“Are you eating in your parents’ suite?”
“I don’t know. Let me call my mother.”
She called her mother, exchanged a few words and disconnected. “We’re going to eat in Kostya’s suite. Dinner will be served in fifteen minutes and I told her you were joining us.”
“What’d she say?” I asked, sliding an arm around her shoulders as we walked.
“She wanted to know why.”
“What did you say?”
“I told her she could probably figure it out.”
I chuckled. “This is going to be fun, huh?”
“Not as fun as last night in the pool, but probably not terrible.”
“You liked last night in the pool?” I teased her.
“And on the lounge chair, and in the shower…”
“We were a little ambitious last night,” I mused. “I’m going to have to get creative tonight to top all that.”
“I can’t wait.”
19
Solange
The last thing I wanted to do tonight was have dinner with my parents, Kostya and Axel. Kostya was in a really bad mood, my father was eyeing Axel suspiciously, and my mother was pretending we were having some kind of dinner party. If it hadn’t been so painfully awkward, I might have laughed. Instead, I did my best to eat the wonderful meal prepared for us. We were having fettuccine carbonara, salad, and garlic bread. It was much richer than I was used to, but delicious, and mostly I was letting the food be a wonderful distraction.
“I’m not hungry.”
Kostya got up from the table abruptly and I realized I’d missed something.
“Sit down, Kostya.” My mother sounded annoyed.
Shit. What was going on?
“I’m not a child,” he snapped. “You don’t get to send me to my room—or keep me from going there.”
“You’re part of this discussion and you’re not going anywhere until we’ve had it.”
They were speaking Limaji, so I wasn’t sure how much Axel understood, but he was focused on his meal and pretending to be disinterested. I knew better, of course. Axel was good at his job and this was just one of many ways he protected the royal family. Anything going on in the palace was of interest to him, no matter what he let people think.
“You realize Solange is screwing this guy and you’re treating me like I’m the one in trouble.”
“Solange is a grown woman.” Papa spoke up for the first time since the meal had begun. “Who she sleeps with is none of your business.”
“Since when?” Kostya demanded. “You’ve guarded her virtue more than gold.”
“I guarded her reputation in a small town where there was no way for her to escape prying eyes and cutting tongues. I was afraid that would hurt her chances for a future and it may have been my biggest mistake. I should have been paying more attention to you. And now I am.”
“This is ridiculous!” Kostya threw up his hands. “I did what I had to do to take care of this family. If I hadn’t worked with the Brat, we would have starved to death two years ago. And they would have taken a lot more than money if not for me.”
“Yes, but if you’d come clean from the beginning,” Axel interjected in English, “we could have protected the café and stopped it from burning down.”
I gave him side-eye at his understanding of the language, but didn’t say anything, instead watching with amusement as Kostya glared at him.
“For what?” Kostya asked, rolling his eyes. “It was a money pit and we spent every dime we made to feed the whole town. They paid when they could, but mostly they couldn’t. Solange worked eighty hours a week to keep that place running, and right when she finally got us to a place where we were making a profit, winter would come and fuck it up. We had no future there. I’m glad they burned the place down.”
“That was all we had,” Papa told him, his eyes a little misty. “The café has been in our family for generations.”
“And we’ve been starving in it for most of my life. I’m sorry, Papa, but it wasn’t worth saving.”
“Perhaps you’re right, but it wasn’t your decision to make.”
“Someone had to do something.”
“No one is questioning your motives,” Axel said in a conciliatory tone. “It’s the fact that you haven’t been forthcoming about details. I need to know everything, Kostya. Otherwise, I can’t help.”
“We don’t need your help,” Kostya said, glaring at him. “I had it handled.”
“You had nothing handled!” I finally lost my patience with this conversation. “We made it through the winter but we were about to lose everything in the summer. They almost killed you. If Axel hadn’t shown up when he did, you’d be dead right now, and probably Papa too.”
“They wouldn’t have killed me,” Kostya protested. “They were sending a message that we were late with the payments.”
“They destroyed everything inside the café, which meant we had no way to make more money to give them. And without you and Papa, Mama and I never would have gotten back on our feet. They had a plan and you need to tell us what it was.”
We glared at each other but he was the one who finally backed down.
“I don’t know what their plans are,” he said after a moment, looking down. “All I know is that they were trying to show the people of the town they would take care of us, especially in the winter, but that they expect loyalty.”
“To what end?” Axel asked.
“I don’t know,” Kostya said quietly. “They didn’t tell me those types of details.”
“Tomorrow, you’re going to sit with an associate of mine and tell him everything you can remember, okay?” Axel looked at him intently, waiting. “Okay?”
“Yeah, I guess so. Okay.”
“Now let’s enjoy dinner without any more of this animosity. It’s not good for digestion.”
I dipped my head so Kostya wouldn’t see my smile.
“So tell us about you,” Mama said to Axel, as if we hadn’t just had an argument with Kostya. “We know nothing about you or your family.”
Axel didn’t seem put off by this at all and told my family a somewhat exaggerated version of what I already knew, adding some frivolous details. He was less forthright about the distance he kept from his family, making it sound like it was merely the geographical distance that kept them apart.
“And as a Royal Protector, do you live at the palace or do you also have a home somewhere in Hiskale?”
“I work seven days a week,” he told her. “Having a house to take care of would just be a waste of time and money. I have a small suite here at the palace and that’s all I need.”
“Don’t you wish for privacy? Or a place to escape to?”
Axel smiled. “I have plenty of privacy. No one bothers me when I’m off duty, and frankly, living here means I have no commute to work.”
“And what happens when you get married?” Mama asked. “You’ll live and raise a family here?”