Althena Book 2

73. Girlfriend

By the time I get back to them, a lot of people are here.

"I'm good now."

Clayton rubs his face. "I don't wear underwear. I free ball."

Akmae and Monte lose it. I cover my ears. I don't want to know this. "MIKE."

He runs over. "What?"

I point at Clayton but can't make words.

"I told her I free ball."

"You do not. And more talking about underwear in this building. It's not appropriate." He pulls my hands off my ears. "Don't cry."

Monte and Akmae nearly fall over laughing.

Cyrus walks by with his face in a laptop. "Opening in 3 minutes. If you want to do the wheel, go there now."

The big wheel has a few people with the casino uniform. A few more in suits. The metal detectors are full of Mystical Moon guards. Me and Clayton's guards are standing out of the way.

I'm pretty sure I hold my breath for 2 minutes. I don't hear what anyone says. Then the doors open. People come in and start going through security. Tears fill my eyes and threaten to fall.

"You're ok." Monte rubs my back.

"They came."

"Of course they did. You did good."

Drogon's dad comes in with his mom. She's carrying a box with a bow on it. I shake my head and watch granny and Phira come in. They have a guard behind them. It's weird they're not with Monte.

"Time to spin the wheel, babygirl." Mike holds his hand out to me.

I watch a few people spin it. Everything is amazing. I am in shock about how perfect it is. It's everything I wanted.

A couple of hours later, I'm sitting at the upstairs bar watching Akmae and Clayton make drinks. This is not ideal, but it's quite comical.

"Anyone won prizes yet?"

I shake my head. "The most they win is $5 in chips. I wanted someone to win something big."

"The truck and boat are tomorrow."

"At least there's that."

Clayton mixes something. "You can get a little wheel and let them try as much as you want. Do that for a while."

"I thought you were doing it?"

"We can only do it once an hour. You can do whatever you want."

"I'm going to have to pay you 2, ain't I?"

They laugh and nod. "We are running the entire upstairs for you. I guess you could make your guards do it though. They're standing around looking bored."

"They won't. I'll do a wheel. Where are they?"

"Back here. If you do the expensive prize wheel, stay up here. These people are throwing down real money."

"Yea, don't waste this wheel on penny slots." Akmae hands me the cardboard wheel.

I smile and spin it. "I won $100."

Clayton shakes his head. "Other people need to play, not you. Remember, make sure they're playing and not standing around."

"Ok." I look around for a while. These games are not slots. They use cards and dice. Drinks are being carried around by the drink girls. I don't know what the hell they're called.

A group of people cheer and I watch them. There are 5 of them putting chips on the table. Then a casino guy spins a wheel. They must not like his next spin. I watch a man put chips on a number and sneak up beside him.

He jumps up with his arms in the air. Then he looks at me. "You are my lucky charm."

I smile. He's nice. "Spin the wheel." He spins it and it lands on a watch. I jump up and down. I think I'm more excited than he is. I hand him the ticket and tell him to give it to the bank tellers, then I go back to the boys.

Akmae takes the wheel. "Win anything good?"

"Watch."

"Damn. Those are nice."

Clayton puts a queen of diamonds drink in front of me. I sip it and smile. This is amazing.

A woman's voice says, "Queen Althena."

I spin and nearly fall off my f*****g stool. I am face to face with a woman that looks a lot like my mom. Same hair. Same build. Same skin color. My mom never wore makeup but this woman does. She looks a lot like my mom. I can't even find words.

Clayton watches me for a minute then crosses his arms. "Did you need something?"

"I was hoping for a word with Queen Althena, sir."

Monte pulls me off the stool. "We need to sort out the..." He shakes me a little. Then sees who I'm looking at. He nearly drops me. "Oh, fuck."

She shakes her head and shows her hands. "I don't want any trouble. I'm only hoping to talk to the queen."

"This way." He pulls me down a little hallway beside the bar. I didn't even realize this was here. Then I'm in a conference room of some kind. He puts me in a chair and hands me some water. Then he pushes a button on the camera. "What do you need?"

She sighs and sits down. "I was a personal friend of King Deriston Dark."

Monte gets some paper from the drawer. "I figured. What are you asking for?"

"Noth... Nothing." She looks like she hugs herself. "Nothing like that. Just Deriston left a few things at our house. I don't know what to do with them."

"What kind of things?" I'm glad Monte is asking the questions. I'm completely lost.

"Weapons. He had some guns in the house. A box of files. He had a desk there. He would sometimes work. A laptop."

"He bought the house?"

"Yes, sir."

"Whose name is on the title?"

"Mine, sir."

"When was it purchased?"

"6 years ago."

Monte stops writing and stares at her. "Do you have children?"

"No. I was 15 when I met him. I'm 22 now. We talked about maybe in the future. But I wasn't ready yet."

I choke on nothing and start coughing. "What the hell were you thinking?"

She shrugs her shoulders. "I was 15. I came from nothing. He was an older man who took care of me. No expense was too big. I got everything I wanted. When you're 15, that's a big deal. Especially for someone who had nothing. A white knight that swoops in and takes care of everything. I guess you could say he bought me. At first, it was fun. I would never have come forward or hurt his marriage. He knew that. I just loved him."

