Page 62 of Undertow
I snorted and set down the card. “I wouldn’t trust Kole Conley with a coffee order much less any secret. I don’t know why you bother with that fool, but he’s already embarrassing you from what even I’ve heard.” I studied her. “You know he just wants to be prince and…” I felt small when she looked away. “I’m sorry. Truly. I thought—you always knew when—”
“Apparently not always.”
“I’m sorry,” I said gently. “I thought he was the right connection.”
“No, but…” She swallowed loudly.
“What?”
“I’m not sure I know the answer,” she sighed. “He was easy, and I think it was more I didn’t care enough to care much.”
I nodded knowing fully what she meant. I decided to focus back on what I could help her with. “So you’re asking me to…”
“I don’t really know, Myriam,” she admitted, her voice small and sounding nothing like the confident Sagan De la Rosa I’d known for years and years. “I need help and can’t handle this on my own. Not without getting caught, people finding out the mess my parents madeandhandling all I’m supposed to.”
“Small things like running a nation,” I drawled.
“You don’t know the half of it and there was already a coup.”
I feltillwhen she caught me up on what happened. “Thank fuck for Treena. Really.”
“She’s amazing, but she can’t know about this. She’s heir to her throne too.”
“That’s really great of you, but you know she wouldn’t care and would help,” I told her firmly. I nodded when she did. But Sagan wouldn’t ever ask that of her. “I’ll help, but I have my own fucking situation.”
“Tell me how to make this work,” she said, changing gears. “I won’t let your father use me to try and legitimize hisposition. No. I’d rather go through the royal family and make it clear I want to try and save you from your father’s influence—there is a better way.”
“You’d do that for me?” I whispered, two seconds from falling off my chair in shock.
She blinked at me and slowly nodded. “Myriam, I would have done it even if I didn’t need you. Of course I would have. If you asked for help or to get out—the rumors aren’t always accurate and you’re crafty. I figured if you really wanted out you would have gotten out.”
“No, it’s been bad and Father’s lost his mind,” I admitted. I cleared my throat. “Thank you. I never thought—thank you.” But it gave me an idea. “I think that’s the play though. Not that you’re pulling me out, but that the royal family is pressuring you to have someone from Protesia closer to you and I’m the only one you would trust.”
She gave an elegant snort. “They are, and you are the only one I would trust. I might be friendlier with them than most would like, but trust is a stretch.” She rubbed her neck again. “So what do we do now?”
“How far are you willing to go with this, Sagan?” I asked her, truly curious.
She swallowed loudly. “Whatever it takes that I can still look myself in the mirror and not betray my people. I might curse my parents for the rest of my life for this mess, but I have to clean it up and not let this ruin their memory. I need—I can’t see past the betrayal. There has to be a way to get out of it long-term, but right now I’ll do fights—whatever I have to.”
I nodded, fully understanding where she was at. “Okay, I’m in.”
We talked back and forth and she wasn’t going to make me an advisor or whatever like Treena. That would be ridiculousgiven my family. I was going to be a financial aide of the De la Rosa family, so not even associated with the government.
The framing was to update the efficiency and logistics of everything behind the scenes from how the castle ran to every expense in between. As Sagan said, I was known for having a head for numbers and being honorable. It worked.
What didn’t work was the spin to Father. He wanted more. Way more and way too much.
Finally, Sagan lost patience and took my phone from me, regally laying into him that she was shocked an educated man from such a prosperous country could hold such antiquated ideas. The king of his country was pushing for her to have more tigers in her orbit, and instead of being honored that she chose me, he was risking the chance with his greed.
Basically, she played him like a fiddle and pushed every button perfectly to get what we needed.
And more. She even got him to agree to work on cleaning up some of his more unsavory dealings to fix his image to not ruin this opportunity for his amazing daughter he better treasure. That his king would hear of it otherwise and would probably have words for him if Sagan was disappointed.
Wow, she was beyond amazing.
“She’s good, incredible even,” Father grumbled when I was back on the line. “Damn brat.”
I snorted. “She’s normally the smartest one in any room, but you can’t hate her because she doesn’t gloat or register it. But she’s honorable in the same way we are, so I’m safe here and this is real. She gave her word. She wants this to work, Father.”
