Yesterday was not a good day between us. It started out lovely, but then my father stole me away from Marius and summoned me to the throne room where he explained that Colette Winterbourne was behind the assassination plots.
He told me she was in custody and that she had the ability to call off the hits. But after discussing this with my father and Dmitri, I agreed that we should let the party go forward and try to lure out the assassin. There are a variety of reasons for doing this, but I’m on board because I want the world to know that nobody messes with the Winterbourne monarchy. By shutting down this wretched conspiracy in its entirety and bringing those involved to justice, we will send a very clear message to anyone else who tries.
Essentially… don’t fuck with us.
This discussion was held in the throne room with only me, my father, and Dmitri. It didn’t mean that Jackson didn’t try to gain entry. He made quite the commotion as he attempted to push past the security agents at the doors. He dropped one of them to the ground and was working on the other when Dmitri threw open the door and demanded he stop.
Jackson tried to storm the room; Dmitri tried to hold him back. His eyes went to mine over Dmitri’s shoulder, and he promised retribution if I didn’t give him a say.
I moved to Jackson and attempted to sound as regal and commanding as possible so that my father wouldn’t have any indication that we have a personal connection. “If you will give me just a few more minutes with my father and Dmitri, I will be happy to hear your concerns, Mr. Gale.”
His face flushed with fury, and I was quite confident Jackson was going to spill the beans about our relationship right then and there so that he could stay in the room. To my surprise, he merely gave me a curt nod, turned his glare to Dmitri, and then pivoted to leave.
I later found him on the veranda, standing post and staring at Marius, still at the table sipping a beer and surfing his phone. I was hesitant to approach Jackson because I’d never seen him so angry before. He looked just as angry when I walked out, so it was most definitely not the right time to talk.
I said loudly enough for the other two agents to hear, “Mr. Gale, if you don’t mind, I would like to continue my lunch with Marius. I’d appreciate you standing post.”
In other words, he’d have to wait until later to talk about this.
Jackson couldn’t do anything about it. He was not about to make a scene, but I knew I’d made him even angrier. And the longer I sat at that table with Marius, the more lines of fury deepened on his face.
Now, I was starting to dread any confrontation. So naturally, I extended my time with Marius.
Jackson was standing far enough away that he couldn’t hear our conversation and Marius regaled me with how Jackson had come out onto the veranda to await my return and glared at him the entire time.
When we had finished eating and conversed about everything under the sun, when we could not legitimately stay at that table one more minute without it looking like I was purposely avoiding Jackson, I made the suggestion that we go swimming. It was, after all, our original intention to do so.
Turned out, Jackson could get angrier. I tried to ignore him but it wasn’t working. Marius and I swam laps, treaded water in the deep end while we talked and I put off the inevitable because every time I glanced over at Jackson, he not only looked furious but he looked let down.
There came a time, though, when he was done with my game of avoidance. He strolled up to the edge of the pool down in the deep end where we were. He pulled up his well fit pants slightly so he could squat before me and said, “It’s time to get out of the fucking pool, Camille, so we can talk.”
Marius knew about my relationship with Jackson. It was the first thing I’d told him when we sat down and Dmitri had taken Jackson off somewhere—which I had later realized it was to talk about Colette Winterbourne’s capture—and he was thrilled that I was walking on the wild side.
But Marius made a choking sort of noise when Jackson told me to get out of the fucking pool because he had never heard a person talk to me like that before.
Shocked and offended on my behalf, he sputtered, “How dare you speak to—”
Jackson’s hot gaze snapped to Marius and he said, “Stay the fuck out of it or I will hurt you.”
“Jackson!” I exclaimed in fury. “You can’t—”