KAISER ―
I PACE AROUND MY ROOM, UNDECIDING.
The paper feels like a brand pressing into my skin at my side. Finally, when I cannot take it, I wrench it out from my pocket and throw it on the desk, the only piece of furniture in my austere room.
I reread it for the umpteenth time, though it only consists of three lines:
Kaiser,
Meet me at Rock Bottom, midnight. Destroy this.
Arcadia
And nothing else.
I ball up the paper and chuck it against the wall, ignoring a twinge of pain, courtesy of my back. I can't help but wonder if she chose the location specifically, just to spite me. Rock Bottom was the place I'd killed my first target, and I haven't been able to go to the club since. On the outside, it was a great place to go clubbing with your friends. In reality, it was a hotspot for seedy dealings and undercover crooks, pawns of the mafia syndicates but never truly aligned with a specific one.
I resume pacing the room. What the hell did that damned woman want from me? And how did she know such... intimate details about everyone? The anniversary of Hugo's brother's death? Remington and Elison's situationship? These weren't things that could be found out from a spy. They were trivial facts, observed after years and years of close contact. Besides, how did that paper even get there?
A thread of suspicion worms through me. Had it been Aleksander? He'd been awfully chummy with Arcadia, who wouldn't leave him alone at the gathering. There'd been plenty of opportunities for her to pass the note to him, and for him to offhandedly drop it on the vanity table. Besides, he'd grown up with us and he knew about Hugo's brother as well as Remi and Elison's relationship. Had it been him?
But hadn't Akilah been there, too, removing her makeup? The note had specifically been addressed to me; there was no way she hadn't seen it. She'd been introduced to us after Hugo brought her to the mansion one night; but what did she have to gain, betraying Hugo, the man who had taken her under his wing? If anything, she was probably the most loyal to him after Remi.
I glance out the window - it was already dark. Remington was still with Elison and her father in the infirmary, which was on the other side of the mansion. Aleksander was with his mother at her place, Akilah was probably sleeping, and Parker was... Parker. I didn't know where she was, but as long as she didn't follow me...
I peer into my walk-in closet, an extravagant room almost as big as my library, filled with clothes Remi bought me over the years. I brush a hand along a pair of transparent plastic pants that I'd been forced to wear at Elison's sixteenth birthday. It was a hot summer day, in his mother's backyard. I still remember the look on Remington's face when Aleksander pushed her into the pool.
I grimace as I debate what to wear to a nightclub. I'm at the point in my life where killing someone is easier than deciding what to wear. I thumb a nice shirt Remi got me, but decide against it. If things end badly, she'll probably get angrier over the damaged Prada top rather than me nearly losing my life.
I squint at a black bulletproof hoodie and matching combat pants, then at a plated vest. Too conspicuous.
"Going somewhere?"
I whip around, heart racing. When was the last time someone had snuck up on me without my knowing?
Parker leans against the door frame, an eyebrow raised at me. "I thought you were supposed to be some top-assassin. How is a wannabe cop sneaking up on you?"
I sigh, turning my back on her pointedly. "What are you doing here?"
"I had nowhere to go, boyfriend," she replies innocently.
I glare at her. "You know, if I was changing and the roles were reversed, you would be in court for sexual assault."
"I nearly was just a week ago," Parker mutters.
I exhale. "Get out."
She pauses, thinks about something, then hesitates again.
"Just spit it out," I snap, annoyed.
"Tell me what the note said and I'll leave," Parker says bluntly.
I turn on my heels slowly to give her an are-you-kidding-me look. When I see she's not joking, I throw my hands up. "That's none of your business."
"Well, it wasn't yours, either! It was just lying there till you unfolded it and read it like you found out the Krabby Patty recipe," Parker retorts.
"The what?"
"The Krabby Pa - you've never watched Spongebob?" she asks disbelievingly.
"You mean the TV show about the ADHD sponge, the depressed squid, and the narcissistic lobster?" I ask sarcastically. "I had them for dinner."
She gasps, clapping a hand over her mouth dramatically. "You take that back!"
"No."
"Take it back now!"
"No!"
"Tell me what was in the note," she threatens.
