Saskia’s statement sent a chill through Shaun. The Koba family went beyond just tight knit. Their obsession with family bordered on cult-like. As far as she knew, anyone with even a drop of Koba blood lived either in the house or on the grounds. She’d found out the day before that two of the men on Jozef’s team were cousins to the family and several members of security were distantly related. She wasn’t surprised that someone holding the position of daughter to the boss would be closely monitored, her life mapped out for her. Like royalty, only Saskia was mafia royalty.
It was a grim insight into Shaun’s own future and any possible children she might have with Jozef. This thought sent her mind spinning into an abyss of emotion. The idea of having Jozef’s child made her feel inexplicably happy, yet she barely knew him. She couldn’t trust him to do the right thing when it came to children. She didn’t want to raise a family in the Koba household, under the thumb of mobsters. A group of people who would have thought nothing of her execution. Yet, she might already be pregnant.
“Everything okay over there?” There was an edge of sarcasm to Saskia’s tone.
“I’m fine, thank you.” She tried to shake off the feeling of someone walking across her grave and focused back on the conversation at hand. “If you really want to go to university you should push for it.”
“How?” Saskia asked skeptically. “Have you tried asking my parents for something you know they won’t approve of? It’s worse than just a no. They’ll have you watched every minute of every day to make sure you don’t take a single step out of line. They’re worse than cookies, or whatever the internet uses to ferret out every detail of our lives so they can come at us with personalized advertising, like I ever asked for a unicorn shaped dildo.”
Shaun giggled at the descriptive complaint before sobering. “I’ll help you,” she assured the other woman. “We just need to tell them something they want to hear. I bet your family could use a translator with some of their business associates.”
Saskia’s eyes grew round and she straightened in her seat. “They do use translators sometimes!” she said excitedly, but then her face fell again. “But I don’t want to do that kind of work. It’s not as… important… as the things you do.”
The glow within Shaun began to spread. She really had managed to pick up an ally in this fierce young woman. “You don’t have to work for your family; you just need to convince them to let you go to university. Once they agree, you’ll have four years to pick out your dream job and work on them from the inside. When you graduate, they’ll be so proud of your accomplishments that they’ll have no choice but to let you work wherever you want.”
Saskia looked completely blown away by Shaun’s logic. “That’s brilliant!”
Shaun laughed. “I’ve been known to have a good idea from time to time.”
“No wonder you’re a doctor,” Saskia said emphatically. “You’re a fucking genius.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Over the next several days the mansion was turned upside down as they prepared for the engagement party. Servants clogged the hallways as they moved furniture, carried bolts of cloth, brought in brand new kitchen equipment and hauled armloads of groceries. More staff was hired to cook and serve while still more were hired to help the head gardener and his team make sure the grounds were immaculate.
The entire weeklong process left Shaun speechless. She couldn’t fathom that a party of this opulence and magnitude was being pulled together so quickly. The amount of resources going into an event meant to celebrate the engagement of two people who only met a few weeks ago was simply stunning. Yet no one seemed concerned about the bride and groom’s lack of history together.
“More flowers arrived.”
Shaun turned from where she was standing next to a long serving table in the massive ball room. Dasha had tasked her with making sure it was in the correct place. Shaun had no idea what the correct placement might be, but if there was anything she’d learned about Dasha since arriving in Prague, it was that a person simply nodded and quietly excused themselves to immediately go do whatever it was Dasha asked for. Life was pleasanter, it seemed, when Dasha was happy. Shaun liked to think of her as a loving, pleasantly kind matriarch who could turn into a fire-breathing dragon in the blink of an eye if she wasn’t happy about something.
Leeza stood hesitantly in the entrance of the ballroom holding a massive bouquet of flowers. Unlike the other flowers arriving, these were big and bright, much prettier than the carefully chosen bouquets from Dasha’s personal florist. Displays had been pouring in all week; black roses dipped in some kind of liquid gold, which made them look like they were dripping. The arrangements were set high on pedestals all around the perimeter of the ballroom. Shaun hadn’t known roses could come in black, but was quickly learning that if Dasha wanted something, she always got it. Shaun was told the roses were native to Turkey and extremely expensive.
According to Saskia, Dasha set up a flower donation fund for anyone who couldn’t attend the engagement party. They sent money into the florist, which paid for an arrangement of Dasha’s choice. Shaun didn’t understand the system, since the Kobas could easily afford the flowers themselves. The super-rich baffled her. Whoever had sent this display hadn’t gotten the colour coordination memo.
“Thank you.” Shaun approached Leeza carefully. They hadn’t spoken more than a few words since Leeza had pointed a gun at her. Shaun supposed it was only natural that their budding relationship would become stilted after such a thing. She reached out to take the card from the flowers.
She glanced at the card and started laughing. “This has to be a joke.”
“Who’s it from?” Leeza asked, setting the heavy arrangement down on the nearest table.
A servant gave the flowers a scandalized look and whisked them out of the carefully decorated black and gold room before Dasha could see them. Shaun didn’t blame the staff member for his concern. She’d seen things that week that would make a drill sergeant flinch, and now had a new respect for anyone who worked on the Koba grounds.
“The card says it’s from Buckingham palace,” Shaun said with another laugh. “It says, best wishes on your upcoming nuptials. Yours Sincerely, the Duke and Duchess of Wales.”
“Yes,” Leeza said with a knowing nod. “Mom went to boarding school with a few royals. The families occasionally hunted together when my grandparents were in England.”
Shaun felt dizzy and reached for the nearest chair. “Who exactly is coming to this party?”
Leeza’s face creased in understanding and she took the chair next to Shaun, reaching for her hand. Shaun stiffened at the contact, the image of a gun in that delicate hand haunting her. Then she shook the thought away and forced herself to relax. Leeza was just trying to put her at ease, like she’d done the first day Shaun spent in the mansion.
“You really don’t want to know,” Leeza assured Shaun, humour in her accented tones. “It doesn’t matter though. They’re still people, with or without their money. Their shit still stinks, just like the rest of us.”