I’m wolfing my breakfast down as fast as I can the next day, already wearing my riding boots and the tight fawn-colored jodhpurs I found not-so-mysteriously in my room this morning. I look towards the galley, but Kent isn’t cooking today.
Where is he? I can’t wait to get to the stable – to see Heathcliff again – to get started –
I drink my orange juice in one big gulp and Daniel laughs at me. “Seriously,” he says, his plate still full. “You’re not going to get my dad to appear any faster if you choke on your food.”
I smile at him and he grins back, tilting his head to the side. “It’s so good to see you happy, Fay,” he says. Then his expression falls a little. “I’m just sorry I didn’t think of it first – I had no idea you wanted a horse – I could have easily –“
“It’s okay, Daniel,” I say, putting a hand on his and giving him another bright smile. “I didn’t know it either. Or, well, I’ve always wanted one – but I had no idea it was a real possibility.”
He laughs lightly at me. “Anything money can buy, Fay,” he says warmly. “If you can dream it, we’ll get it for you.”
“Hmmm,” I say, winking at him. “You do know that I have a very active imagination. You might regret that, Danny-boy.”
He laughs at me again as I stand up, stretching. Kent comes through the door then, pausing a moment to look at me. I drop my hands and give him a big smile as he comes over.
“Hi!” I say, excited.
He looks at me again, a little indulgent, and then tosses a piece of paper onto the breakfast table. “Sorry to have to burst your bubble, sweetheart,” he says, a little rueful. “But the stables have to wait until tomorrow.”
My face falls immediately with disappointment. “Wha – what?!”
He shrugs, indicating the paper. I glance at it, realizing it’s an invitation. Daniel picks it up.
“Looks like your dad feels bad, Fay,” he says, raising his eyebrow. “The invitation explicitly says that he and Tristin are having a party tonight to welcome you as a member of their family.”
Daniel looks up at me, holding it out so I can see. “Looks like he’s trying to make amends. Public ones.”
I take the invitation from him, studying it, sighing. The party is tonight, five o’clock, but with all I’ll have to do to get ready…
“Damnit,” I mutter, my shoulders slumping, looking between them. “I guess I have to go.”
“We have to go,” Kent says, pointing at the envelope which is explicitly addressed to the three of us.
“What about Fiona?” I ask, picking up the envelope as well.
Kent shrugs, impassive. “She can come if she likes. It won’t matter.”
I nod, hoping she’ll come. I always feel braver when she’s around to make me laugh.
“What,” Daniel asks, looking at his father. I turn my attention to him as well, wondering what Daniel is seeing. Kent’s face is grave.
“I don’t know,” Kent says, shaking his head and rubbing his chin. “I don’t like the looks of this.”
“Why?” I ask, frowning.
“My guys looked into it,” he says, gesturing towards the invitation. “Alden is using this opportunity to introduce your entire extended family – cousins, aunts, uncles, everyone.”
I go pale at this, a little scared. If just meeting my step-mom went so poorly…
“And in exchange,” Kent continues, “he’s invited all of our people as well. It was different, when I had Alden come here – there was just a small guest list, only those who needed to be here –“
No one you introduced me to, I think, twisting my mouth a little, but okay.
“But tonight,” Kent says, not noticing the face I’m making, “he wants all of his people, and all of my people, in a room together. And not on either of our turf – in an outside location.”
I glance at the invitation again and see, indeed, that he’s invited us all to meet at a local country club.
Kent continues to shake his head and Daniel joins him. “I just don’t like it,” Kent says pensively.
Daniel nods but I look between them again. “Wait,” I say, “catch me up. What’s so bad about that?”
Kent says nothing, staring at me – challenging me, I think, to figure it out myself. But Daniel shakes his head and explains. “Fay,” he says, “when big families get together like this, sometimes other gangs see it as an…opportunity. Two birds with one stone, as it were.”
“Or,” Kent says, picking up the thread. “Because Alden has greater numbers than us, he could see it as an…opportunity. To pressure us into deals we’re not happy making. It’s…non-preferred.”
“Oh,” I say, raising my eyebrows. “Maybe we should…not go.”
Kent shakes his head again. “No, he’s got us cornered there. He’s already sent out the invitations to all of his people, all of mine. It’s short notice, but…if I keep you from it, it will look like I’m keeping you from your family.”
Daniel and I nod, understanding.
“Well,” I say, hesitating, “I could just go…alone…”
Kent freezes then, looking at me with humor and disbelief in his eyes. Then, he bursts out laughing.
“Not a chance in hell, Fay,” he says, walking by me and giving me a little swat on my jodhpur-clad butt. “Go get ready!” he calls. “We’re leaving at 4:30, sharp! I want you two looking good!”
Both Daniel and I stare at him as he walks away.
“Did he…” I say, shocked.
“Just…” Daniel continues, his voice low and unbelieving.
I turn to look him, my eyes as wide as saucers. “Did your dad just smack my ass?”
A few hours later, Fiona is putting the finishing touches on my hair. I groan a little as she pins the last piece into place, finishing it off with some hairspray. My entire scalp hurts, each strand of hair having been combed and tugged and curled and pinned and sprayed.
The hairdo is a triumph, of course. It’s so elaborately curled and swept up delicately off my shoulders that I look like I could be getting married.
“You’re gorg,” she says, leaning down so that I can see both of our faces in the mirror. She laughs, then, giving me a kiss on the cheek and then whipping her lipstick off my skin with her thumb. “Absolutely gorgeous!”
I stand up and let Fiona help me into the little black cocktail dress she’s chosen for the occasion, the fabric shimmering subtly in the low light of my room. It skims off my shoulders and cuts high on my thighs – definitely racier than anything she’s put me in before.
“Are you sure this isn’t a little…risqué?” I ask, considering myself in the mirror. “For like, a meeting the family sort of thing?”
“When it was your dad, it was one thing to look like a pretty pretty princess,” Fiona says confidently, zipping me up. “But trust me, I know women like those you’re meeting tonight. If you come in looking like a little girl, they’ll eat you alive.”
We both look at me in the mirror and I’m surprised by what I see. If last time I was the Mafia princess, tonight I am dressed as the Femme Fatale. The woman who can wreck it all if she wants, and walk away laughing.
“You look as if you could breathe fire,” Fiona says approvingly, passion in her words.
“Do you really think so?” I ask, turning to look at her.
“Baby Fay,” she says, shaking her head at me with a little pity in her eyes. “Our innocent little baby. You really have no idea what you’ve got going on, do you?”
I frown at her, not understanding.
“You could have them all in the palm of your hand,” she whispers to me, holding out her own in front of my face to demonstrate. “With just one look. You could bring them all to their knees.”
I snap my head back to the mirror, wondering if it’s true. Thinking, suddenly – perversely, I know – of Kent on his knees before me. And what I’d make him do if I had him there.