“No, that’s not it.” I shook my head and smiled. “I think it would be great to have her around, but we don’t usually hire novices.”
“Natalia was a novice.” He gave me a private smile, one that told me he wasn’t going to tell me any more than he thought I needed to know. “And now look at her.”
“She was military. Solange barely finished high school, has zero military training, and taught herself what she knows about computers. I worry about throwing her into the fold. What we do is…dangerous. She has no idea about this life.”
“She’s going to be working at the school, so while there’s secondary danger by her proximity to the children of rich, important people, she could run into that kind of danger just by being with you.”
Fuck.
“Don’t do that,” Joe said, watching me.
“Don’t do what?”
“That look on your face, the one that says you’re worried about her being with you. You know she’s safest when she’s with you, right? Keeping her here, teaching her how to protect herself, that’s how you keep her safe.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself.” I got to my feet. “Do you know when she and Jonas will be back?”
“Jonas texted and said they’ll be back about six.” He paused. “Also, Kostya just got out of the hospital and should be here in the next few minutes. Natalia’s picking him up and will set him up in one of the guest suites.”
I nodded and got to my feet.
It was five thirty now, so I had a little time before Solange got here, and I needed to talk with Kostya.
“The kid needs some direction,” Joe called after me. “But an ass-whooping isn’t going to accomplish anything.”
I chuckled but didn’t turn back.
I checked with Jesper Vanta, who was Erik’s chief of staff, to find out where Kostya was. He knew everything that went on, at any given time, and he told me which would be Kostya’s suite. When I got there, Natalia had just dropped him off and Nadia and Samuel were there, helping to get him settled.
“Axel, hello.” Nadia smiled at me.
“Hello.” I called to Natalia before she left, “Hey, Nat. Now that you’re cleared for hand-to-hand, Sandor wants me to start working with you. You want to start tomorrow?”
She grinned. “Absolutely.”
“See you in the gym at six?”
“I’ll be there.” She waved and left the room. I shut the door behind her and turned to Kostya and his parents.
“Time for a little family meeting,” I said, leaning against the wall.
“I beg your pardon?” Nadia frowned at me.
“Kostya has something to talk to you about. Don’t you, son?”
Kostya gave me a dirty look.
“Here’s the deal,” I said quietly. “The king wants to do everything possible to help you after what happened at the café, but Kostya has to think about what he wants going forward. Getting in bed with people like the Brat, well, that’s not going to cut it here in Hiskale.”
“What is he talking about, Kostya?” Nadia turned to her son suspiciously.
“Nothing, Mama.” Kostya scowled at me. “You should be asking him about his intentions with Solange.”
I smiled. “My relationship with Solange is none of your business, kid. I’m just here to warn you that if you bring bad people around the inn, your parents are going to lose everything. Again. And there won’t be anyone coming to the rescue this time.”
I nodded at the Kovacs. “I’ll see you at dinner.”
I felt like an asshole but before leaving for his honeymoon, Sandor had told me to do whatever I needed to do to get Kostya under control. We’d known he’d been involved but not the details, so the time was here for me to handle it. He’d been in rough shape in the hospital, but he was on the mend and I wasn’t going to give him time to get in touch with any of his old friends or contacts. Solange had taken the laptop since they shared it as a family and Joe was watching all of his texts and phone calls.
I spotted Solange and Jonas coming in through the service entrance and went to meet them. “Hey.” I smiled at her. “How was your day?”
“It was wonderful.” She gave me a bright smile as she walked up to me and put her arms around my neck. “The school is incredible—have you been there?—and the computers are amazing! So fast… I’ve never had such fast internet. Well, it’s actually an intranet, but…” She went on for a few minutes and I let her talk. Not that I could have gotten a word in edgewise, but she was so excited and I was excited for her. Jonas gave me a thumbs-up and took off, leaving me with a beautiful woman I wanted to kiss.
“…and then the network links to the palace, but only the security offices, so we have direct contact with them if—”
I cut her off with my mouth, taking her lips as if they were mine. I slid my tongue between them and she opened her mouth for me. We kissed for a few minutes and I finally pulled back. “I really just want to take you to bed,” I said, “but I’m guessing you’re hungry and your parents are waiting to see you at dinner.”
“Yes.” Her smile faded a little. “They weren’t happy about my new job but Princess Elen was quite convincing, and of course, they would never be rude to anyone here at the palace.”
“Do I need to summon Elen to dinner to help smooth things over?”
She shook her head. “No. I’ll handle them.”
“You want me to make myself scarce?”
“No.” She met my eyes. “I’m sure my parents are going to figure out we’re…dating. We might as well be up front about it.”
“Your brother might be a little pissed at me tonight, though.”
“My brother?” Her eyes narrowed. “Axel, what did you do?”
“I told your parents he had something to tell them.” I felt bad about that but I had a job to do. Erik had bent over backwards for her family, and Kostya’s Brat friends posed a threat not just to the Kovacs, but to Erik as well since he was responsible for the whole thing. If the Brat followed Kostya here to Hiskale, that would escalate things and we’d nip that in the bud immediately.
She sighed. “I told you, he’s not a bad kid, just bored and a little full of himself.”
“I know that. Which is why he’s here at the palace, but it’s my job to make sure he doesn’t bring those people to your doorstep at the inn. Or worse, here to the palace. He was in pretty deep, Solange.”
“Are you sure?”
“Unfortunately, yes. Joe did a deep dive into his phone and email records and he’s been involved with them for two years, taking money from them and giving them information. He wouldn’t tell me much, but what I do know isn’t good, and you have to understand Sandor will throw his ass in prison if he falls back in with them. I’m trying to avoid that by being a hard-ass.”
She nodded. “I understand. We’ll talk to him.”
“I’m hoping your mother will get on him. He seems more afraid of her than anyone else.”
“That’s probably true.”