Two Tribes, page 18
part #1 of Young Atlanteans Series
Latitia’s eyes were wide with excitement as she bounded about, checking out the stocked minibar, the enormous plunge tub and throwing herself on the super-king bed. Despite all that, Alexia recognized the weekend for what it was – a fob-off.
She’d stayed in Jay’s hotel many times growing up. It was one of her parents’ favourite places in the world. It was where her mother first met Jay and where he’d proved himself as a formidable businessman after her late grandfather had given it to him when he was a penniless orphan. It had a lot of history.
However her heart sank further when Jay was not able to see them until later that evening. His time was always taken up with business matters. The only good news was that her mother was flying over to join them.
‘So this was yours all the time and you’re staying at our dump?’ Latitia said, arms held wide.
Alexia rolled her eyes and went to pour them both some iced cucumber water Jay had sent up. ‘No, I told you. This is JJ’s dad’s hotel.’
‘But this is your lifestyle, right?’
Alexia looked at Latitia wearily, holding back that this was quite low-key for her family, but she kept quiet, not wanting to totally blow her mind. It was made worse by a maid arriving to tell her that the pool in the basement had been emptied for them.
Alexia picked up her towel and pulled her bathing suit out of her bag. ‘Come on, let’s go to the pool. We’ve got ages to kill.’
‘I thought they said the pool was emptied?’ Latitia said, grabbing hers and following.
‘Of people, der-brain.’
‘Oh,’ Latitia said, thankfully remaining quiet all the way down in the lift.
The maid was right. The spa was completely empty of guests when they got there. It had a beautiful pool reminiscent of a Roman bath, with pillars, plinths and potted plants on pedestals.
Latitia threw her towel down on a yellow-striped upholstered lounger and Alexia sat on the one next to her. ‘Ah, this is the life,’ Latitia said, lying back scrolling on her phone.
Alexia let her settle for a few minutes before she broached the subject she’d been dying to ask. ‘So what has JJ told you about us so far?’
The contented smile disappeared from Latitia’s face and she seemed to drag her eyes from her phone to look at her. As if there was something infinitely more interesting there. ‘Only that you’re from a royal family, from somewhere I’ve never heard of and he can’t be with me because of his duty to it one day.’
Alexia bobbed her head, still watching Latitia’s behaviour closely. She guessed he’d kept it vague but true. Latitia probably assumed it was just some small principality somewhere. But there was something else – something she wasn’t saying. She’d gone straight to looking intently at her phone. ‘What is it?’ she asked, her heart already speeding up.
‘Nothing,’ she said, quickly clicking it off and putting it back in her bag.
Alexia frowned; now alarmed at what it could be and held out her hand. ‘Show me!’
Latitia reluctantly rummaged in her bag, pulled out the phone and passed it to her. ‘It’s just Dwayne challenging Trick to some battle. I didn’t want to put you on a downer.’
Alexia re-played the short video shot behind his decks, posturing and pointing, with Richie chiming in next to him. He was challenging him to some kind of face-off in a couple of weeks’ time. At least she knew what all the practising had been for.
‘It’s all over social media,’ Latitia said.
Alexia swallowed back the hurt that he hadn’t mentioned a thing and handed her phone back to her.
Thankfully, a hot young waiter came in in his cute uniform of black shirt and trousers and broke the awkward moment. ‘Excuse me, Miss Dubonnetti, Mr Gardiner told me to let you know that he will see you now, privately.’
Alexia smiled a thanks at the guy, probably fresh out of college. Then, as soon as he’d disappeared, she got to her feet, determined not to dwell on what couldn’t be changed. She’d been summoned and she wouldn’t put it past Jay to embarrass her and come and get her, if she ignored it. ‘I’d better go.’
Latitia was still studying her with a look of concern. She smiled brightly to show it was forgotten and threw her the key card. ‘Stay a while, then go up and start getting ready if I’m not back.’
Latitia nodded, looking a little relieved. ‘No problem,’ she said, easing back into her lounger, her mood quickly switching back to enjoying herself in what she thought was the height of luxury. ‘Beats school.’
