Page 67 of Love & Power

Ryker stumbled back a step at the steely tone of my voice. There weren’t many times I got well and truly mad, but he’d pissed me the fuck off. “Ryker, I’m talking about Astin nearly splintering to the point we wouldn’t be able to save her. If that happened, the woman we love would have been gone for good. So the one way Liu knew he could prove to her all of us were safe and alive was to fuck the truth into her. So yeah, I chose to protect the mental health of the woman whose well-being I put above all else. You want to know why I wasn’t concerned about her safety? Because I fucking knew that you wouldn’t let any danger get within a thousand feet of her after such a close call. So take your insecurities and shove them up your ass.”

Shoving off the wall, I slammed my shoulder into him as I passed, heading to my room. I was done with this conversation, and I had better places to be than dealing with Ryker’s foul mood. As I shoved open my door, I caught sight of Atticus watching us from his doorway. We must have woken him up, and I felt bad about that.

“Sorry, Atticus, I didn’t mean for things to get that loud,” I apologized before slipping into my borrowed space, grabbing clothes, and heading right back to Astin’s room without acknowledging either of them. I’d reached my limit of what I could handle in a day. It was time to get what little sleep I could and pray tomorrow would be a better day.

twenty-six

Sleep never came, no matter what I tried.

There had only been two occasions in my life I struggled to sleep. One of them occurred after I lost my mother. It hadn’t been a shock, and I knew one day I was going to walk into her room, and she would be gone. The cancer had taken everything from her, leaving a feeble husk of the warm, kind woman who was my mother. I had been so used to being a light sleeper, listening for any sign my mother might need my assistance. We only had a nurse for her during the day, so I watched over her in the evenings. Suddenly, the house was silent, no noises from the machines or the ever-shifting air mattress they had her laying on to keep her from getting bedsores. After a week, I adjusted to the quiet and began to understand my need for eight hours of sleep.

The second time was right after Astin spent the night in my bed. Having experienced the satisfaction of holding her and allowing the sound of her steady heartbeat to lull me to sleep changed everything. It was one of the many reasons I found myself sleeping in her bed more often than not. As long as I had her, I could sleep anywhere, but tonight I was alone. I’d been in the middle of reciting the decimals for Pi when I heard raised voices.

Typically, I wasn’t one to insert myself into a situation, but considering tonight’s events, I felt it was best if I checked. Upon opening my door, I discovered Jace and Ryker in a heated conversation. I could tell by their expressions and the tension in their bodies the emotion they were most likely experiencing was anger. The more Jace spoke, the louder he got, and I could now clearly hear what he was saying.

“… Liu knew he could prove to her all of us were safe and alive was to fuck the truth into her. So yeah, I chose to protect the mental health of the woman whose well-being I put above all else. You want to know why I wasn’t concerned about her safety? Because I fucking knew that you wouldn’t let any danger get within a thousand feet of her after such a close call. So take your insecurities and shove them up your ass,” Jace snapped.

It appeared I caught the end of the argument as Jace slammed into Ryker as he walked away. I was about to head back to bed when Jace spotted me. Assuming he was going to be upset with me for witnessing this fight, I braced for his anger.

“Sorry, Atticus, I didn’t mean for things to get that loud,” Jace apologized, then immediately entered his room.

Ryker turned on his heel, hearing what Jace said, and spotted me. “Fuck, I’m sorry, Atticus. Can I get you anything? Is the pain bad? I think the doctor is still in the room with Boykov if you need more pain meds.”

I held my answer as Jace charged out of his room with a bundle of clothes under his arm as he returned to Astin’s room. “Aren’t you going too?” I asked, confused as to why Ryker would choose to be elsewhere.

“What?” he questioned. “Go where?”

“To sleep in Astin’s room. Isn’t that where you want to be?” I inquired. “If I wasn’t worried about my shoulder, that’s where I would choose to sleep. I’ve recently discovered I don’t find much enjoyment in sleeping alone like I had before.”

“I have to agree with you there,” Ryker muttered, rubbing the back of his head. A self-soothing gesture people did when they felt uncomfortable. “Thing is, I don’t deserve to be there tonight. I failed to keep her safe, so I’m going to stay up and make sure she can sleep without worry.”

My brows knit together. “Forgive me if this is insensitive, but how did you fail her? As far as I could tell, Astin doesn’t have a scratch on her from the events that occurred in the dining hall. The person who should be held responsible is the one who allowed them on the plane or the security who let them enter the estate. You made sure there was security posted in many places to ensure no one who wasn’t supposed to be there was given entry. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you had pictures printed of each family member attending, and all security had a copy. I sincerely don’t see how this is your fault.”

Ryker just stared at me for a moment, his eyes blinking more quickly than was normal. Perhaps they’d gotten irritated from the blast.

“Atticus, do you realize what you just said means someone on the security team was in on this?” Ryker informed me.

Cocking my head, I adjusted my glasses as they slid down my nose. Tomorrow, I needed to prioritize getting a new pair. These were simply not effective any longer with the cracked lens and bent frame. Clearing my throat, I refocused on the conclusion Ryker just stated.

“Yes, I suppose that is true,” I agreed. “Astin was tipped off that something was amiss when she noticed that there were no marks on their arms from the oath ceremony. It could be that they came late after the ceremony when everyone was moving to the next building. However, if that is when they arrived, security might not be involved.”

“How so?” Ryker challenged.

“I believe it is safe to assume security wouldn’t be as diligent about checking identities since everyone was checked earlier. Two people slipping into the midst of a crowd of three hundred people would be an understandable miss,” I reasoned.

Ryker absently rubbed the side of his face where a mark that looked remarkably like a handprint sat. “That actually makes perfect sense. If security had no reason to look for party crashers, having had the area secured, it’s possible these two snuck in on their own.” He turned his gaze to me. “You planning on getting some sleep, or do you want to tag along to see if we can figure out who these people really were?”

I considered his offer against the reality of me actually getting any sleep. “I’ll join you… something tells me I won’t be sleeping tonight.”

“All right. First, I want to take a look at the woman who didn’t get blown to bits by the bomb. I want to know if she really is a Raffa or if the whole thing was a setup,” Ryker said as he headed for the stairs. “Either way, the next step is finding out who leaked the information about the meeting. From what we know, this has the Leoni Family prints written all over it.”

“Do you know what they’ve done with their bodies?” I asked, holding my slinged arm steady as we hurried down to the first floor.

Ryker paused, then pulled out his phone. “Gemma, where did they take the bodies? More specifically, the woman?”

I could hear Gemma’s voice on the other end and someone else yelling something to her in the background.

“Got it. Atticus and I are heading over there. Wait for us to arrive before doing anything else,” he ordered. “Let’s go. They’ve got one of their detectives here taking fingerprints. We should know who she really is by the time we get there.”