Page 127 of Feed Your Fiends

Alistair looks from Hale to me again, his eyes narrowed. “Do you think I’m an idiot?”

Hale shakes his head hastily. “No, sir. I—” he looks to me for help.

I’ve seen Hale snort blow out of a stripper’s ass crack in front of his own mother before, yet all this hysteria because of the Beaumonts.

“It really was doughnuts.” I sniffle again, flickering my itchy nostril.

“Do you normally come to a strip club to eat doughnuts?” Zedd asks.

“If that’s a euphemism for pussy then some people may say it’s a normal Thursday night,” I say.

“It’snota strip club,” Hale says.

“You could’ve fooled me. When I came to Stassi and Zedd’s birthday party, I assumed it was just another branch of Pierrot's,” Alistair says.

“You were here?” Hale asks, surprised.

“I wanted to see what was taking up all of Stassi’s time. She was home for the break, but I rarely saw her, and now I see why.”

“Well, it’s nothing like Pierrot's,” Hale says. “Libellule is a lounge. I chose the dragonfly theme because—”

Alistair holds up a hand, his ring with the Beaumont crest glimmering. “Quite frankly, I don’t give a damn what you call it. I’m glad I came tonight, though. It just drives home how badly we needed to have this talk.”

Hale’s eyes flit from Zedd to Alistair’s in confusion.

“I know you need money for the roof,” Zedd says. “I asked my father for the money.”

Hale looks dumbfounded. “So, you want to become some sort of investor?” He looks between the men.

Alistair chuckles, that timeless old money laugh.

“No, it’s a gift, a thank you for hosting the birthday party. Stassi clearly loved it.”

“She did?” Hale asks a little too enthusiastically.

“She did.Too much. That’s why I’m here with the offer.”

Hale’s expression falters; Zedd, as always, is impassive.

“The thing is, it’s time for Stassi to focus. Graduation from Beaulieu is around the corner, and so is her retirement from ballroom.”

“She’s eighteen,” Hale says, brows wrinkled. “Why would she retire?”

“My wife and I met at Beaulieu. It’s fun. The competitions, the travel, but it’s not what pays. I’m what pays. My company is what pays, and I gave my princess her dream of dancing, but that’s all it is. A little dream she can continue as a hobby now that she’s about to settle down in the real world.”

Zedd’s eyes fall to the floor at that.

“Her debut is coming up, and it’s about time she starts networking before university.”

“Debut?” Hale asks.

“The ball,” Zedd says.

That seasonal bullshit ball, all the blue bloods made their daughters participate in until they aged out at twenty-seven. Hale, of course, wouldn’t know anything about it. I purposefully never brought it to his attention.

“He wouldn’t know about it, son. It’s above him,” Alistair says before turning to Hale. “It’s a charity ball.”

More like a spouse auction.

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