“No.”
“Good. Speak. You have my permission now. Tell me whatever the hell is on your mind.”
“You’re right, she might tell the king. With that being the case, don’t you think it’d be a good idea for us to talk to her first? See what she’s thinking?”
Ajax narrowed his eyes, giving himself a few moments to think it over.
“Yes,Ishould talk to her. You, on the other hand, you’re not going to be doing a damn thing about it. Until I say otherwise, I don’t want you to even be in the same room as Vic. Got it? You’re dismissed for now.”
Kid wasted no time turning and heading up the stairs. I watched on the camera as he made his way to the kitchen, blowing past Hud on the way there. A quick check of the feeds revealed that Vic had gone upstairs to her room.
I figured that was as good of a time as any for me to head in and see what I could do to help the situation. I hopped up, grabbed my rifle, and left the panic room, locking it behind me. I hurried into the chalet just in time to catch Ajax on his way to find Vic.
He glanced up at me, anger in his eyes.
“Some serious shit just went down.”
“I know,” I replied. “I saw it on the cameras. Thought you might want some backup when you’re talking to the princess.”
He stopped, thinking it over.
“Yeah, come with me. Right now, I’m so damn pissed that I can hardly think straight.”
“She’s up in her bedroom. Let’s go.”
Together, we went up the stairs to the master suite. The door was shut, and I gave it a quick knock.
“Hey, Vic?” I asked. “I’m here with Ajax. Mind if we talk?”
There was silence. For a moment, I worried that she might tell us to screw off, which meant we were all in deep shit.
“Yeah. Come in.”
Ajax and I shared a look of apprehension before opening the door and stepping inside the massive bedroom.
She was seated on the edge of the bed with her legs in front of her and her arms wrapped around them. When we entered, she let her legs drop, and as I got a look at her in those gym clothes, I almost found myself feeling a bit of sympathy for Kid—almost.
Worry was all over her pretty face. She glanced from me to Ajax then back again.
I opened my mouth to speak but didn’t get a single word out before she beat me to it.
“Listen, before you get mad at Kid for what happened, I just wanted to say that it wasn’t just his fault. I was there too, and when he kissed me, I didn’t tell him to stop. In fact, it was something I said that gave him the all clear to move in like he did. It was stupid, and you don’t need to worry about me telling my father. I mean, it’s not like I talk to him about anything like this to begin with, but you especially don’t need to worry about what just happened.”
Ajax and I shared a look. As much as she would’ve been justified in telling her dad what went down, it was a huge freaking relief to know she was going to be keeping it to herself. There wasn’t a dad on earth that would be happy to hear that his little girl had gotten the moves put on her by some roughneck who was tasked with keeping her safe. And there wasn’t a chance in hell we’d throw Kid to the wolves, so Finn finding out meant we were all on the hook.
“That’s good,” I said, crossing my arms and leaning against the doorframe. “Right, Ajax? That’s good, huh?”
“Very good. You’re a smart woman, so I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you about all of the potential problems that can arise from getting involved with…situations like those.”
Her eyes flashed. “You’re not going to punish him, are you? I mean, it wasn’t his fault.”
“You’re right about that,” Ajax said. “All the same, I was there. We’ve been on enough missions that he ought to know better.”
He glanced over at me. “Anything else you want to say?”
I shook my head.
“Think that about covers it. Just be smart about stuff like this, Vic. We’re all here together, and the last thing we need is to make this mission more complicated.”