Monte rubs his face. "Have you ever heard the name Aurel?"

"Yes. I thought it was a cute nickname he had for me. He would say it constantly. Once I saw the queen on the news, I figured out the truth. But, it's ok. He was broke about his mate. Maybe I made it a little easier for him. I know we loved each other anyway."

"Write the address down." He slides her the paper. "I'm going to come by Monday and pick up the items. I'm also going to check the titles and make sure items are legal in your name."

"Actually, 1 car may be in his name."

"If it's in his name, it will be transferred to the queen."

"Of course. I just don't know what to do with things. This has been very difficult to navigate, and it's not like I had anyone to ask."

"Do you work?"

"I graduate this year from college. Deriston took care of everything. There's still money in my account. I planned on working after I graduate."

"Is it only in your name?"

"Yes, sir."

"How much is in it?"

"$184,000."

I sit back and cross my arms. This is hard to wrap my head around. "Did any of the advisors know about you? Any... anyone?"

"No. He would call me his little happy secret. He bought a house for us. The cars. Paid for my school. I would see him 3 or 4 times a week. He would stay with me. We were happy."

"Monte," I turn to him. "Is this real?"

"Appears to be. You've been with him for 6 years?"

"7. He bought our home 6 years ago."

"Do you have any videos or pictures of the 2 of you?"

She pulls out her phone and hands it to him. I lean closer and see pictures of the 2 of them together. They're not intimate photos though. More like something me and Lila would take.

"We knew we had to be careful. He would tell me phones can get hacked. He couldn't chance something getting out about the 2 of us. You won't find anything like that. Only years of happy pictures. It's all I have now."

"Will you be home at 10 on Monday?" He hands the phone back.

"Yes, sir."

"I'll stop by then."

"Thank you." She puts it back in her purse and looks at me. "Please don't think any less of your dad. He was such a good man. He had a hard time losing his mate, that's all. He really was a good man."

If she only knew the truth. "Thank you for coming in. I know this had to be difficult. I'm glad you chose me to come to. Monte will sort everything out. You don't have to worry about anything anymore."

"Thank you."

We follow her out and Mary comes over from the bar. I think she's about to yell at us for having Clayton work at a bar, but the color drains from her face, and she stares at the woman.

Monte jumps and guides the woman away rather suddenly. He walks her all the way to the escalator.

"Mom, it's not that big of a deal."

"Pull it together. Clayton is coming."

She turns toward him and smiles. "It is a big deal. I don't like you working with alcohol. You have no business working at a bar."

"It's just a few drinks."

I smile. "Your mom is right. They're caught up anyway. Why don't you and Akmae take the wheels around?"

"Fine." He stomps off.

Monte comes back, putting the paper in his wallet. "You knew her?"

Mary rubs her face. "I recognized her smell. I never met her. What did she want?"

"I need to pick up some guns and a laptop from her place."

She nods. "There are many others. I would smell them."

"Why did you stay?"

"Nobody else would have. No matter what, the city deserves a good queen. I was the queen of Darkburn. We kept up appearances for everything else. And we did respect and care about each other. I think he wanted me to be enough for him, but I wasn't."

"Was he enough for you?"

She crosses her arms and glares at Monte. "What do you mean?"

"Am I going to have to be the cleanup crew for you too?"

She turns around and walks away.

I pat Monte's back. "I think you pissed her off."

"Well, if she has a boyfriend somewhere, it would be nice to have a heads-up."

"How many different lives did he have?"

"I don't know how the f**k he kept them straight. But that does explain why Mary never smelled the druggies."

I nod. "She did. Then she ignored it."

"I bet she covered up so much s**t for him. Pretended everything was perfect for the city."

I take his arm and lead him to the escalator. "All so the city would have an illusion of a perfect royal family. What did you need anyway?"

"The boat raffle has sold over 30,000 tickets. I wanted to know if we wanted to buy anymore. I can block them out of the drawing. It's fairly easy to program."

"How many did we get before?"

"5,000."

"Do another 5,000."

"I'll get them tonight. Drogon's here." He points.

I smile as he runs to me. "Sorry, I missed the day, babygirl."

"It's ok. Did you figure anything out at the dock?"

"They're tracking down some leads. Nothing really. What were you doing?"

"My dad had a whole other life. Again. Monte is dealing with it on Monday."

"Drugs again?"

Monte shakes his head. "Girlfriend. 6 or 7 years. No kids. I need to pick up some stuff from her house."

Drogon kisses my head. "Don't go there alone."

Monte nods. "Yea, that man was something else. I'll sort something out. She was f*****g 15 when they got together."

"What the f**k?"

Monte shrugs his shoulders.

Drogon's dad walks up to us. "I can't even get her to put it down long enough to steal it." Then he keeps going.

Drogon tightens his grip around my waist. "Let's go get some dinner, baby. It's getting late. Then we'll go home."

I lay my head on his shoulder. "Sounds like the perfect plan."