Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Dorian very carefully didn’t let his disgust show on his face. Phillip was a tool, and tools had their uses. The man controlled the future king of Thalania, and as a result, he had to be handled carefully. Dorian would not see exile again. Not while he breathed.
He knocked on the door to Phillip’s office and let himself in. “We have a problem.”
Phillip didn’t look up from his desk. “There’s always a problem.”
Dorian came to stand before the desk and strove for patience. These petty power games were beyond both of them, but Phillip still insisted on the formalities. He studied the other man as Phillip finished up. The Fitzcharles family’s line ran unbroken back to the origin of Thalania, and despite plenty of intermixing with various bloodlines, it ran true. They were all dark haired, tall, and attractive. The attraction just varied from person to person. Phillip looked like a whittled down version of his late brother—too thin, too pinched, too dull. He knew it, and the comparison never failed to provoke a response.
That wasn’t what Dorian was here for today, though.
Finally, Phillip pushed his paperwork aside and focused his watery blue eyes on Dorian. “Yes?”
Dorian pulled the top photo out of the file and held it up. “There’s a girl.”
The interest died in Phillip’s eyes. “I don’t care about a girl. They’re both men in their prime. Of course there are women.”
The fool. He should know by now that Dorian wouldn’t bring him information that wasn’t confirmed several times over and important. Dorian bit back his impatience and pulled the next photo. “You misunderstand me, Phillip. She’s not just a girl one of them fucked. They both did.”
Phillip froze. “Let me see that.” He grabbed the picture out of Dorian’s hand. The picture was slightly fuzzy since it had been pulled from a security camera, but there was no mistaking Galen and Theo, or that they were both entangled with the woman sitting between them. The next photo showed them leaving together, and the final one was them getting into a cab together.
“I also have footage from the elevator confirming she went into their apartment and didn’t come out until morning.” The state she’d been in confirmed everything he needed to know.
Galen would do anything for Theodore Fitzcharles III. That fool had turned his boy into a slavering guard dog who jumped when he said jump. His son, a fucking Mikos, catering to every whim. And his boy didn’t even have the ambition to use it to his advantage.
Phillip flipped through the file, his thin lips moving as he read. Finally he closed it and set it down. “This could mean nothing.”
Again, he smothered his irritation, giving Phillip a practiced smile. “Or it could mean everything. The girl is a weak link, and with the right leverage, we can use her to guide them onto the path we want them to take.” No one thought for a moment that Theodore would take his exile laying down. Dorian certainly hadn’t. He knew for a fact that Phillip intended to have him quietly killed once Edward was on the throne.
They may not have that kind of time.
Beyond that, if there was a way to salvage Galen’s status and bring him back into the fold, Dorian would ensure it happened. The boy had had his fun. It was time for him to stop fucking around and start dancing to the tune that made sense.
If he cares about this girl, we can use her.
Phillip finally nodded. “Get me confirmation.”
Dorian never let his triumph show. “Of course, Phillip. That’s a brilliant plan.”
5
Three days passed in a fog. Meg couldn’t seem to focus. No matter how hard she tried, her thoughts skated away from whatever she was working on and back to that apartment. To Theo. To Galen. Every shift she pulled at the bar, she half expected to turn around and find Theo lounging against a wall, heat in his blue eyes.
But he never showed.
It was good that he never showed.
She was still furious about the money, her embarrassment and pride and relief all tangled up into a mess inside her. He might think he was doing her a favor, but all he’d done was keep the wolf from the door for one semester. In a few months, she’d be right back in the same place, laying sleepless in her bed and staring at her ceiling as she tried to make the numbers add up.
They never did.
She had to cut some of her hours once school started back up, which meant a cut in money that she couldn’t afford. There was never enough hours, never enough money, never enough.
One problem at a time.
If only life worked that way.
Meg cleared a table, going through the motions while her mind was a million miles away. There was another thirty minutes before she could kick the stragglers out of the bar and close down. Cara was supposed to be here with her tonight, but her friend had come down with a nasty bug and spent the last six hours hugging her toilet. Since no one else could—or was willing to—cover for her, that meant Meg was closing alone. Again.