Page 70 of Queen’s Gambit

“A bithday dance?” I nodded, smiling at his excited face. “Yes!” He cheered.

“I’ll be sure to catch up with you more later, but I have a dance date,” I said, and Helena and Dimitri chuckled.

“You look so pitty,” Nathaniel said, with a massive smile on his little face. He was so happy that I didn’t have the heart to correct him.

“Why thank you kind, sir. You look very handsome yourself.”

I hoped that Nathaniel stayed this way and that this world we lived in wouldn’t turn his heart dark like it had with the rest of the men in the family.

Edmundo

If it wasn’t for Marcus, I would’ve marched across the room and killed Christov with my bare hands for showing his face.

“You should’ve expected it, man. His family is politically connected. Just look around. Everyone and their brother were invited,” Marcus said.

He made sense, but I didn’t want to hear it. It was a slap in the face to me and Ana.

Marcus pushed another pastry into his mouth.

“Dude, the food is incredible,” he said with his mouth half full.

“How are you ever going to become my head of security when you’re more interested in stuffing your face than actually looking out for me?”

“I am looking out for you. But I don’t think the old cougar over there staring at your ass has a knitting needle shoved down her dress.”

I made the mistake of looking in that direction, and sure enough, there was a woman old enough to be my mother, blushing and wiggling her fingers at me. Oh, dear lord. I quickly looked away.

“I don’t like it. Did you see how he treated Ana out there? He was a dick. If he wants to come at me then come at me, but stop putting her in the middle.”

“We couldn’t even hear what they were saying,” Marcus said.

“Not the point. I could tell. I know Ana’s facial expressions, and she was pissed. He said something to upset her. I should kill him just for that.”

“I think you need to stop saying you’re going to kill people before we get thrown out of here. Keep your cool, man. You have like five more hours, and then she is all yours. So, let’s not go ruining the party, getting ourselves kicked out and maybe even ruining your deal with Vadin.”

Marcus had a point. I hadn’t seen Christov since Ana had unceremoniously left him on the dance floor. She was smiling as she spun a little boy around in a circle. In a blink, I saw it all…our life…our family…our future.

Marcus nudged my arm. I looked at him and then followed his sightline. My jaw was clenched so tight that I thought it might crack as I spotted Lawrence and his father, Gerald Collier.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I hissed under my breath.

“You better get used to it. These assholes are like ticks. They just want to climb on your back, bite your ass, and give you a disease.”

I glared at Marcus.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Never mind, it made more sense in my head.” He grabbed my shoulder and chugged back the rest of his champagne. “Point is, they’re assholes and will always stink things up.”

“You really need new metaphors.”

“That was a good one. You know because assholes stink unless their newly washed.”

I held up my hand silencing my friend from going any further. “Stop, just stop. My question is why are they here at a party in honor of Ana? I’ve never known the Mikhailovs to have any business dealings with the Collier family. Not to mention that both Ana and I told Vadin what Lawrence did to her. Why would he even allow them to step foot in his home? Let alone on his daughter’s birthday?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Vadin wants them to know that they didn’t pull one over on him. Maybe he plans on taking them out back and showing them a good time later. By good time I mean bad.”

I shook my head at Marcus. There was something seriously wrong with him.