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“It will be okay,” I whispered. “I promise. Come on.”
I pulled her into the room and she stumbled after me. The big chair at the far end of the table stood empty, but I didn’t go there. I only sat there for important Clan meetings and occasions. I didn’t sit there for casual family meals and I wouldn’t sit there now.
I found an empty seat near the middle of the table. Karim occupied the chair next to it, but he got up when he saw me coming. He took his empty plate with him and left the dining room.
Riley froze again and watched him out of sight. “Don’t worry about it,” I told her. “He has to go back to work. He isn’t leaving because of you.”
“What does he do for work?” she asked. “Do all your relatives run businesses like you do?”
“Some do, but he’s going to track down the Danes. We have to mount a counterattack to stop them from threatening our people.” I pulled out her chair for her. “Take a seat and get something to eat before you fall over.”
She sat down, but she refused to look at anyone. I took the chair next to her, picked up a clean plate from the stack nearest us, and started serving her.
Willow and my mother stopped talking across the table and Willow turned to face us. “Kingston tells us that you work as an IT troubleshooter online, Riley. We could use your expertise on our internal server farm.”
Her head shot up. “Your….what?”
“We use banks of servers to communicate with all our cells and assets all over the world and for trading the stock market,” my mother explained. “We’re always short on experienced IT people. We’d love it if you could help us out. What do you say?”
“Demetrius usually manages our systems for us,” Barrett chimed in from farther down the table. “The system is too big for one person and he’s gone trying to rebuild a server farm the Danes destroyed last week. We could really use someone here at the stronghold.”
Riley’s eyes darted up and down the table as each person called out another reason why she’d be an asset to our Clan.
“I don’t know if…..” She glanced up at me. The same look of blank, stunned terror glazed over her eyes.
“Maybe you could take a look at the system tomorrow and tell us what you think,” I suggested. “You don’t have to do anything, but we sure could use your help.”
She gulped again and bowed over her food. “Okay. I’ll take a look.”
“Your experience working online would be a double asset,” my mother added. “Our systems are scattered all over the world. You could work on them remotely without leaving the stronghold. Then we wouldn’t have to expose another asset when the Danes have already threatened you so many times.”
Riley blinked at my mother across the table and then looked down at her plate, but she didn’t eat anything. She was too smart not to hear my mother just call her an asset.
“Demetrius used to freelance remotely,” my cousin Lacey interjected from Riley’s other side. “Maybe that’s something you’d like to do, too, Riley. You spent all that time building up your career. You shouldn’t have to give it up just because you’re in our Clan now. You can keep working remotely.”
“And we’ll need to organize a payment contract with the Clan family trust.” My mother turned to Willow. “You can draw that up, can’t you, Willow? You can negotiate with Riley on her hourly rate and consultancy fee….and make sure it’s market competitive. We want to make sure we’re at the top of her priority list so some other organization doesn’t poach her from us.”
“You….want to pay me…..to help your Clan?” Riley croaked.
“We wouldn’t ask you to work for free.” My mother laughed and her usually hard, businesslike exterior cracked to show her softer side. “Did you think you had to work on our servers to pay your way into our Clan—like you had to earn your keep or pay your rent or something?”
Everyone laughed and Riley dropped her eyes. She really did think that.
“Everyone here has their own career,” my mother told her. “None of us works for free and the Clan pays for all our work and expertise. This Clan is a family business more than anything else. We have our own private economy where everyone contributes their skills and earns the rewards from it. The Clan competes with the rest of the world for your services and the Clan pays for those services. We value our people and we want them to stay. We don’t want another organization to steal our people for better pay and better benefits. You won’t find a more competitive workplace anywhere.”
Riley glanced up to meet my mother’s gaze, and as soon as Riley saw my mother smiling at her, Riley bowed her head again. “Thank you. I’m just learning how all this works.”
“Never mind, dear,” my mother returned. “You’re Kingston’s mate, so that makes you part of our Clan. You’ll figure it out and we’re all here to make the transition smoother for you.”
Riley’s head snapped up and she spun around to stare at me. I didn’t have to wonder why.
One word hung on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t say it out loud. She was my mate. I’d known for years, but I didn’t dare to tell her. I knew she’d react like this, but why deny it now?
Her eyes searched my soul as a thousand unspoken questions crowded her mind. They practically exploded out of her eyes and skin and lips, but they would all have to wait until we got behind closed doors.
14
KINGSTON
