Page 18 of No Longer Safe

My mother stood up and motioned for her to take an empty seat across from me that had heaping amounts of food in it. In a way I was thankful for the interruption, Father wouldn’t dare bring up the marriage market in front of our guest. I closed my eyes, I couldn’t wait for this woman to go back home in a few days. I could have peace again, I could bury myself in work, and I could sleep in my own penthouse.

“Good morning, Audrey, sweetheart” my mother beamed. “How is your morning? How did you sleep?”

Based on the dark circles under her eyes, she’d either slept horribly or she was nursing a horrible hangover. I guessed the latter considering I’d watched her drink herself into oblivion the night before as she stared at my brother and Carina like they were something to look up to. I hated every second of this.

“My morning is going fantastic,” Audrey beamed and I frowned. She hadn’t looked this happy since she arrived in New York. What the fuck? What made her this happy? What could have possibly happened between the time I carried her drunk ass up the stairs to this morning? My eyes bounced down to the table where her phone was lighting up and I felt my mood sour.

Ah,yes, the boyfriend.

“It couldn’t be that great considering you were completely shitfaced last night.” A smile touched my lips, but just barely.

The smile my mother wore quickly turned into a frown as she swatted my hand. My father leaned back in his chair and opened his newspaper, not caring about anything else happening now.

Audrey’s lips puckered before she recovered and opened her mouth to reply. Ace breezed into the room and interrupted whatever she was about to say. I didn’t know if I was thankful or annoyed to not hear her response. My mother visibly relaxed beside me and my brothers took that opportunity to all talk at once, probably thankful there was a break in the awkward tension Father started when he awoke this morning.

Ace slid into the empty chair on the other side of me, closest to Father at the head of the table, and grinned down at his plate. “Last night was wonderful thank you for hosting it, Mother.”

She patted his shoulder affectionately as Carina took a seat across from him, beside her best friend. She bumped shoulders with Audrey and lowered her voice. I strained my ears to hear what she said. “You look in better spirits this morning.”

I didn’t miss the way Audrey’s eyes slid to me before they softened on her friend. “Things took a turn for the better this morning.”

Carina could only smile and I felt sick, once again. This morning was looking like it was headed right for the shitter. I wasn’t sure why it made me so frustrated. It wasn’t like I liked this Audrey girl.

It had to be my father and all of his talks about political marriage, that had to be it. This Audrey girl was a nobody, she didn’t matter. Nothing about this farce of a marriage mattered, I learned that a long time ago.

“This has been delightful,” I pushed away from the table and looked my father in the eye, something that was more painful than anything else. “I’ll think about what we discussed.”

Ace raised his brows. “What was discussed?”

I walked out of the room just as Father informed them all of his plan to get me shackled next.

There wasnothing more that I wanted than to get the hell out of this estate but I was stuck here. Mother forbade us from leaving this weekend and so I was stuck. Stuck with my infuriating parents, the annoying brothers, and the one woman who shouldn’t have gotten under my skin but was. I raked my fingers through my hair as I marched down the front steps of the massive place my parents called home and fled right into the sprawling gardens. Maybe fresh air would help me. Maybe getting lost and dying out here would help everyone else.

Who was I kidding? I couldn’t get lost on this rolling estate even if I wanted to, which I desperately did. There were cameras posted everywhere. The moment I would decide to lay down and die somewhere, my mother would come barreling through the property on a speedy golf cart and come right to my rescue. It didn’t matter that I’d never wanted to be rescued, she would always do it. In a way, it was endearing but also annoying. Couldn’t they all just leave me alone?

I should have known better than to think that because as soon as I did, one of my brothers rode up beside me on a fancy new golf cart with a beer in his hand and another in the cup holder. It wasn’t even noon yet. The wide-rimmed sunglasses slid down his nose.

“Do you want to get day drunk?”Dimitri lifted a blond brow.

“No.” The thought of alcohol and dealing with one of my loud brothers didn’t sound appealing.

He shoved his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and lifted his chin. “That’s not like you.”

“The last thing I want to do is be scraping your drunk ass off of the concrete in a few hours.”

He leaned back in the bench seat and grinned. He didn’t say anything, just looked at me like he owned the world. I guess in a way we did.

I groaned. “If I have a beer with you, will you leave me alone?”

He shrugged and took another sip of his. “Probably not.”

I held my hand out for the beer anyway.

Three hours later,my mouth tasted like piss, and Dimitri was almost having to scrape me off of the concrete. It wasn’t exactly how I planned it, but I wasn’t mad. No, I wasn’t mad and belligerent until Carina and Audrey exited my parents’ mansion. Until I pressed myself into the hedge to listen to their conversation and my blood went cold.

“I don’t think you understand me,” Carina was looking over the garden, somehow she’d missed me. “Life is too short for terrible sex.”

Audrey sighed.

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