"I threw it away," I lie. I keep my eyes locked on hers, refusing to look behind her at the balled up piece of paper lying on the floor. "You know, for an FBI agent, you have zero tact," I goad, just to distract her.
Parker narrows her eyes. "I prefer to use brute force." She cracks her knuckles threateningly, advancing. I put the clothes back on their hanger, narrowing my gaze at her. Was she seriously going to throw punches in my walk-in closet?
"Make a single wrong move and you'll tear all the stitches in your back," Parker warns.
"I'll have them resewn," I retort, secretly dreading the prospect of having a needle and thread come anywhere near my skin.
"You wanna die of infection, bozo?" she snorts. Without warning, she lungs at me. I dart to the side to dodge whatever punch she tries to throw at me, but instead, Parker begins tickling me.
"What - are - you - doing?" I wheeze in between hysterical laughs as she uses her left hand to tickle me and her right hand to pat down my pockets. I shove her off me, gasping for breath. "You - you -"
Parker narrows her eyes at me. "There's no way you threw that note away. Knowing you, you kept it to mope about it at a la -" She stops, before recommencing hastily, "Where you headin' out to at such a late hour? Grocery shopping, dare I say?" She glances at the bulletproof gear. "Because, you know, there's enemies around every corner, even the canned goods isle."
I close my eyes and massage my temples, praying for patience.
"I'm surprised you haven't lost it and killed me yet," Parker observes, watching me trying to calm myself. "As a matter of fact, I don't know why I'm still breathing."
"You're important," I reply cryptically. Predictably, Parker's eyes widen before she controls her expression. "Oh?"
I make a show of sighing and leaning against a drawer, the picture of defeat. "Since you aren't going to leave me alone, tell me what Hugo promised you in order for you to go to that gathering last night and I'll tell you where I'm heading off to."
Parker glares at me suspiciously.
I put my hands up. "I'm an honest man if I want to be, Parker."
"And hedgehogs can shit out Starbursts," Parker sneers. "Fine. Ya wanna know? Because he told me he knew about my parents' death and who was behind it. But given that he's in a coma, he can't really keep up the end of his bargain, can he?" Her offhand attitude can't hide the feverish glow in her eyes. I imagine it's how I looked when I vowed to hunt down my mother, blaming her for my father's death. All of that seems like a distant memory now. Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die, as Carrie Fisher said.
I stare at her, dread pooling in my stomach as I remember Hugo's words. Does Alvara know that you have denied her the pleasure of strangling the man who killed her parents?
I tilt my head condescendingly to cover up my reaction. "Yeah, 'cause you trust the mafia boss who kills people in his sleep."
"What was the alternative?" she asks sarcastically. "Get killed? You know, I'm surprised you're still sticking around." Parker makes a point of staring at my back and I flinch at the attention.
I laugh humorlessly. "Sure, I escape. Then what, I spend the rest of my life hiding? Changing identities, flying around the world to escape him?" Besides, I have a plan that you, out of all people, will never learn about.
Parker chews on her lip. "So? Where you heading out to?"
"Clubbing," I reply succinctly.
She glares at me. "I'm being serious."
"So am I." I hold up the Prada shirt and the bulletproof gear. "Which one will make me attract more female attention?"
"Alone?" A spark lights in her dark eyes. She smirks at me. "Can I tag along?"
The smug smile on my face falls. "What?"
"Can I come along? I mean, are you really going clubbing without your girlfriend? Wanting to attract female attention while you're in a monogamous relationship? For shame, Kaiser, for shame. Or, as you Frenchies say, pour la honte!"
"We are not in a - who said the relationship was monogamous?" I splutter.
"I did just now, old man. First you move like one, now you've got the hearing of one." Parker shakes her head before smiling at me brightly. "Anyway, I've got the outfit ready. I was just waiting for the day you'd take me clubbing!" To rub salt on the wound, she attempts to kiss my cheek but only ends up reaching my jaw. It feels more like a punch than a peck.
She skips out my closet gleefully like the little gremlin she is. I sigh, rubbing a hand over my face. I'm starting to think that's the only sound I'm going to make around her.
How did you get yourself into this mess, Kaiser?
I look at the gear and the Prada shirt glumly. I still don't know what to wear.
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This entire chapter was so fun to write, hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did