Alexia smiled and made her way back to the lift. Suddenly it no longer felt like a light-hearted trip away with a friend. She had to forget Dwayne and gather her thoughts. There was no fooling Jay; he was one of the shrewdest people she knew. She made her way to the ground floor and towards the back of the hotel. Then she tried to calm her beating heart outside his office door. She rapped on it with her knuckle.
‘Come in, Alexia,’ came from the other side.
* * *
Alexia closed the door quietly behind her and faced Jay. He was sitting behind his desk working, as expected, and looking as suave and impeccably dressed as ever. She didn’t think she’d ever come across anyone more handsome or more groomed than Jay. Today his hair was perfectly razored, strategically falling over one eye, and his pale-pink cotton shirt was perfectly teamed with a pale-grey tie, striped in an identical shade.
He looked up, beaming a perfect smile that lit up a face that was already impossibly handsome. The corners of his bright-blue eyes creased and added to the room lighting effect. To someone that didn’t know him, he could have been an actor or a model; the overall package was that stunning. Only those, like her, who knew him personally, or in business, knew how driven and ruthless he could be. He was a complete contradiction. His induction into the Santalini soldier family, and a body covered in warrior tattoos, attested to that.
She looked around. It always surprised people how small and unassuming his hotel office was. A throwback from when he was a simple hotel manager. He always said he was OK with it, and she knew that was true. There was nothing showy about Jay. If anything, there was always more hidden away. He joked that if he wanted to boost his ego, all he had to do was go over to the Bonaci Corps building across town, to his large corner office, where he oversaw the huge business for her great-uncle and grandfather.
Jay pressed a button and asked the desk to hold his calls and to send a pot of coffee. Then he stood and walked around the desk to greet her; his grey pants fell into perfectly tailored place over the smart Italian shoes she knew he always wore.
He pulled her in and kissed her cheek. He did it stiffly, as he always did, finding shows of affection like that extremely difficult. Her mum always said it was just the way he was, but that he loved them all fiercely. So Alexia accepted it as the most demonstrative he ever got and felt flattered that he only ever reserved it for her and her brothers.
‘Take a seat,’ Jay said, leading her towards the chair next to his desk. She took it and he walked back round to his side of the desk. ‘Shall I order you a snack or something?’
Alexia shook her head. ‘No thanks.’ She tried to rekindle her anger for his hijacking of her weekend, but it was very hard when the warmth of his kiss was still on her cheek, his gorgeous cologne wrapped around her like a hug and his smile lit his perfectly chiselled face. His gaze was direct and blue, waiting for her to speak. So annoyingly direct, straightforward and gorgeous, she wanted to throw something at him.
‘Say what you want to say, Alexia,’ he said. ‘Is everything OK with your brothers? Is that why you’re here?’
She went to open her mouth when there was a knock at the door. A young blonde girl she didn’t know brought in the coffee and set it down on Jay’s desk. She scurried away with a red face at Jay’s smile of thanks. Jay affected everyone like that. He poured and pushed a cup her way, then sat back and studied her, holding his cup.
‘I wanted to go home, Jay,’ Alexia blurted, moodily.
He dipped his head in agreement, proving he knew full well what her plan had been and made no apology. ‘So your friend – Valarie’s girl, isn’t it? She likes the hotel?’
‘Of course she likes it. You know who she is. I’m almost seventeen, Jay. Please stop treating me like a kid.’
Jay took a sip of his drink and eyed her shrewdly, giving nothing away of what he was thinking. Then he set his coffee down as if he’d come to some sort of decision. ‘Your father put a lot of trust in the three of you, placing you there, Lexie. He knew it would be hard, but there is always a method to his madness, you know that. You just have to rise to the challenge.’
‘And we have!’ Alexia said, beginning to raise her voice as her anger rose inside her. ‘We’ve done everything Dad asked. I just wanted to go home for the weekend, Jay.’
‘Taking a friend – a human – someone JJ is particularly close to?’ Jay kept his usual soft tone, but fixed her with his gaze.
