The Insiders (The Insiders Trilogy 1)

“I think there’s history between the two that neither wants to talk about,” he said.

As soon as people started noticing us, conversations quieted. Eyes turned to track us. One would think they were watching me. Nope. I wasn’t buying it. All those gazes were on Kash, then dipping to his hand, which was now on my back as, yep, I was holding both of my champagne glasses. Classy.

I could fix that. I quickly drank one of the glasses.

Kash was pulling me over to where Matt was sitting. He was with his usual group of friends, sitting on the lounge chairs by a glass-enclosed fire pit. Matt jerked his head up in a nod, grinning as we drew nearer. He moved to meet us, separating from his group, and one of his hands went into his tuxedo pocket. “You two look fucking smashing.” His eyes were twinkling. He looked me over. “Shit, Bailes. You look hot, even for a sister of mine.” His lips tugged further upward and he motioned around the entire backyard. The party tables were set up on the bricked patio, behind the mausoleum, but the people had spread so they were standing on the greens that were a part of the estate’s private golf course. A few even were on the basketball court, and I saw a couple kids running around shooting hoops at the far end. Cyclone was with them.

Seraphina was standing in a group of other girls. I made a mental note to find out the names of each and every one of them. I remembered the online journal I hacked from Seraphina’s account. It hadn’t boded well then, and it boded even less now.

Big protective sister was here to stay.

We stayed with Matt and his friends, friends who were very keen and interested and now suddenly all wanting to be friendly with me. Shocker. They were also noticing the hand that Kash kept on my back.

I liked how we were.

I wasn’t leaning on him. He wasn’t claiming me. He didn’t pull me to his side, but he was next to me. There was some space between us, but his hand was behind me in case I needed him. It was almost perfect.

Matt sometimes stood on my other side, sometimes maneuvered in front of us so it was the three of us and his back was keeping everyone else out. Sometimes he just moved aside and grinned when people came over to “meet” me.

It was his friends first.

Fleur and the third girl in her trio with Victoria were next, though no V.

I figured Victoria was around somewhere.

Torie and Tamara were at the snack table, then at the edge of our circle. They were laughing with Chester and Tony. Torie glanced over at one point, sharing a look with Kash before skimming to me and giving me a smile. She tipped back her champagne glass and turned back to whatever Guy was saying. He had replaced Chester at some point.

The more time passed, like a clock ticking off every second, the more tense I grew. I hadn’t moved out of our spot, but I knew it was coming. Then it came.

Conversations quieted as Peter nodded hello to the outer circle first, moving toward where Matt, Kash, and I stood.

He paused, looking uncertain for the first time. His eyebrows dipped together. He raked a look over Matthew, then Kash, and coming last to me. His lips thinned and he settled his shoulders back. His head rose a centimeter and he cleared his throat.

“Are you ready?”

Matt stepped back, glancing to Kash, who moved forward.

Kash asked, “For what?”

Peter looked to him. “I was going to introduce her to people.” He paused, just the slightest of pauses, dropping his voice low. “You know I have to.”

“You don’t have to do a thing.”

Peter pressed his lips together, the exhaustion coming from him for the first time. I noticed an extra line of bags under his eyes. “I do, actually. It’s the only way to make it right, for her. You want something long-term with her, you know this will make things easier. If I don’t walk around with my daughter, at a party for my daughter, it’ll look like I don’t want them to address her as my daughter.” He kept giving Kash a meaningful look each time he said that phrase.

His head lifted again. “Networking isn’t something I enjoy, and I know you hate it, but it’s a necessity. It might not be for you and where you are going to be in the hierarchy, but Bailey’s not that lucky—or unlucky, however you prefer to see it. If I don’t walk around with her on my arm, she’ll look like an embarrassment and”—his eyes flickered to mine—“she’s anything but an embarrassment.”

Now he turned right to me, focusing on me, only me. “This is overdue. She deserves this respect.”