Devil's Pawn (Devil's Pawn Duet 1)

“Can I wake her up after breakfast?”

I glance to my mother. “After your lessons, all right? We should give Isabelle time to sleep but you can spend time with her this afternoon.”

Angelique’s shoulders slump. “I don’t need lessons. Not with mean Mrs. Strand,” she says under her breath.

“Now, that’s not nice,” my mother says.

“I want Belle to teach me music,” Angelique says.

“What?” I ask.

“It looks so pretty in her notebooks, daddy. And she’s going to play her violin for me.”

“Is she?”

Angelique nods. “Can she teach me?”

“We’ll see.”

She sighs. She already knows what those words mean but now I’m curious what Isabelle has told my daughter.

“Are you going to work?” she asks me. I often wonder what she thinks it is I do. And if other five-year-olds are so attentive. But she’s not like other five-year-olds I remind myself. Her life is so very different from theirs.

“I have a few meetings.”

“Will you teach me how to swim later? You said you would.”

I did that afternoon I’d found Isabelle and her in the water and lost my shit. “Yes,” I say. “When I’m home.”

“Really?”

“Really. I promise.”

She smiles wide and picks up her stuffed bear to pretend feed him a spoonful of cereal.

I pick up a mug and fill it with coffee.

“Zeke up?” I ask my mom.

“He’s in his office.”

“You two have a good morning,” I tell them before kissing the top of Angelique’s head and walking out of the dining room toward Zeke’s office. I knock on the door, and he calls out for me to enter.

“Morning, brother,” he says, looking me over.

“Good morning,” I say, closing the door.

He leans back in his seat and studies me. “How is she?”

Am I irritated he asks about her? Maybe. “Asleep.”

Tension is high as I sip my coffee and we study each other.

“You know I don’t want Angelique anywhere near IVI,” I tell him.

“But you are a part of IVI. She is a part of it whether you like it or not. Did you really think to keep the wedding a secret from her?”

I take a deep breath in and move to sit down in one of the chairs across his desk. I set my coffee down.