Rory gave Xav a dark look. He’d clearly been listening to our conversation.
“I wouldn’t rather eat dirt,” he muttered. “Just don’t want to catch the annoying dickhead virus off you.”
Xav whipped his head around and stared at Rory for a long minute before throwing back his head and laughing.
“And here I thought you were too quiet to make mean jokes about us.”
“Just because I don’t say them, doesn’t mean I’m not thinking them.”
I jabbed Xav’s arm.
“You going to tell me why you’re annoyed at Quinn or not.”
He grabbed his drink off the table in front of us and knocked it back.
“Other than he’s going around acting like the fucking king of the universe?”
I hid a smile.
“Oh, I see what the problem is. You’re jealous.”
“What? No! Fuck off, E.”
Rory looked over at me with a knowing smile.
“He’s jealous about Quinn being Ash’s king.”
“Right? I think he doesn’t like being relegated to the role of prince, eh?”
Rory’s smile grew wider.
“Prince Xavier.”
“First of his name.”
I could see Xav looking more and more pissed off by the second.
“Commander of coding.”
“Slayer of wannabe hackers.”
“You two are fucking pricks,” Xav growled, shoving my arm.
I leant my head against his shoulder and gave him my best puppy dog eyes.
“Aww, Xavi, would it make you feel better to know you’re my king?”
I could see the cogs turning in his head at my words and how he was struggling not to soften to me. It took all of two seconds for him to reach up and stroke my hair back from where it’d fallen in my eyes as usual.
“You’re fucking lucky I love you so much,” he all but whispered. “You mean that?”
“Always.”
“If we were alone, I’d be pushing you up against that wall and kissing the life out of you right now.”
I grinned before I sat up properly again. We were trying not to be obvious about our relationship, though I was pretty sure anyone watching would know. It wasn’t about being ashamed, we were already about to cause enough of a huge stir as it was. If Ash told them she was our girlfriend, all fucking hell might break loose.
“And I’d tell you to get a room,” Rory muttered as he turned away.
“Look, he’s jealous now. I thought you got your rocks off with Ash earlier.”
“I am not jealous of you two.”
Xav’s smile widened.
“Didn’t she let you kiss her? Sheesh, raw deal. Ash’s kisses are like heaven.”
Rory didn’t say anything but I could see his ears going red. It was then I noticed Quinn standing over us with a scowl.
“Are you three quite done winding each other up?”
Xav stuck his finger up at Quinn before getting to his feet along with me and Rory. The four of us filed into the VIP room behind our guests. When they were all seated, I sent a quick text to Ash to let her know we were ready as Quinn cleared his throat.
“I know you’re wondering why you’re here… Let me apologise for the short notice, but you see, we’re on a little of a deadline. There’s been some noise made over the past few days and I wanted to clear a few things up before chaos comes knocking at our doors.”
There were a few murmurs but no one interrupted.
“You all know Russo’s daughter is missing and has been rumoured to have been taken by Il Diavolo. Well… allow me to clear up that little misunderstanding for you.”
The door opened and in walked Ash with an air of confidence I’m pretty sure she wasn’t feeling inside. It was clear if you looked at her closely enough, her nerves were almost getting the better of her. As much as it pained me to see it, I couldn’t go to her. She had to do this by herself.
Ash stopped next to Quinn before resting her hand on his arm.
“I’m neither missing nor captured. I’m right here, as you can see.”
No one made a sound. I think you could cut the silence in the air with a knife. But before Ash could get another word in, the door opened again and this time I felt a cold chill run down my spine. Gregor Bykov walked in followed by none other than Isabella Russo. I watched the blood drain from Ash’s face as she took in the sight of her mother and her uncle.
“Ashleigh.”
Chapter 25
Of all the people I expected to see, my mother was not one of them. What the hell was she doing here? And with Gregor Bykov of all people? Did Viktor know about this? Why hadn’t he told me? I had so many questions but none of them left my lips. If I asked any of them in front of the families, we’d be fucked beyond belief. As if we weren’t already. I might have given the boys a whole lot of information to blackmail the shit out of these people, but they didn’t take kindly to threats all that often.
My mother walked further into the room, coming to a standstill next to me with Gregor on her heels. His eyes were intent on her as if he’d been tasked with making sure she didn’t do anything drastic or stupid.
“My apologies for the interruption,” Isabella said. “I’m a little late. Please continue.”
A little late? She wasn’t even fucking well invited.
I plastered a fake smile on my face and looked up at Quinn whose expression was dark as hell. At least I knew he was just as angry at her being here. We couldn’t afford for this to go wrong. So I had to keep going. Had to make sure they knew where my loyalties lay.
“I’m aware my father…” I felt sick calling him that since he wasn’t. “…has requested your assistance in going against the men who took me. I felt it only right to give you the other side of