Alexia felt her anger rise higher. ‘Not anymore. They broke up.’
Jay’s expression didn’t change, so it was hard to work out if he was sorry, angry or misinformed. He simply answered, ‘It doesn’t matter, Alexia. You must understand that, once you enter our world, you never get to leave. It’s a choice you shouldn’t make for a person without real forethought.’
Alexia shrunk a little under his steely gaze. She’d never thought about it like that. It was clear he was partly talking about himself, spending his life with them, but she’d always took for granted that it was something he chose because he loved them. It never occurred to her that it was something he would have done differently.
Then she thought about Latitia. She was hardly moving her in. ‘It’s not the same, at all, Jay. Kids go home and take friends for sleepovers all the time.’
‘Not to castles, Alexia, with underground chambers, where water-breathing relatives come and go all the time. What were you thinking? Your father has enemies. Do you want your friend exposed to that? Do you think so little of her?’ His face looked hard and she saw the anger in the glint in his eyes and the set of his jaw.
Alexia was angry too now and rolled her eyes. ‘She’s the same age as me, Jay. What’s she gonna do, sell secrets to the Russians?’
She was gratified by the small smile that played on Jay’s lips before he banished it. ‘I understand, I do, Alexia, but this one means a lot to JJ, doesn’t she?’
Alexia shrugged moodily. She should have guessed Jay would take JJ’s side.
‘And he recently finished it—’ Jay continued.
‘So it means he doesn’t get a say—’
‘Because, perhaps, he was trying to save her from that kind of decision?’ Jay said, as if she hadn’t butted in at all. His eyebrows were drawn together in a way that said surely she could understand that.
She went to argue because she hated being wrong. Instead, she sunk heavily back in her chair. If JJ had wanted Latitia in their world, then he would be making this trip with her right now. Jay had made her see perfectly what had happened. JJ hadn’t turned his back on Latitia because he didn’t care, but because he did. He didn’t want to rob her of an ordinary life; the life he’d love to have in a heartbeat.
Alexia put her hands over her eyes to cover her welling tears. She was sorry for all the trouble she’d caused. But, most of all, she was sorry for herself. Dwayne didn’t have JJ’s excuses. He hadn’t left her alone for some higher reason. Her choosing to go there with Latitia had come from a good place of two girlfriends supporting each other. She hadn’t intended to hurt JJ. In the end, she looked at Jay, utterly defeated. ‘Does that mean I can never have friends?’
His smile was kind when he shook his head. ‘Not at all. But we need to arrange it so that you seem a little more—’
‘Normal,’ she said for him.
His smile was dazzling then. He was a brilliant negotiator. No wonder he did so well for her family in business. Now his mission was accomplished, he immediately changed the subject to lighter things. ‘So we’ll eat at seven. Your mum will arrive at around nine and she wants to take you both out.’
Alexia’s eyes went wide with excitement. She knew she’d see her mother, but she’d assumed that she’d want to spend time with Jay. She always did. ‘What, us both out out?’
Jay actually laughed, then nodded. ‘Yes, she said you’re old enough to see a few of her old haunts.’
Alexia sat forward, suddenly alive. All the serious issues of earlier were quickly forgotten; the weekend had revived itself. ‘Latitia loves dancing,’ she squealed, clapping her hands together.
‘So I understand,’ Jay smiled indulgently.
Alexia was already on her feet. ‘Are you coming?’
Jay nodded. ‘Of course. I’ll be part of your guard.’ He tipped his head towards the door. ‘Now go. I guess you’ll want to get ready.’
* * *
Latitia squealed with excitement and jumped up and down with Alexia when she told her what was happening. ‘That’s so brilliant,’ Latitia said. ‘Mum said your mum was some superstar DJ when she was younger?’
Alexia glowed with pride. She guessed her mum really was pretty cool. ‘Come on then. Let’s get ready.’
Alexia showered and the two of them chatted excitedly about music and dancing and places they’d seen. There was a moment when she thought how much Dwayne would have loved this evening, but she immediately sobered and told herself that he’d made his own choices and it was his own fault he’d missed it.
