Page 47 of Reign
Yes,she should have replied. An unthinking, automaticyes.Yet the word didn’t come.
“I’m asking you to stop trying to repair a relationship I can’t remember.” She shook her head. “With everything that’s happened, with Jeff and Daphne’s wedding coming up, we can’t afford any more upheavals. Can you please just act like my fiancé for a while longer? We can figure everything out after Jeff’s wedding. But I can’t do this,” she added helplessly. “Not right now.”Not while Congress is threatening to have me deposed.
Teddy was deadly still. The echo of her words seemed to ring between them, hollow and cruel, and Beatrice felt a sudden pang in her stomach.
Somehow, inexplicably, she felt protective of Teddy’s feelings. Which was especially confusing sinceshewas the one who had hurt him.
“Of course,” Teddy said at last. His voice was different, as if all the joy had been vacuumed out of it, and his eyes were flat and emotionless too. “I won’t say anything romantic again.”
A bleak silence stretched between them. Beatrice told herself it was better this way. They needed to establish a clear boundary before Teddy got his hopes up.
If she didn’t remember their past, how could Teddy possibly expect to share her future?
“I can’t believe I agreed to ride your motorcycle again.” Daphne quickly withdrew her arms from where they’d been wrapped around Ethan’s torso and stepped onto the curb, tugging her hat lower over her hair.
“Please, you love the bike,” Ethan insisted. “It’s a manifestation of all the reckless things you won’t be allowed to do anymore once you’re a princess.”
Daphne shot him a look, wondering just what he meant to imply by reckless and forbidden things, but then she took in their surroundings and faltered.
A deserted-looking office building stared down at them. “Are you sure this is the right place?” she asked dubiously.
“Yep.” Ethan started toward the lobby, and she trotted to keep up.
“How do you even know a hacker?”
“Ray and I go way back. We were on the same T-ball team in elementary school, actually.” Ethan pushed open the door to the staircase, flicking on a switch that illuminated the fluorescent lights overhead.
“This feels like a murder scene in a horror movie,” Daphne said under her breath. Ethan ignored her.
They emerged into a half-finished office space. Paint buckets and empty water bottles were scattered over the subfloor,and the walls were open in places, with insulation fluffing out of them like cotton candy.
“This is Ray’s office?”
A laugh sounded behind them, light and airy like the pealing of bells. Daphne whirled around and saw an Asian American girl leaning against a worktable. With her simple black top and jeans, her hair pulled into a ponytail, she looked utterly normal—forgettable, even.
“The office isn’t mine,” the girl announced. “We’re just borrowing it for this meeting. The owners aren’t moving in for months; they’ll never know.” She nodded to the open walls. “Plus, we know it’s not bugged, so that’s a plus.”
“Wait.You’rethe hacker?” Daphne asked, comprehension dawning.
The girl rolled her eyes. “I assume you were expecting aguy?”
“You said his name was Ray!” Daphne whirled back to face Ethan.
“Rei.R-E-I,” he corrected, fighting back a laugh.
“It’s a Korean name.” Rei jumped up to sit on the table and swung her legs back and forth. “Ethan. You didn’t give Daphne any context on me? I’m a little offended.”
“I know better than to tell anyone your story. I don’t want to end up being accosted in a dark alley.” Ethan came to stand next to the table, and Rei nudged him with her boot.
“Don’t threatenmewith a good time.”
Daphne stared at them. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen Ethan so at ease, his body language relaxed, even playful. The knowledge that some strange girl had brought out this side of him was profoundly irritating.
“Thanks for meeting us, Rei,” she said, a bit coolly.
The other girl nodded. “I hear you need my help tracking the source of an email.”
“Is that something you normally do?” Daphne fumbled. “Or, really—whatdo you normally do?”
