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Xavier scoffs. “I don’t know, Dad. Do you think your highly developed palate can handle something as common place as shepherd’s pie?”
Pritchard ignores his son and looks at me. “As I said, it sounds delightful. If you might show me where I can clean up for our meal?”
I struggle not to react to his overly formal speech and mannerisms. I glance back at Xavier one more time and he makes an overexaggerated gesture for me to lead on.
I start back toward the house and am surprised when not only Pritchard but Xavier himself follow me. Once the house is in view, I gesture on ahead.
“You can let yourself in through the kitchen, the bathroom is down the hall and to the left. You can clean up there.”
Pritchard pauses, his gaze briefly locking with his son’s before he heads up toward the house.
I immediately swing around to Xavier.
“Holy shit!” I smack him on the chest. “You never told me your father was Mr. Moneybags. I mean, I guessed you were rich because of the whole get-my-Dad-out-of-the-country thing.” I pace in front of him. “But you don’t wear it like that.” I pause and look at him again. “So, what is it? Are you guys old money? Did you strike it rich back in the day like the Rockefellers? Or do you run guns?” I start nodding. “I thought mafia from the beginning.”
Xavier just stares at me, totally deadpan. “Worse than all of those.”
My mouth drops open and I stop pacing right in front of him. “What? What is it?”
“My family are career politicians.”
I pause and frown. “What’s your last name again?” I heard it once briefly the day Holy Hellfire died but everything was happening too fast for me to really catch it.
His jaw goes taut. “Kent. My dad is Pritchard Kent.”
“Shit.” I can feel my face draining of color.
“Language.” The chastisement barely has any energy to it, though.
“He’s the Speaker of the House,” I whisper.
Xavier nods, apparently completely unimpressed by this fact.
“Oh God, did he invest with my dad?” I put a hand to my forehead.
“No, but your father was already on my radar,” Xavier watches me gravely.
I stumble back from him. He denied it in the beginning but what if he was lying? “Oh God, please tell me—” Dad said he’d borrowed from bad, powerful men. “Were you out for my Dad all along?”
Xavier shakes his head, vehemently. “No.” He takes a step forward, closing the gap between us. “But I know who is and, yes, it’s someone else in my father’s world. Years ago when they lent your father money and went into business with him, I knew about it because Dad and I talked about everything back then. We had a brief period of getting along.” His mouth tightens. Obviously that didn’t last too long. “He was trying to groom me to walk in his footsteps and he didn’t want me heading into the family business naïve or blind to how things actually work in Washington. When I saw in the news about your father’s indictment, I knew you were both in danger. I figured you and I could come to a mutually beneficial arrangement. Help each other out.”
I lean over and put my hands on my knees. “Your dad said something about a bargain, I don’t get it. What was he talking about?”
Xavier rubs my back and I’m not sure if I want to pull away from his touch or lean into it.
“My grandfather was a very rich man.” Xavier’s voice is short and to the point. “There’s an inheritance. I live on a yearly stipend until then. But the inheritance is enough to let me continue and even expand the rescue comfortably for the rest of my life. I could have accessed the money earlier, when I was twenty-five, as long as I sought public office. Continued the family tradition.”
His voice drops off and when I turn my head, though his hand still moves methodically over my back, he’s staring off into the distance.
“That didn’t work out,” he finally says. It’s obvious there’s more to the story he’s glossing over, but he moves on. “I got back from the army and opened this place up. I thought I got the money when I turned thirty. But no, it turns out there’s a provision that I have to have a natural-born child by the time of my next birthday in order to inherit the money.”
“So me and the baby.” I take a sharp breath in. I guess when I thought about it I assumed family was just something that was very important to Xavier. I never guessed it was about… that it was all part of some… “You just need us to get the money?” I can’t help the accusation in my voice.
“Don’t twist my words.” He grabs both of my hands when I try to turn away from him. “You.” He pulls me close and drops a hand to my stomach between us, his blue eyes burning into mine. “This child.” His head starts to shake back and forth. “You’re nothing I ever thought I would—” He swallows and looks down. It’s unlike him to be at a loss for words and I can’t help pressing.
