Page 21 of Wicked Royals
If I ever get home,I silentlyadded.
The man’s brows knitted in a frown. “I was referring to the secret ingredients. Not thecoffee.”
My forehead wrinkled. “Sorry,what?”
“The espresso martinis at these parties are laced with hallucinogens and uppers. You know that, don’tyou?”
I pushed the drink away and tried to keep the shock out of my voice. “I completely forgot. I’ve only been to a couple of partiesbefore.”
The man’s thin lips turned up in a faint smile. “Ah. You’re a new member. I was wondering why I didn’t recognize you rightaway.”
I gave him a wide smile in return. “Yes. Very new,” Isaid.
His smile suddenly faded. “Hold on. The last initiation was several months ago, and parties are mandatory during a member’s first year. How have you only attended a couple ofthem?”
Shit.I cleared my throat and kept the smile pasted on. “Well, it’s probably more than a couple. I really can’t remember. I have the world’s worst memory,” I said lightly, hoping he’d buy the ditzyact.
He didn’t. He stared right at me, dark eyes narrowed with suspicion. “I actually don’t remember seeing any redheads at the last initiation,” he said. “Who areyou?”
I swallowed hard and stood up. “Please excuse me. I’ve had a bit too much to drink, and I need to use therestroom.”
He rose to his feet as well. “Show me your tattoo before you go,” he demanded, refusing to drop the subject. Before I could move, he stuck his hand out and threaded his fingers in the hair at the nape of my neck, roughly pulling at it. “If you belong here, you can proveit.”
A flurry of dings and vibrations suddenly echoed throughout the room, and a tall blonde waitress let out a shriek from behind the bar. Her eyes were glued to her cell phone. Within seconds, half the room had followed suit and whipped their own phonesout.
In the flurry of noise and confusion, the silver-haired man seemed to forget all about me and his quest to prove that I was an intruder. He dropped his hand from my hair and pulled his cell out of his pocket. I checked mine as well, wondering what the hell was goingon.
I had two more messages from Marissanow.
10:34 –I’m not joking, Willow! President Rutherford just collapsed right in front of Kate. Everyone is going crazy. I don’t know where you are, but this shit is real. Please come back. I’m freakingout!
10:45 –They just called it. He’s fucking dead. Heart attack. OMG. OMG. I can’t believe it. Where the hell areyou?????
As well as the messages, there were also several Google alerts notifying me of the breaking news. The President had collapsed at my mother’s birthday party, and reports of his death had just beenconfirmed.
The silver-haired man turned to me with wide eyes. His suspicions about me seemed to have been forgotten entirely. “Is it true?” he asked. “Rutherford isgone?”
“Looks like it,” I said, slowly nodding with bleak astonishment. This evening had already been so surreal, and now this had happened on top of it all. I couldn’t quite believeit.
“Christ. Didn’t see this coming,” the man muttered beside me. He patted my shoulder and helped me back into my seat. I murmured a grateful response. My legs had turned weak and shaky from the shock, so if I hadn’t sat down again, I might’vecollapsed.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. It didn’t work. My pulse raced faster and faster with every passing second, and dizziness threatened to overwhelm me as reality setin.
Rutherford wasdead.
Dead.
That meant my mother had just become the president of the UnitedStates.
