they're getting frantic, trying to raise me before it's too late to call. Let me put that on airplane mode." He reached behind himself to grab it.
"Surely everybody in the law firm can't need references already."
"It's the clients."
"You aren't the one who was swindling them! They should be calling Val and Josie."
"They've been arrested, so they won't be answering their phones."
Rox grabbed her chest. "Oh my God!"
"As influential as the studios are, our clients have the weapon of public outrage on their side. The DA filed some interim charges while they investigate the matter. No, the clients want me back." He flipped off the flashlight mode and held up the screen so she could see the list of text messages in the deep darkness of the gazebo.
"Back?" She squinted at the phone, the screen too bright to stare at directly after the darkness of the night.
He nodded. "The studios want to renegotiate all the contracts, every single one of them, that passed through Val's or Josie's hands because there's a very good chance that an actor could go to court and have them declared fraudulent. Thus, the studios and recording companies may have distributed hundreds of movies and thousands of songs that they don't quite hold the rights to."
The gazebo spun around Rox, and she grabbed the bench. "Oh, Lord."
"The clients want me to start my own law firm. I've got a standard reply now that I'm pasting in that I cannot represent them in any action concerning Val and Josie due to conflict of interest. It's not ethical."
"And so they're backing off." Rox nodded and swiveled on the bench.
His phone buzzed in his hand again, and he stared at it. "It's making them froth at the mouth. They're insistent. Even though I have assured them that I cannot possibly represent them in the case against our previous firm, their attempts at bribery know no bounds."
"That doesn't sound like a bad thing."
"They want me to renegotiate their contracts with the studios and recording companies."
Rox turned to him. "And that's bad, why?"
"I'm not sure I'll be able to go back to California at all. Or if I do, my sister will send a regiment to look after me. She means well."
Rox tapped her chin with one finger. "So we could go home."
"The security would be oppressive. Rotating shifts. Chauffeured armored cars. It's really no way to live."
"How about if we lived someplace like New York?"
"Probably marginally less security. My sister is not taking these threats and attempts lightly."
"But the attacks were when those guys thought that you were just some anonymous entertainment-industry lawyer. They thought you didn't have the resources to defend yourself. Did Val or Josie ever know about your ‘dynastic problems?'"
"I see you figured out what Arthur meant."
"Obviously. Did they?"
"I took great pains to make sure that no one knew. When I applied for the position at the firm, right out of law school, I asked my professors and other references to call them immediately. I had the transcripts sent over from Yale Law before they could ask. They did a criminal record check, but I don't have any problems with that. My credit rating was not a problem."
Yeah, Rox bet that his credit was absolutely sterling. "So Val and Josie never knew. Monty and his partners never knew. They thought you were just some lawyer. They will probably poop their pants when they find out. Oh, what I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall when he sees you arrive with security commandos and snipers and a flippin' tank rolling through the middle of Los Angeles."
Casimir smiled. "It would certainly change the situation."
"Can you imagine? Monty would be sitting there in his office, at that long, stupid conference table of his, and the door blows open and a squad of black-fatigued, gun-toting commandos storm into the room, throw him on the table and frisk him, and then slam him back into his chair. Then we stroll in and tell him that we need to talk to him about certain clauses in his contracts."
He was chuckling now. "The look on his face would be priceless."
"And then if he starts stalling and telling us that we're crazy because we think the contract should be different, you lift one finger and all those commandos point their guns at him in one coordinated move, and then his water glass shatters because a sniper shot it from somewhere outside."
Casimir laid a hand on his stomach because he was laughing so hard. "I would almost feel sorry for him."
Rox gazed into the darkness, imagining something even worse. "And then after he signs the contracts, the windows would get blown out of the room, and we would go jump onto zip lines and be zipped up into a hovering black helicopter."
Casimir was past laughing now, his voice rising as he bent sideways and giggled. "Oh, my Lord. Stop. Please, stop."
Rox snaked her arms around his waist and hugged him, even though he was still giggling helplessly, almost lying on the bench. "And that's just how we'll do it."
THE AMSBERG LAW FIRM
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was held inside a Los Angeles skyscraper, in the office of the new law firm that occupied the entire floor. Spring California sunlight flooded through the walls of glass on two sides of the lobby.
Rox had wanted the ribbon-cutting ceremony to be held outside in the spring air, but Lachlan and the other security people first counseled against it, then argued against it, and then out-right declared that it was not going to happen. Even though there had been no incidents since Casimir and Rox had returned to California, and even though dozens of arrests had been made once Val and Josie had started naming other people involved in the criminal scheme to defraud their clients, Ana and Casimir both erred on the side of caution whenever there might be an opportunity for an attack.
Especially since Rox had discovered that she was pregnant.
This happened, luckily, only a few days after the Dutch Parliament passed an Act of Consent to allow Casimir to marry her and still stay within the line of succession to the throne. Indeed, once the government had presented the bill to the parliament, it had passed within hours, surprising even Ana with how little debate it had taken. They hadn't even needed to hold a reception for the MPs to meet Rox.
It was as if keeping Casimir and his future, hypothetical children in the line of succession had been in everyone's best interest.
After they had gotten the parliament's approval and admitted that there might be an addition to the royal family rather sooner than expected, Ana had insisted on planning and holding the wedding within a month.
It was almost as if Ana had a vested interest in adding new members to the royal family and the line of succession as soon as possible, too.
Every time Crown Princess Ana saw Rox, she started the conversation by squealing and asking if she had felt anything yet, even though she must have known from her own four pregnancies that it was too early.