* * *
Latitia decided that literally everything in Alexia’s life was jet-set and exciting. She must have posted a hundred pictures already. If it wasn’t too weird, she’d be snapping as she walked through the tasteful restaurant. Instead, she followed Alexia and listened to the soft chatter, the clink of glasses and the burst of sophisticated laughter here and there. By the time they reached the table, she was sure Alexia must be the luckiest girl in the world. Right down to having the most handsome stepdad she’d ever laid eyes on. He was already seated and she couldn’t stop staring while Alexia introduced her. The resemblance to JJ was astonishing, except JJ’s eyes were greener, and he was a younger, edgier, less-intimidating version. But that could purely be because she knew him.
His father did have style. Like she didn’t know much about older men’s fashion, but he oozed a sophistication and good taste that only came with money and years. When he stood and kissed her cheek, she was immediately hit by his fabulous smell. In just a moment, she’d clocked his indigo loose-fitting shirt over dark-grey trousers that perfectly showcased the super-fit body underneath. JJ had no worries if it was true kids someday transformed into their parents. She screwed her nose up when her mind shot to her mother.
He locked brilliant-blue eyes with her curiously, as if he hadn’t missed a thing. He was clean-shaven and perfect-looking, however any leanings she may have had to describe him as angelically beautiful were immediately offset by the angles of his jaw and the don’t-mess-with-me impression he exuded. In fact she was positive he commanded any situation. It made her swallow when she remembered JJ was his son and she realized she couldn’t hope to ever stand a chance to hold him.
Then he disarmed her by giving her the smallest hint of a smile. It was in the slight curve of his lips and a glint in his arctic eyes. In the micro gesture he conveyed everything was OK and that she could relax. It was remarkable. He was remarkable. She’d never met a more affecting person in her life. ‘Sit down, girls.’ His voice was soft and perfect too. Something inside her sighed and she could do nothing but obey.
‘What can I get you to drink?’
Latitia must have been gawping at him shamelessly because Alexia nudged her. She frowned and looked blankly: what that was for. In the end Alexia answered him, ‘Two cokes,’ she said, rolling her eyes.
Latitia surveyed the small restaurant in a kind of daze. It was such a far cry from Camberwell. Everything was perfect, from the wood-panelled walls to the white tablecloths and napkins on the tables of beautiful trendy people. It was definitely one of those ‘it’ places she’d read about.
Jay had seen to it that they were in a quiet corner where a row of plants gave them a level of privacy but the ability to still ‘people watch’ and not miss anything. The tables were filling up, even though it was still early. Especially the bar at the far end, where people wandered in off the street before they went off to some interesting club or theatre somewhere. Dinner jazz added to a wonderful avant-garde atmosphere that she vowed she would be a part of one day. The whole place made her inwardly sigh.
Jay issued some indiscernible orders to his waiting staff and sat down at the table. Latitia got another waft of his lovely cologne. ‘Thank you for joining me, ladies, I seldom get the honour these days.’
Latitia smiled, but she doubted that every much. She imagined him beating supermodels off with a stick.
‘It’s always lovely to see you, Lexie. And Latitia. It’s great to finally meet one of my children’s friends.’
It felt like an odd thing to say about kids in their teens – especially as he was JJ’s biological father, but when she thought about it, she couldn’t imagine JJ bringing kids home to tea at any age. It made her smile. ‘Thanks for having me, I love your hotel.’
When she looked up, Jay was watching her closely. It felt like he always saw more than he said. She’d caught JJ with that same look. ‘How is Valarie? I haven’t seen her in such a long time.’
It was still difficult to imagine her ordinary mother ever running in the same circles as this unbelievably beautiful guy. She’d be working her hospital shift still, wearing her navy-blue tunic, edged in purple, over the standard-issue trousers of the same colour. It just didn’t compute. Yet he was asking after her like an old friend. ‘She’s fine,’ she found herself saying. ‘You know, busy working, running after my brothers and everything.’
