“No,” he said. “Don’t be. Our first real hug. That was awesome.”
“Agreed.”
Bit by bit, all the tension that I’d built up was easing. I missed Deon and couldn’t wait to have him home, but I was happy to be getting close with my “royal” family while I waited.
We met up with the rest of The Royal Court and we split up into a few different cars to drive to one of our favorite pasta restaurants in downtown Postings. A table had been reserved, and we were ushered to it in a back, private room as soon as we arrived. We sat around the table starting with Nathan, then Nikita, Jaxon, Colette, Kyle, Brayden, Alistair, Avery, me, and Sicily, and then there were two open chairs between Nathan and Sicily. Water in crystal goblets were at each seat, and there was a large basket of a few different types of bread at the table.
“Surprise guests?” Alistair said.
Nathan nodded. “Hopefully they can help us glean a little more information.”
We made idle chatter and enjoyed the bread and butter until, eventually, two more people were brought back to the private room. The woman was medium-height, with shoulder-length light brown hair, and a dark blue cocktail dress showing off a fit, toned body. She was beautiful, no question, but the most unique feature about her were her eyes, which were a sparkling green. The left moved around naturally, taking in the different people at the table, but the right, though realistic-looking, wasn’t moving at all.
The man was tall. The only person in our group that maybe stood taller was all six feet, four inches of Kyle. His arms and legs were built like tree trunks, forcing the fabric of his button-up and slacks to do the work of keeping them contained. He kept a hand situated low on the woman’s back, making me feel like they were romantically involved.
“There’s my boy!” The woman yelped.
Nathan jumped up out of his seat, and the smile he got was blinding and bright. “Anisa!” He damn near threw himself into a hug and the woman squeezed him close, reminding me of a mother holding her son. The man slid over and put his hand on Nathan’s shoulder, and Nathan unfurled from the woman he’d called Anisa, and clasped into a hug with the man. “Cobalt.”
“Man, you’ve gotten tall. It’s been too long,” he said.
Colette balanced her head in her hands and smiled at the interaction. “The parents he deserves,” she whispered to herself, and it actually brought a tear to my eyes. There were people out there who loved Nathan the way he deserved. That made me happier than words could express.
“My god, is that Nikki?” Anisa said, and Nikita nodded. “Oh my god. You look beautiful! Look, Cobalt.” Then her eyes scanned further. “And Kyle!”
Kyle’s jaw dropped. “Wow! Oh my god. Anisa. Cobalt. It’s been… years.”
Nikita and Kyle were the two people that Nathan knew even from before starting The Royal Court, so it made sense that they’d know them as well.
Anisa and Cobalt settled down into the two empty chairs and Nathan returned to his seat. “Guys, this beauty here is Anisa, and this titan of a man is Cobalt. They used to work for my dad, but they left his employ after seeing how he treated me.”
“Nathan was just this cute, innocent little thing, and that man was destroying him,” Anisa said. “I couldn’t stand by and watch it. I would have done anything to take him with me.”
“He turned out okay though,” Cobalt said. “I’ll admit, when you called us, we lost our minds. I don’t think Anisa stopped crying for two days.”
“Well, I have these people to thank for that.” He set his hand on Nikita’s. “You guys know Nikki, and we’re together now.”
“Seriously?!” Anisa yelped. “Yay!”
“Next to her is her best friend Jaxon, his girl and my friend Colette next to him. You remember Kyle, and that’s my friend Brayden next to him. Then my friend Alistair and his girlfriend Avery.” He pointed at me. “That ray of sunshine there is like a sister to me, Cherri.” Both Anisa and Cobalt shifted a little at my name, but continued to smile and nodded at me. “And then next to her is my friend Sicily.”
“That’s right. I’m his friend. Me. Sicily,” Sicily said.
“That can still change,” Nathan joked.
Sicily held up his hands. “Sorry.”
“Anisa is a military war hero who took shrapnel in the eye defending her platoon. She’s the strongest person I know, and when my father was trying to torture me, she was taking care of me. She’d sneak me candy and toys. I loved it,” Nathan explained. “Cobalt… well, no one really knows what he did, but I did manage to get out of him once that he may have been in the Secret Service.”
“I can neither confirm nor deny,” Cobalt said, and then winked.
“About five years ago, they left my dad’s employ, right before I started The Royal Court. Anisa tried to keep up with me, but my dad wouldn’t let her. Then when we trapped those two goons a couple of months ago, I called her for help,” Nathan explained.
“Ah, so that’s where they went,” Avery said.
Nathan crossed his hands. “It was a quick, darkened exchange, so I didn’t get to really see or say hi to them, and they’ve been keeping them for me, but I figured it was finally time to come together and compare notes, given that all of our trails seem to be running cold.”
Anisa frowned. “I tried to tell you we don’t have much. Those guys are pretty tight-lipped.”
“I know, but I wanted to see you, and I figured it couldn’t hurt to all toss some stuff around. Who knows, you guys could have a single piece of information that would answer a question we have.” He smiled at Anisa. “Plus I wanted to see you,” he repeated, earning himself a kiss on the cheek. “I hope it’s okay, but I didn’t want anyone just wandering back while we’re talking and hearing something they shouldn’t, so I just ordered large portions of their four main dishes to share. I said they could start them once the last two guests arrived, so they should be out soon.”
Over the course of the next hour, Anisa and Cobalt explained all of the information they’d managed to gather from the two men that had attacked us, whom they’d been keeping under lock and key. A lot of what they knew was already stuff that we’d managed to discern ourselves, and mostly it sounded like the men were being very tight-lipped.
“That doesn’t surprise me, knowing my dad,” Nathan said, but he seemed more frustrated than he did at first. He looked around the table, letting his eyes eventually land on me. “I’m sorry, Cherri. I really thought there would be more.”
“There is one thing that’s pretty obvious. Connor is still operating in and around Postings,” I said. “That’s better than nothing.”
“No wait,” Sicily said. “It really is better than nothing.” All eyes fell on him. “Connor had Deon snatched too, right? Would that suggest that he’s here too?”
Silence enveloped the table as we all pondered that thought. How had that never occurred to us before?
“Deon, wow. A blast from the past,” Anisa said. “You still haven’t found him?”
“No,” Nathan said. “We’ve had a few leads, but we’re coming up empty.”